2 Officers Indicted In Parking Lot Raid

Click2Houston.com ^ | 12/6/2002

[Henrietta]

2 Officers Indicted In Parking Lot Raid

Damage Claims Could Cost City Millions

HOUSTON -- A Houston grand jury Friday indicted two Houston police officers, including Capt. Mark Aguirre, who headed the Kmart parking lot raid in which hundreds of people were arrested over the summer.

Aguirre and Sgt. Ken Wenzel, who was the field leader for the operation, were each charged with five counts of official oppression.

Attorneys on both sides of the case said that they are now watching to see what sort of effects these indictments will have on the police department.

"It's going to give a chilling effect all through law enforcement," defense attorney Terry Yates said. "The negative consequences are going to occur in law enforcement, besides what's directly occurring to my clients."

"It's not indictments on police in general," Prosecutor Tommy LaFon said. "It's certainly not an indictment on the Houston Police Department in general. What this grand jury and what this investigation focused on was the individual acts of some of the officers involved."

The grand jury was investigating whether officers of the Houston Police Department broke the law during those arrests.

The raid happened Aug. 18 in the parking lot of a Kmart department store, located in the 8400 block of Westheimer Road, in southwest Houston.

Aguirre was one of 12 HPD supervisors who were suspended in the wake of the raid.

Sources have told News2Houston that two of the officers involved in the arrests have been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony.

HPD officials had previously said that it conducted the crackdown in response to numerous complaints from citizens and previous police surveillance regarding street racing and large crowds forming in the area.

Police said the crowds impeded the access to and from businesses and that as a result of the operation nearly 300 people were arrested, with the majority being charged with criminal trespass.

Witnesses said that innocent customers were among those arrested.

All charges were eventually dropped, but the mass arrests sparked damage claims and lawsuits that could cost the city millions.

One of those people arrested has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the city, accusing Aguirre and the city of falsely arresting him for "attempted trespass."

[Henrietta]

Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost for the thugs that authorized the wholesale roundup of citizens lawfully patronizing a Sonic Drive-In and a K-Mart.

I'd like to think that the cops in this case will learn a lesson from the experience, but that's probably too much to hope for...

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[marty60]

Don't blame all of them. That idiot Aguirre has been a loose cannon rolling around Houston for years using his Gestapo tactics. It finally caught up with him.

[Myrnick]

"Official oppression."

I'm bein' oppressed! Didja see that? He's oppressin' me!

[Blood of Tyrants]

I hardly think that hanging out in a K-Mart parking lot is "patronizing" the establishment. However, if the lot is privately owned and posted, the owners have the right to deny access to anyone they want.

[Karsus]

They towed cars that were sitting at a Sonic eating. Quite a few of those cars were filled by parents who had their childern with them. They where doing nothing wrong. T

THAT is "Official oppression", is it not?

[Wolfie]

I love the defense's stance. "If you hold cops accountable, well, heck, they'll just stop doing their jobs."

[ikka]

This is the case where K-Mart customers showed the officers their store receipts when they walked out of the store, and were still arrested.

The police officers arrested people who were INSIDE the Sonic and EATING FOOD they had just purchased.

I hope they throw the book at these clowns.

[-YYZ-]

Someone's still defending these idiots?

All charges (against those arrested in the parking lots) have been dropped.

2 officers have been indicted due to their involvement in these actions.

I think it's pretty safe to say the cops were completely in the wrong that night.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Sorry, dude. You must be ignorant of the facts. People were arrested coming out of the K-Mart after making purchases and people were arrested while EATING at the Sonic Burger. Bad busts, and the cops didn't care.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Please pardon my ignorance. In this case it sounds like JBT cops. However, I would not put it past some groups to sue the cops for enforcing the store owner's wishes.

[Houmatt]

I love the defense's stance. "If you hold cops accountable, well, heck, they'll just stop doing their jobs."

Problem is, nobody has said that. So it makes me wonder where the quote comes from.

I will tell you this, however: Police officers are not stopping drag racers anymore.

And I cannot say I blame them, if everything they do is going to be second guessed and their hands further tied.

[Houmatt]

Actually, noone was INSIDE the Sonic except for the people who work there. Customers are served either outside on tables or in their cars.

That is why Sonic is called a Drive-In.

[Houmatt]

Sources have told News2Houston that two of the officers involved in the arrests have been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony.

Considering the only two people indicted were the top two ranked in the raid, I find the above passage ridiculous.

I think there is something else going on here, something political. And it is grounds for an appeal lest there be a conviction (which isn't likely if Yates does what I think he should).

[cyphergirl]

Beg to differ. :)

While on my cross-country honeymoon (via motorcycle) this summer, we patronized Sonic many times. One of them (Independence, Kansas maybe) did have seating inside. I was rather surprised to see it.

[Houmatt]

That is news to me. I live in the Houston area, and I have not seen any Sonic like that. I wonder how many are made like that around the USA?

[Henrietta]

I hardly think that hanging out in a K-Mart parking lot is "patronizing" the establishment. However, if the lot is privately owned and posted, the owners have the right to deny access to anyone they want.

Kmart has the right to exclude anyone they wish from the property, but in this case, Kmart did not post no trespassing signs in an attempt to exclude people. The cops posted "no trespassing" signs on PRIVATE property, and not at the behest of Kmart. Cops don't get to trespass people from private property except at the behest of the property owner.

Moreover, police arrested people who were coming out of the Kmart store, with receipts and merchandise in hand. They also arrested people at a neighboring drive-in, including those INSIDE the building, who were doing nothing more than eating a late dinner.

The problem in this case is that they didn't have authority to arrest the loiterers, because Kmart hadn't posted its property, and they certainly didn't have the authority to arrest the non-loiterers, because they weren't doing anything illegal. You might want to go back and read the original thread on this; your understanding of what happened seems to be a bit limited.

[Double Tap]

With all due respect, you need to do some research on this. HPD was way out of line. They brought their own "No Trespassing" signs along on the raid, and posted them on private property.

Dog Gone has posted numerous threads on this case, and it is very clear that HPD went totally overboard.

[Blood of Tyrants]

And you might want to read ALL the responses I posted here.

[Houmatt]

What you fail to understand is you had over 200 people on private property at 12:30 AM on an early Sunday morning. Besides the minors being there (in violation of curfew), these people were consuming alcohol, playing music very loud and doing doughnuts in the parking lot. According to an op-ed piece published by the Houston Chronicle shortly after the raid, there had been numerous complaints to the police from people living in the apartment complex surrounding the Super K-Mart, (as this is a weekly occurrence going back several months) which included people coming on to that property and trashing things along with urinating. On top of that, people within the K-Mart were perfectly aware of these things as they, too, had received complaints (it is not known why they never contacted the police).

You quite simply cannot enter someone else's property with the intent of engaging in criminal behavior (which these people clearly were).