Prosecutor: Former Alton police chief had history of sexual abuse

EDINBURG -- Testimony began Thursday in the sexual assault trial of former Alton police chief Jose Luis Vela.

But the most salacious evidence came entirely outside the presence of the jury.

Five current and former Alton Police Department employees confronted their ex-boss, who they accuse of plying them with liquor and then making unwanted advances toward them.

While Vela, 44, of Palmview, is only on trial for alleged affronts against one of the men, prosecutors asked state District Judge Letty Lopez to let them all testify to establish a pattern.

Vela, they argued, used his position to intimidate subordinates into participating in homosexual trysts and then assured their silence by threatening to fire them.

"He is in a position of power and he's putting himself in these situations with his patrol officers over and over again," said Hope Palacios, an Hidalgo County assistant district attorney. "The parties, the drinking and the unwanted advances - it happened every time."

‘HE WAS MY BOSS'

Vela has denied any wrongdoing and his attorneys argued that the sexual incidents were consensual.

It is The Monitor's policy not to identify alleged victims of sex crimes. The names of all department employees who testified Thursday have been withheld.

But as each man recalled the events leading up to the alleged assaults, their stories all began in similar fashion:

They would receive a call from the chief while on duty inviting them to parties at his Palmview home. They would down the mixed drinks and beer he offered them. And then, once they found themselves alone with him, he made his pass.

"I was crying," said one former officer while recalling his alleged assault. "Why had that happened to me? I didn't know what to do. He was my boss."

The officer told the court that Vela had often accompanied him in squad cars while he was an officer in training. On at least eight occasions, the man said, the chief rubbed his legs and groped his genitals.

"I told him to stop, but he continued to do it," the officer testified. "He said, ‘Out on the road, you have to be prepared for anything.'"

The officer and his boss later took a business trip to San Antonio, where Vela allegedly exposed himself in their shared hotel room, jumped on top of the officer and tried to sexually assault him, the man testified.

Another alleged victim, who once worked as a dispatcher in Alton, described how he woke up naked and facedown in Vela's bed after a night of heavy drinking at the chief's home and found himself being sexually assaulted.

"I felt a sharp pain," the man said. "I didn't know how long it had been going on for."

MULTIPLE VICTIMS

Judge Lopez had previously barred testimony from all of Vela's alleged victims except for the one involved in the Aug. 26, 2006, incident for which he is currently on trial.

That man - who is identified by the pseudonym "Frank" in court filings - says he blacked out at Vela's house and woke up the next morning to find his boss felating him.

Defense attorney Luis Singleterry maintained, however, that Frank and Vela had had a months-long sexual relationship and continued to go out together socially even after the alleged attack. Frank denied those assertions.

But once Singleterry suggested before the jurors that Vela's arrest had been based only on Frank's story, the judge decided to admit some of the other purported victims. Two of those men are expected to rehash their stories for jurors Friday.

Vela's defense also criticized the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office for appointing a former Alton officer who worked under Vela to lead the investigation.

Four of the five former employees who testified Thursday have filed a civil lawsuit against Vela and the city of Alton, claiming officials there did not do enough to investigate their complaints against their boss.

While Vela has since been dropped from the suit, the city maintains none of the men reported any of the alleged sexual acts.

Vela, who served as the city's police chief for nearly a decade, also faces two more indictments stemming from another sexual assault report and allegations that he stole a firearm from his department's evidence locker. Neither of those cases has gone before a jury.

If convicted on the charges for which he is currently being tried, he could face up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

Testimony is set to resume this morning.