City officials knew nothing of police chief's alleged abuse, attorney says

ALTON - City leaders insisted Tuesday they had no knowledge of sexual assault allegations against former Police Chief Jose Luis Vela before his arrest last year.

Their statements come days after four current and former employees filed suit against the city and its former top cop, claiming officials ignored their complaints and that Vela threatened their jobs if they told anyone else.

"The city categorically denies that there was any official record of any complaint," city attorney Ricardo Gonzalez said. "Any government entity I've ever worked for takes sexual harassment very seriously, and they would have suspended him while any allegations were investigated."

Vela, 43, was arrested Aug. 30 after at least two male police officers claimed he sexually assaulted them at separate parties at his Palmview home.

After the accusations against him were made public, three more department employees came forward to accuse the chief of fondling them at the police station and in squad cars.

"It's been a very, very traumatic situation for all of them," said Michael Pruneda, an attorney representing the four employees who filed the lawsuit.

The employees' names had been withheld until this week because of The Monitor's policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault. However, Rolando Cano, Jose Martinez, Enrique Saldaña and Daniel Vargas attached their names to the public court filings in the lawsuit.

They claim they lodged complaints about Vela with then-city manager Larry Rincones weeks before the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office opened its criminal investigation into Vela.

Not only did the city take no action, Pruneda said, but word got back to Vela, who allegedly threatened to blackball them with other area police departments if they didn't stop talking.

The lawsuit does not list specific dates the plaintiffs claim to have made complaints. On Tuesday, Pruneda said he was waiting for the Hidalgo County district attorney's criminal case file to become public before releasing details on the employees' grievances.

Vela and Rincones could not be reached for comment. But current City Manager Jorge Arcaute said he doesn't believe a complaint filed with Rincones would have slipped through the cracks.

"While it might be possible, it's extremely unlikely," he said. "We have a pretty small office and something of that magnitude would have been talked about."

Since Vela's arrest last summer, two of the officers and a police dispatcher who filed the lawsuit have left the department, Pruneda said. One of the officers remains on the force.

Vela, who was also charged with stealing a gun his officers seized, remains free on bond.

His case is still pending a grand jury review, prosecutors said Tuesday.
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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.