Peña denies he donated to fund to aid ex-officers
Fire Chief Sam Peña said Friday he never donated to an online fundraiser for four Houston police officers who were fired last September over the fatal shooting of Nicolas Chavez, rebutting a news report that said Peña’s city email address was tied to a contribution revealed in a crowdfunding data breach.
Earlier Friday, The Guardian reported that a data trove from GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding website that allows people to donate anonymously to a range of fundraising efforts, had revealed donations from police officers and public officials to “accused vigilante murderers, far-right activists and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans.”
The data dump included fundraisers to support Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager accused of killing two people during protests over a Wisconsin police shooting, and Rusten Sheskey, the Wisconsin police officer whose shooting of Jacob Blake last August prompted demonstrations that Rittenhouse attended.
The Guardian also reported that anonymous GiveSendGo donations came from city of Houston employees “who were objecting to the actions of ” then
Police Chief Art Acevedo when he fired four officers last year over the fatal shooting of Chavez. The officers fired a combined 21 rounds at the 27year-old, who was on his knees and suffering from an apparent mental health episode.
An anonymous $100 donation to one of the GiveSendGo funds was associated with Peña’s official city email address, The Guardian reported, though the article did not specify which fund received the $100 donation.
A copy of the data provided to the Chronicle by Distributed Denial of Secrets, the group that has been sharing the data with various journalists, showed that Peña’s name and email address were listed next to a $100 donation to a fundraiser for the fired HPD officers titled “Activist Chief Fires Hero Police Officers.”
Mistaken notation
Peña said in a text he did not make the donation. The GiveSendGo site requires donors to provide an email address and the name listed on the credit or debit card used for the payment. It also allows donors to provide a separate name under a “Show donation name as” field, with no apparent vetting mechanism to ensure donors are providing their own email and donation name.
Other donor names for the HPD officer fundraiser included “Art Sucks,” “Back the blue always” and “Avocado Toast.”
Earlier Friday, Peña said he had made other donations that could have been mistakenly associated with the data breach, including a $100 donation last September to a thenpregnant Houston firefighter whose house burned down. Peña also said he donated last June to a Houston nonprofit called Assist The Officer, which provides financial assistance to peace officers in the Houston area that are critically injured in the line of duty. He provided a copy of a confirmation letter from the group showing he had donated $200.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Sylvester Turner said after the mayor was informed of the Guardian article Friday morning, Peña “provided an explanation” and the mayor “takes him at his word.”
The Guardian did not say how many city employees it had found in the data breach or to which funds they appeared to donate.
Another donor
The article also reported on an anonymous $400 donation attributed to an email linked to Chris Andersen, accompanied by the comment, “I think that Chief Acevedo is part of the ‘unrecognized form of police corruption’ that Chris Anderson (sic) wrote about in his book’. Hang in there guys!!!”
The comment appears to reference a book called “The Sniper: Hunting A Serial Killer — A True Story,” by retired Houston police sergeant Chris Andersen.
Andersen, who is listed as the organizer, confirmed Friday he donated $400 to support the officers fired after the Nicolas Chavez shooting, as well as made the comment about Acevedo. He said he donated the money after the Houston Police Officers’ Union had appealed to former and current members to support the officers.
Andersen said he had worked with one of the officers, Sgt. Benjamin LeBlanc, and said he believed LeBlanc will win his job back in arbitration.
Andersen abruptly retired in 2020. His book chronicles his time at HPD, including clashes with management, who he said made decisions to appease politicians at the expense of civilians.
Andersen said when HPD leadership found out about the book, they demanded to see a copy. He refused and retired instead. In response, the department gave him a “dishonorable discharge,” he said. Andersen appealed the decision, and in February, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement overturned the department’s decision, changing his retirement status to “honorable.”