Profiling claimed in bid to have case tossed
Outcome in stop tied to an area task force might influence dozens of other charges
Citing statistics highlighted in a Houston Chronicle investigation that strongly suggested a Houston-area drug task force conducted traffic stops based on the drivers’ race, one of the men arrested by the unit is now arguing the evidence in his case should be thrown out because the officers engaged in illegal racial profiling. The outcome could influence dozens of other pending cases brought by the task force.
It also will force officials to make a difficult legal determination of an individual officer’s performance. Racial profiling is legally prohibited but undefined by the law. While the federal government identifies police departments that improperly target minorities, civil rights attorneys said it is exceedingly rare for judges to toss out a case or cases because of one police officer’s apparent racially biased behavior.
Last year, the Chronicle reported that the Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force detained and searched Hispanic drivers at a rate that defied statistical probability. Ninety percent of one officer’s stops were Hispanic drivers; another pulled over Hispanics three of every four times. Many were stopped for driving only a few miles over the posted speed limit.
But the most noteworthy numbers belonged to task force member Aaron Gillory, then a Rosenberg police officer. An analysis of his stops over a two-year period showed nearly 98 percent of the drivers he pulled over were Hispanic. All but two of 187 vehicles he searched were driven by Hispanics.
Although two local attorneys had complained about the unit’s numbers, Fort Bend sheriff ’s officials said the task force’s traffic stops were based on signs of po
tential wrongdoing, not race. Yet 94 percent of the time, Gillory’s searches came to nothing.
One search that did turn up alleged contraband was of a Ford pickup being driven on U.S. 59 by Juan Altamirano in spring 2018. After stopping Altamirano for going 60 in a 55 mph zone, Gillory had him sit in his police vehicle while he peppered him with questions — the unit’s standard procedure. Altamirano eventually agreed to a search, and Gillory discovered nearly $200,000 in cash, most of it stuffed inside cereal boxes in the back seat.
Police seized the money as drug proceeds. The forfeiture case was settled this spring, with $75,000 returned to Altamirano and $109,000 kept by Fort Bend County. But the criminal money laundering case against Altamirano proceeded.
In the meantime, authorities began examining Gillory’s stop-and-search record. After the Chronicle’s report, Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton said he turned over Gillory’s record to the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which investigates allegations of a department’s “pattern and practice” of racially discriminatory policing. That federal review remains pending, Middleton said.
The Rosenberg Police Department also asked a racial profiling expert to review Gillory’s cases. Alex del Carmen, a professor of criminal justice at Tarleton State University and profiling expert, submitted his findings this summer, confirming the Chronicle’s analysis.
Rosenberg kept the findings quiet, however, refusing to release them to the Chronicle. Middleton, too, said he learned of del Carmen’s analysis only after being contacted by the newspaper.
“To me, they’re highly suggestive of ” racial profiling, the district attorney said in an interview this week. “On the surface, it is disturbing information that necessitates looking closer at it.”
Middleton said that after seeing the report he halted all prosecutions of nine cases involving Gillory, saying he wanted to wait for the results of another analysis of Gillory’s record, to be performed by the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office. “I wanted something more definitive,” he said.
Sheriff Eric Fagan, who hired Gillory this year, said in September that he would hire an expert to perform an analysis more specific to a drug interdiction unit. Del Carmen, who advises police departments on complying with profiling laws, declined to comment on Gillory’s case. But generally, he said such an investigation could include viewing dashboard and body camera footage and reviewing complaints against an officer, in addition to a statistical analysis.
On Wednesday, Fagan, who declined to make Gillory available for an interview, defended the team’s work, saying officers acted on tips or intelligence gleaned from license plate readers and other sources.
“They didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.
But he acknowledged that, while he had ordered his risk management division to review the task force’s work, he had yet to hire an outside expert to analyze the unit for indications of racial bias.
In response, Middleton said he was done waiting for the sheriff and would let a judge decide if Gillory’s behavior was racially motivated.
To Altamirano’s attorney, Jeff Strange, the question already has been answered. “Juan Altamirano was stopped, detained and arrested without lawful warrant, probable cause and pursuant to an ongoing scheme of racial profiling and selective law enforcement perpetrated by the arresting officer and other members of the Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force against the defendant and 1,237 other individuals of Hispanic descent during the calendar years 2018 and 2019,” he wrote last month in a filing. “The arresting officer, Gillory, in the calendar years 2018 and 2019 stopped 819 vehicles, 798 (97.4 percent) of which were driven by drivers with Hispanic surnames.”
Because Gillory found the money in Altamirano’s truck while allegedly acting illegally, the case should be tossed out, Strange argued. In fact, in a separate filing last month, Strange said the district attorney had agreed to do just that in a September 2020 meeting but had since disavowed the agreement.
“The elected DA is the person who is supposed to make these calls,” he said.
Middleton said Strange misunderstood their conversation. “I know I wouldn’t have said that,” the district attorney said, “knowing there were ramifications” — that if Altamirano’s case were to be dismissed because of racial profiling, Gillory’s other pending cases would have to be dismissed, as well. Settled cases could also be reopened.
State District Judge Frank Fraley is scheduled to hear Altamirano’s request to dismiss his case in early February.