Charity’s president was never screened

Christmas

dren the bureau once covered but won’t serve this year, he said.

“Our focus today is on the needs of 6,000 people that need service,” Acevedo said. “Blue Santa doesn’t care whose responsibility it is. We hope people will listen to these words and plant 6,000 seeds of hope.”

Acevedo said the Christmas Bureau will be investigated for possible financial wrongdoing. There have been a lot of “red flags” with the agency’s finances, he said.

“We can’t say there’s been criminal misconduct, but we can say there’s enough concern for us to launch an investigation,” he said.

According to a search of public records, Christmas Bureau President Shon Washington has an extensive criminal record.

Washington, 37, took over after the death last year of the bureau’s longtime head Alma Cruz. The American-Statesman couldn’t reach Washington for comment Thursday, but earlier in the week, he told KVUETV that the bureau was having trouble raising funds.

At the Christmas Bureau’s headquarters Blue Santa accepts money — online and through accounts at Wells Fargo — and new, unwrapped toys. Toys may be dropped off at:

Operation Blue Santa Warehouse, 4101 S. Industrial Drive #260 in Southeast Austin, and the Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. Any Austin fire station Police headquarters, 715 E. Eighth St., and substations at 12425 Lamplight Village in North Austin, 812 Springdale Road in East Austin, and 404 Ralph Ablanedo Drive in South Austin.

Donations also may be made during the Chuy’s Children Giving to Children Parade, which starts at 11 a.m. Saturday in Downtown Austin, and at the Blue Santa/KOKE-FM Breakfast on Friday from 6 a.m. to noon at Shoal Crossing center, 8611 N. MoPac Blvd. at 4612 Burleson Road on Thursday, wooden pallets were stacked in front of a staircase leading to the entrance. The glass door and windows were covered over with cardboard, and a handwritten sign said “Christmas Bureau has moved – please call Blue Santa.”

Blue Santa is the Austin Police Department’s holiday outreach effort to needy families. It began in 1972 with two officers giving gifts from the back of a patrol car. Today, it gives gifts to about 15,000 needy children each year.

Under the partnership, Blue Santa provides gifts to families with two or more children, while the Christmas Bureau served smaller families, families with single parents and the elderly, said Joe Muñoz, a supervisor with the Police Department’s community liaison office.

The Christmas Bureau has been responsible for printing all applications for the entire Blue Santa program, Muñoz said. The first signs that something might have been amiss came after Blue Santa officials contacted the bureau about the 2012 applications in July but didn’t get a response until September.

After the Christmas Bureau missed an Oct. 31 deadline to print the applications, Muñoz said Blue Santa staff went into “emergency mode” and did it themselves.

At the time, Washington blamed a printer for the issues, Muñoz said. But printer representatives told Blue Santa staff they hadn’t heard from Washington. Washington said on Nov. 8 he had been in Mexico, Muñoz said.

“His reasoning to me is that he was out of the country to attend to a family member’s death,” Muñoz said.

Cynthia Colpaart, who served as director of the Christmas Bureau until 2010, said that she met Washington and his wife when he was working as a handyman. He volunteered with the bureau, Colpaart said, and his work was so impressive that he was made assistant director.

“He and his family were just great, lovely, churchgoing people,” Colpaart said. “They just did a super job.”

Colpaart said Washington was never vetted by the organization.

According to a search of public records, Washington was charged with burglary in 1993 in Dallas and felony forgery of a financial instrument in 2002. Records also show he served time in prison in Texas; he was released in 2004.

Washington’s criminal record includes a charge in August of felony possession of a controlled substance.

According to an arrest affidavit, officers responded to reports of a fight at Sugar’s Uptown Cabaret in North Austin on Aug. 7. They found Washington in the parking lot of the strip club. He began arguing with officers, the affidavit said. Officers determined he had outstanding warrants citing a failure to maintain auto insurance, the affidavit said.

Officers searched Washington and found a quarter of a gram of methamphetamine in his pocket, the affidavit said.

Washington was also charged with misdemeanor theft by check in 2011, according to court