Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-12-07
GRAND JURY MAKES
ITS FINAL REPORT
BOTH SHERIFF'S AND POLICE DE
PARTMENT CRITIZED FOR NARI-
Gus SHORTCOMINGS WHICH
SHOULD BE REMEDIED.
DECLARES SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES
LACK COURAGE TO ARREST
CRIMINALS. POLICE FORCE TOO
NUMEROUS

taken up Yesterday afternoon. A fur
ther continuance being granted until 9
o'clock this morning
The day yesterday was taken up in
hearing of several divorce cases
Al the morning session. the grand jury
came into omen court and presented eight
true bills of Indictment and. as its task
was finished, handed in the following re-
port:
To The Honorable Judge Of the Dis
trict Court of the 2Sth Judicial District
of Texas. sitting at Brownsville. Gamer
on County, Texas.
We the Grand jury of Cameron County.
empaneled on the 18th day of November,
A. ID. 1912. beg to make this final re-
port:
We have had under our consideration
about 49 cases. and out of this number
we have found sufficient evidence to re-
turn true bills in > cases, Is of which
were felOnieS and 10 miSdcmeanors
We have given special attention to vio-
IlatiOns Of the law pertaining to pistol
d
thoroughly as we possibly could and have
returned five indictments for violating
this law In this connection, we have in
vestigated the sheriffS department and
the police department in the city of
brownsville, to ascertain the number
and the names of those who are legally
permitted by these departments to bear
arms in this county and we beg to report
as follows:
First: The sheriff Of the county has
furnished us list Of ten legally de-
putized officers. namely p. ID. Haley. Jose
Longoria Jim Dwyer. VI. A. Saldan5s sr
and G. r. Combc of Brownsville. Henry
Kerry of Raymondville. Daniel Hinojosa
of San BenitO. u $3.50 of Pit Isabel and
j. c. Cuellar and we are of the Opin
ion that this is sufficient force of de-
puties to maintain order and give pro-
lection to every citizen in this county
but we suggest to the sheriff that he
reorganize his force Of deputies and Sc
cure the best men available because we
have found in our Investigations that
there have been a number of times that
n deputy sheriff has known the where
abOutS of criminals and who had war
rant for their arrest. and have failed.
through lack of courage to arrest them.
Such conditions should not exist and will
not exist if the sheriff Of this county will
select men for their efficiency.
Second: Tn on investigation of the pO-
lice department. we had the police record
before us and also the testimony Of Lieu
tenant 0. VI. Puig. and we find that there
are 44 men in the city of Brownsville,
who have commissions as officers under
the city administration. These consist
of chief of police who is Mr.. Ralph
j. Tucker, two lieutenants. who are Joa-
quin Trevino and o. NJ. Puig. eight re-
gular patrolmen. who are NJ Y Domin-
guz, Jose Ansaldau. Mike Werbiski. John
Natus. Dario CorteZ. Francisco Vii
larreal. Mariana Gonzales. and Fe-
lix Caldcron. and of fifteen super
numerarieS. whose duties we understand
are to serve as special officers or rs sub
stituteS for regular policemen when a
regular policeman is sick or otherwise
unable to be on duty. namely. Henry
Havrc. Charles Buituriea. Carlos Gar
cia. Jose Galvan, Antonio G. Cantu, 81
mon Maris. Henry Kingsburv Manuel
VasQuez. Refugio Lopez. Eugenio Tapa,
G. Cantu, Guadalupe Mata. Vicente Mar
tinez. Santos Garcia and Emilio Nunez.
in addition to that there are Is termed
special officers who. we understand. do
not report for duty. who are commission
ed in order that they may be officers in
case of emergency. These men we under
stand never report for duty. They are:
Rodolfo Rangel. Vicente Davila. Jose
Garza. Y T.. CrixelI Bonifacio Gonzales.
f. c. CriXell f. A. Lallum. G. G. McKin-
nev. Girls Miller L. r. Cowen. Anasta-
clio Cortez. Tomas Valdez and G. H. More
JuSto Cortez. Luis Crixell. j. w. Nillare-
al and @. II. More They are never used
unless an emergency actually exists. but
the permitted at all times to carry pis-
toll
We believe that the mayor and the city
council have over-Stepped their authority
in commissioning SO many men to car
nv arms and we believe the way to break
up so much gun toting and stop so many
homicideS in this county is to first dis
arm these men who have commissions