Former Chief Jose Luis Vela Acquitted on Sexual Assault

EDINBURG, Texas

A former South Texas police chief was acquitted Friday on charges alleging he sexually assaulted one of his officers after a drunken party at his house.

Jurors deliberated about two hours Friday before acquitting Jose Luis Vela, 44, the Alton police chief in 2006, on sexual assault charges. He had been accused of performing oral sex on an officer who had passed out drunk at his house. Vela testified that the sex was consensual, and that he had an ongoing sexual relationship with the officer.

Vela won't get much time to enjoy the victory because District Judge Letty Lopez scheduled his next trial on a separate sexual assault charge to begin Monday. The victim of the other alleged sexual assault testified in the first trial that he woke up face down and naked in Vela's bed after getting drunk at a party. Vela said that was also a consensual encounter.

"We basically tried that case, and now we're going to try it again," said Luis Singleterry, Vela's attorney.

After Friday's verdict, Vela said the trial had been difficult and he would not be returning to police work.

"I have no intention of getting back into it," he said. "I'm ready for something else."

During closing arguments, prosecutor Hope Palacios told jurors the officer would not have publicly testified on the embarrassing event if it were consensual.

"Rape is an ugly word," Palacios said. "It's not what we expect to hear from the mouth of a man. It's definitely not what we expect to hear from the mouth of a police officer."

Singleterry tried to convince jurors that his client was the victim of a conspiracy arranged by another employee and her ex-husband, who investigated the case for the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office.

Singleterry said the alleged victim and two others who testified about other alleged assaults were motivated by money they could win from a civil lawsuit. He pointed out that they only told their stories after they were approached by Hidalgo County Sheriff's investigator Raul Cantu, whose ex-wife worked at the Alton Police Department.

But Palacios dismissed that idea.

"Is there any amount of money in the world that would make a man do something like that?" she said.

Palacios painted the image of an unprofessional police chief who partied with his employees even while they were on the clock. She accused Vela of manipulating poorly qualified officers willing to work for minimum wage.

"He surrounded himself with officers who couldn't get jobs at reputable agencies," Palacios said. "And he preyed upon them."

Vela also faces a charge of stealing a firearm last year. He is accused of taking a pistol from the department's evidence locker while he was still police chief. At the time of his arrest on that charge, investigators found a Colt .357 Magnum stolen from a Missouri man in 1988 and recovered by police in 1993 in Vela's home.

Accusations of bad record keeping and stealing confiscated alcohol ultimately cost Vela his job in September 2007.

Alton is a town of about 4,400 residents located 10 miles north of the Mexican border in the Rio Grande Valley.