A 35-year Odessa Police Department veteran who has been accused of hazing a police recruit has turned in his retirement papers.
According to records received as a result of a Texas Public Information Act request, Sgt. Carlos Chavez was removed from his position as a training sergeant on April 19 so he would not have contact with recruits after hazing allegations were lodged against him by his lieutenant.
Documents state Lt. Caleb Lacey assigned two recruits to help Chavez on April 17-18 with an in-service range day for the department’s patrol division. He said the two recruits would help move barricades, reface targets and perform other duties to help speed things up.
On April 19, Lacey sent an interoffice memo with a subject line of “hazing allegations” to OPD Chief Mike Gerke and Human Resource Director Charles Hurst.
Lacey informed Gerke and Hurst he noticed one of the recruits arrived at a regularly scheduled physical fitness training on the morning of April 18 appearing lethargic. While discussing the previous day’s PT, the recruit told him he would rather have worked out with him than worked out at the range, Lacey wrote.
“(He) also mentioned that he had run more while setting up targets the day before than in any of our workouts,” Lacey wrote, noting it was 90 degrees April 17.
Lacey reported that later that morning, a corporal told him the other recruit had expressed concerns about how Chavez had treated his fellow recruit at the range the day prior. The second recruit told the corporal Chavez wouldn’t allow them to switch duties and his fellow recruit “had been run to the point of exhaustion the previous day, potentially placing him at risk of significant bodily injury,” Lacey wrote.
Lacey wrote in his memo he had specifically instructed Chavez not to punish or force any recruits to perform unnecessary exercises as punishment or discipline and they discussed recent hazing incidents involving Odessa Fire Rescue cadets.
When he asked Chavez about the allegations, Lacey wrote Chavez claimed the second recruit was being dramatic and couldn’t have seen what was happening because he was reloading ammo for the officers.
“I reminded Sgt. Chavez of our April 16, 2023 conversation about punishment and hazing and he denied punishing or hazing the recruits. I emphasized that his intent was less important than the perception of his actions, and I instructed him not to require any physical activity from the recruits outside of their assigned duties,” Lacey wrote in his memo.
Lacey told Gerke and Hurst that when he spoke to the second recruit himself, the young man said his fellow recruit “was so exhausted that he needed to lie down in order to finish picking up brass.” He also reiterated the fact he tried to swap duties with the other recruit, but Chavez refused to allow him to do so, Lacey wrote.
The portion of the memo detailing what the first recruit said to Lacey was redacted.
“I expressed to both recruits that treatment they received by Sgt. Chavez was unacceptable and contrary to the values of the Odessa Police Department and the City of Odessa,” Lacey wrote. “I assured both recruits that behavior will not be tolerated by me or the department and encouraged both recruits to report any further mistreatment by any PD personnel to me.”
Lacey put in a request for Hurst’s department to further investigate the allegations and take appropriate action. Hurst replied he thought it best for OPD’s professional standards unit to take on the investigation.
As of May 17, no disciplinary action had been taken.
Chavez, who joined the department in September 1988, announced his retirement May 26.
His last day is June 10.
Last August, now-retired OFR Training Chief Marty Moya received a five-day unpaid suspension and Training Chief Kris Norred received a written reprimand after 13 cadets sustained severe blisters and cuts on their hands after being forced to “bear crawl” from the base of Central Fire Station’s driveway to the top multiple times on a day when temperatures exceeded 90 degrees.
An outside attorney hired by the city to re-investigate the incident concluded the recruits were actually forced to endure four days of abuse, with the bear crawl being the worst.
New OFR Chief Jason Cotton has vowed to overhaul the department’s training academy.
