Former Palm Valley police chief acquitted of tampering with records

Palm Valley Police Chief Alvaro R. Garcia

An appellate court on Thursday acquitted former Palm Valley Police Chief Alvaro R. Garcia of three counts of tampering with a governmental record with the intent to defraud or harm.

A jury convicted Garcia after nearly two hours of deliberations on Feb. 16, 2023.

“The trial court imposed a two-year state jail sentence, suspended the sentence, and placed Garcia on community supervision for a period of five years,” an order handed down from the 13th Court of Appeals stated.

The appellate judges found the evidence used against Garcia was insufficient to support the convictions.

The former chief, who taught continuing education courses for peace officers as part of a contract with the Texas Municipal Police Association, or TMPA, was accused of entering false statements on three separate Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, or TCOLE, reports between April 23 and 25, 2018.

Namely, the alleged false entries were that three officers — Leofredo Pena, Robert Mendiola and Jolynn Morales — did not physically attend the training course.

“The indictment further alleged that he submitted these false records to TMPA ‘with knowledge of [their] falsity and with intent that [they] be taken as … genuine governmental record[s] and with the intent to defraud [TMPA],’” the order stated.

In an appeal, Garcia argued that the evidence was insufficient to show the records were false and that he knew they were false.

The appellate judges found that Garcia never literally represented that the officers physically attended the course.

“Garcia merely represented that the officers ‘completed’ the course,” the ruling stated. “Accordingly, the sufficiency of the evidence in this case depends on whether the term ‘completed’ also connotes physical attendance.”

The ruling stated that Garcia never represented that the officers attended the course in person.

“Instead, he openly admitted that Mendiola did not attend the course in person, but he provided outside instruction to help him understand the curriculum—and ensuring students understood the curriculum is precisely what his contract with TMPA required him to do,” the order stated.

The order stated that whether the officers “completed” the course is up for interpretation.

“All three studied the course materials and passed the final exam with flying colors,” the order stated.

Garcia also claimed his convictions violated double jeopardy, ineffective assistance of counsel and that the combined errors constituted reversible error. The appellate court, however, did not rule on those claims because it found the evidence was legally insufficient for conviction.

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