Judge urges former Edinburg police chief, city to try to resolve whistleblower lawsuit

A lawsuit brought by the city of Edinburg’s former police chief survived a procedural motion Monday that would have ended the litigation, but the judge presiding over the case stopped short of granting a temporary restraining order, which would have reinstated him as chief.

The city fired former chief Cesar Torres in late May following an adverse ruling against him by a neutral arbiter who determined Torres discriminated against two police officers for their membership and activity in a police union.

Torres’ termination paperwork also cited numerous instances in which the city says he failed at executive management, as well as failing to complete objectives set out by city manager Ron Garza.

In a grievance filed with the city, Torres denied the reasons Garza used to fire him and also denied that he discriminated against the two police officers.

The neutral arbiter’s ruling was issued April 7 and following that ruling Garza told Torres that he could either resign or be fired. He also offered Torres a severance package and gave the chief until April 12 to decide.

Instead, on April 12, Torres filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging he was actually fired for reporting an officer, who is a high-ranking union member, to the FBI. Torres alleges the high-ranking officer was committing insurance fraud and accused Garza and other city officials of trying to “chill” that investigation, which the city denies.

That officer is Armando Celedon, who, shortly after Torres took the helm of the police department in January 2019, opposed the chief’s proposal to hire a new assistant chief from outside of the department, which set off more than a year of litigation between the Edinburg United Police Officers Association and the city.

During that period, Edinburg Internal Affairs investigators brought a charge of tampering with a government record against Celedon who was later no-billed by a grand jury. Celedon also filed a lawsuit and was eventually reinstated to his position as a traffic investigator. He also received back pay.

Torres alleges that the city sought to stop him from reporting another allegation against Celedon.

In this case, an Edinburg resident named Ramon Chasco alleged that Celedon was involved in insurance fraud.

Torres claims Garza told him not to investigate it so he reported the allegations to the FBI. That agency does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations, but Torres claims in his lawsuit that there is an active investigation.

These allegations made by Torres occurred in late October and early November of 2020.

On Monday, attorneys representing the city of Edinburg argued that Torres should have filed his whistleblower lawsuit within 90 days of the October and November 2020 time frame, not in May — just weeks before he was fired.

From their point of view, Torres’ whistleblower lawsuit should just be dismissed because he failed to follow the Texas whistleblower laws that require the former chief to file the petition then.

Torres’ attorneys, however, argued that Torres’ termination was an adverse employment action and that they filed the whistleblower lawsuit within what the law requires. That litigation was filed May 5.

The judge presiding over the case, 139th state District Court Judge Roberto “Bobby” Flores, agreed with Torres, ruling Monday that his whistleblower lawsuit was properly filed within the 90-day requirement.

Less than an hour after his ruling, the city of Edinburg filed a notice that it would appeal Flores’ ruling to a higher court.

Flores, however, did not rule on Torres’ request for a temporary restraining order that would have reinstated him as chief.

“I’m not inclined to have two chiefs in the city of Edinburg,” Flores said.

The city named Jaime Ayala as its new chief in late August and he is expected to officially take the helm sometime this month.

One of Torres’ attorneys, Katie Klein, had argued during the hearing that Flores had the authority to reinstate Torres as chief and that Torres could be placed on administrative leave with pay.

The temporary restraining order, if granted at a later date, would prohibit the city from taking adverse action against Torres until the FBI completes its investigation into the alleged insurance fraud.

Flores had initially granted a temporary restraining order, but the city fired Torres after it expired on May 21.

Instead, Flores implored the parties to try and resolve the matter within 30 days because Torres’ claims would have to be considered by a jury.

Because of the pandemic, criminal cases like capital murders will take priority for jury trials, which are scheduled to resume in early November.

This means that it could be years before Torres were to be able to obtain a jury due to the backlog in trials caused by the virus.

Separately, Torres has another lawsuit against the city that is currently being heard in federal court.

That lawsuit also names former police chief and current city council member David white and the late Richard Hinojosa, a former city manager who was acting as interim at the time, as defendants.

That litigation alleges Torres wasn’t provided due process in January 2020 when he was suspended without pay. Torres also alleges White was out to fire him because Torres did not support White’s political campaign.

The parties are currently in the discovery process in the federal lawsuit and a pre-trial conference is not scheduled until March 2022.