They were ordered to take him to Ben Taub General Hospital, but instead of doing so, the officers brought him back to the banks of Buffalo Bayou and pushed him into the water. They were, however, later convicted of civil rights violations and served nine months in prison. State District Judge James Warref of Walker County sentenced them to one year probation and a $1 fine. Austin, TX 78751. Any editing, reproduction, publication, rebroadcast, public showing or public display may be prohibited by copyright laws. Federal prosecutors termed the verdict a compromise, noting that the defendants were not found guilty of additional charges that they had conspired to obstruct justice by withholding information about the incident from Federal investigators. The Cavaliers said . 6:00AM, Kinetic Celebrates Womens History Month with a World Premiere, What Your Favorite Mainline Final Fantasy Game Says About You. "We never got justice," his sister Sandra Torres told the Houston Chronicle in 2011. In the wake of Torres's death, frustrated residents of Houston's barrios staged rallies and protests around the city. You have three options if you'd like to view this item: If you believe that you are associated with a sponsoring college or university and have received this message in error, please let us know. For Alonzo, the Chicano Squad is a reminder that reform is possible, even if its difficult to sustain. Bring on the Shiplap? To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. They were, however, later convicted of civil rights violations and served nine months in prison. Vilma Martinez, president of the MexicanAmerican Legal Defense and Educational Fund, also called for the judge's impeachment. Houston makes national news all the time. info@texasarchive.org In the wake of Torress death, frustrated residents of Houstons barrios staged rallies and protests around the city. If you are associated with a college or university, you may ask your library if they would like to become a sponsor, which would give students and faculty at your institution the ability to view items from our collection. How the Houston Zoo moved its flock of flamingos to a new home, Why the Texans should take Bijan Robinson with the No. A convenience store/drive-in grocery at 3814 Fulton is vandalized by riotersin the 1978 Moody Park riots. He was on duty at the time of the murder and HPD discovered he. Im not an immigration officer. Jerry Click/ Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 35 of 56 Houston police officers administer first aid to Officer Tommy A. Britt, injured by a car that broke through a police line at Irvington . Officials at the jail refused to book Torres due to his injuries, and told the officers to bring him to a hospital. They were able to gain the trust of victims and witnesses because they knew how Hispanic Houstonians really lived.. Instead of being taken to jail, police took Campos Torres to "The Hole," an isolated area behind a warehouse along Buffalo Bayou where Houston Police Department officers could write reports, question suspects and sleep. A third officer, J.J. Janish, was charged with misdemeanor assault. Carlos Calbillo sits on railing near Buffalo Bayou near Commerce Street, the area where his friend Joe Campos Torres was killed by police in 1977. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. Dolph Briscoe, prompted the Department of Justice to seek indictments against the former officers on charges of having violated Mr. Torres's civil rights. Rioters looted and set fire to a shopping center, and fifteen people were injured including five police officers and two news personnel. A year later and still feeling as though justice had not been served, members of Houstons Hispanic community rose up in a post Cinco de Mayo riot at the citys Moody Park. According to Houston police, they got a call about a missing 3-year-old girl at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday. They had only ninety days to solve them. Outraged Mexican-American spokesman immediately called on the U.S. Justice Department to prosecute the case in federal court as a civil rights violation, for which the officers could receive up to life in prison. There, they brutally beat him for several hours. Updated: June 20, 2015. By Associated Press and Peter Belfiore For Dailymail.Com, Published: 17:01 GMT, 28 June 2021 | Updated: 08:56 GMT, 29 June 2021, Houston's police chief has publicly apologized to the family of a man killed by six officers more than four decades ago, calling it a 'straight-up murder.'. Abe Weiner, owner of the Leonard's Department Store in the same shopping center which suffered looting and smoke damage, said the store burned over an hour before firemen responded to the call for help. Once there, officials refused to book him because of the extent of his injuries, and ordered that he be admitted to a hospital. The convicted former officers are Terry W. Denson, 27, and Stephen Orlando, 22. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner apologized to the family of Joe Campos Torres for his death in 1977 in Houston police custody, calling it 'straight-up murder', Torres, a US Army Vietnam veteran, was 23 when he was arrested on May 5, 1977 for disorderly conduct at a bar, and beaten. Ruben Bonilla, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, termed the sentences a shocking, obnoxious misuse of Federal power and urged that Judge Sterling be impeached. Terry Denson in Texas. 110 Twenty-first Avenue South, Suite 704 Nashville, TN 37203, USA. The Department of Justice is supposed to fill that leadership role at a national level. Two of the officers who had beaten Torres, Terry W. Denson and Stephen. (Two activists, Travis Morales and Mara Youngdahl, were later fined a total of $9,000 on misdemeanor riot charges.). We need to be honest about our history in order to learn from it, because decades later, the same thing is still happening., For decades before Torress murder, violent encounters with HPD officers had soured the relationship between the police department and the citys Black and Latino communities. Houston Police lineup in riot gearin the 1978 Moody Park riots.. Houston Police in riot gearin the 1978 Moody Park riots.. Houston police make arrests in the 1978 Moody Park riots. Of the six, initially only officers Terry Denson and Steven Orlando were charged with murder. Nonetheless, Garcia said he is distressed by incidents, including the recent shooting deaths of a black police erroneously believed to be an armed robber and of a 16-year-old unarmed Mexican-American burglary suspect. HPD is now hiring for our upcoming classes. Torres, a 23-year-old Mexican American and Vietnam War veteran, drowned . State District Judge James Warref of Walker County sentenced them to one year probation and a $1 fine. . The state granted immunity for two others, Glenn Brinkmeyer and Lewis Kinney, in exchange for their testimony. As the story goes, the 23-year-old was beaten so severely that authorities refused to accept him into the City Jail. Carrying picket signs reading "Protection not police brutality" and "Stop the war against Chicano people," the demonstrators were protesting the police-involved death of Jos Campos Torres. Officers Terry Denson and Stephen Orlando were convicted of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and were fined $1 and sentenced to probation. ", 40 years ago police killed Joe Campos Torres sparking massive Moody Park Riots. Dairy Queen Gets an Updated Jingle, Courtesy of Josh Abbott, Check Out Kilgores Treasure Trove of Vintage Cameras, Radios, and TVs, How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire. Six police officers took Torres to a spot called "The Hole" next to Buffalo Bayou and beat him. A lot has changed since 1979 at HPD, but community policing is really important, Moravec says. Anyone can read what you share. A number of people have since been tried. Instead, they returned him to the hole, where they continued to beat him, and where he was either pushed or fell into the bayou. Though he served in that role for less than three years, Caldwell instituted key reforms that still exist today, such as HPD's first internal affairs department, HPD's first formal manual and the first liaisons to minority communities. By the time Torres arrived at the jail, authorities refused to book him due to the extent of his injuries. When Black and Latino communities are asking for change, some people treat it like an impossibility, she says. The Houston Police Department Chicano Squad, founded in 1979 after the killing of Jose Campos Torres. Rishi Sunak is urgently reviewing his private exchanges with Matt Hancock after bombshell leak of ex-Health 'Drinks cold in fridge at DH!' Report: Houston is the No. At least 22 persons were arrested at a city park after violence broke out in the chiefly Mexican-American neighborhood following a disturbance which led to vandalism and bottle throwing among the estimated mob of 1,500 persons. After their conviction in March of last year, Judge Sterling sentenced the three former officers, all of whom were dismissed by the Houston Police Department within hours of the discovery of Mr. Torres's body, to a year in prison on the misdemeanor charge. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Forty-five year struggle wins a bit of justice. Attorneys for the three defendants said they would probably appeal the verdict. Mr. Torres's body was found in a Houston bayou on May 9, 1977, two days after he was arrested by Mr. Denson and other officers in a latenight barroom disturbance. Brinkmeyer said Denson previously had boasted throwing a wino down a ravine and had beaten other hand-cuffed prisoners. In addition to having a strong work ethic, Montero said, the officers should hail from the neighborhoods they would be policing. Decades before the recent police violence in Memphis, a brutally beaten Latino man was tossed by officers into a Houston bayou and drowned. Robert Bennett, attorney for Mr. Denson, who had been specifically charged with pushing Mr. Torres into the water, said that he would argue against a prison sentence for his client. 'Our ultimate goal is humanizing our uncle at this point. "The community had this insurrection in the face of the brutality of the Houston Police Department," Carlos Calbillo, a community historian and filmmaker who made a documentary about the Torres case, told the Houston Chronicle in 2011. It's been 40 years since 23-year-old Vietnam War veteran Joe Campos Torres' body was found washed up on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou. Police attempts to break up the crowd were met with waves of retaliation by the attendees. The 14-year-old was cowering against the wall when he was shot. On April 3, a plaza, a monument, a huge portrait, and a walking trail were all unveiled and dedicated to remembering a man brutally murdered by Houston police almost 45 years ago. The two officers convicted in the Torres' case are expected to be sentenced within a few days. The trials drew national attention, and HPDs newly minted internal affairs unit was overwhelmed with complaints. That trial took place in Huntsville, Tex., 70 miles north of Houston, because the defendants had said they could not get a fair trial in Houston. Terry Denson and Steven Orlando, for murder. A group of Houston police cadets gathered Friday morning to hear family members of Joe Campos Torres speak of their loved one's death by officers in 1977. . Chief Troy Finner issued the apology on Sunday to the family of Joe Campos Torres, a Mexican-American Vietnam War veteran, who was beaten to death and his body dumped in the Buffalo Bayou by Houston police officers in 1977. Instead, they brought him back to the Hole. Denson and Orlando were also convicted of assault and sentenced to nine months in prison. On May 8, Mr. Torres's body was found floating in the bayou. The appeals court did not specify the severity of the sentences to be imposed, however, and John Wilson, a Justice Department spokesman in Washington, said that no further appeals would be forthcoming because the judge had acted within the limits of the order.. West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country, The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition, Jimmy Carters Peanut-and-Egg Taco Made Quite the Impression on San Antonians, The Campaign to Sabotage Texass Public Schools. All the while, she draws parallels to present-day discrimination against Latinos and the ongoing demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice. And as Mosqueda recalls, many non-Latino officers were happy to throw around the word wetbackthe same pejorative hurled at Torres before his death. 09/13/1977 - Fired HPD officer Terry Denson, right, arrives for court at the Criminal Justice Center at Sam Houston State University where his trial for the May 6 murder of Joe Campos . Houston police take man into custody during Moody Park riot that broke out following a Cinco de Mayo celebration in the park. This has destroyed all of us. Consider it our city's version of the Ferguson protests. See the article in its original context from. Following a month-long trial, an all-white jury convicted Denson and Orlando on a reduced charge of negligent homicidea misdemeanoron October 6. Given the departments broken relationship with the Latino community, making headway on the cases would be extremely difficult, especially because of the officer recruitment problem. 12 pick, Tips for bringing your dog or cat on a flight, West Texans share apocalyptic photos of after massive dust storm, This Houston rodeo food vendor wants you to eat his rattlesnake. And to this day, Morales remains skeptical that the Chicano Squad was the answer. He said looters from the riot at Moody Park knocked out windows and forced the clerk to flee through the back of the store as the crowd looted. As news of the atrocity spread, Torress name became a rallying cry that united the citys Latino community in its search for justice. Latinos around town began pinning a single dollar bill to their shirts, meant to symbolize what their lives were worth in the eyes of the criminal justice system. They were ordered to take him to Ben Taub General Hospital, but instead of doing so, the officers brought him back to the banks of Buffalo Bayou and pushed him into the water. When you look at the records of some of their arrests, youll find lacerated livers, fractured skulls, broken hands. [Victim's mother Margaret TORRES - feels happy because she wanted justice and doesn't want this to happen again.] By Gloria Rubac posted on April 12, 2022. There, the officers beat Torres, bruising and bloodying him to the point that when they finally drove him to the city jail, officials there wouldnt process him, telling the officers to take him to a nearby hospital. Burning car flipped during a riot that began in nearby Moody Park. Officers Terry Denson and Stephen Orlando were convicted of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and were fined $1 and sentenced to probation. Above is the abstract of the item that you're interested in viewing from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive's collection. View Terry Denson results in Texas (TX) including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Instead, the officers returned to The Hole, where they continued to beat Torres. The apology to Torres' family was the first by any city official, and Finner promised to work with the family to build a monument in Torres' name. Houston Police Chief B. G. "Pappy" Bond holds a press conference in his office. Police responded to a call at the park on the evening of May 7, 1978, and as the crowd began chanting Justice for Jose Torres, a riot broke out. All six officers were found guilty of violating Torres' civil rights, and given a ten-year suspended sentence. ,The allwhite jury of seven men and five women was in its second day of deliberations after a trial conducted by Judge Ross N. Sterling, and had deliberated for a total of seven hours before reaching the verdict. David Courtney, a.k.a. One of the counts, involving a violation of Federal civil rights laws in which death results, is a felony, with the maximum sentence life in prison. Campos Torres was beaten by six officers for hours before they took him to the city jail. 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WHERE ARE THEY NOW:A look at prominent figures in the Rodney King riots, "What happened was when the police came in to arrest some people, and actually took somebody, people said 'No,'" then-rookie cop Harold Barthe told Houston Public Media in 2008. Past charges of brutality against Houston Police Department noted. His body was found on May 8Mother's Day. Torres's body was found two days later. and help keep the future of the Houston Press, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, HPD Investigating Victims' Crime Advocate Andy Kahan, A Murder in Montrose: the Paul Broussard Legacy. Slowly, the Chicano Squad earned back the trust that HPD had lost. A gutted variety store at a shopping center in the 3100 block of Fulton. Rather than transport him to jail for booking, the six responding officers first took Torres to "The Hole," an isolated area behind a warehouse along Buffalo Bayou. If you are experiencing playback problems, check the minimum requirements and adjust your setup accordingly. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Carless Elliott, the only rookie cop at the scene that night, later recalled in court the words of one of his fellow officers, the last words Torres must have heard before his body plunged into those dark waters: Lets see if this wetback can swim.. Carlos Calbillo sat on railing next to Buffalo Bayou near Commerce Street Tuesday. Janie Torres is the sister of Jose "Joe" Campos Torres, who on May 5, 1977 was beaten and thrown into Buffalo Bayou by Houston police officers. Five months after Torress murder, an all-white jury found Denson and Orlando guilty of negligent homicidea misdemeanor. HOUSTON, Oct. 30 Federal District Judge Ross N. Sterling, acting under orders from a Federal appeals court to impose prison terms on three former Houston police officers he had sentenced to probation for their roles in the death of a young MexicanAmerican man, today handed the three what amounted to an extra day in orison. Chief Bond introduces possible disciplinary action against the offending officers through the civil service law, KPRC reporter Don Shelby speculates on the possibility of a second assault on Torres in between the time when officers brought him to the jail and when he ended up in the bayou. You've got five officers sworn to protect, five, sworn to protect and serve and murdered an active military soldier,'. That sort of exchange previously would have been unimaginable. HOUSTON, Feb. 8 Three former Houston police officers were found guilty in Federal District Court here today of beating a MeicanAmerican prisoner last May and then pushing him into a downtown bayou, where he drowned. 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