Ex-boot camp officer ordered to scrub toilets

On Tuesday, a jury found Manuel Vera, a former corrections officer at Harris County's boot camp, guilty of misdemeanor official oppression for manhandling a probationer and plunging his head into a toilet.

Today, state District Judge George Godwin gave Vera two years probation, slapped him with a $1,000 fine and ordered him to spend 10 weekends scrubbing toilets at the boot camp.

"It was an appropriate sentence," said Harris County prosecutor Vic Wisner. "He really brought discredit upon the whole Harris County justice system."

Wisner said Vera, 23, started working at the boot camp in March 2001 and resigned in December because he refused to undergo polygraph tests related to the accusations.

Vera's lawyer told jurors that probationers at the boot camp falsely accused his client after investigators threatened to repeat their boot camp tenure if they didn't file complaints.

He was ordered to complete 160 hours of community service at the boot camp during 10 weekends, and Godwin specifically mentioned cleaning toilets as one of his tasks.

He said Vera picked up a 5-foot probationer who weighed 100 pounds, "slammed him into a wall, kicked him, stuck his head in the toilet and flushed it."

Authorities charged Vera with two counts of official oppression for allegedly hitting two probationers and sticking their heads into toilets in the summer of 2002. During the trial, a third probationer came forward and accused him of doing the same.

Jurors convicted Vera of one charge, but the second was dismissed after the panel was deadlocked 11-1 in favor of convicting him.

Jurors said after the trial they were struck by how Vera "smirked" at the probationers as they testified against him.

Wisner said the probationers independently accused Vera while investigators were checking into a unrelated complaint against another officer. He said the accusations were made months after the incidents because the probationers were afraid Vera could prevent them from successfully completing their 150-day stint at the camp.

The 384-bed boot camp, located in Humble, is designed to give convicted criminals a last chance to avoid prison time. To instill discipline, boot camp probationers are forced to undergo strenuous physical training, Wisner said, but they cannot be physically restrainedunless they try to escape, hurt someone or damage property.

Vera is studying to obtain a peace officer's license, Wisner said, but will now never work as a peace officer in Texas with his conviction.

The probationers who accused Vera just want him held accountable, Wisner told the jurors.

"They're frightened to death that this defendant may be a police officer one day," he said.

Yes and I didn't mean to sound insensitive to those who took it that way. Even if I put my words differently, which I probably could have, the essence of my opinion would be the same. If you do not want to encounter a corrupt CO then do not do anything corrupt yourself.

So you think people who commit minor crimes and are eligible for boot camp programs are so different than you?

** I don't committ crimes so yes I do. However, I have responded to another poster and am not going to repeat myself.

Oh really? You've never exceeded the speed limit, never rolled through a stop sign, always used your turn signal, never thrown a piece of trash on the ground,never made even an unintentional mistake on any governmental or financial form, and never broken any local ordinance, even ones of which you have no knowledge?

Apparently, you don't understand that there are so many laws in existence today that no one can live and not violate some law at some time

Anytime the criminal justice system wants to get you, they can get you, on something.

If you weren't so holier-than-thou, perhaps you might be able to have some compassion, even for people in prison. I recall someone named Jesus had some thoughts on that subject.

First off I'm sorry about calling you an idiot. I'm sure your a fine intelligent person. I just get angry over too much apathy when it comes to prisoners who may not neccessarily deserve some of the treatment they get while behind bars. Not that it should be easy for them, its just that some people even go so far as to advocate homosexual rape on prisoners. Those people make me sick, but I'm not saying your one of them.

Now back to what you said. You said something about the small prisoner getting his head flushed in the toilet, you made it sound like that's all that happened. Read the article again. It says, "slammed him into a wall, kicked him, stuck his head in the toilet and flushed it." You left the part about the violent assault out.

I'm not a softie who's saying prison should be a country club. I just don't think it should be the kind of place where big violent criminals(or guards) can get their rocks off preying on smaller weaker inmates.

First off I'm sorry about calling you an idiot. I'm sure your a fine intelligent person.

*OK. I apologize for my insensitivity. I probably should not have been so blunt about it.

I just get angry over too much apathy when it comes to prisoners who may not neccessarily deserve some of the treatment they get while behind bars....

* Understand...

I just don't think it should be the kind of place where big violent criminals(or guards) can get their rocks off preying on smaller weaker inmates.

* No it shouldn't but that comes with prison. The guards are in a position of power. There is always the unstable few who try to abuse that power. I don't know put violent dirtbags together and that's what you pretty much end up with. Given that US has a prison population of around 2 million, I think people ought to look at solutions that would stop people from committing acts that would land them in prison anyway.

"It's always a fine line between cops who are thugs, and criminals who have to be physically forced to do something."

If this had been a case where a prisoner needed to be forced to do something, and the cop was justified in his behavior, then the judge would not have ordered the cop to scrub toilets for the next few weekends.

But I'm guessing you didn't think about this.

I'm guessing that you like jumping to conclusions. I expressed no opinion anywhere on this thread about the conduct of this particular cop. The story I posted speaks for itself. He was found to be an abusive cop, and it's pretty hard to come up with a defense for him based on the facts presented.

You guessed wrong.

Your post implied that here, the twain met, that is, a thug cop, and a prisoner who needed to be forced to do something. Why else would you have posted it?

There was no conclusion for me to jump to; what you posted did not require a leap of logic to understand.

You still misunderstood it.

There are thug cops. And there are prisoners who don't respond to anything but force.

Determining which is which is often dependent on the eye of the observer. And sometimes it's a little of both.

That's a general statement about life in America, not this case, and you did jump to a conclusion.

If you're trying to tell me that I said something other than I did, give it up. You can infer anything you want, but that has no relevance to what I implied.

"That's a general statement about life in America, not this case, and you did jump to a conclusion."

If you didn't intend it to apply in this case, then why did you post it in this thread? Again, the conclusion I drew (not jumped to, so please stop obsessing about this) was that you were commenting upon the particular case because you made your comments in this thread.

Gosh, I didn't know I couldn't make general observations on a thread concerning a specific incident. Is that rule written somewhere?

You are the one who needs to quit obsessing. GIVE IT UP. You are the one who hurled a gratutitous insult based on your misunderstanding of my comment.

You won't even admit that you misunderstood, and are somehow trying to justify your own interpretation.

I have tried to be polite in explaining my position, but now I'm getting impatient. Let the thread die. Otherwise, I'm going to get far less polite.

"You are the one who hurled a gratutitous insult based on your misunderstanding of my comment.

You won't even admit that you misunderstood, and are somehow trying to justify your own interpretation."

I understood exactly what you meant, and what was in your post. You implied that the prisoner somehow deserved his beating. A judge disagreed with you, and ordered the thug cop to scrub toilets.

"I have tried to be polite in explaining my position, but now I'm getting impatient. Let the thread die. Otherwise, I'm going to get far less polite."

Oh, my....what will you do? My, you might get impolite if I don't let this thread die...oh, dear.
Get a clue, genius...the best way to let a thread die is to just quit responding to it! But I'm guessing your outsized ego won't let that happen. So we can keep discussing this as long as you would like, it makes no difference to me.

Dog Gone sent to me in private mail:

"If I had meant to imply what you claim, I would be defending that position. A reasonable person might have questioned my statement and been satisfied with my clarification. Instead, you continue dishing out crap. You're quite a case."

I did question your statement, and am not satisfied with your explanation. I'll keep posting whatever you send to me.

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