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A week ago, Travis County’s new district attorney, Jose Garza, added to the department’s woes. A grand jury under Garza’s direction indicted two officers, Gregory Gentry and Chance Bretches, for an incident that occurred in March 2019 — nearly two years ago.The officers’ actions were reviewed at the time and found to have been objectively reasonable. APD’s chain of command, including Chief Brian Manley, signed off on the review. The district attorney at the time, Margaret Moore, was briefed on the incident and did not indict. The suspect in that case pled guilty and is serving prison time. The case was closed.But Garza ran for the office on a platform not of fighting Austin’s rising crime but of fighting the police department. ......Garza is reportedly reviewing about a dozen other past incidents with an eye toward prosecuting the officers involved. The nearly two-year-old incident involving Gentry and Bretches was thought to be one of the least likely to result in indictments because it was so thoroughly reviewed at the time; the then-DA was briefed, and it was closed. Incidents that occurred during the violent protests in the summer of 2020 are likely to come under Garza’s review in 2021, along with other previously closed cases.An APD source tells PJ Media that Garza’s actions may open the “floodgates†and lead to yet more officers leaving the force in a “mass exodus.†This will not protect them from possible indictment if they happen to have been involved in any of the incidents Garza is reviewing, but it may help preserve their pensions and prospects for landing positions with other agencies. The source also questions whether APD will even be able to attract candidates once cadet classes resume, due to the city council’s actions and Garza’s indictments.
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Topic: New DA Indicts Two Austin Police Officers for a Closed 2019 Case. Mass Officer Exodus May Follow. (Read 217 times)
