Dustin McFall

by Sean Kimmons

Sean@haysfreepress.com

A Kyle police officer is appealing his indefinite suspension after he allegedly let an accused pedophile drive away with a 14-year-old runaway during a traffic stop in February.

Officer Karl Cranek was terminated in early March for not properly investigating the scene after he stopped Kyle resident Dustin McFall, 33, who held the reportedly missing boy in the car.

McFall and the boy were eventually detained by the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office upon re-entering the U.S. from Mexico. On April 6, McFall was booked into the Hays County Jail on two felony counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact on bonds totaling $60,000, according to police records.

On Feb. 21, Cranek was dispatched to the 100 block of Teasley Road in Kyle for a burglary/criminal mischief call. While nearing the home he observed the suspect’s vehicle, which voluntarily pulled over, a Kyle Police Department memorandum stated.

Cranek made contact with the driver, McFall, and the passenger, who was not related to the suspect. While on the scene, the dispatcher told Cranek that the day after McFall’s wife had thrown him out of their home, she caught him inside “having sex with some boy who is under eighteen,” the memo said.

Cranek asked the dispatcher, “Ok, what does she want us to do? To just make sure it was him in the house? He’s leaving anyway.” The dispatcher then advised Cranek that McFall and the boy were in a sexual relationship. Cranek responded, “Ok, well I can’t prove any of that” and the call was disconnected, the memo stated.

As he spoke to McFall and the boy, Cranek failed to question the reported suspect and minor regarding the sexual abuse allegation. He also did not attempt to make contact with the boy’s parents at that time, the memo stated.

“You then released the two to drive away, and allowed a reported adult sexual predator to remain in control of a reported underage victim of sexual abuse,” the memo said.

After he released the two individuals, Cranek contacted McFall’s wife and the boy’s parents. The boy was later reported as a runaway in Bastrop County, the memo stated.

“Your actions are determined to be gross misconduct,” the memo said.

Cranek’s attorney, Janice Joseph of Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT), an advocacy group for police officers, said that this is the only negative incident on Cranek’s police record.
“It’s our position that the termination was not warranted, which is why Mr. Cranek elected to appeal to the hearing examiner to look at the facts and make a ruling,” she said.
A date for his appeal hearing has not yet been selected, she said.

McFall is currently in prison awaiting trial on the sexual acts with a child charges, as well as an earlier assault causing bodily injury charge, according to court records.

An arrest affidavit says that McFall met the teenage boy on Craigslist, where the victim told McFall that he was 15 years old. The boy disclosed to police that he performed oral sex on McFall two separate times at the suspect’s home.

On October 1, 2009, Kyle police responded to an assault call at the suspect’s home. A second arrest affidavit says that McFall and his wife had another man at their house. A tussle broke out between all three, and in the aftermath, McFall was arrested for grabbing his wife as she tried to escape the home.