McFALL

by SEAN KIMMONS

A Kyle policeman lost his badge after he failed to detain alleged pedophile Dustin McFall, who drove away with a 14-year-old runaway after a February traffic stop.

Officer Karl Cranek, who appealed his indefinite suspension, now finds his career in the hands of a hearing examiner, who will determine if his termination was fair during an upcoming arbitration hearing in mid-August.

Cranek responded to a burglary/criminal mischief call at McFall’s home on the 100 block of Teasley Road. McFall’s wife, who had kicked her husband out of their home, called the police when she said she discovered him having improper sexual contact with a boy inside the residence.

While approaching the home, Cranek pulled over McFall’s vehicle but failed to question the 33-year-old and the boy on reports of child sexual abuse and allowed both to depart together, a department memorandum stated.

While on the scene, the dispatcher told Cranek that McFall’s wife had caught him inside “having sex with some boy who is under eighteen,” the police 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.

After releasing 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.

McFall vanished with the boy and was later 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, according to police 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 told police that he performed oral sex on McFall two separate times at the suspect’s home.

McFall’s arraignment was waived this month, with his pre-trial motions slated to begin Aug. 3 at the 22nd District Court in San Marcos.

The internal investigation determined Cranek’s actions to be “gross misconduct.”