By Andy Sevilla
A Kyle police sergeant has been suspended with pay, though city officials are not releasing details behind his removal from duty.
But an attorney representing a Louisiana doctor who filed a civil rights suit against the city and its police chief has warned the city’s attorneys that actions taken against Sgt. Jesse Espinoza would be considered tampering with a witness.
“It has come to my attention that the City of Kyle, under the direction of Chief (Jeff) Barnett, has begun an internal affairs investigation of Jesse Espinoza for public bribery,” James Doyle, an attorney representing Dr. Glen Hurlston, said in a letter to the law firm Harrison & Hull of McKinney, Texas.
Doyle said Espinoza is listed as a witness in Hurlston’s civil rights suit.
Hurlston is suing the cities of Princeton and Kyle, as well as Barnett and some police officers out of Princeton’s department. Hurlston alleges Barnett — who left that department nine months earlier to take the Kyle position — trumped up domestic abuse charges against Hurlston in his January 2012 arrest in Princeton. The suit claims Barnett continued with a campaign of harassment against Hurlston.
Barnett and the city of Kyle called those allegations bogus and labeled Hurlston’s suit as frivolous.
Hurlston alleged Barnett was having an affair with his then-wife Suzanne Hurlston, who lived in Princeton, and is the father of her youngest child.
In Hurlston’s January 2012 felony assault arrest, the doctor was accused of choking Suzanne. He later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge.
Hurlston alleges in his suit that Barnett orchestrated the arrest and asked his former employees in the Princeton Police Department to apprehend him. According to Hurlston, Espinoza later told him he learned Barnett had set up at least one of Hurlston’s two 2012 arrests.
Hurlston was also arrested in June 2012 on an excessive texting charge for texting Suzanne. Hurlston said in his deposition that Espinoza learned from two Kyle police officers that Barnett requested a search of Hurlston in the state’s warrant database.
After seeing no warrants, Hurlston alleges Barnett called Princeton PD and that’s when the excessive texting warrant was issued.
Hurlston told the Hays Free Press that Kyle officials learned he was planning to attend one of its council meetings, and that’s why Barnett was searching for active warrants.
Hurlston said Espinoza confirmed his suspicions of Barnett’s alleged set up sometime “very soon” after filing his civil right suit against Kyle and Barnett on Dec. 31, 2013.
Two months prior, in October 2013, Hurlston said he gave Espinoza $5,000 to pay for his son’s medical bills.
Hurlston told the Hays Free Press the money was not a payment to Espinoza for anything, and instead the money was only a gesture to help out a friend in need.
In 2014, Hurlston also contributed $2,500 toward the mayoral campaign of candidate Brad Pickett, who lost to Todd Webster.
Hurlston told the Hays Free Press that Espinoza has not provided him with any information aside from confirming his suspicions. He said Espinoza became a friend to him after bonding with him over the phone.
During 2013, Hurlston made phone calls to various city officials, including former City Manager Lanny Lambert, the mayor and several city council members, trying to drum up support for his cause against Barnett.
“It is particularly egregious for the City of Kyle to engage in this conduct (investigating Espinoza), considering that Dr. Hurlston wrote the check he freely admitted giving to Mr. Espinoza in October, 2013,” Doyle said in his letter. “At the time … no suit of claim had been filed by Dr. Hurlston against the City of Kyle.”
Hurlston’s deposition also reveals he vacationed with Espinoza in Las Vegas, San Antonio and in Destin, Florida. Hurlston said he joined Espinoza in Las Vegas and Espinoza paid his own expenses.
He said Espinoza paid his own and his family’s travel expenses to Destin. Hurlston said he rented a beach house and invited friends to join him.
Espinoza declined to comment Monday saying the city has prohibited him from divulging details behind his suspension.
“As you know, they have me under gag order where I cannot discuss it with anybody, not even my family, my wife,” Espinoza told the Hays Free Press.
He did say “the truth will come out” in the investigation and he will be cleared of any alleged wrongdoing.