Attorney investigating third city issue

Apr. 18—The City of Odessa has hired the Sheen Law Firm to launch a third investigation, this one into its Equipment Services department.

According to documents obtained by the Odessa American under the Texas Public Information Act, the firm was hired on Feb. 28 to assist in an "investigation into equipment services as it pertains to Odessa Police Vehicles" and report to City Attorney Dan Jones.

As was the case in the earlier investigations, the Sheen Law Firm is charging $195-$375 an hour.

The Terms of Engagement letter does not provide any details into the need for the investigation, however other documents obtained by the OA indicate Harvey Q. Gutierrez, a fleet worker, was fired on Jan. 13 following an OPD investigation.

Gutierrez's termination letter states authorities discovered text messages between Gutierrez and the subject of the investigation and those messages included photos of a vehicle being readied by fleet services for use as an undercover police car.

"Your actions, had they not been discovered, could have jeopardized the lives of the undercover officers assigned to that unit or the investigations in which they were involved. Your actions did directly result in the city's inability to use the modified vehicle as intended and loss of the funds expended to modify that vehicle," the letter stated.

Gutierrez's behavior violated a city policy prohibiting employees from the "unauthorized or improper use or disclosure of official information," the letter stated.

Human Resource Director Charles Hurst informed Gutierrez in the letter that "corrective disciplinary action is inappropriate in this matter."

In recent months, the city has also hired the law firm to investigate claims of bullying by former Downtown Odessa Director Casey Hallmark and injuries sustained by Odessa Fire Rescue cadets.

In the Hallmark case, Sheen told council members he wasn't able to find sufficient evidence to corroborate the allegations she made against Mayor Javier Joven and Council members Mark Matta and Chris Hanie.

Last week, Sheen told the council former OFR Chief John Alvarez purposely left former City Manager Michael Marrero and Human Resource Director Charles Hurst out of the loop when Alvarez came back to Odessa after a trip out of town in August 2022 and launched an investigation after spotting cadets with blistered hands.

The attorney, who spoke to eight of the 13 cadets involved, said the cadets were abused over four days by command staff that wanted to punish them for not volunteering for an off-duty assigned. He further alleged the cadet program was unstructured and the initial investigation wasn't thorough enough.

Alvarez told the Odessa American he informed Marrero about the investigation as soon as he ordered now-retired Assistant Chief Saul Ortega to begin the process. He further claimed Hurst was updated every other week throughout the course of the investigation at regularly scheduled meetings.

Public information requests from the Odessa American reveal that Hurst responded to an email from Alvarez asking if he concurred with Alvarez's recommended punishment and Hurst replied, "yes sir."

Alvarez did acknowledge he rejected suggestions he fire the training captain and training chief, instead opting to give one a five-day suspension and the other a written-reprimand. He said he thought the incident involving the blistering of hands was an isolated incident.

According to Sheen, after the cadets declined to participate in an Odessa College recruitment event, an upset training captain, Kris Norred, went to speak with Training Chief Marty Moya and Moya used "choice words" to tell them they were not measuring up. He then took them outside and forced them to do command pushups and run 1.5 miles.

Sheen explained command pushups force cadets to freeze in position for however long command staff wants them to.

The next afternoon, Sheen said cadets who didn't run with Norred at UTPB were forced by Moya to "bear crawl" from the base of Central Fire Station's driveway to the top of the driveway multiple times on a day where the temperature was over 90 degrees — despite the fact at least one cadet's hands were starting to blister after the first round.

Sheen showed the council several pictures given to him by the cadets showing blisters on their palms and scrapes on their knuckles. He said the cadets were in such pain from the hot pavement, they alternated between the tops and bottoms of their hands while crawling.

After crawling, they were forced to run another 1.5 miles, Sheen said.

Moya allegedly told the cadets "Now it looks like you have been working," after seeing their hands, Sheen said.

During the next two days, the cadets participated in physical training sessions with Captain Austin Yocham and his crew, Sheen said. Some, but not all of the cadets, felt as though those training sessions were a continuation of the punishment meted out by Norred and Moya, he said.

Moya, who has since retired from the department, received the suspension while Norred was written up.

As of March 16, the Sheen law firm has been paid $52,748 for its services to the city.