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Current JP, former city manager indicted
Published December 20, 2005
BRACKETTVILLE – A sitting justice of the peace and a former city manager here were indicted Monday on charges they stole while serving the public.
David Luna, a who served as the city secretary/city manager of this small town about 30 miles east of Del Rio on U.S. Highway 90, was arrested by Texas Department of Public Safety investigators after the Kinney County Grand Jury on Monday morning returned three indictments charging him with theft by a public servant.
The DPS officers on Monday morning also arrested John Ford III, who is currently serving as justice of the peace for Kinney County, an elected position.
“If these allegations prove to be correct, I consider these offenses to be much more serious than just plain stealing because these individuals were either elected by the people of the community or placed in authority by people who were elected, and they came into possession of these funds by the virtue of the public trust placed in them,” said 63rd/83rd Judicial District Attorney Fred Hernandez of the indictments against Ford and Luna.
Hernandez said Monday the first indictment against Luna charges him with stealing an amount of money of $1,500 of more but less than $20,000 between June 9, 2002 and May 13, 2003.
The second indictment charges that Luna stole an amount of money of $20,000 or more but less than $100,000 between June 9, 2001 and June 8, 2002.
The third indictment charges that Luna stole an amount of money of $20,000 or more but less than $100,000 between July 1, 1998 and June 8, 2002.
Hernandez said this morning that Luna is accused of stealing a total of about $65,000.
The grand jury here returned two indictments against Ford.
Hernandez said the first indictment against Ford charges him with stealing an amount of money of $1,500 or more but less than $20,000 between Aug. 1, 2004 and April 5, 2005.
The second indictment against Ford charges him with fabricating physical evidence. Hernandez said Ford is accused of forging a signature on a money order “knowing proceedings were pending in that particular case.”
Hernandez said the investigations of the two cases were carried out by the state auditor’s office and by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“These investigations have been going on over a very long period of time. There were a total of 2,200 man hours spent by the state auditor’s office, and that doesn’t include the hours spent by the DPS and by this office in the course of these investigations. Sometimes the general public does not realize how long and complex investigations of this type actually are,” Hernandez said.
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