Questions arise over sheriff’s deputies’ actions
This story has been updated from an article posted online Saturday.
TERLINGUA — A video from a Brewster County sheriff’s deputy is raising alarm among anti-wall activists and women who live in the Big Bend for capturing a group of wall contractors making vulgar comments about a woman who had filed complaints that they were trespassing on her land — with another deputy participating in the riff.
The video was from a bodycam, obtained in an open records request, worn by one deputy. It was made in August after a conflict between the workers and a Terlingua woman who says they crossed onto her land while building a fence at a man camp, taunted her and “menaced” her and a friend. The Big Bend Sentinel is not naming the woman, at her request, because of the threat of sexual violence, and she fears she will be targeted for retaliation.
After the confrontation, deputies then questioned the group of men at a different location. “Where’s she at?” one of the workers asks.
“I already told you you should have tried to f- – – her. It’s not too late now,” says a contractor, Jason Dupuis Shaffer, on the video, surrounded by seven other men in work clothes. They all laugh.
“I mean, you still can as long as you stay on your side of the property,” says Brewster County Deputy Preston Bolton moments later, just off camera, spurring more laughter.
What follows is more lewd commentary and laughter among the group, along with the deputies outlining what happens with the criminal trespass notices they were writing up for a few of the men involved in the initial encounter; the notices state that they will be charged with a Class B misdemeanor if they enter the woman’s property again.
Sheriff Ronny Dodson said he talked to Deputy Bolton about the incident. “And when I talked to him about it, he was trying to deescalate it to say something like, ‘Well, you should’ve just brought her wine.’” Bolton did make a similar comment on the video. Dodson said Bolton told him his follow up comment about contractors staying on their side of the fence was in reference to the wine, not sex. “He didn’t mean to be derogatory,” he said.
Dodson said he sent out memos to his officers about being professional and remembering that their actions are going to be on camera. He added that he is not hesitant to punish officers for improper actions and gave an example of recently removing a deputy from duty for two weeks with no pay.
The incident took place at the man camp being built by a Louisiana-based Cartesian Company on Highway 118 north of Terlingua, in service of a larger construction project being led by Southwest Valley Constructors, a subsidiary of Kiewit. (Kiewit has several subcontractors working at the site, and a Kiewit spokesperson wrote in a comment that they are not Kiewit employees.) Shaffer and his employer, Cartesian Company, did respond to requests for comment.
Police reports on the incident with the fence include accusations on both sides, with cursing alleged on both sides and the woman telling police she felt threatened, including by some men who identified themselves as security and carried guns. The woman said contractors tore down her “no trespassing” signs and used physical intimidation, telling her they would do what they needed to do to build their fence regardless of what she told them.
Deputies initially issued several workers criminal trespass warnings to stay off the woman’s land, but they were retracted in a dispute over whether the woman owned the land. (She eventually proved she had a legal right to the land to prevent trespassing and file complaints.) In one incident, man camp security personnel told a friend of the woman to stay put on her land near the fence — and he felt intimidated as if he was being held prisoner — until deputies arrived, according to bodycam video and incident reports.
The video was part of scores of sheriff’s reports, messages in a group text among deputies, and bodycam videos released to a Terlingua woman who obtained them in a Public Information request. Those records reveal that the Brewster County Sheriff’s Office has made coordinated efforts to send additional officers to the South County Terlingua area to look for potential problems with wall activists. Additionally, one report said Deputy Bolton was assigned to a security detail at the camp. Dodson said he knows Bolton was working at least one day for the contractors but was not sure which company.
When the video was posted on Instagram accounts, it drew hundreds of comments, numerous calling the men’s actions gross and questioning the one deputy’s participation, and many women wrote that they now feel threatened by the presence of contractors.
Over the past few months, numerous local women have brought up concerns for their safety in response to plans for border-wall man camps being built around the region, citing statistics about a rise in gender-based violence correlated with the construction of temporary worker housing in remote communities. “I’ve been warning everybody about this for quite a while,” said Yolanda Alvardo, an anti-wall activist whose family owns a ranch on the river in Presidio County.
Alvarado said she was invited by Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carrillo in the spring to speak on potential problems with man camps. “That’s one of the reasons we have been raising such awareness to this issue, because our rural communities cannot handle this type of workforce,” she said. “It’s not safe.”
“I find it very concerning that people are coming into our small, safe community and making comments that basically imply that they would rape somebody just because they’re a neighbor that filed a trespassing complaint after her property got destroyed, and that our local law enforcement has nothing to say to them about that,” said Jenna Cantrell, a Terlingua resident.
Cantrell said law enforcement should have made an effort to stop the crude comments and should have made a stronger statement about them after it happened. “By not saying anything or playing along with the joking like that it makes it so it’s okay for them to make comments like that,” she said. “That’s what that standard is. It’s okay and our law enforcement is just going to stand by while these men are joking about [rape].”
“I’m very concerned about safety issues with the man camps in Terlingua,” Crystal Albright told Brewster County commissioners in public comments at a Tuesday meeting. “Because the young ladies that I talk to say they are scared. They travel in pairs and lock their doors, which we haven’t had to do in the past.” With regard to the video, Albright told the court, “I don’t feel that our deputies handled it very well.”
Dodson said he’s concerned that this incident occurred with just the small number of construction workers at the man camp site, which hasn’t yet seen the arrival of up to 500 workers for a wall project. He said his department would strive to ensure the safety of all residents if that level of workers enters the county.
