The Lufkin Daily News
By JESS HUFF - The Lufkin Daily News
December 6, 2022

Angelina County Sheriff Greg Sanches announced his retirement, effective Dec. 31, on social media Tuesday afternoon. He is accepting a position that will allow him to be closer to his grandchildren, he said.

“It has been an honor for me to serve this county for the last 10 years as your 33rd Angelina County Sheriff,” he wrote in a letter explaining his retirement.

Sanches served the county for about 10 years in this position, he wrote. He was reelected to office in 2020 after winning a hotly contested primary against Bryan Holley and Terry Free.

Both of Sanches’ opponents garnered support from across the county, but Holley and Sanches supporters clashed frequently in the comments in various Facebook groups and on pages.

The battle between the two groups left a definitive winner in the Republican primary, though. And after facing no Democrat or write-in contenders in November, Sanches was sworn into another term of office on Jan. 1, 2021.

The sheriff’s tenure in Angelina County was marked by improvements to the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office operations and by scandals.

“Under my tenure, we have gotten pay substantially higher for our employees,” Sanches wrote. “We implemented full time deputies on the south end of our county to better serve our citizens there. We implemented a Professional Code of Conduct for our deputies to follow both on and off duty and it was implemented agency wide.”

Deputies now have in-vehicle laptops and the agency installed security cameras, implemented a body-worn camera policy and issued body cameras to deputies and investigators. The county implemented a pay step program, as well.

And while Sanches was in office the county also began work toward a jail expansion using money from the American Rescue Plan Act.

On top of listing these accomplishments in his letter, Sanches also uploaded a list of accomplishments made by the Sheriff’s Office over the last few years on the department’s social media account.

However, his career with the county also faced several distinct challenges in the last few years after his election.

Allegations of Sanches’ conduct or the conduct of his deputies bubbled to the surface in late spring and early summer of 2020 and remained there for months.

Three deputies were accused of attacking a suspect on a disturbance call on April 4, 2020. The man faced serious damage to his head and face after being hit with the butt of a rifle. The case filed against them was resolved in late 2021, though the three deputies found work elsewhere. Sanches stood by the men, saying their actions were justified.

On June 13, Deputy Jose Salinas was accused of shooting a dog while following up on a call about a stolen vehicle on the property. The dog was not on the suspected property and the dog’s owners said the dog never attacked anyone before; the deputy said he was in fear for his life.

Sanches also supported this deputy, which drew backlash from the community. A petition was created and signed to remove Sanches from office, but it never resulted in his removal.

Similarly, community members protested Sanches and the Sheriff’s Office as a whole over the summer and approached the commissioners court with complaints about his behavior.

And in the fall of 2021 Lt. Stacy Seymore was removed from his position by the commissioners upon Sanches’ request. The way it was handled garnered more backlash as Seymore had been injured in the line of duty, an injury which left him facing months, if not years, of recovery, his attorney said.

Sanches pointed to a system in which police officers are often put in this position because underfunded departments can’t afford to continue paying employees who cannot work. Seymore was not alone in this struggle.

He was offered a lower ranked position with less pay, but he ultimately came to an agreement with the county and sheriff and left the county altogether.

Sanches’ final year in office was mostly quiet, though marked by an inmate of the Angelina County Jail who walked away from the jail while serving as a trusty.

Questions led to multiple open records requests, including some submitted by Mark Davis. Davis later filed a lawsuit against Sanches to compel him to comply with a public information request that has not yet been resolved.

Sanches also made some changes to leadership. Chief Deputy Mark McLin was hired and has become more of a face for the Sheriff’s Office by attending commissioner’s court meetings and speaking about significant arrests.

His letter makes no mention of who will take over the Sheriff’s Office upon his retirement. County Judge-elect Keith Wright said the court has not made any decision on who would take up the mantle, but that he intends to hold off on taking any vote on the matter until the newly elected officials are in office.

Reports of Sanches’ retirement have been circulating in the community for a while, he said. Wright understood that Sanches wanted to be closer to family, however, and said he appreciated Sanches’ years of service to the community and wished him the best.

“I am fortunate that I have built many lasting friendships over the years and have received an incredible amount of support,” he wrote. “To everyone who supported me through my time as sheriff, you will never know how much it meant to me and my family.”