DA's office drops charge against one San Antonio officer accused of beating suspect
Published: Fri, 12/01/23
DA's office drops charge against one San Antonio officer accused of beating suspect
The same day, the DA added a second charge against the other officer accused of punching a man inside his East Side home.
The civil rights unit of the DA's office filed a motion to dismiss a felony charge against former SAPD officer Thomas H. Villarreal.
Shutterstock / Schmidt_Alex
San Antonio Current
By Sanford Nowlin
Thursday, November 30, 2023 at 10:25 am
The second officer charged in the case still faces prosecution, and now faces an additional misdemeanor charge related to the case, according to the daily.
Since-terminated San Antonio Police Department officers Thomas H. Villarreal and Carlos M. Castro were indicted by a Bexar County grand jury in December 2021 for aggravated assault by a public servant over their arrest of Eric Wilson, who is Black.
However, the civil rights unit of the DA's office on Wednesday filed a motion to dismiss the charge against Villarreal, citing "insufficient evidence," the Express-News reports. At the same time, the office brought an additional charge against Castro of assault-bodily injury, a class A misdemeanor, the paper reports, citing court records.
The two officers went to trial on the felony charges last month. However, Judge Ron Rangel declared a mistrial after personnel from SAPD's Training Academy testified that the pair acted reasonably as they carried out the arrest, according to the Express-News.
"Prosecutors then had to decide whether to retry the officers or drop the charges," according to the daily.
Both Villarreal and Castro were accused of breaking open Wilson's door and repeatedly punching him during an arrest. The officers said they worried the suspect might reach for a weapon, according to media reports.
However, the officers didn't have a search warrant, verbal consent or a compelling reason to enter Wilson's home, an SAPD probe later determined, according to the Express-News.
Both officers have appealed their removal from the force to a third-party arbitrator, according to media reports.