Only a day after two Assistant Police Chiefs were re-assigned, Police Chief Roger Ellis was demoted to Captain by the City Manager.
A written statement Friday afternoon from the City of Lubbock said, “This afternoon, City Manager James Loomis demoted Police Chief Roger Ellis to captain, in accordance with civil service laws.”
“Assistant Chief Jerry Brewer will serve as acting chief until a search for a new chief can be completed,” it also said.
City Manager James Loomis was quoted as saying no further statement would be made as to why Chief Ellis was demoted.
EverythingLubbock.com made an open records request Friday to find more information.
However, the timing is interesting in light of a written complaint made by reporter James Clark with EverythingLubbock.com on Thursday evening.
The complaint was addressed to Loomis. It said there was written evidence that the City of Lubbock deleted a police report as a way of not turning it over in an open records request.
The police report was specifically related to the June 5 arrest of Christian Castro for aggravated robbery, and aggravated kidnapping. Castro had been named as a “person of interest” in the murder of Mark Ysasaga on the same day as he was arrested.
Within hours of Castro’s arrest, a Crime Line tip was made concerning the location of Ysasaga’s body. Charges against Castro were dropped and EverythingLubbock.com reported that by all appearances Castro was paid the reward money.
As part of looking into the Castro story, an open records request was made on June 8. On June 23 the city provided some but not all of the requested material. The material that was provided seems to indicate a police report was deleted on June 12 instead of turned over. The material did not say who might have done it.
Loomis did not return a call made Friday morning in reference to the complaint. Also, no written response has come from the city yet about the complaint.
On Thursday Assistant Chief James Shavers was reassigned from investigations to traffic. Assistant Chief Brewer took over for Shavers as the supervisor for investigations.
Shavers had days before released a statement defending the handling of the Ysasaga case.
If it is later confirmed that an official record was deleted to hide it from an open records request, Texas law says it can be prosecuted as a Class A misdemeanor.