The AP also found Capers’ turn in the national spotlight belied years of complaints about corruption and dysfunction that were previously unknown outside the piney woods of San Jacinto County.
Former deputies said Capers’ office has long neglected basic police work while pursuing asset seizures that boost its $3.5 million budget but don’t always hold up in court.
“The sheriff and his inner circle do whatever they want, regardless of law, with no consequence,” said Michael Voytko, who spent nearly five years as a San Jacinto County deputy before leaving in 2020 for another law enforcement job. “There was no accountability there for any of the deputies.” Garcia said he walked over and asked Oropeza to take his target practice farther from their home. When Oropeza refused, Garcia and his wife made their first of many 911 calls at 11:34 p.m.Deputies were called to Oropeza’s home at least three times in the prior two years, according to call logs. One came last June, when his wife reported he punched and kicked her, “pounded” her head on the “driveway gravel" and threatened to kill her, court records said.
The logs do not clarify the nature of all the calls to Oropeza’s home, but Capers has said his office previously received complaints about the man's gunfire. In January, the family was enjoying a backyard campfire with friends when they said their neighbor began shooting. Bullets blew holes through their fence and one sprayed sandy soil up at their 8-year-old daughter as she ran, screaming, they recalled.
Keith Pinkston, a self-described “country boy” who often carries a handgun and generally supports police, showed the AP round holes in his fence that he said were from shooting by the neighbor. He called Capers and his deputies “worthless.”Capers spent decades as a deputy in the Houston-area before being elected sheriff in 2014. He took over a 32-officer force with a history of corruption chronicled in a 1984 book, “Terror on Highway 59,” and inspired a made-for-TV movie.
When LION CEO Mike Alexander tried to present the findings to commissioners in a closed-door meeting in August, he was surprised to find the sheriff there. Alexander, a former police chief, wrote in his subsequent report that Capers’ presence was “analogous to allowing a possible organized crime suspect to be present during a briefing between the investigating detective and prosecuting attorney.”
Judges eventually dismissed and expunged the charges. Flynt, 57, unsuccessfully ran for sheriff against Capers in 2020.
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