Campos Torres was beaten by six officers for hours before they took him to the city jail. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Complaints against members of the Houston Police Department may be initiated in person to a supervisor at any police substation throughout the City of Houston, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Houston Police Chief B. G. "Pappy" Bond holds a press conference in his office. On January 15, according to a $100,000 damage suit filed by Robert and Alice Gleason, N. W. Holloway and his partner J. T. Olin were among several other cops who stormed into their Pasadena trailer. Here are four Houston murders that made news and, in three cases, changed the justice system. Denson and Orlando were also convicted of assault and sentenced to nine months in prison. In the case of [Torres], theres racism, theres extreme brutality.. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. In 1978, the Cinco de Mayo celebrations at Moody Park erupted into riots. Carless Elliott, the only rookie cop at the scene that night, later recalled in court the words of one of his fellow officers, the last words Torres must have heard before his body plunged into those dark waters: Lets see if this wetback can swim.. On June 28, a Harris County grand jury indicted two of the officers, Terry Denson and Steven Orlando, for murder and a third, J. J. Janisch, for misdemeanor assault. In Chicano Squad, an eleven-episode podcast released in January by Vox Media, host and actress Cristela Alonzo follows Houstons attempts to grapple with the aftermath of Torress death, which included the creation of the first all-Latino homicide squad in the country. We need to be honest about our history in order to learn from it, because decades later, the same thing is still happening., For decades before Torress murder, violent encounters with HPD officers had soured the relationship between the police department and the citys Black and Latino communities. Testimony indicated that Oralando, who drove the patrol car in which Torres was transported, had encouraged Denson by "this would be a good time" to see if "the wetback" could swim. and help keep the future of the Houston Press, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, HPD Investigating Victims' Crime Advocate Andy Kahan, A Murder in Montrose: the Paul Broussard Legacy. Three buildings in the shopping center were gutted by the fire. Rioters looted and set fire to a shopping center, and fifteen people were injured including five police officers and two news personnel. A gutted variety store at a shopping center in the 3100 block of Fulton. But as Alonzo points out: the squads role wasnt to patrol these neighborhoods, it was to solve the crimes that were plaguing them. The judge received dismissed the case without explanation. 110 Twenty-first Avenue South, Suite 704 Nashville, TN 37203, USA. Sam Buyajian 33, surveys the wreckage of his drive-in grocery at 3814 Fulton. The conflicts could have kept escalating were it not for Houston's new police chief, Harry Caldwell, who was hired a few months after the riot. David Courtney, a.k.a. "'You're not going to take him and do what you did to Joe Campos Torres.". Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtrys Historic Texas Bookstore. A new podcast explores the history of the Chicano Squad as part of a Houston police department effort to repair its broken relationship with the Latino community. Rather than transport him to jail for booking, the six responding officers first took Torres to "The Hole," an isolated area behind a warehouse along Buffalo Bayou. View the profiles of people named Terry Denson. The state granted immunity for two others, Glenn Brinkmeyer and Lewis Kinney, in exchange for their testimony. The squads success came from how connected they were to these neighborhoods. This is a carousel. Carlos Calbillo sits on railing near Buffalo Bayou near Commerce Street, the area where his friend Joe Campos Torres was killed by police in 1977. Updated: June 20, 2015. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. They were ordered to take him to Ben Taub General Hospital, but instead of doing so, the officers brought him back to the banks of Buffalo Bayou and pushed him into the water. The case and its verdict outraged the local Mexican-American community, sparking protests outside the Harris County Courthouse and police headquarters. When the case was brought to federal court in February 1978, Denson, Orlando, and officer Joseph Janish were convicted of federal rights violations and were sentenced to one year in prison. Earlier this month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the appeal and ordered Judge Sterling to impose prison terms. By John M. Crewdson; Special to The New York Times. Torres was 23 on the night of May 5, 1977, when he was arrested for disorderly conduct at a bar, according to reports from the Houston Chronicle at the time. The cops got to go home to their families while he was floating in the water for three days.". He's gone. Rather than transport him to jail for booking, the six responding officers first took Torres to "The Hole," an isolated area behind a warehouse along Buffalo Bayou. A year later and still feeling as though justice had not been served, members of Houstons Hispanic community rose up in a post Cinco de Mayo riot at the citys Moody Park. In the wake of Torres's death, frustrated residents of Houston's barrios staged rallies and protests around the city. Torres, an American citizen and a former serviceman, was wearing combat boots at the time of the fatal plunge. Instead, they brought him back to the Hole. The other count, a misdemeanor violation of Mr. Torres's rights by intimidation, carries a maximum punishment of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Unfortunately, Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III has made it clear he has no interest in putting federal pressure on local police departments that need reform. Police grab an unidentified suspect believed to have thrown a brick during riot at Moody Park. In 2010, because HPDs increasingly diverse workforce now includes a higher number of Spanish-speaking officers, the group was disbanded. By the time Torres arrived at the jail, authorities refused to book him due to the extent of his injuries. About 150 protesters met at Commerce and San Jacinto on May 21, 1977 near the site where the body of Joe Campos Torres was found just weeks before. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. You were a victim [of a crime], so Im going to treat you as a victim. The violence May 7 left five police officers and two newsmen injured, and several stores in the area burned or looted. The appeals court did not specify the severity of the sentences to be imposed, however, and John Wilson, a Justice Department spokesman in Washington, said that no further appeals would be forthcoming because the judge had acted within the limits of the order.. Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class. And sometimes it's Houston murders. And though her mother instilled in her a love for the U.S., Alonzo was also aware that her identity as a Mexican American sometimes made her a target. According to sworn testimony, the officers then spreadeagled the prisoner against a patrol car, and Mr. Denson, after some discussion of what to do with the prisoner, said, Let's see if this wetback can swim. The prosecutors contended that Mr. Denson then pushed Mr. Torres into the bayou. 1977, Houston Police officer Terry Denson yelled, "Let's see if this wetback can swim!" Denson, along with five other white policemen (Louis Kinney, Glen Brinkmeyer, Joseph Janish, Stephen Orlando, and Carless Elliot) had arrested Torres after responding to a complaint of a drunken More than 40 people were arrested during the riots, which became nationwide news and led to the creation of HPD's internal affairs department. One of the counts, involving a violation of Federal civil rights laws in which death results, is a felony, with the maximum sentence life in prison. Above is the abstract of the item that you're interested in viewing from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive's collection. When police attempted to make an arrest at a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Moody Park, attendees began throwing rocks and overturning police cars. And once the word got out, they trusted us.. Slowly, the Chicano Squad earned back the trust that HPD had lost. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner comforts Margarita Campos Torres, the mother of 23-year-old Jose Campos Torres killed by police in 1977, as they stand in front of a trail at 1301 Commerce with an Army photo of her son dedicated in his honor April 2 in downtown Houston. A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessas Municipal Government. Any time in the penitentiary would be unacceptable, Mr. Bennett said, adding that Mr. Denson was an outstanding public servant to this community.. They were, however, later convicted of civil rights violations and served nine months in prison. His body was found days later. HOUSTON, Oct. 30 Federal District Judge Ross N. Sterling, acting under orders from a Federal appeals court to impose prison terms on three former Houston police officers he had sentenced to probation for their roles in the death of a young MexicanAmerican man, today handed the three what amounted to an extra day in orison. The six arresting officers instead took him, once again, to The Hole. 1977 - Joe Campos Torres -- his death triggered an outcry from the Mexican-American community about police brutality in Houston. Historian Dwight David Watson, who is interviewed in Chicano Squad, wrote a book on twentieth-century HPD history in which he traces its ties to the Ku Klux Klan in the twenties and the years of racist incidents and attempts at reform that followed. The former officers have admitted that they beat their handcuffed prisoner for insolence before booking him. The case, in which the officers could have received sentences of life in prison, has been the focus of many charges of police brutality against Hispanic citizens. Reporters interview Harris County District Attorney Carol Vance, Divers search the depths of Buffalo Bayou for Torres' wallet, Protests outside the Harris County Courthouse. The victim, Joe Campos Torres, 23, allegedly was dumped off the 25-foot retaining wall into the bayou last Friday. According to the podcast, between 1950, when the police department hired its first Hispanic officer, and 1970, HPD had hired fewer than 20 Hispanic officers. "There has never been anything to mark (Torres' death) in a positive way," Torres' nephew Richard Molina, told the Houston Chronicle in 2014. Brinkmeyer said Denson previously had boasted throwing a wino down a ravine and had beaten other hand-cuffed prisoners. Two Houston police officers stand guard over a wrecked convenience store at 3814 Fulton. "Let's see if the wetback can swim." With those words, Officer. 'I will never be the same, my family will never be the same. The officers then took Torres to the city jail, where jailers refused to process him due to his injuries. It is the headquarters for the Texas prison system. REPORTER: Walter Cronkite, (Houston, Texas) Background of case involving alleged beating of Joe Campos Torres, which resulted in his drowning, by officers Terry Wayne Denson, Stephen Orlando and Joseph Janish given. Torres was allegedly beaten and then drowned by Houston police. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Terry W. Denson. The group cleared forty homicides by the end of 1979 and later earned the recognition of the National Latino Peace Officers, in 1997, when they solved 91 percent of the cases theyd been assigned. Decades before the recent police violence in Memphis, a brutally beaten Latino man was tossed by officers into a Houston bayou and drowned. They had only ninety days to solve them. Three days later, on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 8, 1977 his dead body was found severely beaten and floating in the Buffalo Bayou, a creek on the outskirts of downtown Houston. Two additional officers at the scene, Glenn Brinkmeyer and Lewis Kinney, were suspended from duty but granted immunity by the state in exchange for their testimony. On an overcast evening in early May 1977, 23-year-old Vietnam War veteran Jose Campos Torres was in handcuffs for drunk and disorderly conduct at a cantina in Houstons East End. Calbillo is one of several people working to get a historical marker for Joe Campos Torres. The arresting officers took him to a place dubbed 'the hole,' an area behind a warehouse along the Buffalo Bayou, and beat him before taking Torres to the city jail. When police attempted to make an arrest at a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Moody Park, attendees began throwing rocks and overturning police cars. It's never had its own day, but is definitely something that should be remembered, a lesson of Houston history and among Mexican-Americans. A convenience store/drive-in grocery at 3814 Fulton is vandalized by riotersin the 1978 Moody Park riots. It goes to show how those moments of crisis and scandal within our public institutions become important opportunities for forward-looking leaders. The case became a national symbol of police brutality against Hispanics in the Southwest. Truth about Covid care home testing row: Timeline lays bare what was said, by who and when. The apology to Torres' family was the first by any city official, and Finner promised to work with the family to build a monument in Torres' name. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. The people would open their hearts towards us because we were able to communicate with them, Mosqueda says in the podcast. In 1977 Joe Campos Torres had been arrested at a Houston bar for disorderly conduct. The three foriner officers, Terry W. Denson, 27 years old, Stephen Orlando, 22, and Joseph J. Janish, 24, were convicted after a twoweek trial on two counts of violating the civil rights of the prisoner, Joe Campos Torres, a 23-yearold laborer whose body was found floating in Bffalo Bayou two days after the beating. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Six police officers took Torres to a spot called "The Hole" next to Buffalo Bayou and beat him. Their convictions were for criminally negligent homicide, a first-degree misdemeanor. 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View Terry Denson results in Texas (TX) including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. The Torres case prompted the Houston Police Department to create its Internal Affairs Division in 1977. By Gloria Rubac posted on April 12, 2022. The widely publicized case was moved on a change of venue to Huntsville, a town of 20,000, about 70 miles north of Houston. When do the clocks change in 2023? They were ordered to take him to Ben Taub General Hospital, but instead of doing so, the officers brought him back to the banks of Buffalo Bayou and pushed him into the water. "No parade, no day of remembrance. Two former Houston policemen on trial for beating and drowning a Mexican-American prisoner in their custody last May were convicted by a jury today of misdemeanor charges that will cost each no more than a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. This has destroyed all of us. Facebook gives people the power to. Watch: Astros SP Luis Garcia debuts new windup after rule changes, Oops! All six officers were found guilty of violating Torres' civil rights, and given a ten-year suspended sentence. Articles about the drowning of Joe Campos Torres appeared in the Houston Chronicle on May 15, 1977. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. HPD offers a rewarding career, exceptional benefits and a competitive salary. At least 22 persons were arrested at a city park after violence broke out in the chiefly Mexican-American neighborhood following a disturbance which led to vandalism and bottle throwing among the estimated mob of 1,500 persons. Instead of being taken to jail, police took Campos Torres to "The Hole," an isolated area behind a warehouse along Buffalo Bayou where Houston Police Department officers could write reports, question suspects and sleep. If I didnt tell you that this story took place forty years ago, you might think it had just happened, Alonzo told me. Five months after Torress murder, an all-white jury found Denson and Orlando guilty of negligent homicidea misdemeanor. When they brought him to the station, according to the testimony of a police sergeant on duty, Mr. Torres needed medical treatment. The former policemen had been on trial in connection with the drowning death of her son. (Two activists, Travis Morales and Mara Youngdahl, were later fined a total of $9,000 on misdemeanor riot charges.). REPORTER: Dennis Murphy (KHOU-TV) Artist: Harris Milam. October 7, 1977 Two former Houston policemen on trial for beating and drowning a Mexican-American prisoner in their custody last May were convicted by a jury today of misdemeanor charges that. But Glenn L. Brinkmeyer, 25, one of those given immunity and an officer in whose wedding Denson had served as a groomsman, testified that Denson had pushed Torres. In just a few short years, relationships between HPD and Houston's Hispanic community had improved to such a degree that Caldwell even commended a local police critic during a LULAC convention, who in turn praised the chief for his efforts. Become a member to support the independent voice of Houston An all-white jury found them guilty of negligent homicidea misdemeanorand sentenced the officers. Torres, a 23-year-old Mexican American and Vietnam War veteran, drowned . WHERE ARE THEY NOW:A look at prominent figures in the Rodney King riots, "What happened was when the police came in to arrest some people, and actually took somebody, people said 'No,'" then-rookie cop Harold Barthe told Houston Public Media in 2008. After the Huntsville verdict was reached last fall, pressure from Texas political leaders, including Gov. Nonetheless, Garcia said he is distressed by incidents, including the recent shooting deaths of a black police erroneously believed to be an armed robber and of a 16-year-old unarmed Mexican-American burglary suspect. For years, [HPD] operated with impunity, he says. Two of their fellow officers were given immunity from prosecution in return for their testimony in state court against the pair; one other officer faces related misdemeanor charges, and one, a rookie who reported the incident to superiors, remains on the 2,900-member Houston police force. There, they brutally beat him for several hours. the Texanist, is a staff writer. Chief Bond introduces possible disciplinary action against the offending officers through the civil service law, KPRC reporter Don Shelby speculates on the possibility of a second assault on Torres in between the time when officers brought him to the jail and when he ended up in the bayou. Poe served as a chief felony prosecutor for eight years before being appointed a state district judge in 1981. Houston police take man into custody during Moody Park riot that broke out following a Cinco de Mayo celebration in the park.