Category: San Antonio News

Community-led study provides comprehensive look at disparities affecting Black residents

A good Samaritan, who also happens to be a former track athlete, helped Houston authorities take down a fleeing suspect Tuesday.

Video shows a man who has only been identified as a 26-year-old named Devin getting out of his car and chasing down a suspect who was driving a stolen truck.

The citizen take-down took place in northwest Harris County when deputy constables tried to pull the suspect over after he was spotted by a toll road unit, according to ABC 13.

The suspect took off and the pursuit ended up winding through area neighborhoods before ending near an industrial complex.

“I saw him, the suspect, running all the way down, and he was already 50 yards from the officer. So, I turned around, sped up and blocked him in, and I got out of the car and started running,” Devin told KBTX. “I was not even thinking. I just got out, like a hero moment.”

According to KBTX, Devin is a former track athlete from Westfield High School and he previously worked as a trained security guard for two years.

“What I was thinking about in the moment was to make sure I had all his hands real tight because I didn’t know if he had something in his pockets,” Devin said.

Authorities have not yet named the suspect.

Spectacular shows and stand-up comedy are among our top picks for the weekend ahead. Immerse yourself in the Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular or indulge in breakfast for dinner at Copa Wine Bar. Check out the top five things to do in San Antonio. Thursday, January 27 Copa Wine Bar presents January Wine & Dine: Breakfast for Dinner Copa Wine Bar welcomes foodies from all over to enjoy this month’s installment of its ongoing dinner series,…

A San Antonio nonprofit for pregnant women and young parents that instead used money on a West Side smoke shop and out of state trips is among the biggest recipients of funding from the state program that backs it, records obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders show.

A New Life for A New Generation’s reimbursements of $1,020,960 last fiscal year, ranked tenth out of the 50 subcontractors who take part in the statewide Alternatives to Abortion program, according to data released by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

Those reimbursements, which have often exceeded $100,000 a month recently, were indefinitely suspended Dec. 23, a day after a two-part Defenders series exposed significant financial irregularities within New Life.

Those issues included $25,000 spent last year to purchase land that was later registered to produce industrial hemp, a $2,000 check from New Life used to pay a builder for work done at New Life President and Founder Marquica Reed’s side business, R&J CBD Smoke & Vapor Lounge, as well as tens of thousands of dollars spent on airline tickets, hotel reservations, limousines, entertainment and a motorcycle.

A second contractor told the Defenders in a taped phone interview late last year that he accepted a $20,000 check written to him by New Life in late March for “water damage repair” even though he never completed that type of work.

Instead, according to to the contractor, he cashed the check at New Life’s bank and returned the money to Reed, who then gave him around $1,000.

Reed did not respond to emails sent to her personal and New Life accounts for this story.

HHSC officials confirmed its administrator overseeing New Life, the Texas Pregnancy Care Network, suspended New Life’s reimbursements but have not said how long the suspension will be in effect.

This source of money makes up a vast majority of New Life’s funding, records show.

The move has crippled Reed’s nonprofit as she laid off a majority of her staff at the end of last month.

Additionally, New Life’s Commerce Street headquarters are open only limited hours and its East Side location on Hackberry was shut down Jan. 11 for the rest of this month, records show.

HHSC officials declined to make Executive Commissioner Cecile Erwin Young available for an interview for this story.

In a written statement, an HHSC spokeswoman told the Defenders:

“HHSC takes seriously any allegations of misuse of public funds, and we are currently discussing these allegations with our contractor and exploring options including appropriate corrective actions, as outlined in our contract.”

The spokeswoman added via email that one corrective action could be the repayment of funds.

Since the end of fiscal year 2018, New Life has received nearly $2.7 million in reimbursements through the Alternatives to Abortion program, state records show.

The program, which has seen its budget increase astronomically in recent years, “promotes childbirth and provides support services to pregnant women and their families, adoptive parents, and parents who have experienced miscarriage or the loss of a child,” according to a description on the state’s website.

TPCN Executive Director John McNamara released the following statement earlier this month:

“As a policy, TPCN does not comment to the public about the actions or alleged actions of subcontractors; however, TPCN always looks into allegations made against its subcontractors.”

The Texas Attorney General’s Office was made aware of financial issues within New Life in a complaint filed in mid-October. The complaint accuses Reed of “using money received from the state and donors for her own personal gain.”

In response to a public information request by the Defenders, the attorney general’s office released a copy of the complaint and background information it had compiled on New Life. However, agency officials have still not responded to multiple inquiries about the status of the case.

‘Confusing and chaotic’

A former New Life case worker, who asked that we call them “J.J” in order to conceal their identity, is now the second source to tell the Defenders that Reed used nonprofit staff to help run her smoke shop.

“More than half of the janitorial staff would be over at R&J, and the half that was left over was so overwhelmed with all the work to be done on the West Side, they didn’t have time to take stuff to the East Side,” said J.J.

Janitorial staff, also called quality control employees within the organization, have work duties that include sorting material goods provided by the nonprofit, such as diapers and formula.

“It was very confusing and chaotic. Everybody was aware that something was wrong financially, but nobody knew quite the extent of what was happening,” said J.J., who resigned from the agency late last year.

“How is it that we have all this money, but we can’t seem to ever get paid on time?” said J.J., who added that Reed missed payroll for staff multiple times.

Despite the often six-figure monthly reimbursements from the state, in August alone, New Life’s account was overdraft or had insufficient funds to cover charges six different times, according to financial records obtained through a source with the nonprofit.

J.J. said case workers were also given inconsistent information on how many diapers or how much formula to give to clients of the agency.

“I don’t want the services to stop. I don’t want New Life to be shut down. I want Quica to be replaced with someone who is going to do and help the people they say they’re going to do and help,” said J.J.

UPDATE: San Antonio police say 16-year-old Natalie Martinez has been found safe.

(Original Story)

San Antonio police are searching for a 16-year-old girl who disappeared on the West Side last week.

Natalie Martinez was last seen Friday in the 6000 block of West Commerce St., not far from SW 36th Street.

She is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, weighs about 200 pounds, has straight, shoulder-length black hair, has brown eyes, and has a tattoo on her right wrist. She was wearing a white shirt and shorts at the time of her disappearance.

Martinez also has a diagnosed medical condition, according to SAPD.

Anyone with information about the girl’s whereabouts is asked to contact SAPD’s Missing Persons Unit at 210-207-7660.

Read also:

SAPD searching for person who fatally shot motorcyclist during argumentMan on parole for arson arrested for setting fire in Southtown-area apartment, records show

*This article was initially published on UT Health San Antonio’s newsroom website and was republished on KSAT.com with permission from UT Health.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and clinical partner University Health soon will begin a Phase 1 clinical research study of an HIV vaccine candidate produced by Moderna. This will be San Antonio’s first-ever study of an mRNA HIV vaccine.

The study, which will enroll up to 15 patients locally, is sponsored by IAVI, a global nonprofit scientific research organization. UT Health Science Center San Antonio, University Health, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, George Washington University and Emory University are the trial sites, and Moderna is providing the vaccine. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helped fund the vaccine candidate research.

“We seek healthy volunteers who are passionate about contributing to the science of developing an HIV vaccine,” said local principal investigator Barbara Taylor, MD, MS, assistant dean and associate professor of infectious diseases at the health science center’s Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. Dr. Taylor is also a clinician treating patients at University Health. Volunteers will be enrolled for durations ranging from six to 11 months depending on the arm of the study to which they are randomized. They will be compensated for their time. Outpatient examinations and blood analysis will be conducted at University Hospital to measure the effects of the vaccine.

“The strategy under study involves two mRNA vaccines, one a prime and one a boost,” Dr. Taylor said. “IAVI already completed a first-in-human trial with a protein-based version of the prime. The second shot, the boost, is being tested for the first time in humans in our study.”

The goal of the San Antonio site’s study is to demonstrate safety of the mRNA-delivered priming and booster dose of the HIV vaccine candidate. The study is evaluating the immune response to different parts of the vaccine, specifically the development of responses that could create broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnABs). The ultimate goal is the development of a series of vaccine candidates that prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. A globally effective HIV vaccine could lower infection rates and prevent illness and deaths from the disease caused by HIV, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

No one at risk for HIV will be enrolled, and no pregnant women can be included.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the safety and effectiveness of messenger RNA vaccines. Sort of like a recipe does for a chef, these vaccines provide instructions (mRNA) to the body’s cells on how to make a harmless protein. The resulting protein particle stimulates an immune response. Once the particle is made, cells delete the mRNA instructions, but the immune response, now learned, remains.

“For many of us, one of the few bright lights of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the demonstration of the utility of mRNA technology,” Dr. Taylor said. “We’ve seen it work for COVID and it has been truly amazing, but it doesn’t have to stop at COVID. We can take this new strategy and apply it to an unfortunately old and hard-to-crack problem, HIV.”

For more information and to volunteer, visit UTHealthResearch.com or call 210-469-3206.

Several monitors of national office-space demand saw a year-end dip, owed in large part to the rise of the Omicron variant.

For the first time in years, employees have leverage and are using it to either ask for more money, job flexibility or other perks; and in many cases, they are making a big change and moving on to a new career.

If you are thinking of making a switch, here are some of the best jobs in 2022 as ranked by U.S. News and World Report.

Information security analyst tops the list with a median salary of more than $103,000. The positions are becoming critical as companies beef up cybersecurity and protect networks and systems.

Nurse practitioner ranks second with a median salary of more than $111,000. Physician assistant was third on the list. Its median salary is more than $115,000. In most cases, you will need a master’s degree for either one of those positions.  

Healthcare and tech jobs dominate the top 20 rankings, but also included on the list are lawyer and actuary, both of which have median salaries over $110,000.

This story is part of a KSAT 12 Defenders investigation into the use of confidential informants by law enforcement. The one-hour special report airs on KSAT 12 on Feb. 1 at 9 p.m. Find more here.

When it was discovered a confidential informant used by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit had planted drug evidence in cases that resulted in the arrest and convictions of three San Antonio residents, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit set out to overturn the wrongful convictions.

In doing so, prosecutors also supported the defendant’s claims that they were entitled to actual innocence.

Before tuning in to KSAT 12 on Tuesday, Feb. 1 at 9 p.m. for the one-hour investigative special “‘A Necessary Evil’: The Cost of Confidential Informants,” it may be helpful to get familiar with the term “actual innocence.”

What is actual innocence?

A claim of actual innocence is raised when a defendant appeals a criminal conviction. To prove actual innocence, the defendant must submit new evidence to the court that was not available at the time of their trial.

In the case of Rexina Linan-Juarez, John Cape and Louie Garcia, they made the claim of actual innocence after it was discovered the informant used by deputies to raid the home of Cape and Linan-Juarez had planted drug evidence in an unrelated case. The trio argued that had they known the informant was unreliable, they would have challenged the search warrant used by deputies, and they would not have accepted plea deals.

Matt Howard, Director of Bexar County’s Conviction Integrity Unit, said there is more than one type of actual innocence.

“There are a couple of different types of actual innocence. There’s the idea of factual, actual innocence. You have an alibi that says you just weren’t there,” Howard said. T”hen there’s procedural actual innocence where you can say that: but for a violation of the Constitution, for instance, you would not have been convicted,” Howard said. “In this case, we’re talking about procedural actual innocence. But for the Fourth Amendment violations that came about because of this, confidential informant or the actions of this confidential informant, police would never have been there. They would have never been able to execute that search warrant, never been able to enter into the home.”

How hard is it to get actual innocence?

The Court of Criminal Appeals has described proving a claim of actual innocence as a “Herculean task”, meaning it is an incredibly difficult legal process.

Dayna Jones, a San Antonio criminal defense attorney, was appointed to represent Linan-Juarez, Cape and Garcia. She explained to the KSAT 12 Defenders why these cases are so difficult.

“The system really is set up for finality with convictions. We want somebody that is going to say they’re guilty. If somebody is convicted by a jury, it’s really hard to undo,” Jones said. “In this particular case, me, the DA’s office and the trial judge, all believed that they should have been entitled to actual innocence.”

What rights and benefits come with a finding of actual innocence?

Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Bert Richardson explained in a 2020 interview with KSAT that defendants who have their convictions set aside with a declaration of actual innocence are automatically entitled to certain benefits from the state of Texas.

“They’re entitled to $85,000 a year for every year they’ve been wrongfully imprisoned. They’re entitled to an annuity that goes along with that, as well as health and educational benefits,” Richardson said.

Who got actual innocence in these cases?

From the time they were arrested, Linan-Juarez, Cape and Garcia claimed they were set up because the drugs found by deputies in the home were not theirs. Complicating their claim was the fact deputies also found personal-use amounts of drugs inside the home, some of which was claimed by Linan-Juarez and Cape.

Louie Garcia did not live at the home but a bank bag containing 2 baggies of meth and cash was located outside on the front porch next to Garcia’s tools. Deputies also claimed to find another bag of drugs inside the home, next to Garcia’s feet, after they took him inside to be questioned. Garcia denied ownership of the drugs.

Unable to prove the drugs were planted, Linan-Juarez took a plea deal for 10 years of deferred adjudication — a form of probation that avoids a final conviction upon successful completion — Cape took a plea deal for 10 years in prison, and Garcia took a plea deal for 8 years in prison.

Because Linan-Juarez was not technically convicted her case was able to be reviewed and overturned at the local level. Cape and Garcia’s cases would have to be heard by the Court of Criminal Appeals.

“It was fortunate for us that she had been given a form of probation on her case because her case could be handled here at the county level,” said Matt Howard. “Now, the other two co-defendants, John Cape and Louie Garcia, their cases have to go to the Court of Criminal Appeals for a final determination on whether or not whether that court’s going to find them actually innocent.”

So when the district court judge overturned the cases in August of 2020 it meant one thing for Linan-Juarez and something different for Cape and Garcia.

“Basically, the moment that the trial court judge found Rexina to be actually innocent, she was exonerated and found actually innocent,” Howard said. “The moment that the trial court judge found John and Louie to be actually innocent, that became the recommendation of the trial court to be sent up to the Court of Criminal Appeals. And they can consider the trial court’s recommendation. They give it great deference, but they don’t necessarily have to follow it.”

Ultimately, the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in July 2021 that Cape and Garcia were entitled to have their cases overturned but they did not agree that they were entitled to actual innocence. The court couldn’t get past the fact that some drugs were found in the home separate from what the informant planted.

The court found:

“… the trial court recommends that relief be granted on the basis of actual innocence, because but for the false information provided by the confidential informant, the State would not have been able to conduct a valid search, and would not have brought any charges at all. We disagree.

Although the “newly-discovered” evidence does cast doubt on the validity of the search warrant, and does support Applicant’s claim that the confidential informant planted the drugs that were found in the bathroom and in a bank bag found outside the house, Applicant has not demonstrated that he did not commit a lesser-included offense by possessing the drugs not alleged to have been planted by the confidential informant. Therefore, he does not qualify for relief on the basis of actual innocence.”

Attorney Dayna Jones respected the ruling but disagreed with the court’s reasoning.

“This larger amount of drugs we know was not theirs. The drug trafficking part of it. They know, but they’re saying because there were little amounts of drugs. The problem that I really have with Louie’s case is he didn’t live there. There was nothing that was connected to him. So, I’m very disappointed overall for John and Louie that they didn’t get the actual innocence, but especially for the person who didn’t live there,” Jones said. “I don’t agree with their finding on this one, but we are very happy that they did find that they should have their exonerations and that it was a wrongful conviction.”

WATCH KSAT 12 Feb. 1 at 9 p.m.

You’ll learn more about this case and the investigation and fallout in “‘A Necessary Evil’: The Cost of Confidential Informants,” a KSAT 12 Defenders investigation airing on KSAT 12 on Tuesday, Feb. 1 at 9 p.m.

A man with a history of setting fires is in custody for sparking another one in the Southtown area, according to San Antonio police.

Luis Reyes, 31, has been charged with arson, a first-degree felony, records with the Bexar County Jail show.

An arrest warrant affidavit states that on Tuesday, a woman said she was in the shower at her apartment south of downtown when she noticed Reyes lighting rolls of toilet paper on fire with a cigarette lighter.

When she confronted him, he allegedly ignited another toilet paper roll and threw it on a mattress.

As she rushed to extinguish the flames with tea, the suspect fled the scene, the affidavit states.

He was later found by police at a bus stop on St. Mary’s Street in the Southtown area and was taken into custody.

He told officers that he was asleep with a cigarette when the mattress caught on fire, but he did not know why the toilet paper caught on fire, the affidavit states.

Investigators said Reyes has a history of starting fires, and he is currently on parole for a previous arson charge.

There was no other damage to the apartment unit or complex, and no one was injured.

Read also:

SAPD searching for person who fatally shot motorcyclist during argument