OKLAHOMA CITY – A quip that has made the rounds for years claims that “no good deed goes unpunished.” Comanche County Sheriff Kenny Stradley can relate to that assertion.
A Comanche County deputy, with Stradley’s, bless- ing, used his official Sheriff’s Department vehicle on Feb. 28 to transport a Texan to Wichita Falls, Texas, where he dropped the man off at a Walmart that night.
A half-hour later Wichita Falls police arrested the traveler after he allegedly smashed open a gun case at the retail store and attempted to steal a firearm.
And then it was discovered that the suspect is a convicted felon.
Ken Esparza, 38, purportedly a resident of San Antonio, Texas, was arrested on five felony charges and two misdemeanors, according to Wichita Falls Police Sgt. Harold McClure.
The seven charges include: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; unlawful possession of firearms by a felon; terroristic threat to a public servant; theft of a firearm; criminal mischief; resisting arrest; and failure to identify, giving a false, fictitious name at the time of his arrest. Esparza’s bond was set at $52,000 and he was lodged in the Wichita County Jail.
KSWO-TV news said Stradley told them deputies found Esparza walking on the H.E. Bailey Turnpike (Interstate 44) south of Lawton. “In an effort to prevent Esparza from being struck by traffic, they picked him up,” the station reported. Stradley told TV-7 he was aware that Esparza was from San Antonio.
Stradley gave his deputies authorization to drive Esparza to Wichita Falls to try to get a ride to San Antonio.
Surveillance video shows a marked Comanche County sheriff’s vehicle drop off Esparza at a Wichita Falls Walmart at 10:50 p.m., Wichita Falls police reported.
About 11:20 p.m. Wichita Falls police were summoned to the Walmart on a disturbance report and an attempted theft. The Wichita Falls Times Record News, quoting an email message from Wichita Falls Police Sgt. Harold McClure, said people inside the store “pointed them to the suspect over in sporting goods.” McClure said the officers located the suspect, later identified as Esparza, “with a baseball bat, standing near the broken gun case” in the sporting goods section of the store.
KFDX-TV in Wichita Falls said investigators told them Esparza even had the key and tried to remove a lock on one of the guns.
SHERIFF SAID SUSPECT WAS HOMELESS, HARMLESS
“I told ’em go ahead and take him to Wichita Falls; he was going to San Antonio,” KFDX quoted Stradley as saying. “He was homeless. Didn’t have any money. And instead of leaving him on the turnpike where somebody would run over him at 2 o’clock in the morning, I thought it was best to get him off the turnpike. I had no reason to arrest him.”
Later, Stradley told KFDX, “Little did we know that he would get to Wichita Falls and have some kind of problem. Don’t know what happened to him ’cause we didn’t have that problem with him here in Comanche County.”
However, Stradley told a Lawton/Wichita Falls television reporter that earlier that same day his officers were summoned to Lawton’s Central Mall to mediate a dustup Esparza had over the purchase of a knife. Esparza reportedly tried to purchase a knife at the mall but did not have enough money to cover the cost, so allegedly he took the knife anyway.
Mall personnel did not file any charges, since Esparza “had already paid a good portion for the knife,” and Esparza didn’t meet the criteria of a threat to himself or others at that time, Stradley told KFDX.
Stradley said that when Esparza was later found walking along the turnpike, he did not have the knife with him and did not pose a threat.
MALL PERSONNEL, LPD UNAWARE OF KNIFE INCIDENT
Mall personnel contacted Thursday by the Southwest Ledger reported no knowledge of the alleged knife incident.
An employee at U.S. Patriot Tactical said she was on duty at the store on Feb. 28 and nothing of that nature occurred there. She said that perhaps the purported incident might have occurred at one of the temporary kiosks that pop up in the mall periodically.
Central Mall Manager Grady Morgan said Thursday that mall security was not summoned Feb. 28 to intercede in any dispute involving the purchase of a knife. If mall security had been contacted, “They would be required to report that to me,” he said. If mall security was not contacted, and if the purported argument did in fact happen, then presumably the Lawton Police Department was, Morgan said.
Lawton Police Department Public Information Officer Timothy Jenkins said no such report was filed with the LPD, “and if no report was written, we wouldn’t have a record of it.”
SHERIFF TRIES TO BE HELPFUL, BUT WFPD NOT HAPPY
“We built this department on we care,” Stradley told KFDX-TV. “We’ve given a lot of people rides different places because we’re not only just law enforcement. We also care about people and help people.”
Apparently the Wichita County Sheriff’s Department does things differently. “We won’t take somebody, pick ’em up, take ’em to another state and drop ’em off,” Wichita County Sheriff David Duke told KFDX. “We do pick up people on the highway if they’re broke down and either help ’em with their vehicle: get it started, get help or help them stay with ’em.”
“A person in Esparza’s mental condition should have never been brought in from OK and dropped off in Texas at a Wichita Falls Walmart, placing our citizens in extreme danger and forcing WFPD officers to deal with this highly volatile situation, which they handled with professionalism.” Sgt. McClure wrote in his email.
Sheriff Stradley issued a formal apology to Wichita Falls Police Chief Manuel Borrego.
However, Stradley told KFDX, “this is one issue out of decades of helping people,” so he will continue to “go the extra mile for Comanche County.”
ISSUES STILL UNCLEAR
What remains unclear is:
• why the sheriff’s deputy didn’t drop off Esparza at a homeless shelter in Lawton or at Lawton’s bus station.
• why a Comanche County deputy drove Esparza – in a Sheriff’s Department vehicle – from Lawton to Wichita Falls, a distance of approximately 55 miles.
• why the deputy dropped off Esparza at the Walmart store instead of at the Wichita Falls bus station 3.4 miles away.
• why the Comanche County Sheriff’s Department didn’t contact the Oklaho- ma Highway Patrol, which is responsible for monitoring vehicles and hitchhikers on turnpikes in this state.
• why the Comanche County Sheriff’s Department didn’t run a cursory background check on their passenger, a convicted felon, before using an official government vehicle as a taxi for a two-hour round trip to another state.
• why the Comanche County Sheriff’s Department, not the Lawton Police Department, was contacted about the alleged knife incident at the mall.
The Ledger left two telephone messages for Stradley, and four for the WFPD public information office, but none of those calls was returned.