By: Chris Cheng
BUCKHOLTS – Just hours after being released from jail Buckholts Police Chief, James Blackmon, was back on the streets and on duty.
Blackmon was arrested, Thursday afternoon, for allegedly tampering with government documents.
The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education (TCLEOSE) was tipped off to the issue and recently had sent a field agent to conduct an audit of the police department.
The department is in charge of regulating law enforcement agencies across the state.
They said the police chief mislead the state by incorrectly filling out what are called L-1 forms which allow you to appoint a person to be an officer after they have had the proper background screenings.
The executive director of TCLEOSE, Kim Vickers, said Blackmon appointed eight officers without conducting any background screenings and listed them as full time employees with out them working a single hour.
"It goes much deeper than I just over looked this one thing and I made this mistake its systematic when you go through and every single thing that supposed to be done from start to finish on these officers, none of it was done," Vickers said.
Buckholts Mayor, Hal Senkel, believes this was all a common paperwork error.
"I hope it's just a simple misunderstanding, I know that's what we are hoping for," Mayor Senkel said.
Mayor Senkel said he stands by his man until the state tells him otherwise.
"He is still our chief there are no changes at all his license hasn't been suspended or anything like that," Mayor Senkel said.
But that is for the time being.
Investigators say, on top of the criminal charges, there are administrative charges that could cost Blackmon his license.
The TCLEOSE said this all could have been avoided had Blackmon filed the correct paperwork.
"If he had appointed them as reserves and designated them as unpaid and that they were reserves and had gone through the proper steps in order to hire them everything would have been fine," Vickers said.
At this time Chief Blackmon is only facing misdemeanor charges but investigators said they could be upgraded to a felony charges.
