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Resident tells McLennan County court sheriff's office failed to properly investigate illegal dumping
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Summary
At the commissioners court public-comment period, Dean Darling alleged repeated illegal dumping by semi trucks, said sheriff's deputies advised the owner to burn evidence and that charges were reduced to a minor citation, and urged the court to require accountability from the sheriff's office.
Dean Darling, a McLennan County resident who gave his name and precinct, used his three-minute public-comment period to accuse the sheriff's office of mishandling an illegal-dumping investigation and called for accountability.
Darling said the dumping had been committed repeatedly using multiple semi trucks and end-dump trailers and described it as "a state jail felony" with substantial fines. He told the court he had tried for three weeks to reach Captain Davenport and Chief Deputy Berson but had not spoken with them, and that a deputy told the landowner to burn material at the site, which Darling said destroyed evidence needed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
"TCEQ did determine the site to be an illegal dumping," Darling said, adding that the sheriff's office later issued what he described as a public-nuisance citation for a nominal $10 fine and that "no one at the SO seems to know who reduced the charges." He told commissioners: "The sheriff's office has failed the taxpayers of McLennan County. Please require accountability."
The court did not take immediate formal action during public comment; the accusation was recorded in the court minutes. Commissioners did not provide a response on the record beyond thanking Darling for speaking.
