Constable accused of using charity money for gambling, lottery tickets

Harris County Precinct 6 Constable Victor Trevino, a 26-year lawman, is accused of diverting money from his nonprofit charity for his personal use. ﻿ Harris County Precinct 6 Constable Victor Trevino, a 26-year lawman, is accused of diverting money from his nonprofit charity for his personal use. ﻿ Photo: Gary Coronado, Staff Photo: Gary Coronado, Staff Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Constable accused of using charity money for gambling, lottery tickets 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

The money was supposed to go to a charity that would pay for neighborhood events, but instead, prosecutors said, the longtime East End law enforcement official who created the nonprofit group more than 20 years ago gambled it away.

Harris County Precinct 6 constable Victor Trevino was indicted almost two years ago on several charges accusing him of financial misconduct, but details of the accusations finally were revealed Friday in a Harris County courtroom where the constable is on trial. The details portray a lawman well-known in his community and a regular fixture at outreach events - including National Night Out and a pre-Halloween Fall festival - to be the same man who became a criminal, taking money from an organization he said was designed to help the people he served. Trevino was first elected to office 26 years ago.

Among the accusations outlined by Assistant Harris County District Attorney Bill Moore was that Trevino diverted thousands of dollars from his charity for his own personal use, including cashing checks for cash to play slot machines with his wife at a Louisiana casino and to buy Lotto tickets.

During opening statements at Trevino's trial, Moore said the constable directed his bookkeeper to forge the signature of someone from the charity who is authorized to sign them. Then either the constable cashed the checks or sent deputies to do it at local convenience stores, the prosecutor said.

"You are going to hear evidence that checks were cashed for large amounts of money," Moore said. "And you are going to hear that within days, sometimes the next day, Constable Trevino and his wife would go to a casino in Louisiana and put large amounts of cash into slot machines."

Mustachioed with a full head of gray hair, the 62-year-old lawman sat in the courtroom with three of his attorneys and listened to Moore talk about the good things Trevino's charity did and the bad things the man behind it is accused of doing.

The Constable's Athletic Recreational and Education Events Inc., a nonprofit Trevino remains president of, has delivered flowers to constituents on Mother's Day and put on boxing matches to benefit disadvantaged youth, Moore said.

However, prosecutors said Trevino for three years - from 2008 to 2011 - illegally converted checks for thousands of dollars from donations to cash for his personal use.

Bookkeeper blamed

Defense lawyers for Trevino told jurors that the bookkeeper, not the constable, is the person who should be on trial.

"Carolyn Lopez was not trustworthy," attorney Chip Lewis told jurors. "She was not a good bookkeeper."

Lewis said that before 2008, Trevino's record keeping was impeccable, because of longtime bookkeeper Mary Alice Williams. Williams became ill in 2008 and has since died. Lewis said that after Williams stopped doing the books, Lopez volunteered to take over.

That was when the financial improprieties began, Lewis said.

"I don't believe in coincidences," he told jurors. "The evidence will show that you should not believe in coincidences either."

Lewis said Lopez lied to grand jurors who indicted Trevino in November 2012 and has since been given immunity for the 136 checks she admitted she forged.

The checks had the signature of Tyrone Berry, a captain at Trevino's office, who was the only authorized signer on the account for the charity.

Berry and Lopez are expected to testify in the trial.

Trevino: 'I've been lax'

On Friday, prosecutors called former television reporter Wayne Dolcefino and presented raw video of a 2011 interview Trevino gave the newsman. Prosecutors compared it with a court reporter's video of the constable testifying in front of a Harris County grand jury a year later.

The contrast between the interviews seems to show that Trevino first denied, to the journalist, that he knew anything about someone other than Berry signing hundreds of checks and cashing them. Trevino then told grand jurors that Berry authorized someone else to use his signature.

Trevino repeatedly told the journalist he did not have receipts for the goods and services that the charity bought. "I've been lax," Trevino said. "I have no one to blame but me."

Jurors also heard from Anna Nunez, the public information officer for the constable's office, who was laid off a day after a request for public information from Dolcefino.

Prosecutors raised the specter that she lost her job because someone had tipped off the reporter and suspicion fell on her.

Nunez testified that she was not the original whistleblower, but later contacted authorities and reporters about actions that she considered inappropriate by Trevino.

During a videotaped interview shown to jurors Friday, Trevino denied that he did anything improper and said Nunez was laid off because of a budget crunch.

If convicted, Trevino faces a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.

The trial, in state District Judge Susan Brown's court, is expected to last about a week.