Former San Antonio cops get prison in sex scam case

Emmanuel Galindo cries on the stand during the sentencing phase of his trial, Monday, March 6, 2017, in the 187th District Court in San Antonio. Galindo was convicted on charges of sexual assault, compelling prostitution, and official oppression. less Emmanuel Galindo cries on the stand during the sentencing phase of his trial, Monday, March 6, 2017, in the 187th District Court in San Antonio. Galindo was convicted on charges of sexual assault, compelling ... more Photo: Darren Abate, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Darren Abate, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Former San Antonio cops get prison in sex scam case 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

A jury sentenced two former police officers to prison terms Monday for many but not all of the charges they faced in a sex case in which several young women had testified the pair conned them and seduced them with offers of money and legal help.

The sentences added up to six years in prison for Alex Chapa, 29, and 10 years in prison for Emmanuel Galindo, 31.

Chapa and Galindo wept during earlier sentencing testimony. Chapa said his codefendant had concocted the elaborate 2015 scam that fooled at least four women into having sex with them by convincing them it was for an undercover operation.

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Convicted Friday, both men knew they had to serve at least two years for each count of compelling prostitution, which does not allow for probation. The jury gave them slightly higher terms than the minimum, which State District Judge Steven Hilbig extended by stacking them.

Video: Ex-SAPD officers guilty of sexual assault, compelling prostitution & official oppression

“They've lied to you and everyone else. They've not taken responsibility for their actions,” prosecutor Ryan Wright had said earlier, asking for the maximum sentence of 20 years for the sex assault and compelling prostitution charges, which are second-degree felonies. ”These aren't people who had a bad upbringing. They put their own families through this for their own pleasure. It was calculated.”

“I see no reason for sympathy. Max 'em out,” Wright urged.

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After the sentencing, Wright said it “sends a strong message about weeding out bad cops. And these were bad cops.”

Galindo was sentenced to five years in prison for each of five counts of compelling prostitution, with Hilbig stacking two of them to run after the first three, in effect a 10-year sentence on that charge. Galindo also drew eight years in prison for each of three counts of sexual assault, to be served concurrently. He received 10 years probation for a fourth count of sexual assault.

Chapa got probation for three counts of sexual assault. The judge grouped Chapa’s four counts of compelling prostitution into a pair of three-year sentences, then stacked them for an effective sentence of six years,

Both defendants received probation for the Class A misdemeanor of official oppression, eight counts for Chapa, 12 for Galindo.

Neither defendant testified during the trial but both took the stand Monday during the punishment phase.

Chapa looked at the jurors directly and said that the undercover operation was for real, that Galindo had proposed the scheme and supplied the official-looking but phony documents that backed it up.

And, he said, he only reluctantly had sex with some of the women. Of one victim, identified by the alias, Charley Rose, now 26, Chapa said: “I always asked, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure?’ (about having sex), but she pushed for it hard. I'm just sorry all of this happened....I felt stupid and scammed. I felt horrible.”

Rose told the Express-News Friday evening after an emotional day of testimony that she wished the officers could get life in prison.

“I think it all came down to controlling women and playing us for fools,” said the mother of two.

The women testified last week that they were recruited into the confidential “operation” with promises of $1500 and a menu of sexual favors that if performed would earn them “points” and status within the operation. They said the officers showed them badges, carried guns, wore uniforms occasionally and told them they could go to prison if they told anyone about the plan, which they suggested might involve Mexican drug cartel figures.

Chapa testified that Galindo assured him the bogus operation had nothing to do with SAPD and was being run by the National Security Agency, a federal spy agency whose primary stated mission is to capture billions of e-mail, text and phone conversations of non-U.S. citizens across the world. He further stated he never saw any authentic documents from any law enforcement agency concerning the operation and lied to his wife about the scheme for fear she would be upset.

Toward the end of his testimony Monday, Chapa said he was persuaded to participate by Galindo but that he wasn’t blaming Galindo and that he, Chapa, needed to take responsibility for his own actions.

For his part, Galindo, who took the stand at about 11:30 a.m., started weeping even before he started talking. Earlier, his father, who is from Coahuila, testified that when he and his wife adopted Galindo as a baby just three days old, he barely fit in a shoebox.

Prosecutor David Lunan adamantly made Chapa, as a defense witness, go through his previous statements to police in minute detail, extracting admissions that he had asked Galindo if they should buy condoms before meeting the women and took various actions to cover his tracks.

Wright, the other prosecutor, scoffed at the NSA story, telling the jury the pair had not told investigators about it and cooked it up, when they were beginning to delete text messages and cancel phone contracts.

Prosecutors also presented a witness Monday who testified she had sex with Galindo in the summer of 2015, after Galindo claimed to be a film producer and promised her $10,000 to shoot an adult film in which she would play “a stripper role and have sex with the killer.”

“I was not comfortable at all with this and I knew in my gut something was not right … but he was very persistent to the point of being intimidating,” the woman said. “And at that time I was in hardship and was going to lose my car, my job and my dog.”

bselcraig@express-news.net