Highway Patrol museum scam shuts down for good

AUSTIN — The doors finally will close on the Texas Highway Patrol Museum in San Antonio, a charity that raised millions of dollars under the guise that the money would benefit state troopers and their families, yet spent less than a penny of every fundraising dollar on that effort.

After receiving dozens of complaints about the charity, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sued the museum in December, accusing the charity's leaders of squandering donations. He sought to permanently shut it down.

On Tuesday, a settlement filed in a Travis County courtroom ended the lawsuit — and the museum.

Under the terms of the settlement, the charity that owned the museum has been dissolved. Karl Johnson, a court-appointed receiver, plans to sell some assets, including the empty brick building that housed the small museum.

Most of the exhibits will be transferred to the Department of Public Safety Historical Museum and Research Center in Austin, which is DPS' official museum.

Doors remained closed at the Texas Highway Patrol Museum on South Alamo on August 28, 2012. Doors remained closed at the Texas Highway Patrol Museum on South Alamo on August 28, 2012. Photo: Tom Reel, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Tom Reel, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 26 Caption Close Highway Patrol museum scam shuts down for good 1 / 26 Back to Gallery

The highway patrol museum in San Antonio was not connected to DPS, despite its official-sounding name.

In a report last fall, the San Antonio Express-News found the museum at South Alamo and South St. Mary's streets actually was a telemarketing operation that employed hundreds of workers across the state. The operation generated nearly $12 million in revenue from 2004 to 2009.

Tax records showed it gave only $65,300 to troopers and their families over the same period, or roughly one-half of 1 percent of its fundraising.

Assistant Attorney General Karyn Meinke said widows of slain troopers who never received a $10,000 death benefit promised by the museum finally will receive that money.

“There are seven or eight (widows) out there who still have not been paid,” Meinke told Travis County Probate Court Judge Guy Herman at Tuesday's hearing.

The settlement permanently bans most of the highway patrol museum's top employees from overseeing any kind of entity in Texas that purports to help law enforcement.

An insurance policy is paying $500,000 for legal fees and expenses to the state of Texas and the court-appointed receiver who's handling the museum's assets.

Most of the museum employees also must pay a penalty out of their own pocket. Executive Director Tim Tierney is required to settle $40,000 in credit card bills that were owed by the museum.

In the lawsuit, the attorney general alleged Tierney had no inkling what a “business-related expense” meant. Using donor funds, Tierney bought tickets to SeaWorld, airfare for vacations, movie theater tickets and video game rentals.

The attorney general called it a “gross misuse of funds.”

Defendants in the case were the Texas Highway Patrol Museum; the Texas Highway Patrol Association, a related nonprofit entity; and THPA Services Inc., a for-profit company that published a magazine.

The entities shared several employees. The attorney general sued Tierney; museum founder and former Texas lawmaker Lane Denton; telemarketing director Ruben Villalva Jr.; and Steven Jenkins.

Michael Burnett, Denton's lawyer, said his client didn't want to spend years fighting the attorney general in court.

“He decided it was best for him to enjoy his retirement years instead of spending the next several years tied up in litigation and spending his life's savings on litigation costs,” Burnett wrote in an email to the Express-News. “The AG's settlement offer was simply too good to pass up. We are very pleased this is over.”

Museum board members named in the lawsuit were Mark Lockridge, Ted Riojas, Fred Riojas, Gregg Greer, James Colunga and Robert Bernard Jr.

The board members were current or former Department of Public Safety troopers, and the lawsuit led to paid suspensions for everyone still on the job.

David Minton, a lawyer who represents most of the men, said they were unaware of the questionable spending. In court papers, the attorney general agreed they were board members “in name only.”

The money raised from the sale of the museum building and other assets will be donated to the Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation, a new entity with official ties to DPS.

Asked if the new foundation planned to do any telemarketing, DPS lawyer Valerie Brown replied: “I can guarantee they won't.”

jtedesco@express-news.net