4 August 2024, El Paso, Texas, Steven Zimmerman – How much would you sell your integrity for? What is the price of truth? For many, there is no amount great enough to comprise who and what they are. These are men and women of principal, of purpose, of righteousness.
What about the other side of that coin?
What about those who sell their integrity for a few hundred dollars left in someone’s car? What about those who compromise the truth by lying about sleeping on the job, and someone dies? Or those who hide in a closet, watching their wife have sex with coworkers?
Everyone has a price. For some, for those with integrity, that price is staying true to oneself. Nothing would cause them to lose focus of who they are.
Then, there are those select few who serve with the El Paso Police Department whose only motto is ‘Rules for thee, not for me.’
Remember seeing EPPD patrol units parked all along the border highway? That was done as part of Operation Stonegarden is a Department of Homeland Security grant program that provides funding to enhance cooperation and coordination among state, local, tribal, territorial, and federal law enforcement agencies to jointly enhance security along the United States land and water borders.
Have you noticed, the EPPD patrol units are absent from the Border Highway? Why? Simple, Lt Ricardo (Rick) Medina, the person in charge of the program for the El Paso Police Department was escorted out of the EPPD Regional Command Center at Five Points, and his computers were seized by officers of the Special Investigations Unit.
Rumors abound concerning the cause of his removal and the seizure of the computers. Lt. Medina now sits at home, getting paid. Sitting around is nothing new for Medina as he hasn’t patrolled the streets in years.
What about Officer Jessica Grijalva? A woman who was arrested for DWI and is soon to be made a Lieutenant.
During her arrest, Officer Grijalva can be heard saying that she had nothing to drink and that the arresting officers should call a Lt at Pebble Hills, even asking for Lt. Peralta, who can help her. That’s integrity at its finest right there: EPPD – Be the Difference, Make the Change – by helping dirty cops erase their wrongdoing.
For her DUI, for lying to officers, for trying to call in special favors, this criminal with a badge is going to be rewarded with a promotion. It’s also funny that she was in a pre- trial diversion program for her DUI, and that magically erased all record of her arrest.
Let’s not forget to mention what seems to be her prior criminal record – but then again, who knows.
Ever been involved in a hit-and-run? If the bad actor happens to be an El Paso cop, like Officer Isaac Menchaca, then you’re out of luck.
“Officer Isaac Menchaca is guilty, and the court and department know it,” says an officer who messaged us and provided documentation of the hit-and-run and the arrest. “He, Aaron Poblano, and Enrique David Mendoza should be behind bars and unemployed. He hit a car and ran.”
A cop was involved in a hit-and-run, and two fellow cops covered it up. This, for the El Paso Police Department, is par for the course. We could go on, but you can search our pages and find example after example.
Let’s talk about KTSM and the El Paso Police Department’s handling of Sgt. Chris Camp.
Earlier this year we received a video from Ms. A. Camp, the wife of the aforementioned Sergeant. This video showed Officer Camp saving the life of an individual who had a gun to his head.
The scene was a mess – too many officers yelling at the suspect, not to mention the Crisis Intervention Team officers hiding, out of sight, until the suspect lowered his weapon.
That video is an example of an officer going above and beyond in caring for his community. Sadly, that was not the reception of the El Paso Police Department.
After we shared the video, the El Paso Police Department went to KTSM and seemingly crafted a story in which they portrayed Camp as a member of the Crisis Intervention Team. But there’s a problem.
KTSM says that the records of the incident identified Camp as a member of the Crisis Intervention Team. Sadly, that’s not what court records, or the police report says.
Now we must wonder; did KTSM make this up, out of thin air, or was this a story fed to KTSM by the El Paso Police Department?
Not long after we published the video, Sgt. Camp, something akin to an Inquisition began against him.
A New Inquisition – The Jerusalem Press
A West Texas police department has found a way to resurrect the Spanish Inquisition. Selectively targeting officers and issuing a department-wide training bulletin to targeting the Jerusalem Press for information that is protected under media shield laws harkens back to the El Paso Police Department of the 1980’s.
Not long after we published the video, Sgt. Camp had his personal phone, and work computer seized. EPPD then came out with a new directive concerning body cams, and the handling of videos. When we published that training bulletin from EPPD, they issued another one that went into effect, retroactively, the day before Sgt. Camp saved an individual’s life.
The first training bulletin:
Retroactive training bulletin:
Then, Camp was suspended, and had his home raided. (Full timeline at the bottom of this article).
During all of this, this newspaper, and myself, became part of the investigation. Detective Jerome Hinojos called the newspaper to ask us who provided us with the video. We called him back.
It’s key to note that when the officers thought they hung up the phone, you could hear them talking about dumping cell phone tower data. If you have been indicted for a crime and the major cause of the investigation was triggered by cell phone data, you might want to have your attorney research the activities of the department and how they obtained your data.
Additionally, Hinojos decided to visit members of my family, asking them for other telephone numbers and email addresses I may have. Why? Only God knows, and He’s not telling. I can draw some conclusions.
I am a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Press Photographers Association. I have never released the names of sources. Should the inept detectives find a phone number and email address not associated with the newspaper; they could subpoena records.
In addition, the El Paso Police Department has a cruel record of being notoriously biased towards any person speaking against their wrongdoings. Sgt Camp is one of those Officers who stood up for internal wrongs and was subsequently preyed upon by the Executive staff, Internal Affairs, and Lieutenants.
The story below on video is the tale of Sgt Camp who wrote a document to Internal Affairs about dereliction of duty against Lt. Juan Briones where this Lieutenant was unfounded on all wrongdoings despite the Post George Floyd incident. Sgt Camp was sustained for 16 hours suspension for attempting to correct a legal wrong.
Sgt Camp was also made as an example of being sustained and disciplined over an incident relating to 8500 Dyer, where the El Paso Police Department denies a call exists, however, this was an active shooter with multiple casualties and a murder scene. This wrongdoing of Sgt Camp was illustrated as he documented the failure to render act and to act against Sgt Adan Chavez and Lt. Frank Rodriguez.
If things couldn’t get any worse, the retaliation from the Chief’s Office has now ordered the demotion of a promotion where Sgt Camp has been disqualified and excluded from taking his rank as a Lieutenant by the “rule of 5” which in their collective bargaining (contract) gives you 1.5 lines of such a rule, which does not say anything! But they (EPPD and HR) are using this to retaliate and purposely single out a Sergeant who by any standards deserves to hold those bars for his integrity and the bravery he demonstrated on Feb 8th 2024.
Timeline:
The following video may be disturbing for some viewers. At the Jerusalem Press, we believe the family of this man needs to sue the El Paso Police Department. In the audio clip that follows (below the next paragraph), you can hear officers asking for FMS to be sent – Fire Medical Services. They were not sent until it was too late.
On October 16th, 2022, Camp was involved in an Active shooter with mass casualties where he requested an immediate regional tactical alert for assistance. A Lieutenant and a Sergeant refused to respond to the active scene. He wrote the Lieutenant and the Sergeant up for dereliction of duty, failure to act, failure to render aid, and cowardice. Since this original complaint, he has been targeted by the department for speaking out and writing up a Lieutenant.
Camp was disciplined for writing this Lieutenant up, however, this Lieutenant was unfounded in all wrongdoing.
May 2023, Camp wrote up the same Lieutenant for a Hostile Work Environment where there were witnesses who observed the acts of this Lieutenant, but this too was unfounded of any wrongdoing.
February 8th 2024: (The most recent concern). Sgt. Camp saved a man’s life, he was holding a fully loaded handgun to his head, Camp’s Body Worn Camera was recording the incident. El Paso Police Sergeant Chris Camp placed himself in harm’s way unarmed while he built a rapport with the subject. The subject in question is an active gang member and was determined to kill himself. Camp gained compliance with the subject who was taken into custody effectively within 3 minutes of speaking with the subject.
Sergeant Camp copied this video for training purposes only and showed the footage to his wife (Aysha Jusino Camp). In March of 2024: Ms. Camp released the footage to the Jerusalem Press (now known as Southwest News Today) who posted the video, the video was submitted by Ms. Camp who was proud of the Officers and her husband for being a positive attribute to the Department. Since then, the El Paso Police Department began to target Camp, criminally, for thinking he released the video without the consent of the Department.
Internal Affairs then requested for Sgt. Chris Camp to sign a Cease-and-Desist order to not speak to any form of media in any format otherwise face harsh discipline or termination.
March 13, 2024: Camp’s work computer was taken away from his desk by SIU (Special Investigations Unit) immediately went after him at the directive of Chief Peter Pacillas indicating it was City property and if he needed to do his work to ask someone else to borrow theirs.
An officer without a computer cannot function effectively.
March 14, 2024: Camp’s presence was requested at Headquarters for a statement. Camp attended this meeting with an attorney. The meeting ended abruptly as Camp would not answer their allegations.
March 15, 2024: Detectives took Camp’s personal iPhone out of his hands by SIU detectives who stated: “We think we have enough PC (probable cause) for a judge to sign a warrant” and proceeded to take his iPhone without any form of documentation, legal search warrant, anything.
It should be noted that El Paso Police Detectives phoned Camp, on another phone, and told him they had a warrant and he needed to provide the phone’s PIN number. The warrant wasn’t issued until days after that phone call.
May 5, 2024: Camp was then removed from the Northeast Regional Command Center and forced to work at the Mission Valley Regional Command Center due to a Lieutenant that he originally complained against filed a complaint against Camp for a “Hostile Work Environment” Camp was immediately removed. Sgt. Camp complained against this Lieutenant of May 2023 and he was not removed from his region but Camp was removed, without any recourse.
May 17, 2024: For six days Camp worked in the capacity as a Sergeant in Mission Valley Regional Command when May 17th SIU, West Side Patrol Officers pulled Sgt. Camp over for an illegal traffic stop where he was served a very broad house search warrant from a Jail Magistrate to search for the BWC (body warn camera) video footage of the suicidal subject on a thumb drive. At this point Camp was being persecuted for a Class A Misdemeanor (Occupational Code) for sharing material without authorization / consent.
SIU, CSU, Detectives, and Patrol Officers searched the Camp’s residence, desecrated Ms. Camp’s father’s ashes, and took personal belongings — laptop, External Hard Drives, Thumb drives, iPhone, Cell Phones, iPads, anything containing any form of internal storage.
They took an external hard drive that had no relevance to the case whatsoever. The hard drive contained Camp’s family’s photographs, his mother and father’s photographs, and personal, sentimental images. *Please note there are no other copies of any of these photographs, the Hard Drive consists of the only photographs of my family.* Camp spoke to Sgt Mike Chavez about his concerns with the sentimental aspect of this Hard Drive and he said: “I will treat this as if it was my own”.
The Jerusalem Press has received comments from officers indicating that the drive may have been damaged by EPPD personal.
The Detectives, the SIU, and CSU helped themselves to the Camp’s air conditioning, bottled water, and Gatorade/Powerade, they made themselves at home!
May 18th 2024: Sgt. Camp was ordered by Internal Affairs to surrender his Police Radio, Police Credentials, and Police Badge, and was placed on Administrative Duty with pay. Please understand this is all over a video his wife released of him saving a life.
Since this has been reported, Camp’s wife was interviewed by staff at Jerusalem Press regarding the El Paso Police Department’s behaviors regarding this matter. It is believed they (EPPD) are deliberately going after Chris Camp for personal bias from the Chief of Police, The Assisting Chief (Julie Inciriaga), and The PIO Officer – Sgt Robert C. Gomez.
Camp was to be promoted to lieutenant. The promotion did not occur for what appears to a false witch hunt being conducted against his character.
The full story to include Videos can be found in full at the following internet address:
