Steven Zimmerman, Reporter, New Mexico

“The department will proceed with the appropriate legal actions to hold those involved accountable for their actions. We believe that accountability is a fundamental aspect of maintaining public trust and ensuring the highest level of service to our community.”

The El Paso Police Department (EPPD) often says that they are committed to holding people accountable for their actions. As the quote above says, that is part of maintaining public trust.

Public trust is essential. We must be able to trust those men and women who put on a police uniform. We must trust them as they serve and protect us, the citizens. Sadly, that trust is eroding.

It’s sad, knowing that an officer who allegedly engaged in sexual harassment and was charged with official oppression may be returning to the streets. Who knows what he’ll do when he pulls your mother, sister, or daughter over? We may never know because a police department that says, “[A]ccountability is a fundamental aspect of maintaining public trust and ensuring the highest level of service to our community” refuses to speak to us.

The quote at the head of this article is from a press release issued by EPPD on 30 August 2023. The press release related to the arrest of two officers with the El Paso Police Department. These arrests were just another in a series that occurred in 2023.

Lt. John Surface was a supervisor with the EPPD (El Paso Police Department) who was charged with official oppression. Surface was alleged to have made sexual advances and requested sexual favors from two women within the department for years.

Surface was booked and released on a combined $30,000 bond.

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Over the last several days, several officers have contacted the Jerusalem Press to inform us that EPPD and the District Attorney of El Paso County, Texas, have abandoned the case against Surface.

We are hearing this from other police officers, not the Public Information Officer or even from a department press release.

The above screenshot is from the cases against John Surface.

Since first receiving news that the case would be abandoned and listed as inactive, we attempted to contact the Public Information Officer of EPPD. The detective we spoke to identified herself as the PIO and directed us to email our questions to her rather than discuss them on the phone.

Like all departments in major cities, the El Paso Police Department has a dedicated team of Public Information Officers whose sole purpose is to be a liaison between the media and the police department. I am used to having to email my questions after a phone call. That’s almost standard procedure.

When I called about Lt. John Surface, asking if the charges had, in fact, been dropped and if they could confirm that Surface would be returning to work at the El Paso Police Department, I was told to email [email protected]—not the direct email of [email protected].

We also asked if the case would be dropped because Surface claims, in an affidavit, that he was in a relationship with one or both women involved.

No answer was forthcoming.

What is interesting to note is the disregard for the law in this matter. We will first look at this from the perspective of Surface not having any alleged relationship with one or both women who reported him for sexual harassment and official oppression.

The Texas Official Oppression law makes it a crime for a public servant to use their office to unlawfully deny someone their rights, unlawfully mistreat someone, or subject them to arrest, detention, search, seizure, dispossession, assessment, or lien, and to harass people sexually.

The Texas legislature codified this criminal offense in Texas Penal Code Section 39.03. Laughably, the punishment for this is a Class A misdemeanor.

Then there is the crime of sexual harassment. Yes, sexual harassment can be a crime in Texas.

The Texas Penal Code does not explicitly address sexual harassment. However, sexual harassment may be charged as one or several offenses, depending on the circumstances.

Here are some of the most common charges brought in sexual harassment cases:

Criminal harassment (Texas Penal Code Section 42.07)- If you repeatedly call or text someone and make explicit sexual advances with the intent to “harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass” them, you may be charged with criminal harassment. This class B misdemeanor is punishable by up to six months of incarceration and a fine of up to $2,000.

Assault (Texas Penal Code section 22.001)- If you make physical contact with another person with the intent to offend, you may be charged with assault. For example, if you rub a coworkers’ shoulders or touch their backside, you could be charged with assault. This class C misdemeanor is punishable by a fine of up to $500. However, if you cause someone “pain” when you make contact, it is a class A misdemeanor carrying up to one year in county jail and up to $4,000 in fines.

Sexual assault (Texas Penal Code section 22.011)- Some severe cases of sexual harassment may involve sexual assault charges. For these charges to apply, the prosecutor must have evidence that you penetrated the alleged victim’s mouth, vagina, or anus without their consent. A second-degree felony, sexual assault is punishable by two to 20 years in prison and fines reaching $10,000.

Surface could, and should, be charged with any of the above, including official oppression. Seemingly, he is not going to be charged with anything.

Let’s now look at this from the perspective of Surface having an alleged relationship with one or both women who reported him for sexual harassment and official oppression.

The penial code for official oppression does not mention relationship status at all. We are left to assume that if, and we are going out on a limb here, even if you are in a relationship and are using your job to harass or seek sexual favors sexually, you are committing the act of official oppression.

Legally, workplace sexual harassment is considered a form of sex discrimination, so sexual harassment is illegal across the country. Yes, even if you are in a relationship with the person you are sexually harassing, you violate the law.

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The following are screenshots from Victim 1 and 2 about Lt. John Surface.

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We need to ask ourselves if individuals like Lt. John Surface, who would allegedly provide answers to the EPPD Sergeants Exam for sexual favors, or allegedly tell a female officer who was five months pregnant that if they had sex, she couldn’t get pregnant, on the police force.

What other acts have this officer committed? What acts have other officers committed that we don’t know about simply because EPPD has minimal transparency and accountability?

How can we trust an august body, such as the El Paso Police Department, if it refuses to speak to the media about anything unless it chooses to spoon-feed you the story?

Keep in mind that an officer who allegedly engaged in sexual harassment and was charged with official oppression may be returning to the streets. Who knows what he’ll do when he pulls your mother, sister, or daughter over? We may never know because a police department that says, “[A]ccountability is a fundamental aspect of maintaining public trust and ensuring the highest level of service to our community” refuses to speak to us.

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