Two more former Coffee City officers indicted

KHOU 11
Author: Jeremy Rogalski
Published: 10:17 PM CST January 4, 2024
Updated: 3:57 PM CST January 5, 2024

HOUSTON — A grand jury has indicted two more former officers of the disbanded Coffee City Police Department for alleged misconduct that occurred before they were hired at Coffee City.

The agency investigating the case, the Harris County Precinct 3 Constable Office, said it highlights the problem of “wandering officers”—cops who get fired from one agency, get hired by another, only to get fired there and get hired somewhere else.

Court documents show the felony charges of fraudulent use of identifying information stem from a 2021 traffic stop in northeast Harris County after a citizen complained that Precinct 3 Deputy Constable Kassondra Garica coerced the motorist into searching his car for drugs.

“The complaint was made to our Internal Affairs division,” Harris County Precinct 3 Chief Deputy Kirk Bonsal said. “It led to an investigation of the deputy and her conduct.”

Bonsal said that the investigation revealed Garica used her Harris County secured email account on several occasions to send sensitive law enforcement information to someone who had no right or access to it. The information included various offense reports related to human trafficking and narcotics investigations, according to Bonsal, and a search warrant affidavit filed by an investigator with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

“We have no idea why or for what law enforcement purpose this was sent outside of our agency and they weren’t even Harris County Precinct 3 cases,” Bosnal said.

According to Bonsal, the person who received the sensitive law enforcement information was John Joslin. At the time of the allegations, records with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement show Joslin had bounced around between 22 different police agencies in his nearly 30-year law enforcement career. In 2021, the Liberty County city of Plum Grove hired him to reinstate its inactive police department, but court documents show he did not have an active peace officer license at the time he got the emails from Garcia.

The Harris County Precinct 3 Constable Office fired Deputy Garcia on Oct. 22, 2021, and gave her a dishonorable discharge. The very same day of her termination, John Joslin hired her as an officer for Plum Grove.

But their service in the small town didn’t last long. In March 2022, Garica resigned when the City of Plum Grove fired Joslin, for reasons including hiring without authority, failing to follow simple directives, and allowing Garcia to not return a city-owned patrol car.

The next month, both embattled cops got picked up as reserves for the Coffee City Police Department. The small town routinely hired officers with troubling working histories, and after KHOU 11 Investigates exposed the practice, Coffee City fired the police chief and shut down the entire department.

Bonsal said hiring so-called wandering officers is a disservice to the community and the citizens an agency serves.

“It’s very frustrating,” Bonsal said. “When you got guys that are repeatedly fired from different agencies and they’re still out there walking around wearing a badge, it’s almost, almost a disgrace in some cases.”

In another twist, the Plum Grove City Council voted to rehire Joslin last month after he threatened to sue the city for wrongful termination. But with the indictment he’s now facing, the city council will discuss his employment at a meeting Monday evening.

KHOU 11 Investigates reached out to Kassondra Garica for comment about the charges and has yet to hear back. John Joslin’s attorney, Chris Tritico provided the following statement:

“We do not know why Chief Joslin was pulled into an investigation of another officer. John Joslin had nothing to do with the other investigation and this charge is collateral to that investigation. As of today, we have nothing except the complaint by which to go on. John Joslin has no recollection of receiving the offense reports and reason to have them. The reports in question were located during a search of another officer’s computer. There is simply no evidence that John Joslin did anything wrong.”