Ex-Police Chief Involved in Crazy Conspiracy, Arrested
Former Houston Police Captain Arrested for Aggravated Assault
(TX) – We’ve been seeing a lot of how crazy things can get when people can’t accept reality, but this latest story is so bizarre that I have to wonder about the man’s mental health. Former Houston Police Department police captain, Mark Anthony Aguirre, was arrested for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Mr. Aguirre got involved with a group, Liberty Center, who also believes that some great conspiracy is happening. The group hired a private group, which included Mr. Aguirre, to investigate voter fraud.
Neither the affidavit, nor the news stories, say why Mr. Aguirre focused on Mr. Lopez-Zuniga, but he did. Mr. Lopez-Zuniga is an air conditioning repairman. He has, what is being referred to as, a box van in which he keeps his equipment, and uses to make his calls. After four days of surveillance, Aguirre pulled in behind Mr. Lopez-Zuniga and crashed into the back of the van with his vehicle. When Mr. Lopez-Zuniga got out to make sure Aguirre was okay, Aguirre pulled a gun on him and ordered him to lay on the ground. Two other vehicles pulled up and Aguirre told one of the others to search the van. They did and said it was clear, then they drove it away.
Houston Police Try to Figure Out What is Happening
When the real police arrived they found Mr. Lopez-Zuniga on the ground. Mr. Aguirre had a knee on his back and his gun to Mr. Lopez-Zuniga’s head. Officers told Aguirre to let him up, then they confiscated all weapons from Aguirre, ignoring Aguirre’s comments of (you) “can be a hero or part of the problem,” and “I just hope you are a patriot.”
According to the NPR article
Aguirre and two other unidentified companions with the Liberty Center watched the victim for four days prior to the Oct. 19 attack, according to police records. They were convinced that there were 750,000 fraudulent ballots in the man’s vehicle and home.
Aguirre said the victim was using Hispanic children to sign the ballots because children’s fingerprints wouldn’t appear on any database, according to the affidavit. He also claimed Facebook’s founder gave $9.37 billion for “ballot harvesting.”
When the police found Mr. Lopez-Zuniga’s van a few blocks away, not only did Mr. Lopez-Zuniga let them search it, but he also took them to his house and allowed them to search the house and the shed on the propery, to prove he was not involved in anything illegal.
Why Just One Charge?
Here’s what I’m wondering about. Aguirre was charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Why was that his only charge? Doesn’t this sound like a carjacking? I know Texas doesn’t have vehicle specific laws, but what would be a carjacking with the use of a weapon someplace else would be an aggravated (armed) robbery here. Why wasn’t he charged with aggravated robbery? At the very least you would think there would be a theft charge. They took the man’s van without his permission, yet that’s being ignored? Most people get all kinds of charges piled on, but this ex-police chief, who got paid well over a quarter of a million dollars to do this “investigation” got one charge with a $30,000 bail bond, which he immediately posted. This sure feels like preferential treatment to me.
Adding Insult to Injury
I understand that a defense attorney’s job is to defend his client and not worry about others, but I find it very offensive that the Aguirre’s defense attorney is trying to blame this incident on Mr. Lopez-Zuniga. According to CNN,
Aguirre attorney Terry Yates told CNN affiliate KTRK that he believed the arrest is “political persecution.”
“He was working and investigating voter fraud, there was an accident,” Yates said. “A member of the car got out and rushed toward him and that’s where the confrontation took place. It’s very different than what you’re citing in the affidavit.”
So not only blame the victim, but he’s staying with the political conspiracy theories. We’re living in crazy town. I sincerely hope that Mr. Lopez-Zuniga sues these domestic terrorists for a bundle.
Note: “Aguirre worked for HPD for 24 years and was indefinitely suspended after a botched raid outside a westside K-Mart in 2002.” Understand that indefinitely suspended means fired.