Firefighter Arrested for Second Time, Keeps His Job
Firefighter Arrested for Unlawfully Carrying Weapon
(TX) – Jesus Cuevas, with the San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD), has been arrested for unlawfully carrying a weapon for the second time. The two arrests are less than two years apart. The first arrest occurred in September of 2018 with the San Antonio Police Department being the arresting agency. Cuevas was driving a vehicle “without a tire on his vehicle’s left rear rim.” Officers stopped him and discovered he was intoxicated. “Cuevas, whose blood alcohol content was over .15, told officers he did not have weapons in the vehicle.” Officers discovered that was not true when they searched his vehicle. A handgun, along with two magazines, was found.
Here’s the fun part. Cuevas wasn’t charged for unlawfully carrying a weapon. How many of us regular people could get away with that? And it looks like he got a deal to drop his driving while intoxicated charge down to a public intoxication, because his driving while intoxicated charge is no longer showing up. My understanding is that DWI charges cannot be expunged but public intoxications charges can be. What a sweet deal. Become a firefighter and the powers that be will make your misconduct disappear.
Second Arrest for Unlawfully Carrying a Weapon
The second arrest of Jesus Cuevas occurred this past summer. He was in San Marcos and was arrested by offices with the San Marcos Police Department. Cuevas was pulled over for speeding on the interstate and passing vehicles on the inner shoulder. He, again, was unlawfully carrying a weapon. San Marcos is in Hays County so, at least so far, Cuevas was not able to make this go away. He was arrested for unlawfully carrying a weapon and reckless driving.
SAFD Gives Firefighter Slap on the Wrist
Cuevas got a 75-day suspension for his 2018 arrest, but he also had all his charges disappear in a puff of smoke so I would say he got an unbelievably good deal. He is getting a 90-day suspension for his second arrest. Fortunately, the arrest happened in another county so he still has charges pending. That the San Antonio Fire Department didn’t fire Cuevas is a disgrace. Their defense was,
“While it was considered in the recent discipline process, the offense you inquired about was not part of the previous settlement agreement. As a result of the recent settlement agreement, Mr. Cuevas was suspended for 90 days.”
So, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office doesn’t file charges for the unlawfully carrying a weapon offense, only the driving while intoxicated offense. The SAFD writes up an agreement that says he can’t be arrested for DWI again. The second arrest is for unlawfully carrying a weapon and reckless driving, and the SAFD, who generated the very narrow agreement, says, ‘Oh, two different things.’ What bullshit.
Circle of Protection
There is a circle of protection between the D.A.’s Office, law enforcement, and firefighters, that works to squash actions that could hurt employees of these departments when they can get away with it. Had the D.A.’s Office filed the proper charges the unlawfully carrying would probably have been part of the agreement and Cuevas would have been in violation of it, resulting in his termination. And we all know how much law enforcement officers get away with.
The San Antonio Fire Department
The fire department. Now here’s my pet peeve. The fire department gets away with a ridiculous amount of abuses and that’s on us. We treat them like they’re heroes, because the only time we see them is when they are fighting a fire. The rest of the time they’re invisible to us. That’s a huge mistake. Their job doesn’t involve them confronting individuals the way law enforcement officers do. It’s hard to hide when things go bad in a confrontation. The SAFD can easily hide their misconduct and have been so for a long time.
Fortunately, KSAT 12 has yanked the curtain aside with their open records requests. That’s how we know about Cuevas keeping his taxpayer funded job even after being arrested twice, and in both cases, showing an extreme disregard for the safety of others. SAFD could have easily writting up a settlement agreement that said Cuevas could not get arrested again at all. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Instead, they chose to go as narrow as possible and surprise, it allowed him to wiggle out of consequences he should have received.
We’ve had the Chief of the fire department eating sushi off of a naked woman. How do you not know that would be viewed negatively? We’ve seen complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination. No surprise there when you have a chief who doesn’t find a woman being objectified as a problem. And now we have a firefighter arrested twice with minimal consequences. What does he need to do before they take his problems seriously, kill someone? There’s a stench coming from the San Antonio Fire Department. City Counsel needs to act.