According to Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse on Thursday, two additional Coffee City officers are wanted for arrest.
Former Coffee City Police Department Chief John Jay Portillo was arrested Dec. 13 on six counts of tampering with government records. Along with Portillo, former officers Jerrod Michael Sieck and Christopher Andrew Witzel were arrested on tampering charges as well. All three are accused of withholding personal information from Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) forms, including some criminal charges.
According to Hillhouse, two additional officers have been indicted for tampering with government records, and their arrests are forthcoming. The officers were named by Hillhouse as former Coffee City mayor and police chief prior to Portillo, Frank Serrato, and former officer Lonnie Hicks. Hillhouse did not specify the alleged crimes that led to the tampering indictments, but he described the two men as “wanted.”
“All we have, in my opinion, as law enforcement officers is our word,” Hillhouse said. “We’ve got to be honest about everything, and when you’re not it’s not only a black eye on you, it’s a black eye on the career of other professionals in law enforcement. So, we don’t need these type of individuals.”