Published: February 19, 2008 01:18 am         

SHATTERED JUSTICE?

GREENVILLE — A Hunt County Sheriff’s Office patrol vehicle now sits abandoned and badly damaged in the Lone Oak Wrecker Service lot, surrounded by other cars that have met similar fates. The fate of the woman, accused of driving the car into a tree that Dec. 4 night, however, hangs in the balance.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials say Tiffany Bates, 27, of West Tawakoni, under the influence of alcohol, drove the patrol vehicle into a tree about half-a-mile from her home.

Bates vehemently insists she is a scapegoat in the whole incident. She said she is being blamed because members of Hunt County law enforcement are scrambling to try to protect one of their own — a charge officers say is completely false.

DPS Trooper John Rios, who investigated the case, and DPS spokesman Cpl. Robert White directed all questions about the case to the Hunt County Attorney’s Office.

Bates also alleges DPS officials refused to consider that the deputy could have been driving the vehicle when the accident occurred, even though she says there is no evidence placing her at the scene that night.

“I love how (they’re) supposing all of these events to the story,” Bates said. “It’s very convenient. What’ve happened if he had had the accident two miles from my house? Who would you have pinned it on then? Whoever lived closest?”

Bates turned herself in at the Hunt County Jail early Feb. 7 after a Driving While Intoxicated warrant for her arrest was issued Jan. 17.

Bates, however, insists while the Dec. 4 accident involved her then-boyfriend, former Hunt County Patrol Sgt. Allen Wade Hammond, and took place less than a half-mile from her home, she was nowhere near the scene of the accident and did not leave her house that night until police brought her in for questioning.

She said Hammond, who was off-duty at the time of the accident, drove the patrol car into the tree and sustained injuries during the process.

Hammond said he suffered a head injury in the accident that night and does not remember who was driving.

“I don’t remember,” he said. “For the first three weeks I don’t remember anything. I pretty much woke up in my bed, which was pretty much covered in blood. I had a grapefruit on the side of my head. But the doctor told me it’s possible I’ll start recalling things. And I’m getting bits and pieces back.”

Less than a week after the incident, Hammond’s five-year employment with the Sheriff’s Office was terminated. Sheriff’s Office officials have not given a reason for his termination, but Hammond said it was because he violated department policy.

Law enforcement officials and Bates have quite different stories about who was driving and what led to the accident. It is also unclear why an off-duty sheriff’s deputy had used his county-issued patrol vehicle to drive to his girlfriend’s home at all on the night of the accident.

The alcohol factor

Bates does not dispute she was intoxicated that night, but claims Hammond was probably even more intoxicated.

Bates estimates she probably had four or five beers, had three or four shots of Crown Royal whiskey and then took several Tylenol PM during a five hour period. Hammond, Bates said, probably had six or seven beers and drank about 3/4 of a bottle of Crown Royal.

Hammond admits he was drinking that night, but said he probably had four or five beers and does not believe they were drinking whiskey. He also said he was taking prescription medication at the time.

“I’m not a whiskey drinker,” he said.

Right before the accident took place, Bates said, the two got into a loud argument.

“The last thing I remember is we were watching a movie and fixin’ to go to sleep,” Hammond said. “I think we had gotten into an argument. I can’t be specific on it, but you know that is what seemed to me (is what) happened.”

Hammond, Bates said, stormed out of the house, got into his patrol vehicle and sped off leaving her behind.

“I was intoxicated, but not intoxicated to the point where I would go, ‘Hmmm you know what, I’m going to get behind (the wheel of) a patrol car and leave with my boyfriend who I just got into a huge argument with and leave my infant child at home alone’,” she said, noting her father, who lives with her, is disabled and unable to care for her son.

Hammond said the two would occasionally drink together, but when he was intoxicated he would spend the night.

“That’s what confuses me about the whole thing,” he said. “I’m not a stupid person. I don’t do stupid things. I don’t know what happened that night. Something just went wrong, something went bad. I never would have gotten so angry that I would have left her house — especially in my patrol car,” he said.

Ken Wood, Bates’ father, confirmed her story, but said he has not been questioned by area law enforcement about the incident.

The loud argument apparently woke up the 73-year-old.

“I was awake, and I heard the door slam, and I got up and came out here (to the living room) to see what was going on and (Tiffany) was out here locking the front door,” Wood said. “She was here, when the front door slams and I came out to find out what was going on. He was taking off out of the driveway and rocks was flying all over the place and I could see his taillights going up the drive.”

Bates then apparently told her father that she and Hammond had had an argument and he took off drunk — apparently minutes before the accident.

Bates said she then locked the door, set the alarm and went to bed. Her father confirms this.

Around 2 a.m., Wood said, DPS Trooper John Rios, who investigated the accident, and another officer knocked on the front door.



The Accident

Lone Oak resident Kenneth Gragsone called 911 the night Hammond’s 2002, county-issued patrol vehicle crashed. Hunt County 911 dispatchers report the call came in around 10:43 p.m., said Hunt County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Robert White.

Gragsone said he thinks he came upon the accident right after it happened.

“I think it had just happened,” Gragsone said. “There were not other cars. Nothing around.”

“What’s wrong with this picture?” Gragsone remembers asking himself before backing up to see if anyone was in the vehicle and if anyone was injured.

What he said he found was Hammond in the car — sitting behind the wheel, apparently injured. Gragsone then called 911 for help.

“... He appears to be drinking,” Gragsone told the 911 operator. “He says his girlfriend was driving, but he’s the one under the steering wheel...”

Hunt County Attorney Joel Littlefield noted photographic evidence presented to him indicates there was a 30-pack of beer in the car and “there would appear to be prescription medication and personal items in the passenger seat.”

Gragsone noted, when reached for comment Saturday, that even though Hammond was talking about his girlfriend at the scene, he did not see her. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a woman at the scene, he cautioned.

“I seen no woman,” he said. “He was sitting under the steering wheel. He couldn’t or wouldn’t give me his name.”

Gragsone said as soon as officers responded, he handed his cell phone to one of them so they could speak to the 911 operator and then he left the scene of the accident.

Hammond concedes he probably was talking about Bates at the time of the accident.

“It’s very possible,” he said. “I mean I would say it is very possible because I had a head injury. I wanted her there. If I was calling her name that was the reason. I had pretty good feelings for her. I’m sure I wanted her there.”

Reports indicate the West Tawakoni Police Department was the first on scene, but at least three Hunt County Sheriff’s deputies also arrived.

According to a crash report filed by Rios, who arrived on scene about a half-hour after the crash, the patrol vehicle was going north on Sabine Drive and failed to stop at the T-intersection at Sabine and North Shore and “struck a tree with its front side.”

Bates’ West Tawakoni home is a little less than half-a-mile from the scene of the accident.

The report notes Bates was the driver and Hammond, the passenger.

“The driver of (the unit) fled the scene of the accident ... ,” the report reads. “The passenger in the vehicle assumed the position of driver in the vehicle and when police officers arrived on the scene was outside the vehicle. The passenger in the vehicle stated he was the driver to other officers, but kept contradicting himself when he spoke of the crash.”

West Tawakoni resident Michael Stafford, who lives across the street from the accident scene, said the sound of his dogs barking like crazy woke him the night of the accident.

He walked out of his home to see what was going on.

“Red lights were blinking everywhere,” he recalled, noting there were probably eight squad cars on scene.

At the time he just assumed it was a simple accident and law enforcement was taking care of it “other than it was a strange place for the car to sit,” he said. Later he questioned a group of deputies about the incident at a Quinlan restaurant and they told him they don’t discuss it.

Stafford, who said no one had asked what he saw that night, said he didn’t see anyone on scene who wasn’t with law enforcement nor did he notice anyone walking down the street away from the scene of the accident.

“It’s a pretty good hop down there (to the home where Bates lives),” he said. “If I was drunk, I don’t know if I could do it.”

When two completely sober Herald-Banner reporters walked the stretch of roadway from the scene of the accident to Bates’ home it took about 10 minutes and they encountered several loose dogs.

Stafford also noted he did not see an ambulance arrive on scene.



Emergency crews denied access at scene

According to the police report, Hammond declined treatment at the scene.

Hammond, who maintains he does not remember much that night, but who suffered a serious head injury, is not sure why he did not get taken to the hospital that night, but said if the peace officers said he denied treatment on scene, then he did.

“I’m sure everyone out there was looking out for my injuries, and I’m sure I denied any kind of medical treatment,” he said. “I’m sure they asked me if I wanted it, and I’m sure I denied it.”

West Tawakoni Volunteer Fire Department Chief Randy Dumire said his firefighters, who are first responders and work with victims of accidents until an ambulance arrives, were not allowed access to the scene.

“We were told to get out of there. Leave,” he said. “We were not needed. So they left.”

He said it’s the first time in his 10 years as fire chief that his department has been turned away from an accident scene.

West Tawakoni Volunteer Firefighter Jeff Felts said he was the first firefighter on the scene that night — he lives about half-a-mile from the accident scene.

“We were all concerned,” he said. “We know all the (law enforcement) guys down here.”

Felts said several deputies came up to him before his vehicle even came to a complete stop and told him to leave.

“There (is) nobody hurt. You can go ahead and go,” Felts said they told him. “When we arrived on scene, they told us to disregard. I never got out of my vehicle. I was never completely stopped. They were all looking at me like I was nuts for showing up.”

Felts said he did not argue with the officers and just left as instructed and relayed the message onto the other emergency crews that were on the way to the scene. He said he does not think the officers were trying to be secretive, but described the situation as “weird.”

“They wanted us out of there,” he said, noting the firefighters normally “chew the fat” with the officers following an accident.

The strange part, he said, was he never heard anyone announce to disregard over the radio.

Felts said he knows what Bates looks like because he has treated her father for his medical problems in the past, and did not see her the night of the accident — either at the scene or leaving the scene. He also did not see Hammond, whom he also knows.

“All I saw was badges and guns,” he said.

The accident itself did not appear too bad, Felts noted.

“It looked like it just kind of ran into a tree,” he said.



Hammond injured, Bates not injured at all

The Texas Association of Counties, which insures the vehicle, in a letter sent to Bates, wrote the vehicle sustained $10,350.92 worth of damage.

The windshield itself is cracked in a number of places. It’s bowed out in one place — pretty much in the center of the windshield — where Hammond’s head apparently hit. Chunks of what appear to be his hair that apparently ripped out when he hit his head are still trapped in the windshield.

“I had a pretty good head injury,” Hammond said. “I was in the hospital the next day. The doctor said it was a closed head injury.”

He noted that he also had a two or two and 1/2 inch long laceration on the side of his face.

“The side of my face, right here, was very swollen. I did some damage to the cartilage (on the right side of my face), but no bones broken,” he said. “I had a bald spot for a while.”

He said the accident caused him to lose most of his memory of what occurred over the three weeks following the accident.

Bates also went to the doctor Dec. 5. She said she saw Greenville Physician’s Assistant Laura Guthrie at Guthrie Medical Clinic to document she did not have any injuries.

“Patient’s boyfriend was in car accident last night (plus) hit a tree,” Guthrie noted in her report. “(Patient) is here today to be examined to see if there are any signs of an accident. (Patient) claims that she was not in anyway involved (in) accident. Boyfriend is a Hunt Co. Sergeant. (Patient) claims boyfriend left mad and drinking and hit a tree and she is being blamed for accident.”

Guthrie confirmed she examined Bates that day, and said Bates is not a personal friend and has been a patient since September 2007.

She noted she did not examine Bates below the waist.

“I didn’t see (any injuries),” she said of the examination.

The medical report goes on to state Bates was not taking any medications. Nor did she sustain any scalp injuries, no injuries in the front of her head, and no neck discomfort. Her head was also normal in shape.

Guthrie also noted Bates did not have any lacerations or swelling and summed up the report by writing, “(No) bruising, edema, or redness of any kind. (A) normal physical exam.”

Both Rios, in his report, and Gragsone, who called 911, noted an airbag had deployed on the driver’s side of the vehicle. The passenger’s side airbag did not deploy.

Bates theorizes with an accident of that magnitude and one that injured Hammond so badly, she should have probably had some sign of injury if she had actually been in the car with him.

According to a report on the Automotive Occupant Restraints Council Web site, which studies technology that saves lives and reduces injuries in vehicles, airbags, while being beneficial, can cause injuries.

“As with any technology, the possibility of unintended adverse effects exists,” the Web site reads. “Airbags can inflate at speeds up to 200 mph. Some airbag deployments may result in abrasions — similar to rug burns — usually on the face, hands or arms. These injuries are caused by the sudden contact with the airbag as it inflates.”

Rio’s report indicates physical evidence places Bates in the driver’s seat that night, but his report does not indicate what that evidence is.

“Physical evidence at the scene places the passenger in the passenger seat,” Rios writes. “After much deliberation with the passenger, he provided a verbal and written statement stating he was not the driver. The passenger stated the driver of the vehicle was Tiffany Bates.”

Hunt County Attorney Littlefield said he could not legally release the police report because it is pending litigation, but confirmed Hammond did sign a statement that night stating Bates was the driver.

“Based on the information I received, Hammond did state Ms. Bates was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident,” he said.

Hammond said officers told him he could not have been driving that night.

“I remember the trooper telling me something to the effect of with the way I impacted the windshield there was no way I could have been driving,” he said.

Hunt County Chief Deputy Robert White, who is not related to DPS Cpl. White, also confirmed there was physical evidence at the scene, though he did not elaborate.

“Physical evidence in the vehicle indicated (Hammond) was not driving the vehicle that we have been made aware of by DPS,” White said. “I did not see what he was talking about, but was told.”

Bates believes law enforcement officials aren’t interested in considering the fact Hammond was driving that night.

“And because of the location of where he struck the windshield, which was just slightly of right of center of the windshield, they are saying that: ‘He couldn’t have been driving. He’s a Hunt County police officer. Why the hell would he get behind the wheel of his car drunk? He has better judgment than that. So it must be somebody else’,” Bates said.



Hammond’s part

When Hammond arrived at the Sheriff’s Office, he apparently met with Chief Deputy Robert White about the incident. According to the report, White had been contacted by the patrol sergeant on duty that night about the incident.

White said the patrol sergeant on duty that night called him at home to tell him about the incident and to ask for his assistance.

“I don’t feel comfortable handling this because Wade and I are of equal rank,” White said the patrol deputy told him.

“That’s the reason I came in,” White said, noting he was there strictly in a supervisory role. “I don’t think I interfered in (the investigation) in any way.”

As to why the Sheriff’s Office supervisor was called in that night, White and Hunt County Patrol Lt. Mike Parker said that’s normal procedure.

“It’s our employee,” Parker said. “We have a right as an employer to know the circumstances of any criminal activity with any of our employees.”

Parker said he wasn’t there that night, but stressed the investigation was handled by DPS and that such situations with patrol deputies do not happen frequently. He said supervisors only come to support a deputy, like in the case of shooting, or to look at a deputy’s conduct. It’s the first time in Parker’s 15 years with the Sheriff’s Office an incident like this has happened, he said.

“But because it was one of our employees we were there to handle the — I guess — the internal aspect of it or to determine whether or not criminal charges were pending or he had violated any state laws or anything like that, which helps us,” he said.

White admits that initially Hammond said he had driven the car into the tree.

“The first time he said he did it. Then later he said, well, I just want to take the blame for it because I don’t want to her to get in trouble, and admitted to me that she was driving the vehicle. Yes, he did claim he was driving the vehicle, but later admitted that he wasn’t,” White said.

White said Hammond admitted to driving the vehicle because he wanted to protect Bates. As to why DPS investigators would accept his statement, White speculated it has to do with the evidence.

“I guess maybe that’s because we knew he wasn’t driving,” White said. “Trooper Rios had evidence from the car indicating where he was in the vehicle at the time of accident.”

Hammond also said he probably admitted to driving that night, though he can’t remember clearly.

“It’s very possible I did say that. But like I said, when I was at the Sheriff’s Office everything was so vague. It’s like a dream you can’t remember the next morning, but you knew something happened.”

Hammond signed a statement that night stating Bates was the driver of the car though he said he’s not sure why he did that.

“I don’t know for sure because I don’t remember but the only thing I can gather is they told me she did it and I had just found out she gave a videoed confession, I think it was,” he said. “The only thing I can think of is I didn’t want to see her go to jail.”

Bates claims Hammond told her he has since tried to take back that statement, but has had no success.

“He’s already told me otherwise so...,” White said. “I think I told him last time that I talked to him that it doesn’t really make any difference what he tells me or what I believe to be fact — it’s got to be what DPS has come up with on their investigation.”

Parker stressed the investigation is DPS’s and the Sheriff’s Office cannot discuss specifics of the case.

White also stressed it was a DPS case — not a Hunt County Sheriff’s case.

“Again when we have a situation like this we try to let an outside agency do their investigation and we stay out of it simply because we don’t want it to look like we’re trying to shift the blame one way or another or cover anything up or whatever,” he said. “We allow the other agency to make that investigation.”

Hammond said he does not believe he interacted much with Bates immediately following the accident.

“I wasn’t really with Tiffany a lot, basically just in passing,” he said. “I don’t think they wanted us to be together.”

He said he does not remember Chief Deputy White interacting with Bates and said he does not remember if either of them were in with Bates and Rios while she was being interviewed that night.

“I can’t deny it, but I just honestly don’t remember,” he said. “I remember seeing her in the hallway a couple of times and then down in the breathalyzer room, but I don’t remember hearing (White) or seeing him actually interviewing her.”

But, the report filed by Rios that night indicates both White and Hammond played much more active roles.

“Based on the information I have received, Chief Deputy White played a part in the investigation,” Littlefield said. “I can’t dispute that (Hammond) was (involved).”



Back in West Tawakoni

Knocking at around 2 a.m. woke Ken Wood. When he answered, he said two troopers asked to speak to Bates.

Wood allegedly gave the troopers permission to enter the home.

“According to the information I received, (Wood) did give them permission to enter the house,” Littlefield said. “Based on the information I received, officers located her in the bedroom of her house and asked her to voluntarily come in for questioning.”

Bates confirmed the officers asked her to voluntarily come to the Sheriff’s Office for questioning. She said she agreed, but on two conditions.

First, she needed to take her 17-month-old son with her because she feared her father, who is a disabled Vietnam veteran and has trouble getting around, would be unable to care for him. Then she asked that one of the law enforcement officers drive her to the Hunt County Jail because she was in no shape to drive.

The officers apparently agreed, and Bates and her son were driven to the jail in Bates’ own car.

Littlefield said to his knowledge, this is correct.

Once there, Littlefield said investigators put her and Hammond together in a conference room for an extended period of time where the two apparently proceeded to yell, curse and scream at each other.

“Based on the information I have received that is an accurate description of what occurred,” he said. “Based on the information I received, they were in there for some time.”

However, Littlefield said he has yet to receive a video from the incident.

“Custodial interrogations should be videotaped,” he said. “At this time I have not received a video as to the event.”

Bates said she was questioned for almost two and 1/2 hours.

Most of this took place, she said, while her son, Christopher, sat on her lap. She said Hammond was allowed to stand in the interview room behind her and listen with Chief Deputy White. She said she heard Hammond professing his guilt several times.

“I was holding (my son) in my lap,” Bates said. “Wade was sitting right there telling him I was not driving and he would sign a written statement. His mom and dad were right there. And nothing happened to him.”

Christopher, she said, had nightmares about the experience for weeks and more than two months later Bates can’t talk about it without crying.

“Confess,” she said they told her. “We won’t press charges if you confess to driving the patrol vehicle,” she said officers told her. She refused, saying she wasn’t going to admit to something she didn’t do.

“They’re telling (Wade), ‘No she was driving, Wade. You couldn’t have been driving. Someone else had to be driving and it was her’,” she recalls.

“(Hammond) couldn’t be (saying this to protect me) because I never left the house,” she said. “I have never driven that squad car. I have never driven any squad car. I would not. I know better than that. That is one, illegal because I’m not a police officer. I have no desire to. I don’t think it’s cool. No. I would not get behind that wheel of that car period. And I certainly would not have done it drunk and I certainly would not have done it after we got into that massive nasty argument, where he proved to me that he obviously has absolutely no trust.”

Hammond said while he gave Bates a ride in his patrol vehicle on one occasion, she has never driven his car.

“Nobody has ever driven my patrol vehicle,” he said. He assumes if Bates was driving his vehicle the night of the accident, she got the keys off of her dresser.

But what scared her the most, Bates said, was when those questioning her started to threaten to take away her child in order to get her to confess.

At one point officers apparently did take away her son and did temporarily put him into the custody of Hammond’s mother, who was also at the Sheriff’s Office at the time of interrogation.

“I can’t dispute that that did not happen,” Littlefield said.

“They had taken my son from me,” Bates said. “They were going to charge me right then and there with driving while intoxicated, unauthorized use of an emergency vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident. All of which were going to be bogus charges, and I know that they were just trying to intimidate me and threaten me. But when it’s in the middle of the night and they’ve taken your child from you ...”

Littlefield said he could not dispute a discussion about Child Protective Services did happen.

Then, when she requested an attorney and declined a sobriety test, Bates said Rios said he was going to book her into jail.

“They weren’t going to let me call an attorney right then,” she said. “I asked for one and they said ‘Fine, we’ll give you an attorney after you’re booked.’ And that’s when they took my child from me, and that’s when they put me in handcuffs and read me my rights on charges of (DWI) and all that other nonsense.”

Looking back, White said he was surprised they charged Bates with the crime then because he said hours had passed since the accident had taken place and Bates had probably drank more after the accident, which would make pin-pointing how much she had drank at the time of the accident very difficult.

“Personally, I didn’t see how they could have charged her in the first place,” he said. “I felt like it was going to be tough to charge her then.”

And the booking process started, Bates was cuffed, was read her rights and even entered the property room of the jail — then it suddenly stopped.

“Based on the information I received, yes, (they did start to book her),” Littlefield said.

White said he did escort Bates down to the property room that night because she requested he come.

“I went down there mainly to keep the peace so to speak,” he said.

White said while they were near the property room, Bates approached him and asked him what she should do.

“The only thing I can do is tell you to tell the truth,” White said he told her.

That is when Bates said she decided she had had enough. She said she was told if she confessed, she could go home.

“The most important thing for me was getting my kid back and going home,” she said.

So Bates said she admitted to Rios she drove the vehicle into the tree.

“According to the report, Bates did admit she was driving the vehicle,” Littlefield said.

Bates said it was the biggest mistake she made that night. She said she should have let the officers arrest her.

“I would have been able to save myself a whole hell of a lot of trouble,” she said. “But I was scared. I could hear my kid crying and I would do anything to protect him. I did what I thought was best at the time.”

And then, as suddenly as the booking began, it stopped. Bates’ son was returned to her, and then the officers let her go. Bates said she got a ride home because she was still in no condition to drive. She said she left her car at the Sheriff’s Office and got a ride home with Hammond’s mother. Hammond’s father took Hammond home.

“I can confirm she was released that night,” Littlefield said.

But he said he could not speculate on why the booking process was stopped.

“I can’t answer why the officer did that,” he said. “That’s a question the officer would have to answer.”



The Next Day

The next day, Rios called Bates and asked her to sign a statement admitting guilt.

It is not clear why officers did not have her sign a confession the night of the incident.

Now completely lucid and sober and with her son safe, Bates said she refused.

Instead, she contacted an attorney, went to a doctor so a medical professional could document whether she had been injured and had her body photographed in hopes of proving to officials that she could not have been in the accident.

She said her pleas and adamant admissions of innocence have since fallen on deaf ears.

She didn’t hear another word about the incident until early January, when she received a bill for $10,350.92 from the Texas Association of Counties for the damage to the vehicle.

“Based on the police report, on Dec. 4, 2007, you were driving a 2002 Ford, Crown Victoria patrol vehicle owned by Hunt County,” the letter reads. “Testimony obtained by the Sheriff’s department indicates that deputy, Allen Wade Hammond, was a passenger in this vehicle when the accident occurred.”

Bates said she does not plan to pay for something she didn’t do.

Texas Association of Counties spokeswoman Elna Christopher confirmed nobody has yet paid for the damage to the vehicle, and the organization is going after Bates because of the police report.

“There has been no further action after the letter,” she said. “I think most people go to their insurance people and say ‘deal with it.’ If nothing happens, yes, we would take legal action.”

She said it’s rare that the organization has to take legal action, but noted it is an unusual situation in that patrol vehicles are not normally driven by civilians. Most patrol vehicle accidents happen when people hit them.

It will either be sorted out by insurance or at the courthouse, she said.

Bates then received a letter dated Jan. 24, 2008, from the Texas Department of Public Safety, informing her that her license has been suspended because she did not take a sobriety test “following an arrest.”

“There is nothing illegal about me drinking in my own home,” she said.

A letter came saying her driver’s license was being revoked. And then she received notice a warrant had been issued for her arrest.



Looking out for one of their own?

Both Bates and her father believe this is a case of a law enforcement agency trying to ‘Cover (their) a**.’

Both say while most in the law enforcement profession are honorable, they like to protect their own.

“There is kind of this code of brotherhood where they protect each other,” Bates said.

Bates also believes she is being targeted because she is an ex-girlfriend. Bates said she and Hammond ended their relationship right around the time the warrant was issued.

“They’re coming after me because I’m an ex-girlfriend and I live relatively close to the scene of the accident and he was calling my name, he was reportedly calling for me, asking for me,” she said.

Hammond, Chief Deputy White and Parker all deny her claims.

“She can make the allegation,” White said. “I don’t think there is any evidence to support that.”

“It’s totally false,” Parker added. “We look at the incident as the incident — not the personnel but the incident. That’s what’s assessed. It’s not the person, but the incident.”

Hammond said if the Sheriff’s Office had been trying to protect him, he would still have his job.

“If they had tried to protect me, I would have a job right now.”

He stressed how after an internal affairs investigation, his employment was terminated for failing to follow department policy.

“My career at the Sheriff’s Office is over,” Hammond said. “I’ll never work at the Sheriff’s Office again.”

DPS Cpl. White did not directly address any of Bates’ allegations, but said there are steps to airing grievances.

“If there are any allegations, there are proper procedures that need to be followed. A written complaint needs to be filed with the Department of Public Safety,” he said.

Bates said she is in the process of filing complaints against both Chief Deputy White and Rios regarding the incident.

Since the accident, Bates insists that Hammond has called her repeatedly asking her to take responsibility for the accident. According to Bates, Hammond claimed his ex-wife had been in an accident that had caused their premiums to rise and he could not afford another accident. She also said Hammond told her he was certain her insurance company would pick up the tab and he would pay her increase in premium.

Hammond agrees he offered to pay for the increase in her insurance premium, but denies pressuring her to take responsibility.

“Because I had a guilt I guess for one thing of just not knowing,” he said. “And like I said I care a great deal for her and I just knew she was going through a hard time as it is without all this happening. She was my girlfriend. I just wanted to help. But I didn’t try to pressure her into doing that. I just made the offer. That’s all I did.”

Bates said she refused to turn it over to her insurance company.



County Attorney Response

Because Bates for some reason wasn’t arrested when interviewed Dec. 4, Hunt County Attorney Joel Littlefield’s Office had to seek a warrant for her arrest.

According to the complaint seeking a warrant, Bates was unlawfully driving and operating a vehicle in the county or state under the influence of a substance that impaired her mental and physical faculties.

“It was determined by the agency that investigated this case, the Department of Public Safety, that Tiffany Bates was driving the vehicle and that she was intoxicated at the time she was driving the vehicle,” Littlefield said. “Therefore, she has been charged with the offense of Driving While Intoxicated. Should it be discovered through new or additional evidence that another individual was driving the vehicle; appropriate charges will be pursued against the responsible individual.”

Littlefield also advised if any witness gives false information regarding the incident, appropriate charges will be filed against them.

But he said his office is always open to new evidence.

“Anytime our office receives additional information or evidence we will review the case again,” he said. “If the evidence indicates the case should be dismissed, this office will dismiss the case. If the evidence supports the charge, the office will pursue the charges. Ultimately, this office will do the right thing based on the facts and the law. Obviously there are additional facts that this office will review.”



After Effects

After officials obtained the arrest warrant, Bates was arraigned Feb. 7. Bates paid and was released on a $1,000 bond. She said she spent more than five hours in jail that morning.

It will probably be months before her case comes to court. Her attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

In the meantime, she has lost her driver’s license, has been suspended from her job pending the results of the DWI charge, has received a bill for the car damage and faces a misdemeanor DWI.

“This is ridiculous,” she said. “They’re railroading a single mom because they think she’s just going to roll over and let them do this to her. Well, I’ve got news for you. That’s just not going to happen.”

Hammond is not facing any charges. Bates said she wonders why officials are only targeting her and not Hammond, but said she is sure he’s getting off scott-free because of his former association with the Sheriff’s Office.

“His mom and dad were right there (at the Sheriff’s Office that night),” Bates said. “And nothing has happened to him. He lost his job. Fine, well now he’s in nursing school. Going back to school. I’m losing my job. I’m losing my ability to provide for my child. I think there is something else going on. Nobody is helping me. That’s going to cost me a lot of time and a lot of money that I’m not going to be able to make up.”

In the meantime, the case winds its way through the courts and officials continue to sort out the details about who is responsible. And there’s a $10,350.92 bill to replace a lost patrol vehicle that should never have been at Bates’ house in the first place.