Taylor County Sheriff responds to accusations from candidate ahead of 2024 elections

Elias Carrasquillo Jr. is running for Taylor County Sheriff on a platform of accusations against incumbent Sheriff Ricky Bishop and his time in office. Abilene Reporter News sat down with Sheriff Bishop to discuss his re-election campaign and his response to Carrasquillo's allegations.

'Nothing but lies and half truths'

On Elias Carrasquillo Jr.'s campaign website, the first listing under the section, Issues & Concerns, is "What is being hidden from you at Taylor County." Here, he has a staggering list of allegations against the current sheriff. When sitting down with Reporter News, Bishop responded that the stark allegations are "nothing but lies and half truths."

First up, Carrasquillo outlined that there were three jail deaths in 2023, and he claims one body was not found for some time and doubts "the family will ever know." To this Bishop replied that he believed this referenced a jail death from the previous sheriff, Les Bruce, in which the body was not found for 6-8 hours.

Currently, however, Bishop notes that every jail death is investigated internally as well as by the Texas Rangers, and these are "reported to the Texas Jail Commission and to the Attorney General's Office." He also said that "by law any custody death requires an autopsy by a medical examiner."

Bishop said there was no wrongdoing found by the medical examiner, Texas Rangers, or the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

In response to the two prisoner escapes in 2023, Bishop said that there was no faulty equipment in the Taylor County Jail. Instead, a corrections officer allowed a prisoner to exit by buzzing open a door without looking to see who had requested to exit. That officer failed to report it for over an hour. The inmate was caught 30 minutes after their absence was noted by other jail staff. The officer was subsequently fired by Bishop.

In regards to the other prisoner escape, a female corrections officer was on duty when a prisoner escaped after a bathroom trip at the Taylor County Sheriff's Office. The officer was disciplined but not fired as the escape was not an intentional error. Thankfully, the inmate was caught about 15 minutes later.

Additionally, Bishop noted that the Taylor County Jail has never failed a standards test. There were errors in the paperwork at the jail, which the commissions board pointed out. The paperwork was corrected, and the jail subsequently received their certificate of compliance from the jail commission.

The alleged 'whistleblower'

Carrasquillo tells a controversial story on his campaign website about a complicated web surrounding a whistleblower who was "terminated for doing the right thing." The story centers on an alleged affair that took place between a sheriff's deputy and a female probation employee.

The "whistleblower" was the female probation employee whom Bishop did "not have the authority to fire," as the probation department does not fall under the sheriff's office. Additionally, while Bishop does not deny that a seemingly improper relationship did occur at times on the premises of the Taylor County Sheriff's Office, he denies that the couple had the ability to have any sort of relations within the evidence room.

"I don't even have access to it," Bishop said when referencing the evidence room. Evidently, Bishop alleges that Carrasquillo needed to get his story straight as the illicit affair took place in an office closet and not in an evidence room.

When it comes to the whistleblower driving the deputy's car because "he was too drunk to drive," Bishop alleges instead that the deputy had recently been discharged from the emergency room and was "not comfortable driving his vehicle." The female probation employee did then crash the vehicle into a pilon. When the HR department for Taylor County asked the female employee to pay the insurance fee of $500, she subsequently filed a statement with HR that detailed the illicit affair with said deputy.

Bishop alleges that once the internal affairs investigation started, his deputy filed a letter of resignation. He also noted that the probations department decided to terminate the female employee.

The Abilene Police Department had been working a murder case at the time of the deputy's resignation. Bishop made it clear that his deputy was "not implicated in that murder." The murder case in question was the alleged shooting death of Eric Tonche. Currently, Marvin Kyree Jones Jr. has been charged with first-degree murder in this case and will be at the Taylor County Courthouse on January 18, for a plea hearing in the 350th District Court.

Child pornography accusation

Carrasquillo alleges that Bishop "allowed a Sergeant who admitted to having child pornography on his phone to continue to be employed after a one-day investigation." For this accusation, Bishop's replied that his deputy had thought a picture of child pornography had popped up on his phone through an app. The deputy had immediately deleted it and admitted this to the sheriff when the sheriff had started the internal investigation.

Bishop then "called the Texas Rangers," who determined through a three-day investigation that "at some point there was a nude photo on his phone that he said had been deleted." The Rangers and the internal investigation found "no other evidence," but the deputy had been suspended for one week while the investigations took place.

Additional accusations

Carrasquillo alleges that Bishop "lied on KTAB by saying he's had SROs (plural) in the schools for 15 years." Bishop responded that when he took the sheriff's office in 2013, there was one school resource officer employed by Taylor County. In 2014, Bishop added a second one.

Additionally, Carrasquillo alleges that Bishop only recently provided salary raises for his department. Bishop's response was that he had petitioned for raises over the entire 10 years he has been in office. While it may appear that the office has had a mass of hirings, Bishop credits "a new HR director who is extremely proactive."

For the school safety meetings, Bishop replied that House Bill 3 states that "the sheriff of a county with a total population of less than 350,000 in which a public school is located shall call and conduct semi-annual meetings to discuss school safety." This bill recently went into effect, which is the reason why Bishop called additional school safety meetings in 2023.

The issue of the ballot places

The one issue that Sheriff Ricky Bishop did not have an immediate response for was the issue of Bishop drawing the first place on the ballot. When asked why the other two candidates were not present to draw for places on the ballot, Bishop replied "I do not know. That is the responsibility of the Republican Chairman to notify everyone to be present."

When reached for comment, Republican Chairman, Chris Carnohan, responded that Bishop's place on the ballot was simply "the luck of the draw." According to Freda Ragan, elections administrator for Taylor County, the chairman was required by law to notify all candidates of a place drawing at least 24 hours before it took place.

Carnohan also noted that the invitation to attend the drawing was emailed out to candidates and a notice was placed on the Taylor County Elections website. Additionally, Carnohan remarked that he saw the numbers 1, 2 and 3 placed into identical sealed envelopes which were then spun until Bishop chose a number.

Due to the "luck of the draw," Bishop received place number one on the ballot.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Sheriff responds to accusations ahead of coming election