Pearsall police sent 19 cases for prosecution, cite lab delays for slow process on others

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“We are waiting on results…”

While the Pearsall Police Department reports that it continues combing through current and backlogged criminal cases, the 81st District Attorney’s Office is reporting the department has only submitted 19 cases for prosecution for 2024.
“It can take three months to a year for us to get those labs back,” Lt. Nathaniel Ximenez told councilors. “The lab we use is one used by the whole state; it is not just for drugs, it is for shootings, sexual assaults and it goes based off severity of the case.”
According to the police lieutenant, from January to July 2024, the department has received 114 felony cases.
Of those, 61 cases are drug-related with 15 to 20 pending lab results.
Ximenez told councilors, as of the Sept. 10 meeting, the criminal investigator division which he oversees had submitted 50 cases to the district attorney’s office.
“Nineteen of those are drug related,” the police lieutenant said. “The DA does not want us submitting cases without labs. So, they sit in our office for six to eight months until we get labs. But there is nothing more for investigators to do on those particular cases.”
According to Ximenez, the remainder of the 114 cases are currently being investigated, sent to patrol officers for corrections, or have been “dead-filed” due to a lack of evidence.
Records filed at the district attorney’s office show that, to date, the Pearsall Police Department has submitted 19 cases for prosecution for 2024.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the department submitted 81 cases in 2019. The following two years after the virus, the department submitted 56 cases in 2020; 48 cases in 2021; 58 cases in 2022; and 33 cases in 2023.
In his report, Ximenez noted that the department received 24 new felony cases during the month of August, of which nearly 15 are narcotics related.
Councilors quizzed the police lieutenant regarding the backlog of cases the department is handling.
“I came here in in 2019,” Ximenez said. “There were 360 cases that were over a year old. We have 70 cases that we placed in the dead files due to no evidence. One hundred and thirty-nine of those cases were drug related; one hundred and forty cases have been submitted since I have been lieutenant.”
Ximenez was promoted to lieutenant in 2023.
Captain Joel Gutierrez oversees misdemeanor cases which are prosecuted by County Attorney Joseph Sindon.
“Drug [cases] are the easiest to prepare,” Ximenez said. “We utilize the new detectives for those. The more severe cases, myself or the sergeant or one of the seasoned detectives handle those cases. Cases are assigned based on the severity of the case and that is determined by me.”
According to state law, those arrested on drug charges can only be held behind bars in lieu of bond for 90 days. If the arresting agency does not submit a case and the detainees have not made bond, they are released.
“It is no fault of the DA, or us,” the lieutenant said. “It is because we are waiting on results.”
Ximenez noted that repeat offenders account for 85 to 90 percent of the criminal cases that the department investigates.
“The number that the district attorney privided is based off the year that the crime happened,” Ximenez added. “To date, we have submitted 44 cases.”