HOUSTON — A Texas police chief under scrutiny for hiring officers with troubled work histories is trying to explain an expletive-filled tirade he launched at an elected Harris County constable.
Chief JohnJay Portillo has quadrupled the size of the Coffee City Police Department since he took the job in April 2021. Records show more than half of the 50-officer force, in a town of barely 250 people, had been suspended, demoted or fired from their previous law enforcement jobs. Some were even criminally charged.
Portillo defended his hiring practices, claiming most of his officers were “retaliated” against by their former agencies and found themselves on the wrong side of internal politics.
But KHOU 11 Investigates discovered Portillo has some questions to answer about his own conduct and behavior. In a profanity-laced rant, Portillo lashed out against another law enforcement official while working an off-duty security job nearly 200 miles away from his jurisdiction in Coffee City.
“I’m about to call (Jerry) Garcia and tell him he’s going to be f----- in his next election,” Portillo said.
Portillo was referring to Constable Jerry Garcia, the elected constable of Harris County Precinct 2. The off-duty chief had called the constable’s office for assistance at a southeast Houston apartment complex where Portillo worked his extra security job. Portillo wanted Precinct 2 to file charges on a man he said assaulted him at the complex. The Feb. 14 encounter was captured on a responding deputy constable’s body camera.
“I’m going to call Garcia right now, tell his a-- he’s a f------ p---- or his chain of command is,” Portillo said.
Garcia said it was just one in a pattern of requests from several off-duty Coffee City officers working extra jobs at the apartment complex.
“Which at first was no big deal, we help anybody and everybody, but then we noticed it was becoming a pattern,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the pattern was draining his department’s resources so the constable reached out to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
“And we were advised to tell Chief Portillo that he had to file the charge,” Garcia said.
But when deputies did just that, Portillo left a nasty voicemail on the constable’s phone.
“Your captain, lieutenants or whoever those numbn--- are that you have working for you, you know tell them your job is to f------ help us out,” said Portillo on the bodycam footage.
“It saddened me, it upset me to hear that,” Garcia said. “This is, I mean, this is pretty upsetting.”
What upset Garcia even more was the response his agency received after alerting Coffee City’s mayor about the incident.
“I don’t see very much there that warrants any disciplinary action from the city”, Mayor Jeff Blackstone wrote in an email. “In regard to that apartment complex, the city of Coffee City has no relationship or affiliation of any kind with that property. The officers are contracted by them off-duty for police protection. You may want to reach out to them with any complaints regarding their actions while working on that property.”
But retired Houston Police Captain Greg Fremin said Portillo’s conduct should have triggered an immediate investigation and resulted in serious punishment.
“Didn’t think that it merited any disciplinary action against him? It’s crazy,” said Fremin, who is currently a lecturer at Sam Houston State University’s College of Criminal Justice. “You’re enabling bad behavior now, and that’s exactly what the mayor has done.”
So what did Portillo have to say for himself?
“I was amped up and I apologized to my city council at city council, and I said, ‘I apologize for what I did,’” Portillo said.
When asked if Portillo apologized to Garcia, the chief said he hadn’t “had a chance” to do so even though the tirade happened six months ago.
In an interview with KHOU Investigative reporter Jeremy Rogalski, the chief was asked if that was the real JohnJay Portillo in the video.
“No. I don’t, I don’t just go off the handle,” Portillo said. “I got socked in the face. I was mad, I was red, and I was upset, because I couldn’t, they wouldn’t you know help me file charges.”
It’s not the only example KHOU 11 Investigates found that calls into question Portillo’s character and integrity. In his application to become Coffee City’s police chief he never listed a 2004 DWI charge out of Bay County, Florida, in which he failed to appear in court. When asked why he didn’t list the charge on his application, Portillo said: “I just didn’t disclose it, it was over 10 years ago.”
But court records show Portillo still had an active warrant, and the case hadn’t been disposed of. The day after the interview with KHOU 11 Investigates, Portillo hired a Florida defense attorney who filed a not-guilty plea in the case.
Portillo continued to defend himself, rebutting questions of whether he was truthful.
“That's not what it is. I'm not, not being truthful,” he said. “I just put down everything that was in my mind when I filled out my application to the best of my knowledge.”
That same job application states “Be truthful, as there are criminal consequences for lying on a governmental record.”