COFFEE CITY, Texas — Former Coffee City Police Department Chief JohnJay Portillo is appealing his termination and has filed for unemployment benefits, the city's mayor confirmed Friday.
The city council during a Sept. 11 meeting approved firing Portillo and deactivating the police department. That decision was made after several allegations about Portillo and his department came to light through a KHOU 11 Investigates report.
Mayor Jeff Blackstone said that Portillo is appealing his termination and has filed for unemployment benefits.
An investigation led by our sister station in Houston, KHOU 11, showed Portillo grew the department size by four times and routinely hired officers who had been suspended, demoted, terminated, or dishonorably discharged from previous law enforcement jobs. KHOU 11 Investigates also learned that Portillo failed to disclose an active DWI charge out of Florida in 2021 when he was applying to be Coffee City’s police chief.
After the council meeting leading to Portillo's firing, Blackstone said the city officials thought it was in the "best interest" to deactivate the department until the city is able to get new leadership.
The decision to fire the chief came after an independent investigation conducted by the city confirmed the DWI allegation against Portillo. The former chief did not disclose that charge on his job application.
The investigation found that Coffee City, which has a population of 250 people, had a police department of 50 officers on staff -- five times the number of officers than any other Texas town of its size. Blackstone said the council decided to deactivate the entire police force instead of pursuing individual investigations.
The series of reports also revealed Coffee City hauled in $1 million in court fines last year. Blackstone said making money is not what the city is trying to do.
Following the deactivation of Coffee City's police department, the Smith County Sheriff's Office and the Henderson County Sheriff's Office are responding to police calls in the city.