Sunday, May 19, 2024
Luciano Amador Velazquez was arrested in connection with impersonating a public servant after he flashed red and blue lights at another driver, who Amador claims flashed a gun at him twice. Amador’s case is moving toward a jury trial.
WEATHERFORD — The case of an Azle-area man accused of impersonating a public servant is headed toward trial after the man’s attorney rejected the prosecution’s plea offer for six years in prison.
On Feb. 18, Parker County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Luciano Amador Velazquez in connection with allegations that he had impersonated a police officer. Amador was indicted on those charges by the Parker County Grand Jury in March.
Amador flashed red-and-blue lights — which he primarily used as a safety precaution in his construction work — at the driver of a Ford F-150 while on his way home. In a previous interview with Azle News and The Springtown Epigraph (now The Tri-County Reporter), he said the only reason he flashed the red-and-blue lights was because he saw the other driver pull out a gun after he and the other driver turned onto Newsom Mound Road from State Highway 199. He said he has never tried to pass himself off as a police officer.
“I said, ‘I know I'm not a cop, but he pulled on a gun on me. I thought he was going to get scared, and that was the only reason I turned those lights on,’” Amador said, referring to his conversation with the PCSO officers.
However, the Parker County Sheriff’s Office arrest report states that Amador intended to “induce (the driver of a Ford F-150) to submit to the pretended official authority of the defendant or to rely on the pretended official acts of the defendant by displaying and operating forward facing red and blue alternating lights mounted in his front windshield, against the laws of the State of Texas.”
Officers also said in the report that Amador had told them that he flashed the lights because he didn’t agree with the F-150 driver’s driving and that he used the lights to “make people drive better.”
Conflict between the two drivers started on SH 199 and continued from Newsom Mound Road to Sabathney Road and came to a head at Ice House Road, where Amador said he saw the other driver flash the gun again, this time pointing it at him. Soon after this, PCSO officers arrived on the scene.
Dash camera footage from inside the F-150, submitted by the driver who asked not to be named, shows the driver threatening or insinuating violence to Amador several times during the interaction. Against the wishes of his family inside the vehicle, the driver refused to let Amador pass and followed him. He justified his actions by saying that he was protecting other drivers from Amador.
In a previous interview with the News and Epigraph, the F-150 driver said he pulled his pistol out when the conflict with Amador came to a climax at Ice House Road but denied having his gun out earlier in the interaction.
The F-150 driver was not arrested on Feb. 18. Parker County District Attorney Jeff Swain said charges will not be filed against the driver. Swain confirmed that his office does have the dash camera footage.
On June 20, Amador and his attorney Russell King attended a plea negotiation hearing at the Parker County 43rd District Court in Weatherford. While leaving the courtroom, King remarked that this case is unusual.
“This is the oddest case I've ever heard of,” he said.
In a previous interview with the News and Epigraph, King said he was confident that Amador would be acquitted.
“I don’t think they have a case,” he said at the plea negotiation hearing.
Swain declined to comment on the state’s plea offer in this case. He previously said that impersonating a public servant is a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Swain said the trial is scheduled for Aug. 14, though time will tell if the trial begins on that date or later.
