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A witness in the trial of two former San Antonio police officers testified Wednesday that she agreed to get drunk and have sex with them in separate encounters because they told her that intercourse would pay the most money for her help in their undercover operation — and that they could help her get custody of her little sister.
Another witness testified Wednesday that she agreed to try out for a what she thought was training for an undercover operation because the officers promised her money and to arrange to dismiss a driving while intoxicated charge she faced.
Former officers Alejandro Chapa, 29, and Emmanuel Galindo, 31, both are charged with compelling prostitution. They resigned after being arrested in 2015 in the wake of a Texas Rangers investigation into complaints by four women who said the officers tricked them into having sex with the promise of being paid to help a police sting operation.
Authorities said the operation was fake, an elaborate scam by officers who were impersonating members of the department’s vice unit.
Using the pseudonym “Charley Rose” to protect her identity, one witness told jurors that a former boss gave her a phone number she could text for possible hiring in a program assisting law enforcement officers working undercover.
“It seemed too good to be true,” but she needed the money to legally adopt her little sister, who had been removed from their mother’s care by the state, the witness said.
She told the jury the text led to a meeting with Galindo and Chapa, who identified themselves as police officers, and soon after she started receiving instructions by text and met one or both of them in five encounters, three of which led to sex.
Galindo, at her apartment, tested her on how far she was “willing to go,” and graded her on which “tasks” she would perform, such as holding hands, kissing, and exotic dancing, with sexual intercourse being the highest level to attain the most money, the witness said.
“He (Galindo) said we had to do the sexual act,” the witness said. “He said the more that's involved, the higher the score.”
She said Galindo told her to take a tequila shot every 20 minutes, and checked her sobriety with a pen in front of her eyes.
At another encounter, she said, Galindo told her to perform an exotic dance, and afterward she performed oral sex on him.
In another meeting, held at a downtown high rise apartment, she was told she was being paired with Chapa, whom she was to call “Mike,” and another woman was paired with Galindo, who went by “John,” the witness told the jury.
She said she was to act as Chapa's girlfriend, and said they had sexual intercourse that night.
Another witness Wednesday said the officers told her they could get her drunk driving charge dismissed and her record expunged.
“My incentive was my DWI,” said the woman, who used “Iris” as a pseudonym to protect her identity. After a few meetings, Galindo told her that she was scored as a “4 Regular,” which meant she would make “decent money,” the woman testified.
“But it wasn’t good enough to get rid of the DWI,” she added, recalling being told that a “4 Strong” could get a case dismissed. The witness said she asked what would put her in that category and said Galindo reminded her that the points were based on how far she would go sexually.
“The other girl had more points because she had sex with ‘Mike,’ and if I really wanted the DWI off, I’d have to really push my limits,” the witness said Galindo told her.
A witness on Tuesday had said Galindo persuaded her to have sex at her own apartment after she’d downed at least three drinks. She acknowledged signing a document obligating herself to have sex as part of the undercover operation, but said she verbally said “no” to sex and considered what happened a sexual assault. She needed the money to help pay for a kidney transplant for her mother, she testified.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Leigh Cutter, both of the women who testified Wednesday said they were not forced to have sex.
The promised money never arrived, all three witnesses said.
On Tuesday, two other women had testified that they each met the former officers, who had outlined the same required tasks for an undercover operation. Both women said they initially agreed to the “program” but had second thoughts and did not have sex with the officers.
ezavala@express-news.net
Twitter: @elizabeth2863
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