FAIR OAKS RANCH, Texas – The city of Fair Oaks Ranch has released an independent report that clears Police Chief Tim Moring of wrongdoing and claims that officers who came forward with complaints against Moring were attempting to distract attention from their inappropriate relationship with one another.
The city released the 36-page report to KSAT Investigates, days after Mayor Greg Maxton informed the community in a video statement that the city council had voted to waive attorney-client privilege and make the report public.
Maxton, in the nearly nine-minute statement, said the city has full confidence in Moring, who was reinstated to his command post on Oct. 10 after being on paid administrative leave.
Gonzalez, a six-year veteran of the small department located northwest of San Antonio, was terminated from the agency on Oct. 6.
At least one other officer, Evan Downey, has resigned after the investigator’s findings were forwarded to city officials, records obtained by KSAT confirm.
Investigator: Complaints against Chief Moring clouded by inappropriate relationship between officer and sergeant
Moring was placed on leave this summer after the city received a complaint from Officer Lacey Gonzalez accusing Moring of multiple policy violations, including intimidating officers at work and providing prescription Adderall pills to fellow officers while at an off-duty gathering.
The city hired Jesse Prado, a retired Austin Police Department detective and the owner of a state-licensed investigation firm, to investigate Gonzalez’s complaints as well as those from Paul Zepeda, a Fair Oaks Ranch sergeant who resigned in July.
Prado interviewed 11 people during his investigation, including Moring, Gonzalez and Zepeda, records show.
Prado, in the summary of his investigation, stated that he obtained text messages from someone with the same last name of Zepeda showing that Gonzalez had engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with Zepeda, who was her supervisor.
“Mr. Zepeda used threats, and intimidation to keep (redacted) from submitting the texts or giving a statement regarding the wrongdoing by Mr. Zepeda and Officer Gonzalez,” the report reads.
Prado cited this relationship in determining that many of the complaints against Moring were unfounded or not sustained.
An attorney representing Gonzalez in her ongoing employment dispute against the city, however, provided KSAT records showing Gonzalez was cleared of wrongdoing regarding a possible inappropriate relationship with Zepeda.
The Aug. 2 letter, signed by Moring, states that he found no evidence to verify Gonzalez and Zepeda had engaged in an inappropriate relationship and that he was ruling the complaint as not sustained.
Prado wrote that he recommended findings of dereliction of duty and untruthfulness against Gonzalez and that he would make the same recommendation against Zepeda had the sergeant still worked for Fair Oaks Ranch PD.
Downey told Prado that Moring, at the time a lieutenant, pulled his service weapon on him while they were “horsing around” in 2019. Downey said he had not been truthful when the incident was first investigated in 2019 when he denied that it had occurred, the report shows.
Both Downey and Moring denied that Moring had pointed his service weapon at Downey in a separate 2019 incident, records show.
Downey submitted his two-week resignation notice on Oct. 10, the same day he was informed by the department that he was under investigation for professional conduct and for possibly falsifying his 2019 report about the gun incident.
Prado also cleared Moring of an allegation that he had provided prescription Adderall to a fellow officer and an animal control officer during a 2019 gathering while they were off duty.
Moring denied the allegation. One officer said Moring had instead given her an over-the-counter medication and the other officer said that he had not been giving anything from Moring at the party, the report states.
Prado also noted that Gonzalez and Zepeda waited years to report many of the allegations against Moring and that she failed to establish that the chief had created a hostile work environment.
Reckless driving complaint against Moring not sustained, even after he admitted to speeding
In an unrelated incident, a dashboard-camera video obtained by KSAT Investigates shows a Fair Oaks Ranch police vehicle pursuing a speeding car along Fair Oaks Parkway in the fall of 2022.
Multiple sources said Moring was driving a seized Toyota sedan during the incident. A former Fair Oaks Ranch employee, who spoke with KSAT on the condition of anonymity, said Moring has repeatedly sped along public roadways in city-owned vehicles “to keep officers on their toes.”
The allegation was included in Zepeda’s complaint against Moring, according to Prado’s report.
Moring admitted to speeding, but did not state that he was doing so as a training measure, the report states.
Zepeda’s claim that Moring was “evading” police was also not backed up by a statement from one of the officers involved in the incident and therefore the complaint was not sustained, according to the report.