SAN ANTONIO – A former San Antonio police officer who pleaded no contest in a public corruption case last year has been hired as the public safety director of the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.
Jonathan Griffin, who resigned from the San Antonio Police Department in December 2021 while under internal affairs investigation, was indicted by a Bexar County grand jury in 2022 on two felony counts of tampering with evidence, court records show.
Investigators said Griffin knowingly concealed a purse containing a large amount of money during an August 2021 drug bust on the city’s Northeast Side.
Griffin in September 2023 pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor abuse of official capacity, was given two years deferred adjudication, ordered to pay $3,150 in restitution and a $500 fine and agreed to permanently surrender his Texas peace officer’s license, court records show.
A rodeo spokesman defended the hiring of Griffin, telling KSAT Investigates in a written statement the rodeo was aware of Griffin’s misdemeanor history and that it does not impact his qualifications or ability to serve as public safety director.
Gun, drugs, cash recovered after traffic stop turned into foot chase
Body-worn camera footage released by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office shows Griffin and other officers on Aug. 31, 2021, running after a man who had ditched his vehicle near FM 78 and Binz Engleman Road after police attempted to pull him over.
The suspect was captured in a creek bed, taken into custody and later arrested.
Two other people who were riding in the sport utility vehicle were also detained and later arrested by police, footage and an SAPD incident report shows.
Law enforcement at the scene, which included plain-clothes members of SAPD’s anti-gang unit, recovered a handgun that had been tossed from the vehicle, bags of drugs, including black tar heroin and a significant amount of cash, footage shows.
While Griffin’s body-worn camera footage shows the officer throughout the night repeatedly hand over bills to other officers or place them in an evidence envelope himself, it also shows Griffin put a floral clutch purse containing a large amount of cash in the front passenger door storage area of an SAPD patrol vehicle.
Approximately an hour after Griffin first placed the purse in the storage area, his footage appears to show that it is no longer there.
San Antonio police internal affairs investigators that fall began probing why a woman’s purse recovered at the scene did not make it into SAPD’s property room.
Officials did not confirm the floral bag was the missing item in question. Griffin resigned from the department in December 2021 before IA’s investigation was completed, meaning there are no public records from the department’s internal investigation of his actions.
Griffin’s Dec. 20, 2021, notice of voluntary resignation does not list a reason for his separation from the department.
Griffin indicted on felony tampering charges in August 2022
Griffin was indicted on two felony counts of tampering with evidence in late August 2022, charging paperwork shows.
He knowingly concealed a purse containing US currency, with the intent to impair its ability to be used as evidence in an investigation, the indictment paperwork states.
A second SAPD officer was listed as a co-defendant in the indictment. His case, however, no longer appears in county court records and KSAT could find no record that it ever went to trial
The second officer left the force in May 2023, an SAPD spokesman confirmed to KSAT.
Griffin, who did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story sent to one of his criminal defense attorneys, pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor abuse of official capacity in September of last year, court records show.
The $3,150 in restitution Griffin was ordered to pay as part of the plea agreement was to go to the mother of one of three suspects arrested during the drug bust, public records show.
Griffin’s two-year term of deferred adjudication, a process by which a judge withholds entering a finding of guilt as long as a defendant abides by the conditions of his or her community supervision, ended more than a year early after the judge in the case discharged Griffin from his community supervision in late May.
Successful completion of deferred adjudication allows a defendant to keep a final conviction from appearing on his or her criminal record.
Law enforcement officers who do work for the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo reached out to KSAT this summer expressing concern that Griffin had been hired as the rodeo’s public safety director.
One email shared with KSAT shows Griffin assigning officers to work at a clay shooting event hosted by the rodeo.
“Former police officer being criminally charged, ultimately taking some responsibility for that charge, giving up their ability to have a law enforcement peace officer license under TCOLE (Texas Commission on Law Enforcement) and rising to the level of director of public safety, not only at the rodeo but at any entity, is surprising,” said Robert Almonte II, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in public corruption cases.
“Certainly you want certain types of people in that position of authority. The rodeo, as we know, is one of the largest in the world. A lot of people attend it. And security should be at the forefront of everybody’s mind. People want to be able to feel safe. Just by the very nature of the crime, when we discuss misdemeanors, especially for somebody in a law enforcement position, it’s serious,” added Almonte.
Rodeo officials did not provide KSAT Griffin’s hiring date and at first declined to answer any questions about Griffin’s employment.
Last month, shortly after KSAT gathered footage of the rodeo’s headquarters, a spokesman released a formal statement defending the hiring of Griffin.
“We are aware of a past misdemeanor in Mr. Griffin’s history. This matter was fully addressed prior to hiring, and it does and did not impact his qualifications or ability to serve in his current role. He was hired based on his professional qualifications and his commitment to the highest standards of safety. We remain committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all participants and attendees at our events,” wrote Chris Derby, chief marketing officer of the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.
“If you start to question somebody’s ability to do that job based on their past history and performance as a law enforcement officer, it really requires a lot of questioning, and questions need to be answered,” said Almonte.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.