A candy red Porsche intended for use in drug stings is at the center of accusations that Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ office bullied a towing company into returning the car after legally hauling it away from a parking garage and selling it.
The attorney for United Tows, Robert Jenkins, said the company recovered the 2001 Porsche Boxster for the district attorney but only after what he called intimidating tactics by a top prosecutor, including threats of a grand jury investigation and criminal charges.
Jenkins said in an interview this week that company officials remain upset because they say they did nothing wrong. They were asked to tow the car by the company that runs the criminal courts parking garage after it sat abandoned for months. They then tried unsuccessfully to find the owner before selling the car at auction.
Jenkins said prosecutor Lincoln Monroe and district attorney investigator Eddie Salazar repeatedly tried to force United Tows owners to give back the Porsche by accusing them of running a car theft ring.
“We felt if we had told them, ‘OK just take your car back, please don’t take us to the grand jury,’ that would be admitting in some ways that we had done something wrong or hadn’t followed the letter of the law, and we didn’t do any of that,” Jenkins said. “It was their fault that the car got towed; their fault they didn’t know where it was.”
Watkins’ spokeswoman said Thursday that she could not comment at length about the allegations because Monroe was out of the country until next month and could not be reached.
“I don’t believe for one minute that Lincoln threatened somebody,” said the spokeswoman, Debbie Denmon.
The clash is the latest in a string of allegations that Watkins, a Democrat running for re-election to a third term, has abused the power of his office. He has previously used the grand jury to investigate three sitting judges and a former Dallas County commissioner. And accusations remain that he mishandled a forfeiture fund that was used to buy back the Porsche in June 2013.
“They’re using the forfeiture fund like they’re using the grand jury: as a tool to do whatever they want,” said Jenkins.
Salazar said Thursday in a brief interview that he never accused anyone of running a car theft ring but said that he had suspicions about discrepancies in the paperwork about the sale of the Porsche.
Buying it back
County records show that the district attorney’s office used at least $1,800 in forfeiture funds to buy back the Porsche. Forfeiture funds are controlled by Watkins and intended to be used for law enforcement purposes. They are regularly audited by the county.
Jenkins said the DA’s office paid $3,600 to buy back the Porsche. Salazar said the amount was actually only $1,800.
The district attorney’s office originally seized the Porsche in 2011. Watkins asked county commissioners to keep it for use as an undercover vehicle for drug operations. Commissioners agreed, and Watkins promised them at a public meeting that the car would not be misused.
The Dallas Morning News requested documents about the Porsche on Sept. 4 from the district attorney’s office, using Texas’ open records laws. The law gives the DA’s office 10 business days to comply with a request, but it still has not released any checks, invoices, memos or emails. The News filed a lawsuit Thursday against the district attorney’s office asking for the records to be released.
United Tows, through Jenkins, released documents to The News showing Ace Parking’s March 20, 2013, order authorizing towing of the Porsche. The car had sat for months on the roof of the courthouse parking garage. Ace contracts with Dallas County to run the courthouse parking garage and contracts with United Tows to remove cars.
A spokeswoman for Ace said the company knew little about the situation and declined to comment. Salazar said the Porsche was on a “do not tow” list with the parking company along with other DA vehicles stored there. Salazar said Ace told him it got an anonymous call complaining about the Porsche.
The Porsche gathered dust as it sat on the roof of the courthouse parking garage. People began to use their fingers to write in the dust as the car remained day after day. One person wrote that the car was intended to be driven. “If you agree, put your initials.”
United Tows also provided documents to The News that the company called 911 on March 24, 2013, to report towing the vehicle just as it did with the 200 other vehicles it towed that day.
Once the Porsche was towed, Jenkins said, United Tows tried to find the owner. It sent two certified letters to the company and address connected to the Porsche. But Rockett Enterprises’ address was a Garland post office box that apparently did not exist because the letters came back as undeliverable, Jenkins said. United Tows then kept the car on its South Central Expressway lot for the 60 days required by law before sending it to auction.
Chris Fletcher — who was then the boyfriend of the towing company’s owner, Misty Adams, and is now her husband — bought the car at an auction in May 2013. He paid $5,800, including the cost of the car, auction fees and taxes, Jenkins said. Fletcher and Adams declined to comment through Jenkins.
Fletcher tried to register the car but was notified he couldn’t because it belonged to the government. Jenkins said not long after, United Tows heard from the district attorney’s office.
Seeking car’s return
In June 2013, Salazar, the investigator, contacted United Tows and demanded the car be returned. Salazar was “saying that we had stolen that car, that we didn’t have a right to take that car, that it was their car and they wanted it back,” Jenkins said.
Salazar said that isn’t true. “I never said that,” Salazar said.
A short time later, Monroe accused the company of being involved in a car theft ring and threatened to press charges and take them before a grand jury, Jenkins said. “He was very insistent that they either needed the car back or he was going to press charges, being sort of intimidating about that fact,” Jenkins said.
Eventually, the company told the district attorney’s office it could recover the car but said the DA’s office would have to buy it. The DA’s office resisted. Jenkins said that Monroe again threatened to investigate the company for running a car theft ring.
“We’re going to follow you around and search all your vehicles and we’re going to follow your drivers. Or you can give us the car back,” Jenkins quoted Monroe as saying. “They tried to bully us into giving it back.”
After Jenkins met with Monroe twice at the DA’s office, Monroe agreed to pay.
This wasn’t the first time United Tows had a run-in with the DA’s office, Jenkins said. After a Cadillac registered to Rockett Enterprises was towed from the courthouse in November 2010, Salazar showed up at the tow lot and simply took it away.
“He basically said, ‘I’m just taking this car,’” Jenkins said.
Salazar tells a different story. He said that the towing company let him in, jumped the vehicle for him and opened the gate. Salazar said that he believed he was free to leave with the vehicle.
Jenkins said he hopes the allegations of wrongdoing against his clients have ended.
“They don’t want to lose their business,” Jenkins said. “They don’t want to be followed around. They don’t want to be intimidated.”
Meanwhile, the Porsche was spotted this week parked in a secure parking garage at the courthouse.
Follow Jennifer Emily on Twitter at @dallascourts.
