TYLER, Texas (KETK) – Several warrants revealed new details of an alleged theft by Smith County Pct. 1 Constable Curtis Harris and two of his deputies.
Back in January, Harris and two of his deputies, Chief Deputy LaQuenda Banks and Sergeant Derrick Holman were executing a writ of possession on a rental property at Cascades Court in Tyler. This is a court order directing a constable’s office to seize or take control of a property and turn it back to the landlord’s possession.
The warrant states that they found “drugs, drug paraphernalia, guns, and money.” In a bedroom/bathroom area, Banks can be heard saying, “I cut it off” followed by the sound of her body camera turning on. The warrant does not state what camera recorded that statement before she turned hers on.
Banks can be heard telling someone, “Hold on, don’t come down here” as Harris hands her a watch display case. She later unzips a pocket in her shirt and puts in four watches, with Harris telling her, “Take that shit.”
She then places what is suspected to be a partial box of .22-caliber ammunition and an Apple iPod box into her uniform shirt as well. Banks is then seen continuing to rummage through bathroom drawers.
Banks then hands Harris a wallet with money and she says, “Some more money.” They leave the bedroom when one of the women who lived there wanted to speak with them and mentioned requesting a lawyer.
They head up the stairs to the woman, with Holman “standing guard” close by. Harris and Banks tell the woman they found “cocaine, marijuana, and paraphernalia” and she needed to wait outside while they finished searching the home.
Banks and Holman walk outside to his patrol car and begin laying items near the back of the vehicle. The documents said Holman looks closely at her bodycam and asks, “What you got?” Banks replies, “Some shit he had me put in my pocket.”
As he opened his driver’s side door, Holman asks Banks, “Where’s the cash at?” Banks said, “Oh, he got that,” in an apparent reference to Harris.
She sits down in the driver’s seat and removes the items she hid in her shirt. Banks goes back inside and finds Harris still going through drawers. She tells him “I put all that uhh in Derrick’s car.”
Banks then tells Harris that the women want to know when they can come in and move their stuff. Harris replied, “When we done.” The warrant says Harris then went to the entry and began going through a purse on the table.
According to the affidavit, Banks is captured rummaging through more drawers and stuffs makeup products, Oakley and Ray-Ban sunglasses into her shirt. She goes back to Holman’s car and removes all the new items from her shirt into the vehicle.
The lessee of the residence arrived and told them that she could not find the writ of possession paperwork “because someone came and dumped all my stuff.” As she left, she was on the phone telling someone that the constables had “come in her house, took guns from her home, and dumped all her drawers out.”
Holman and Banks are seen telling her about cocaine and weed being found inside. When she begins questioning them about opening her drawers, Harris walks away.
Forty minutes after the recording started, Tyler police arrive on the scene and Banks takes them to Harris’ patrol car to show them the drugs from inside.
About 10 minutes later, the warrant says Harris can be seen pulling out a wad of cash from the chest pocket of his constable uniform shirt. Someone made the comment, “You didn’t give me none of that” and everyone laughed. The warrant does not state who made the comment.
Tyler police begin arresting the leasee outside. When Banks sees this, she runs over to assist with the arrest. The warrant states that “it appeared [she] attempted to turn on her body camera. This action actually turned it off.”
The recording from Banks’ camera stops here. The court documents state that it does not contain “all comments made or all things viewed during the course of this recording.”
When a Tyler officer was speaking with Banks and Holman, Holman said they “were not digging they were just clearing the house, they just made sure there were no bodies in there.” This comment was captured by the officer’s body camera.
The leasee filed a theft report with Tyler Police one week later, providing a list of all things missing from the residence. It included
- $300 cash
- iPhone 8
- Oakley sunglasses
- Jewlery
- Chanel perfume
- iPhone X
- Nike shoes
- Airpods
- 2 iPhone 12s
- 2 Macbooks
- $3,000 cash
She also mentioned that several firearms were taken by the constable’s office but were later returned. The official report for “valuation of theft,” which approximates how much items are worth for assigning a charge are as follows:
- Gshock watch ($120)
- Apply iWatch ($200)
- 2 analog watches ($50/each)
- Partial box of .22caliber ammuntion (value unknown)
- Apple box suspect to contain AirPods (Between $200-$300)
- Oakley sunglasses (Between $125-$300)
- Ray-Ban sunglasses ($125)
- Makeup (Between $150-$350)
- Safe containing coins, qurter colllection, military medals, diploma, birth certificate, social security card. Values are unknown)
Other items were taken, according to the warrant, that are still unaccounted for and were not calculated in the evaluation.
Harris, Banks and Holman are all charged with theft of property between $750 and $2,500, abuse of official capacity, and official oppression.”
The theft charge is a state jail felony, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. The other charges are Class A Misdemeanors which carry a maximum sentence of six months each along with monetary fines.
All three have since been released on pre-trial bonds.
