(Guadalupe County) – A 13-year-veteran of the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office has resigned amid a Texas Rangers investigation that is looking into his alleged involvement with an intoxicated teenager.
Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwicke says the incident, involving Deputy Christopher Locklear, stems back to an April incident that was first reported in his neighborhood located in Converse.
“We were notified with an email of a concern by a citizen that Deputy Locklear was involved with a minor female involving alcohol. It was pretty vague. We reached out to the person who did not return anything further than that so then we went to Converse Police Department after we found out that they had a report on file and basically, they responded to an unconscious 16-year-old female who was with Locklear at a residence and the EMS ended up taking her to the hospital. From there, we visited with Locklear and then turned it over to the Rangers for further investigation. During the course of the investigation, he decided to resign at the advice of his attorney and anything after that was forwarded to the Rangers and that’s as far as we got,” said Zwicke.
Zwicke says both Locklear and the teenager were reportedly at the same neighborhood barbecue prior to leaving together.
“It was friends that they were having a neighborhood barbecue and he decided to go check his brother’s dogs – who were out of town and so he went to go let the dogs out and she had accompanied him and then that led to the mother of the daughter calling asking where they were at (and) to find out she was passed out on the floor,” said Zwicke.
Following the incident, the family of the teen did not pursue charges against Locklear forcing the Converse Police Department to halt any further investigation. However, having an incident involving a sheriff’s deputy more than justifies another look at what exactly happened that day. That’s according to Zwicke.
“We have that responsibility. I’m not going to tolerate officers doing that type of activity whether or not the parents agree to move forward with it or not. That’s their choice but we have a duty to further the investigation and that’s why the Texas Rangers were called in,” said Zwicke.
Following word that Zwicke had turned the case over to the Texas Rangers, that’s when officials say Locklear resigned on May 18.