Texas Cop Fired for Overkill Investigation

A Texas sheriff’s lieutenant has been fired for using police resources to investigate the alleged theft of $16 from his wife at a local car wash, the Houston Chronicle reports. Louis Guthrie and a group of deputies taped off the establishment for an hour to question employees. “This incident was clearly a violation of sheriff’s policies,” a spokesman said. “He was fired for official oppression.”

“He was fired, and we’re in the process of making an appeal to the sheriff. We don’t believe he should have been fired,” Guthrie’s lawyer said. “You have an individual like Louis Guthrie, who has been in the sheriff’s department for 17 years, and he has excelled and gone up through the ranks. During those years, he’s had a pretty clean record. Sometimes people make mistakes.” (More Texas stories.)