Texas Appeals Court Upholds Conviction of Firefighter

The Third District Court of Appeals of Texas has upheld the conviction of a volunteer firefighter on charges of impersonating a law enforcement officer. Joshua Chance Adkins was convicted over a 2019 incident in which he and several other firefighters, used their red lights to stop a vehicle.

The facts are important and are quoted at length from the decision:

• In May 2019, Little River Academy Volunteer Fire Department Chief John Burroughs, along with volunteer fireman James Mercer, tried to serve Glenn Barfield documents related to a bond forfeiture. 
• Burroughs told Barfield’s wife, London Harris, that he worked in Bell County as law enforcement. 
• The men were unable to serve the documents. 
• Burroughs later enlisted another of his volunteer fireman, appellant Joshua Adkins, to help locate and serve Barfield the documents. 
• Burroughs, Mercer, and Adkins watched the Barfield/Harris residence from Dean’s Automotive, which was across the street from the residence. London saw “all three of them pretending to be cops.” 
• Harris had heard a rumor running around Little River that the Chief of Police Frankie Poole had deputized the men.
• On June 5, 2019, Adkins, doing a stake-out from Dean’s Automotive, saw Barfield exit the residence and get into a Honda van. 
• He notified Burroughs. Then all three men, all driving their own vehicles equipped with overhead blue and red lights (and despite there being no fire-related emergency) engaged those lights, and used a boxing-in maneuver, to make a traffic stop of the Honda. 
• Harris was behind the wheel of the Honda; Barfield was not in it.
• When the men realized Barfield was not in the Honda, they drove away. 
• Meanwhile, Harris called the authorities. 
• Deputies pulled the vehicles over. Deputy Bruce Bacos asked Adkins to exit his Explorer.
• Adkins wore a firearm on his right hip in a holster and, in front of the holster, a yellow metal badge. 
• Deputy Bacos disarmed him and asked for identification. 
• Adkins handed over four cards-a Texas driver’s license, a Texas license to carry, a Texas private security guard card, and a Little River Academy volunteer fire department card with the word “LIEUTENANT” across the edge. 
• Deputy Bacos asked Adkins “what happened back on [Spur] 93?” 
• Adkins explained, “We were trying to serve a warrant. We thought we had the suspect. And we tried to make contact with them at the Spur and it wasn’t them. And [Harris] started hollering at us.” 
• Adkins denied pulling his gun on Harris but admitted he unholstered it. 
• He also admitted he used his takedown lights during the stop.
• A grand jury indicted Adkins for the offense of impersonating a public servant both as an individual and as a party. 
• At trial, the State presented video footage from Adkins’s car camera and Deputy Bacos’s body camera as well as testimony from several witnesses, including Chief Poole, who testified that he did not deputize Burroughs, Mercer, or Adkins and had no authority to do so. 
• Adkins testified in his defense that he thought Burroughs was a law enforcement officer and that he was trying to help Burroughs serve documents. 
• The jury convicted Adkins, and the trial court sentenced him to three years, probated for three years. Adkins filed this appeal.

Adkins argued that he did not impersonate a law enforcement officer, lacked the intent to impersonate, did not represent himself as a member of law enforcement, and did not activate his emergency lights as the others had the vehicle stopped already when he arrived. The court of appeals was not persuaded.

• The State was not required to prove that Adkins activated his front red-and-blue emergency lights to prove that he used “vehicle mounted lights.” 
• And a rational jury could have concluded that Adkins initiated a traffic stop with vehicle mounted lights with the intent to induce London Harris to submit to his pretended official authority. 
• The footage from Adkins’s own dash-mounted camera, though silent, captured Adkins’s actions.
• Given the video footage and testimony, a rational fact finder could determine that Adkins used some or all his mounted lights with intent to induce Harris to submit to his pretended authority.
• Adkins argues there is no evidence he represented himself as law enforcement.
• But the focus of a sufficiency analysis is whether the evidence present in the record, and reasonable inferences drawn from it, can support the verdict.
• Harris testified that she got the impression that the men wanted her to believe they were law enforcement because “John Burroughs carried a gun on his hip. He also wore a badge around his neck.” 
• And “then the day of the incident, they all had red and blue flashing lights on their cars that they turned on.” 
• Given this testimony and the video footage, a rational jury could have concluded Adkins was criminally responsible for the impersonation offense committed by Burroughs because Adkins acted “with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense” and aided Burroughs “to commit the offense.”

Here is a copy of the decision: