A lawsuit filed in August 2011 in U.S. District Court against Brown County Sheriff Bobby Grubbs, District Attorney Micheal Murray, Texas Ranger Nick Hanna, and DPS Lieutenant Robert Bullock was dismissed on Tuesday. The lawsuit alleged that the law enforcement officials caused the now adult plaintiff, Natasha Whitley, to suffer during the course of an investigation against a former Brownwood Police Officer.
The lawsuit stemmed from the investigation into Vincent Ariaz, a former police sergeant who was arrested in July of 2007 for sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child and is currently serving a prison sentence.
U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings signed an order that dismissed the lawsuit and said in court documents that Ariaz was the one who victimized Whitley when she was a Brownwood Police Explorer. The documents state that the plaintiff had no supporting facts for her allegations against the named law enforcement officials and that they were immune from liability.
Sheriff Bobby Grubbs stated that he was relieved to hear the case was dismissed but felt all along that it didn’t have much merit.
“When we were named in the suit, it really frustrated me because we (Brown County Sheriff’s Office) had such a limited part in the investigation. I felt it would be dismissed because we didn’t do anything wrong,” said Grubbs. “I knew it would work itself out. The system worked right and it did work itself out.”
The now dismissed lawsuit outlined the events leading up to the arrest of Ariaz and alleges that Hanna and Bullock delayed the start of an investigation initially after receiving evidence. It further alleges that once the investigation was underway, the defendants let the sexual abuse continue “so that they could catch him in the act of abuse.”
The plaintiff was seeking damages for past and future physical pain and suffering, impairment, mental anguish, and medical expenses.
The City of Brownwood settled a similar suit with the victim’s family in February 2010 for $300,000.
Ariaz was in charge of the Explorer program which was created to teach Brownwood youth about law enforcement. The lawsuit stated that Ariaz used the program to prey on young female teenagers over an extended period of time.
