Request to the district attorney

[Pages 1 to 3 are the District Attorney’s printed Request to Investigate form, filled in by hand and sworn before a notary on January 20, 2021. The handwriting does not transcribe reliably; read it in the PDF.]

On October 22, 2020 I, Alicia Fitzpatrick, a Peace Officer commissioned by the City of Pflugerville, filed a formal complaint with the City of Pflugerville alleging a hostile work environment, bias, and discrimination within the City of Pflugerville Police Department. I also filed an open records request through the City of Pflugerville requesting electronic communication containing my name and several other key phrases sent to or from a person currently holding the rank of Sergeant at the Pflugerville Police Department (Exhibit A). On November 06, 2020, notably 11 business days after submitting the request, I was notified that the information I requested was believed to be protected under the Texas Public Information Act (Exhibit B). On November 11, 2020 I received a copy of the brief filed by the law firm Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech citing the reasons the content of my open records request was considered protected under the Public Information Act, that the request and brief have been submitted to the Officer of the Attorney General (OAG), and that the OAG has 45 business days to respond (Exhibit C). Notably, January 26, 2021 marked the 45th business day since the brief was filed with the Office of the Attorney General and I have received no On November 05, 2020 The Austin Institute LLC, a third party consulting firm hired by the Pflugerville City Manager, began investigating the formal complaint I filed on October 22, 2020. The investigation concluded on or about December 20, 2020 and I was notified on January 04, 2021 that the investigative report had been submitted to the Chief of the Pflugerville Police Department, and to the City Manager of the City of The entire investigative report is attached (Exhibit D). However, a summary of the finding are as follows: “Given the voluminous amount of evidence that supports a finding of Hostile Work Environment, Gender Bias, and Discrimination by Sgt. and Pflugerville Dispatcher in targeting Officer Fitzpatrick, undermining senior leadership, insubordination for disobeying direct orders to cease and desist from senior ranking officers, and lying to the Investigator hired by the City Manager, the blatant and egregious conduct of Sgt. must be addressed. Comparable misconduct, atrocious judgement, and behavior at such an unacceptable level has serious consequences in all police departments, and should not be tolerated by a Sergeant of the Pflugerville Police Department.” Ultimately, Sgt. and Pflugerville were all found guilty of creating a hostile work environment and various disciplinary recommendations were made for all parties involved. As of January 31, 2021 no disciplinary action has been taken by the City of Pflugerville against the aforementioned. Once Pflugerville City Manager received a copy of the report, she informed who reportedly intended to take immediate disciplinary action as

recommended by the investigators, that she no longer had the authority to discipline officers in the Pflugerville Police Department. Since the day the investigative findings were submitted, has repeatedly abused her position as the City Manager to impede, obstruct, and interfere with any disciplinary measures that were attempted to be taken against Sgt. and Pflugerville Dispatcher On January 20, 2021 I filed a Request to Investigate with the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney’s office alleging Abuse of Official Capacity and Official Oppression by and furnished the investigative findings of The Austin Institute LLC to the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. I made clear mention that was found to have lied during a formal investigation, and that I had ethical concerns regarding the behavior of an Investigator of the District Attorney’s Special Prosecution Division acknowledged receipt of the Request to Investigate that was filed. Due to being a public employee and reporting criminal behavior to the District Attorney’s Office to investigate, I became entitled to “Whistleblower Protections” in accordance with Texas Government Code 554.001 which prohibits an employer from suspending, terminating, or taking other adverse personnel action against an employee who reports a violation of law by the employer or other employee on this date. On December 02, 2020 I was notified of a voluminous open records request filed by CLEAT who represents in this investigation, that was submitted on November 13, 2020. This Open Records Request sought a multitude of communications between myself and other employees of the City of Pflugerville, to include attempting to obtain my personal cell phone, and most notably “All Spillman CAD messages from or to Alicia (Exhibit F). I was informed by The City of Pflugerville Records Supervisor that the records department would be submitting the information gathered from this open records request to the City of Pflugerville Attorney for review under the Public Information Act. Given the breadth of the request filed by Attorney A. compared to the much more focused and narrow scope of the open records request I filed 22 days prior, and the litany of objections the Pflugerville City Attorney purported in their brief to the OAG’s office as to why the information I requested should not be released due to the exceptions contained within the Public Information Act, a reasonable and prudent person would conclude that this request by Attorney A. would be submitted to the same scrutiny and forwarded for a decision by the OAG’s office. It should be noted, that if a brief requesting suppression of governmental records in accordance with the exceptions outlined within the Texas Public Information

Act is filed, the records in question do not become public records until the OAG has ruled whether or not they can be suppressed or if they must be furnished. On January 28, 2021 I received an order to report to the Pflugerville Police Department briefing room at 1800 hours. Upon arrival to the briefing room, I noticed that myself and nearly every employee I am friends with at the Pflugerville Police Department, to include Sgt. and Sgt. were also present in the briefing room. Pflugerville Police Department , Commander stated the reason we were all ordered to report was to receive disciplinary action. We were informed that we were receiving disciplinary action due to an open records request that was filed for “All Spillman CAD messages from or to Alicia Fitzpatrick It was further explained, that City Manager reviewed the content of the records furnished from Attorney A. open records request filed on November 13, 2020 and part of the records requested contained approximately 900 pages of Spillman CAD messaging between myself and my coworkers in the room. We were informed that City Manager demanded immediate disciplinary action be taken against all of us for the content of the messages which were not represented to us as being nearly as offensive or outrageous as reported they were; reportedly initially requested termination of all of the involved officers. We were furnished a “sampling of some of the messages” several days after we were instructed to sign the OCA complaint, but have yet to be provided a true and correct copy of the messaging in its totality. The details of the complaint were named as follows by Pflugerville Police Chief “On 01/26/2021, upon review of documents associated with a Public Information Request, City Manager notified me that officers (on what appeared to be Shift 3 patrol) were inappropriately using Spillman Instant Messaging (Exhibit G). It should be noted, that Patrol Shift 3, is the shift I work on. Myself and my peers were given an Officer Final Classification Agreement in relation to IAD Case # with an allegation of “Acts Prohibited on Premises of Department 1.10.25” found as SUSTAINED (Exhibit H). Pflugerville Police Department Policy 1.10.25 States the Following: “ Acts Prohibited on Premises of Department- while on duty, authorized breaks or on the premises of the Police Department no employee shall: .1 Conduct themselves in such a manner as to bring discredit upon themselves or the Department .2 Use loud, indecent, profane or harsh language .3 Address anyone in harsh, derogatory, or belittling terms .4 indulge in “horseplay” .5 Engage in card playing or any other game on duty or on the premises of the Police Department

.6 Read a newspaper, book, or a magazine in a public place unless such reading is about official .7 Engage in watching TV or VCR unless duty related and out of the view of the public. Off duty employees are authorized to engage in watching TV or VCR at the Police Department .8 Actively engage (read, listen, review, interact with) in the studying of materials that are not directly related to their job (ie. Reading of promotional textbooks, college courses, secondary employment material” (Exhibit I). We were then instructed to sign the Officer Classification Agreement, accepting responsibility for our actions, and that an Internal Affairs allegation of SUSTAINED would be placed in our personnel files. The disciplinary action taken against personnel at the rank of “officer” was a written reprimand and SUSTAINED finding for violating department policy in our personnel files. The employees at rank of “Sergeant,” namely Sergeant and Sergeant were disciplined with two days suspension without pay and a SUSTAINED finding for violating department policy placed in their personnel files. Due to the aforementioned, submitted exhibits, and totality of the circumstances contained herein, it is believed that the City of Pflugerville City Manager did then and there commit the offense of Misuse of Official Information, a third degree felony, as outlined in Texas Penal Code 39.06 (a)(b)(1)(2). This belief is evidenced by the fact that in her capacity as a City Manager, is a public servant, and in reliance on information she has access to by virtue of her office of employment and that has not been made public, namely the open records request filed by Attorney A. requesting “All Spillman CAD messages from or to Alicia Fitzpatrick did then use the information she obtained to harm another, namely myself, Pflugerville Police Department Officer Alicia Fitzpatrick, in accordance with Texas Penal Code ANN. 1.07(a)(25) which defines “harm” as “anything reasonably regarded as loss, disadvantage, or injury including harm to another person in whose welfare the person affected is interested.” It is further believed that clear and direct retaliation against a named victim of a substantiated claim of a Hostile Work Environment and formal “whistleblower” in a criminal complaint against an employer is not considered to be a “governmental purpose.” It is further believed that due to the aforementioned, Pflugerville City Manager did then and there commit the offense of Official Oppression, a Class A Misdemeanor, as outlined in Texas Penal Code 39.03(a)(1) namely by being a public servant acting under the color of her office and employment, and intentionally subjecting another to mistreatment, namely myself, Pflugerville Police Department Officer Alicia Fitzpatrick, evidenced by her demand that the Chief of Police, take immediate disciplinary action against the victim named in a substantiated investigation finding of Hostile Work Environment, Gender Bias, and Discrimination as well as all of the employees who are associated with the victim and/or provided testimony during the formal investigation that corroborated the allegations that conduct

constituting and creating a Hostile Work Environment, Gender Bias, and Discrimination did It is further believed that contained in the findings of the Investigative Report submitted by the Austin Institute LLC are probable cause that Pflugerville Police Department Sergeant did then and there commit the offense of Official Oppression, a Class A Misdemeanor, as outlined in Texas Penal Code 39.03(a)(1) namely by being a public servant acting under the color of his office and employment, and intentionally subjecting another to mistreatment, namely myself, Pflugerville Police Department Officer Alicia Fitzpatrick, evidenced by the findings that the direct actions of Pflugerville Police Department Sergeant created a Hostile Work Environment, which by definition causes harm to another in accordance with the elements of the offense of Official Oppression as outlined in Texas Penal Code 39.03(a)(1). It is further believed that contained in the findings of the Investigative Report submitted by the Austin Institute LLC are probable cause that Pflugerville Police Department Sergeant did then and there commit the offense of Abuse of Official Capacity, a Class A Misdemeanor, as outlined in Texas Penal Code 39.02(a)(1) by way of being a public servant with the rank of Sergeant at the Pflugerville Police Department, and by intentionally abusing his rank within the Pflugerville Police Department and privilege that accompanies said rank, by intentionally and knowingly misusing property belonging to the City of Pflugerville, namely the Watchguard Bodyworn and Dash Mounted Camera Systems, to conduct an inordinate amount of unsolicited reviews of Bodyworn and Dash Mounted Camera footage of Pflugerville Police Department Officer Alicia Fitzpatrick, and using the content of the videos to lodge multiple frivolous internal affairs complaints against Pflugerville Police Department Officer Alicia Fitzpatrick, thereby creating a substantiated hostile work environment and by mere definition alone, did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause harm to another by directly misusing government property.