PASADENA MARSHALS GET NEW PROCEDURE

Review conducted after sting arrests sparks change in background
checks

The procedure for background checks for prospective employees in the
Pasadena city marshal's office is changing as a result of a review of
the department.

But, Mayor Johnny Isbell said this week that his review found no
problems in the 31-member department, which provides bailiff security
in municipal court, serves municipal warrants and transports prisoners.

The review was prompted by the arrests of three reserve marshals
during an undercover drug sting in October. After the arrests, it was
discovered that several employees in the department had criminal records.

"Primarily, our main concern was: Had anything taken place in the city
of Pasadena?" Isbell said. "Had anyone had a warrant served on them
and the money not gone into the city coffers? That was our first
concern. That's why it took so long."

The mayor said the only change he is making after his probe is that
the Pasadena Police Academy, not Chief City Marshal David Ingram, will
handle future background checks of prospective marshals.

Isbell indicated that he believed Ingram, 57, had too much
responsibility to be required to handle all background checks.

"I think these two fell through the cracks," the mayor said of
marshals Keith Wagner and Troy South.

Wagner and South, along with Wagner's brother and fellow marshal,
Danny Wagner, were arrested Oct. 2. They, along with a third Wagner
brother, former Galena Park police Officer Michael Joe Wagner, 38;
Frank Sidney Ferguson, a 17- year Houston police veteran; and Eric Jon
Gibson, 38, of Spring, are accused of stealing 5 kilograms of cocaine
and about $50,000 in cash.

The arrests came during a sting operation by the Houston Police
Department internal affairs division, the Texas Department of Public
Safety and the FBI.

Records show that Keith Wagner was a Houston police officer until he
was fired after pleading no contest in 1995 to charges of promotion of
gambling. He was sentenced to two years' probation and 100 hours of
community service and fined $1,500. Because of that conviction, a
money-laundering charge was dropped.

He was accused of recruiting players and collecting debts for two
Houston bookmakers.

Isbell said when Ingram looked into South's work history, nothing was
found to merit concern.

"David talked to the chief of police who was down there at that time,"
Isbell said. "It seems the biggest violation of Troy South was going
to an area that he had been advised to stay out of. Nothing came up
about any brutality."

Records with the Webster Police Department show that South resigned in
January 1994 during an internal affairs investigation in which he was
accused of displaying a gun, official oppression, failing to properly
identify himself as a police officer and using rude and insulting
language. He had joined the Webster force in September 1990.

After leaving Webster, South worked briefly for the Kemah Police
Department before joining the marshal's office in May 1994. He was
reinstated in Webster in October 1994 and terminated again in November
1996.

In his termination notice, then-Chief Jerry Barker said an internal
investigation supported an excessive-force allegation, the second
allegation logged against South.

South rejoined the marshal's office in December 1996.

Danny Wagner, who was hired by the marshal's office in February 1995,
until recently had worked for entertainer Mickey Gilley at his
Branson, Mo., nightclub.

"My understanding is that he had just come back a couple of weeks
before this thing happened," Isbell said.

The mayor said he thought Danny Wagner, who is friends with Isbell's
sons, had taken a leave of absence from the department while he worked
out of state.

After an altercation at a Galena Park nightclub in January 1986,
Keith, Michael and Danny Wagner were charged with two counts of
assault and one count of disorderly conduct. Galena Park municipal
court records, however, are not available to show the disposition of
the cases.

A review by the Chronicle of employees of the marshal's office found
that several, including Ingram, have had run-ins with the law.

Ingram, who was hired by Isbell in August 1993 to head the division,
was given a one-year probationary sentence and fined $100 in May 1991
for assault-bodily injury. The probation was terminated and the case
dismissed in July 1992.

"I'm not worried about David's problems at all. He got into a
fistfight with a man," Isbell said.

Marshal Larry Dean Turnipseed, 39, was charged with driving while
intoxicated on March 5 after being stopped by a state trooper in
Refugio County.

Turnipseed has requested a jury trial although no trial date has been
set, according to the Refugio County Attorney's Office.

Isbell said he did not think it was necessary to suspend Turnipseed,
who has been with the department since December 1993, until the case
is resolved because he was not in a city vehicle when arrested.

"I would have to suspend him with pay for however long that takes,"
Isbell said.

The DWI charge is not the first for Turnipseed, who was given one
year's probation and fined $100 in December 1978 on a DWI charge. His
probation was terminated a year later and the case dismissed.

"The first DWI was when he was a teen-ager and it goes way back,"
Isbell said.

Court records also show that Frankie Luke Vernagallo, 55, who has been
working for the marshal's office since June 1998, was charged with
weapons possession in February 1982. He was given one year on
probation and fined $100 in April 1982. The probation was lifted and
the case dismissed seven months later.

Another reserve marshal, Nick E. Hernandez, 32, was arrested by South
Houston police in September and held overnight at the city's jail
after being accused of stealing a golf cart from a Fiesta supermarket
parking lot. Felony theft charges were later dropped at the request of
the golf cart's owner.

No action was taken against Hernandez by the marshal's office and he
has since left the department.

Isbell said his investigation found that the warrant division is
productive, with collections by the municipal courts up more than 70
percent from the early 1990s.