Bad behavior - "Bad Vice Cop.... NO Donut !!"

News Station Investigation: A Vice Cop's Vice

Last Edited: Monday, 11 Feb 2008, 6:25 PM CST
Created: Monday, 11 Feb 2008, 6:25 PM CST

By Paul Adrian
FOX 4 News Dallas TX

We'll call her “Chloe,” although she used a different name when she was briefly a high dollar “working girl" in Dallas. She told her story to Police, Prosecutors, The Texas Attorney General and the FBI.

Every detail is recorded in a police case file.

"He was already at my gate and I allowed him to come in," “Chloe” told FOX 4 News.

Now, it's your turn to hear her story. She was a part-time nursing student, part-time prostitute, who advertised as an escort on an adult web site.

In a sworn statement given to police years later, “Chloe” told the story of meeting Charles Avery at her apartment in Farmer's Branch on a December afternoon in 2004.

"He talked to me for a while. I led him back to the bedroom,” “Chloe” said. “I made him take all his clothes off." She says Avery paid her and they had sex. Then she said, “He whispered 'I'm a police officer.’”

In her statement, she says Avery told her there were other Dallas vice cops outside and he'd have to let them into the apartment.

“I got my clothes on fast,” “Chloe” said, “and threw his money back to him.” She says the detective promised everything would be okay. “He said no worries I wasn't going to be arrested. Just play along with the game."

“Chloe” would later tell public integrity detectives that Avery even helped get rid of her marijuana by flushing it

The five officers who entered the apartment gave sworn statements. One reports Avery saying he, "received permission to release the suspect... pending an at-large case filing."

At large, because the DPD cops were not in Dallas, they were next door in Farmer's Branch.

“Chloe” says she soon heard from Detective Avery again and not because he was working her case.

In a taped phone call, Charles Avery asked, "Am I interrupting anything?"

As an insurance policy, “Chloe” taped his calls, which years later the public integrity detectives reviewed as part of their investigation.

"I'd hate being a cop,” “Chloe” told Avery on one call he made to her. “All those prisoners would work my nerves."

Avery responded, "Yeah, you just get used to it after awhile."

“Chloe” said, "Unless you have to keep arresting people like me because it'd be like, God, she's such a delight."

"Hmmm,” Avery said and then asked, “I didn't know if you were up for some company in awhile? But I was going to leave that up to you."

'“Chloe,” worried that she might still be under investigation, asked, "So you're not going to come over here and bust me are you?"

"I'm not doing anything like that at all,” Avery responded, “It's just me." "Alright,” “Chloe” purred.

"Ok," affirmed Avery.

But “Chloe” warned the officer, "Don't you come over here scoping out like this is next hot item on the list at the police department."

"Nope," Avery promised.

Timesheet records show Avery was on-duty when he visited “Chloe” that Friday in January 2005.

Afterwards, she dutifully notated what happened on her tape recorder, “Detective Avery and I had sex on January 21st, 2005 at twelve o'clock noon on a Friday. He came over and got a little something, something."

On the next recorded call, “Chloe” and Avery relived the experience.

"I totally was blushing," “Chloe” told the officer.

"Well you got undressed pretty quick," the detective responded.

She asked, "You've seen me naked before, so why not?"

He answered, "Not that much up close."

'“Chloe”' says she played along because the detective gave her a way to avoid prosecution.

“I had no other choice, but to go along with him,” “Chloe” told FOX 4, “because I didn't want that charge on my record." She eventually made the same comment in her sworn statement to public integrity.

Avery repeatedly promised “Chloe” on the taped phone calls that she didn't have to worry about her arrest.

On one call, Avery said, “Remember the stuff between you and I is gone."

"That, I feel very secure about," said “Chloe.”

"That doesn't exist," Avery promised.

“Chloe” said, "I feel secure about that."

But she kept worrying and when the detective didn't contact her for several days, '“Chloe”' left him a series of voicemail messages. In one, she asked the cop what his intentions were with her, “I just wanted to know because you're a cop and you leave me in the dark and scared and you hurt my feelings... and I don't know what to do."

When the detective called back, '“Chloe”' sounded suicidal.

"Hello," “Chloe” sleepily answered the phone.

The detective said her name and she responded, “Yeah?”

He identified himself as, "Charles,” and asked, “Are you okay?"

"I'm sleepy... I just took a lot of pills,” “Chloe” confided. “I'm sad and depressed... and I'm afraid I'm going to go to jail."

'“Chloe”' told Avery she'd taken a lot of Valium the night before.

She cried on the phone, “It's embarrassing the way I met you... It's totally not the person I am. I'm trying my best."

Avery repeated in the taped conversation that he had gotten rid of her case.

"The case had to go through our legal department and over to the DA's office,” he said. “It didn't make it out of this office and it's not going to, I don't care how many times people tell you I've got two years to file.”

But in the same phone call, Avery said he wasn't happy about her voicemails

"I really thought I should go down and give them to the grand jury, but I'm going to go back through and delete them, because I was pissed,” he said. “I was really upset hearing all that stuff."

“Chloe”' was shocked.

"I didn't threaten your job, I didn't threaten your family, I didn't threaten your well being," she said.

"No, it doesn't matter," said Avery.

"So I can't have a temper?” “Chloe” questioned. “I can't have freedom of speech that you disappointed me like if I was dating you like any other guy that did that to me, I would have never spoken to you again, I wouldn't have given you time of day"

"No,” Avery sternly warned on the taped call, “there's another offense called terroristic threat or phone harassment or something like that, that can easily be turned into another offense."

'“Chloe”' says she was afraid to end the relationship, which in her sworn statement, she says lasted another three years. She told FOX 4, “He called me on a daily basis four or five times. He would check in, clock in on his beat, and then come over and visit me."

In early 2005, attorney David Finn represented '“Chloe”' in an unrelated matter, which we’ll describe more fully later in the story.

She told him about Avery. He urged her to report the officer, but she refused. Without her permission, he couldn't do anything, but believed this might be a crime called official oppression.

"In that position, he's got the badge, he's got the gun, and he’s got the position of authority.” Finn said. “She's more or less at his mercy."

In October 2007, detective notes show another escort tipped off Dallas cops about Avery and “Chloe.” Public Integrity officers showed up at '“Chloe's” home. They collected 22 microcassette tapes, and also a used condom, towels and a toothbrush, which she claimed would prove they had sex.

“Whether you argue there was special consideration given to her or she was a victim of official oppression,” Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said, “either part of this situation is obviously unacceptable.

Police presented the case to the Dallas County DA's Public Integrity Chief, Kim Judin. She interviewed “Chloe,” but decided not to prosecute.

She told police the evidence was insufficient, the victim was not credible, and criminal intent was not present.

Neither Judin nor her boss, DA Craig Watkins, will talk.

Chief Kunkle said, "I believe we did everything we could to make sure all this information was given to the District Attorney's office."

Police notes show Avery refused to be interviewed by detectives and resigned in January, before Internal Affairs completed its investigation.

That means neither I.A. nor Public Integrity detectives tested the authenticity of the taped conversations or tried to match Avery to the physical evidence.

The officer received no discipline and no prosecution.

His attorney says the former detective won't talk to us either.

So is that the end of the story?

Nope.

“I do know that the FBI is very interested in this," David Finn told FOX 4.

After local prosecutors passed on the case, '“Chloe”' complained to the Texas Attorney General who pointed her to the FBI.

She sent the federal agents a complaint and got a response.

Finn, who is a former federal prosecutor, says agents asked him to collect all the evidence from DPD, the tapes and box of material “Chloe” produced and turn it over to them.

“They've informed me the protocol on cases involving police officers or public servants involves transmitting information to Justice in Washington DC and then they are given either a green light of a red light whether or not to proceed,” Finn said. “Main justice has given Dallas FBI tentative approval to go ahead and pursue this. So, they've green lighted this."

Surprisingly, the complaint doesn't involve just one police officer.

Finn said, “Just when you think you've seen and heard it all there's more..."

When “Chloe” filed her complaint with the FBI about Detective Avery, she also reported relationships she had had with two other officers. One was Carrollton police officer Joe Flores. She met him just a few days after Avery's first visit in late 2004 and taped him too. Like the Avery tapes, she gave them first to Dallas Police, then the FBI.

"So what time are you wanting to get together?" Chloe asked on a taped call.

"Oh,” Officer Joe Flores responded, “how's about 8:30?"

In “Chloe’s” complaint to the Attorney General and the FBI, She says she met Officer Flores after someone torched her car.

She'd gotten into a fight because she was upset her dog came out of a grooming parlor with cuts through the skin.

She got busted. When she came back and found her burned car, she called Carrollton police. Officer Flores responded.

Flores told FOX 4 he did not have an affair with “Chloe,” but he sure sounded friendly on the tape, which, like Avery’s tape, has not been tested for accuracy.

"Oh, that's fine,” Chloe said about meeting at 8:30. “Let's see. What are you going to be wearing?"

Flores said "What would you like for me to wear?"

"Oh I don't know,” said “Chloe.” “I was just wanted to know how to dress?"

"Dressy," said Flores on the taped call.

David Finn originally represented “Chloe” in the dog fight case. He knew about Avery, but only recently learned about Flores.

He told FOX 4, “I think a good defense attorney could make good use of all of this.”

In another taped conversation recorded several months after “Chloe” met Flores, it sounds like things weren't going so well.

"I just felt, no offense, nothing against you or anything,” Flores said on the taped call. “I just felt guilty."

"It’s no big deal,” Chloe said a few seconds later. “Its not like I'm turning you’re a** in to Internal Affairs or anything like that, so don't worry."

Flores said, "I know."

But she did report him. In April 2006, the officer retired under investigation for what his department called, "less than honorable reasons," on the separation report it provided to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

But wait! There's more.

Before either Flores or Avery, there was another cop in her life, this one from Irving, named Officer Don Innes.

She says she met him at a “Stop-and-Go.”

In her FBI complaint, she explained that when he heard about a problem she had with her then-husband, Officer Innes got involved.

"He kind of took it upon himself to drive to Love Field and shoot bullet holes in my husband’s car," “Chloe” told FOX 4.

A 2003 Irving Internal Affairs investigation shows “Chloe” reported the shooting and accused Innes of sexually assaulting her.

Irving PD found the vehicle was, "in fact shot with a pistol," but couldn't prove the assault.

The officer was eventually indefinitely suspended for "untruthfulness and insubordination."

Innes resigned and is currently working as an officer in Argyle, Texas.

He has not returned our calls.

So, although “Chloe's” three cops all quit, no one was prosecuted.

“Chloe,” however, still faces charges because of the dog fight. She left the state because she says she's afraid, but she'll be back to stand trial this spring.

When she returns, though, she won’t face prostitution charges. The calls with Officer Avery make that crystal clear.

“What did you do with my picture that was at the police department at one time, did you burn it?" Chloe asked on one taped call.

"Oh it's totally gone,” Avery promised. “All of that stuff has been shredded."

"Oh good," said “Chloe.”