An Ector County jury Thursday acquitted a 41-year-old West Odessa man accused of assaulting a sheriff’s deputy in February 2021.
Jurors sent out a note around 4:45 p.m. saying they were split 10-2 in favor of acquitting Robert Christopher Perez and after deliberating 15 more minutes told Judge James Rush of the 244th District Court they’d reached a unanimous decision to acquit Perez.
Perez’s attorney, Kevin Acker, argued Perez didn’t intentionally hurt ECSO Deputy Zachary Dennis and tried to portray him as an inexperienced deputy during the Feb. 27, 2021 event in the 3000 block of South Westcliff Road.
Prosecutors Kevin Schulz and Elizabeth Howard started off the trial Wednesday playing a 14-minute long 911 call made by Perez’s estranged wife, Veronica Balerio, and then calling her to the stand.
Balerio testified she and her 17-year-old daughter Yesenia woke up shortly before 5 o’clock the morning of the event to the sound of shattering glass and screaming and yelling.
Over the next several minutes, she said she watched as her drunken husband chased their nephew around their yard on the outskirts of Ector County with pipes from a chain link fence. She saw him shatter all of the windows in their nephew’s SUV, punch her daughter when she tried to break up the fight and strike their nephew with a wine bottle.
Balerio said she secretly called 911 to report her husband’s actions and then pretended to call them at her husband’s request.
Throughout the call, Balerio alternated between talking to the dispatcher, screaming at her husband to stop and telling her husband deputies were on their way to arrest their nephew.
Balerio testified she feared what her husband would do to her and their children if he thought she’d called the authorities on him.
She repeatedly begged her husband to stop the attack, but he ignored her, Balerio said. He also wouldn’t tell her what prompted the fight.
During the 911 call, Balerio can be heard asking the dispatcher repeatedly when deputies would be arriving and exclaiming, “Oh my God. Oh my God” while urging them to hurry up.
Balerio told jurors Yesenia ended up seeking shelter across the street from their home, but she had their other four children hide in the bathroom.
When Dennis arrived, Balerio said he asked her “where is he” and she pointed at her husband while standing outside their gate.
As soon as she did that, her husband moved to close their gate from the inside and Dennis’ arm became trapped between the gate and the fence post, Balerio said.
“He was screaming and telling him to open the gate,” Balerio said of Dennis. “You could hear he was in pain.”
Dennis told her husband to stop fighting over the gate or he’d Tase him and when he persisted, Dennis tased him twice, Balerio said.
Dennis testified Wednesday he went to the hospital following the incident. He underwent X-rays and was told to seek follow-up care. He returned to work several days later.
Under cross examination from Acker, the defense attorney, Dennis agreed he “bull-rushed” Perez when he started to close the gate. However, the deputy defended his actions, saying he didn’t know if Perez had weapons secreted on his person and if he was going to be locked out of the property and away from other potential victims.
Perez testified Thursday that his nephew became belligerent after a night of drinking, pushed him, spit in his face and struck him in the face with a pair of brass knuckles he’d given him earlier in the evening.
After his nephew began digging around under his vehicle’s seat, Perez said he used the poles to shatter all of its windows believing his nephew was looking for a weapon.
“I felt an imminent threat on my life,” Perez said, adding he thought the shattered glass would deter his nephew.
Perez denied striking his daughter. As for his wife, she never asked him why he was bleeding from the head and didn’t realize he was simply defending his family, Perez said.
Although he initially wanted deputies to remove his nephew from his property, he felt the need to close the gate upon their arrival because Dennis “charged at me like a ravenous pit bull,” Perez said. “He didn’t ask me anything remotely.”
Dennis and the other deputies, “didn’t show me any concern. They didn’t bother trying to talk to me,” Perez said.
Perez said he was surprised when he was arrested and his nephew was not.
Perez acknowledged he was placed on probation in 2006 for assault of a public servant and later sent to prison for violating his probation in 2008 when he was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for an incident involving his wife and for evading arrest.
He further admitted he has twice been convicted of misdemeanor resisting arrest. Before admitting it and saying he’s been the victim of racial profiling, Perez initially denied having a problem with law enforcement.
Perez also admitted under cross examination he never told deputies he’d been struck with a pair of brass knuckles.
Perez said his wife has threatened to divorce him in the past, but has never done so. He suggested she only testified against him because of an argument on the phone last week. He pointed out she has consistently visited him in prison and jail, deposited money in his jail account and even hired an attorney for him after his aggravated assault arrest.
During closing arguments, Acker said his client didn’t intentionally hurt Dennis.
Schulz demonstrated for jurors how many shots Perez could have gotten off had he had a gun and had Dennis, who has been in law enforcement six years, behaved as Acker suggested.
“Officers die responding to these calls. Other people died at these calls,” Schulz said. “He did the right thing all day long.”
