{"id":265329,"date":"2025-09-30T02:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T02:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/265329\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T02:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T02:03:16","slug":"controversial-houston-police-officer-reinstated-with-backpay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/265329\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial Houston police officer reinstated with backpay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 A Houston police officer who was previously fired over a violent 2019 arrest has returned to the force with substantial back pay, earning nearly a quarter-million dollars last year \u2014 more than the police chief himself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Officer Lucas Vieira earned approximately $40,000 more than former Police Chief Troy Finner last year, following his reinstatement to the Houston Police Department. The reinstatement came after his termination was overturned, in part, on procedural grounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The officer\u2019s return to duty stems from a controversial July 7, 2019 traffic stop incident captured on body camera footage. During the incident, Vieira was recorded instructing another officer to shoot a handcuffed suspect who was attempting to flee. The suspect, 33-year-old Aundre Howard, had been initially stopped for an expired registration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Body camera footage from the incident showed Vieira later repeatedly striking Howard with handcuffs during the arrest.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Despite the severity of the incident, no immediate action was taken. \u201cThe first review of the incident, he was completely justified in what took place. But then someone saw video, didn\u2019t like it. Therefore, they opened the investigation up and went through it again,\u201d said Doug Griffith, Houston Police Officers\u2019 Union representative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Criminal charges against Vieira for aggravated assault by a public servant were ultimately dismissed when the District Attorney\u2019s office filed charges after the two-year statute of limitations had expired. The DA\u2019s office, when asked about the missed deadline, declined to comment, noting the case was handled during a previous administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Vieira\u2019s reinstatement was largely secured through legal technicalities. The city failed to take disciplinary action within the state-mandated 180-day window for protected public servants, invalidating his termination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cYou violate the state law, therefore he gets his job back,\u201d Griffith explained.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The police union maintains that Vieira has returned to duty with a positive attitude. \u201cHe\u2019s doing a great job, he works hard, he comes to work, he is not bitter about being terminated or anything like that,\u201d Griffith said. \u201cHe comes to work every day and has been trying to make the city of Houston safer with the project that he is working on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">However, civil rights groups, including LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), have expressed concerns about Vieira\u2019s reinstatement. During the pandemic, LULAC leaders held a press conference, calling for Vieira\u2019s firing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Mayor John Whitmire declined to comment on Vieira\u2019s reinstatement. The city has not provided information about the frequency and reasons for officer reinstatements, initially stating they don\u2019t have the requested information.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 A Houston police officer who was previously fired over a violent 2019 arrest has returned to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":265330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,5429,138491,138492,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-265329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-police-department","10":"tag-lucas-vieira","11":"tag-reinstatement","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115290794023251208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}