Following an administrative leave, Jason Collier, the then-Stinnett Police Chief Resigned on Thursday after being investigated for tampering with a government document and fraudulent intention as confirmed by the Facebook page of the city of Stinnett.
Based on the information that was given by Hutchinson County Sheriff Blaik Kemp, the police chief resignee was arrested by the Texas Ranger and was taken to the Hutchinson County Jail.
Falsification of Public Documents
According to MyHighPlains.com, Sgt. Cindy Barkley of the Texas Department of Public Safety shared on Tuesday that the Texas Rangers conducted a criminal investigation into the Stinnett Police Chief based on the request coming from the Hutchinson County District Attorney's office.
Sgt. Barkley mentioned that the victim received a text message with an attached fraudulent government record coming from alleged sender Collier, and later confirmed that the document was a fraudulent marriage annulment.
Moreover, Sgt. Barkley stated that the police chief resignee was charged with tampering with a government document with the intent to defraud, which is a state felony and has a bond set to $10,000, The Sun reported.
The Discovery
Cecily Steinmetz, a woman from Amarillo, Texas, posted on her Facebook account on Tuesday, sharing that she was engaged to Collier before discovering that the police chief was married.
The story of Steinmetz posted on the social networking platform went viral, as it gained tens of thousands of shares global.
In her Facebook post, she included a photo of an annulment document that can be seen sent by Collier.
Moreover, Collier sent the annulment document to Steinmetz attached to a text message after he was asked to present it to the victim.
But the victim checked the document with Potter County for verification.
Later on, Steinmetz found out that the document was fake.
At the time that Steinmetz provided the photo to MyHighPlains.com, she also mentioned that she does not think that is right to present a false document to people especially in his position.
The document that was provided by Steinmetz to the news agency, which was claimed to be filed under presiding Judge Doug Woodburn of the 108th District Court, was validated by the news agency directly to Judge Woodburn.
Judge Woodburn then replied via text message that there is no match under the name present on the document or even on the cause number.
The presiding judge of the 108th District Court also added that their cause numbers are totally different as it is comprised of numbers which starts at 0 and followed by 6 digits that start in either 7 or 8.
Judge Woodburn also added that his court was followed by letter E, therefore, it is a fake document.
In addition, Steinmetz that her goal in posting the issue about the police chief resignee in social media is to raise awareness locally and for the suspect to be held accountable for what he had violated.
On Thursday evening, Stinnett City Manager Durk Downs posted a statement via the Facebook page of the city of Stinnett that Police Chief Jason Collier resigned in his position effective immediately and the City of Stinnett has accepted his resignation, News4SanAntonio.com reported.
