Peralta, Hughes honored at law enforcement banquet





Sgt. Investigator Max Peralta of the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Department was named the 2013 Atascosa County Law Enforcement Officer’s Association Officer of the Year at their annual banquet held Monday, May 20. Pleasanton Express Editor Sue Brown presents the award which has been sponsored by the paper since its inception.

Sgt. Investigator Max Peralta of the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Department was named the 2013 Atascosa County Law Enforcement Officer’s Association Officer of the Year at their annual banquet held Monday, May 20. Pleasanton Express Editor Sue Brown presents the award which has been sponsored by the paper since its inception.

Every year the Law Enforcement Officers Association (ACLEOA) is joined by the community to honor one of their own, as well as an outstanding citizen, by gathering for their annual awards banquet. Sgt. Investigator Max Peralta of the Sheriff’s Department and John W. Hughes were this year’s honorees.

The awards banquet was held at the Jourdanton Community Center with guest speaker Pleasanton City Manager Bruce Pearson. Pearson spoke of the changes and opportunities that have happened due to the Eagle Ford Shale play in our area. The evening included a delicious steak dinner prepared and provided by Pumpco, Inc.

The Officer of the Year award is presented in memory of two Atascosa County Deputies, Aerl Jernigan and Luis Garza, who lost their lives in the performance of their duties. Deputy Aerl L. Jernigan was killed on December 21, 1975 while answering a disturbance call in the Primrose area of northern Atascosa County.

The Pleasanton Express has sponsored this award since 1975.

Deputy Luis Garza was killed along with his wife, Elida, after being kidnapped on July 19, 1973 near Charlotte. The Citizen of the Year award is named for Elida Garza.

Sgt. Investigator Max Peralta Aerl Jernigan-Luis Garza Law Enforcement Officer of the Year

Sgt. Investigator Max Peralta has soared passed his peers in the investigations of narcotic traffic in Atascosa County. He has taken simple calls and turned them into drug and money seizures. This officer continues to impress the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office administration by solving multiple burglaries that are assigned to him, recovering stolen property and making arrests on these cases.

In early July 2012, this Atascosa County Sheriff’s office received a high volume of burglary calls in the Highway 97 and Highway 37 area.Peralta was able to sift through the evidence and located a suspect on one of the burglaries. He was able to collect a number of stolen items that were taken in several burglaries in the area from the suspect’s home. After he interrogated the suspect, he learned of two more suspects and was able to draw up a search warrant for the residence of these two suspects.

Peralta led a team of investigators to the suspects’ home where stolen and personal property of burglary victims were recovered. In all, during his investigation of these burglaries he made six arrests and was able to clear five or six residential burglaries in a matter of days.

He is a staple in the law enforcement and civilian community. Whether it’s tracking down burglary suspects or volunteering for Little League Baseball, the community can count on him to be there when needed in any manner.

Peralta was nominated by Captain Investigator Matthew Miller, also of the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Department.

The other nominees were:

Jourdanton Chief of Police Eric Kaiser and DPS Highway Patrol Trooper Waylon Rogers.

John W. Hughes Elida Garza Citizen of the Year

John Hughes and his wife Pamela decided to move to the country when they found out they would be having their first son, Coleman (and later came little brother Wyatt). Wanting to move away from the big city of Dallas, he decided to start a new company out in the small country town of Hico, from the ground up, in 1999 – a heavy equipment company called JW Hughes Excavation. He began hiring on more locals who proved to be great and over the years his business has grown and expanded to include oil field business, railroad business and farm and ranch business.

He and Pamela became very involved in their Hico community and continue their support there through financial sponsorships, ministry support, school improvement jobs, supporting school teams and students and helping where they can. For the past five years, John has organized an annual Christmas fund in his hometown to ensure that no child goes without Christmas presents on Christmas morning. Last year, the Christmas fund helped over 110 children, purchasing over 1000 gifts.

John loves the outdoors – hunting and shooting have always been an important part of his life. He and his wife are passionate about their 2nd Amendment rights to protect themselves and others and they are very appreciative of our armed forces and police force. They want to help where they can, so while living in Hico, John built a certified shooting range on their ranch so all local law enforcement would have a great place to practice that was close by, free of charge.

This led to his forming anew organization, Reality Defense Inc. in 2010. Reality Defense is a training facility for civilian and law enforcement with the purpose to teach all people how to protect themselves, be proactive and avoid being a victim. RDI provides training classes for all people and believes in educating all people in situational awareness, gunhandling skills, personal security and competence. Recently, John provided free RDI self-defense training classes to women of the Jourdanton/Pleasanton area. He, through RDI, along with the Jourdanton Police Department, provided three all-day classes to help the women in our area become aware of possible threats and how to eliminate them. Seventy-five women participated in the course. These classes taught hand to hand tactics, pepper spray techniques and basic handgun skills.

John and his family moved down to Pleasanton/ Jourdanton area a couple of years ago when he opened an office working in the Eagle Ford Shale. Being down here, they want to be a part of the community and have helped with several charitable needs in Pleasanton and Jourdanton .

Once again being a huge supporter of law enforcement, John took the initiative to meet with Jourdanton Chief Eric Kaiser to find out in what areas he may be able to assist the law enforcement community. Those conversations led to the building of a new law enforcement range at the Atascosa Rifle and Pistol Club. John and his crews worked to build an enormous 100 yard by 85 yard shooting facility with 14 foot high berms. This facility allows law enforcement agencies to train in ways that were not possible at the old range. Police now have the ability to use patrol cars in their training scenarios, set up shooting and moving drills and have more officers on the range at one time than ever before. The ability to train with these methods make our officers more competent and in turn makes our cities and county safer.

This range, if built on a typical commercial contract would have cost tens of thousands of dollars, yet John didn’t charge a single cent for any of the work that was done.

For these acts of generosity, not only financially but in using his time to help improve the training opportunities that our local agencies have available, the 2013 ACLEOA Citizen of the Year is John Hughes.

Lifetime Membership

Two were awarded Lifetime memberships. Justice of the Peace, Pct. 1 Betty Caballero and Lt. Investigator Jake Guerra.

Scholarships

Ronald David Sanchez was awarded the ACLEOA scholarship during the banquet. The $1,000 scholarship will be used to further his studies in the Criminal Justice field.

Officers

The 2012 outgoing officers are Bill Meadows, President; Martin Gonzales, 1st Vice President; John Eric Rutherford, 2nd Vice President; Karen Miller, Secretary- Treasurer and Scotty Smith, Chaplain.

Incoming officers for 2013 are Albert Garza, President; Martin Gonzales, 1st Vice President; Molly Solis, Secretary Treasurer and Scotty Smith, Chaplain.


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