Off-duty Mission police sergeant charged with public intoxication after being found behind the wheel of stolen car

Mission police Sgt. Adan Beltran. (Photo courtesy of the city of Mission.)

Officers charged an off-duty Mission police sergeant with public intoxication Saturday after they found him sitting behind the wheel of a stolen car.

The Alamo Police Department charged Mission police Sgt. Adan Beltran with public intoxication, a Class C misdemeanor, on Saturday morning.

“At this point, we have no comment until we gather all the facts,” said Det. Art Flores, a spokesman for the Mission Police Department.

The Alamo Police Department arrested Beltran at approximately 7 a.m. Saturday, when officers responded to a call about a suspicious car near the intersection of South 7th Street and East Austin Avenue.

Officers found Beltran sitting in the driver’s seat of the car, which had been parked and wasn’t running when they arrived.

Mission police Sgt. Adan Beltran. (Photo courtesy of the city of Mission.)

Beltran appeared intoxicated, said Alamo police Chief Richard Ozuna.

A man who lived nearby had reported the car stolen at approximately 2 a.m. Saturday.

The man said he kept the keys in his ignition, Ozuna said. In the middle of the night, the man heard the car start and drive away.

He reported the car stolen. When officers found the car, the man decided he didn’t want to press charges, Ozuna said.

Officers charged Beltran with public intoxication — not driving while intoxicated — because nobody actually witnessed him driving the car.

“How he got from Point A to Point B, that’s unknown,” Ozuna said.

Beltran graduated from Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School and joined the Mission Police Department in 2002, according to documents released under the Texas Public Information Act. When he applied for the job, Beltran disclosed that he’d been cited for public intoxication in “Approx 1993” and paid a fine.

The Mission Police Department assigned Beltran to provide security at local schools through the “Educational Resource Officer Program.” He also worked patrol.

In 2009, the Pharr Police Department cited Beltran for public intoxication, according to information released by the Pharr Municipal Court. He pleaded no contest and Pharr fined him $64.

Beltran received another citation for public intoxication in 2017, when Mission Police Department officers found him passed out behind the wheel of a black Toyota Tundra.

“Beltran seemed to be dazed and wanted to know what was going on,” according to a police report written by an officer who found him asleep. “I advised Beltran that he fell asleep in the drive thru of the Jack in the box. Beltran replied ‘no I’m at whataburger.’”

Officers asked Beltran to perform a standard field sobriety test. He failed.

Beltran pleaded no contest to public intoxication, according to Mission Municipal Court records. A judge dismissed the case after Beltran paid $221 and successfully completed a deferred adjudication program.

The Mission Police Department, meanwhile, punished Beltran by suspending him without pay for 12 days.

While the incident at Jack in the Box made headlines, it apparently didn’t hurt Beltran’s career.

Mission promoted him to sergeant in 2020.