Dallas trucking company owner sentenced for bribing inspection officer

The owner of a trucking company in Dallas has been sentenced for his role in bribing a Texas Department of Public Safety officer for favorable Level 1 safety inspections. The officer was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment in April.

On July 12, Orlinte Cruz, owner of Cruz and Sons Transportation and UGMA Logistics in Dallas, was handed a one-year sentence, which includes six months imprisonment and six months home confinement. Ortiz will also have to pay a $10,000 fine.

According to court documents, from July 2014 to September 2015, Cruz and a DPS officer worked together in what the court described as “the concealment of material information to defraud and deprive the citizens of the state of Texas and DPS of their right to honest and faithful services” through bribery.

More specifically, Kevin Cauley, a Highway Patrol Commercial Vehicle Enforcement sergeant, accepted money from Cruz in exchange for favorable inspections. Cauley issued a CVSA decal indicating a passed inspection with no infraction or corrective action to be completed for six of Cruz’s vehicles on July 10, 2014.

Furthermore, Cauley indicated on three inspection reports that a colleague assisted him and that the inspections were roadside. The colleague never assisted with those inspections, and the inspections were conducted in the yard of Cruz and Sons.

In January 2015, Cauley and Cruz conspired to repeat the same scheme with 11 Level 1 inspections. This was also repeated in May, July and September in 2015, accounting for at least 22 Level 1 inspections. In total, court documents allege at least 39 Level 1 inspections were falsely conducted by Cauley.

Court documents show that Cruz paid Cauley at least $4,000 for the favorable inspections.