BURNET COUNTY — A Burnet County jury convicted Llano Chief of Police, Kevin Ratliff, on Thursday for three misdemeanors: two counts of official oppression and one count of tampering with a governmental record.
The investigation began when a man filed a complaint with the district attorney's office in December 2017, stating he was arrested in May 2017 for public intoxication outside his home, but evidence in trial revealed he was actually arrested inside his home and officers could not legally enter his home to make the arrest, according to the district attorney's office.
District attorney officials said the report documenting the arrest, which was approved and signed by Ratliff, left out the facts that Ratliff had entered the residence and misrepresented that the man had been arrested in public.
The jury deliberated for nearly six hours before reaching the verdict to chose the misdemeanor offense on Thursday. However, when the verdict was given, two jurors said even though they had voted for this verdict, they felt the conviction should be for the higher offense of felony tampering, according to the district attorney's office.