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By Tony Farkas
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Peter SpartaThe felony charge against a candidate for the San Jacinto County Precinct 3 constable’s position, arrested in January, was dismissed Friday because it was characterized as a case of mistaken identity.
The charge was dismissed by a representative of the Waller County District Attorney’s Office, Tiffany Bradshaw.
Peter Sparta, a former deputy constable in Precinct 3, was arrested Jan. 11 by deputies of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office on a charge of impersonating a public servant, a third-degree felony.
At that time, an arrest warrant issued by Waller County Judge Carbett Duhon for an incident that occurred on Dec. 21, 2023, where Sparta allegedly detained a school bus driver who was on the morning pickup route.
The warrant states that the bus driver had just picked up a child when a light-colored vehicle with flashing red and blue lights pulled in behind the bus. The driver told police the man driving the vehicle came to the bus door and had a short conversation with her, claiming he worked for Harris County and told the driver he pulls behind buses to ensure the safety of the students.
The warrant does not state whether the driver was told the suspect’s identity, only that he had a jacket with the word constable printed on the back.
Sparta said his attorney was told they found the individual who was on the video, that he was a Harris County law enforcement officer and that he admitted to being the one who pulled over the bus.
Sparta has contended since January that the arrest was politically motivated — saying it happened minutes before he was supposed to be in Coldspring for a Republican Party candidate event. He maintained that he has never been to Waller County, and that on the day of incident, he was physically unable to drive, needing his daughter to take him to Coldspring for candidates to draw names for ballot placement.
Waller County Sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Darling, the investigator on the case, said a photo of the suspect was circulated throughout area law enforcement agencies during the investigation, and former coworker identified the suspect as Sparta.
However, the person who actually pulled over the bus, who was not yet identified, closely resembled Sparta; still, Darling said that because they take the safety of children seriously, a warrant was issued for Sparta’s arrest.
Waller County Sheriff Troy Guidry said that his office is investigating several instances where someone in the county, who is not a certified police officer, was driving an unmarked vehicle and pulling over drivers, and that the incident with Sparta unfortunately came up at that time.
In the interest of children’s safety, the office moved quickly, Guidry said.
Darling said that Sparta was arrested based on the coworker’s identification and was not politically motivated.
He also said that the suspect is a certified officer and a Harris County constable, and that the investigation is continuing because the officer did not identify himself.
As a former law enforcement officer, Sparta said this case was handled unprofessionally.
“Since this involved a former law enforcement person, I would have at least reached out to the last place I worked,” he said. “There were no messages, no phone calls, no in-person visits, they didn’t even call (former supervisor) Sam Houston.”
He also said he was told he is eligible to have the event expunged from the record, but at his own cost.
“I’m told that I have to pay an attorney to have that done,” he said. “An innocent person shouldn’t have to pay to have his name cleared, and an innocent person shouldn’t have to be out of the $1,000 of bail money on a $10,000 bond.
“The people I’ve arrested or had arrested are innocent until proven guilty,” he said. “My integrity is still intact. I want to enforce the law, not try to break the law.”
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