Bastrop, Texas Events, News & Stories

Bastrop, Tx–As early as May 2006 Bastrop Police Sgt. Burnis Bobbitt was the subject of a complaint of inappropriate touching “on numerous occasions” by a woman employed in a local business. Bobbitt, who joined the department in October 2005, was subsequently warned to stay outside the store, but because the woman declined to provide a formal complaint no further police review followed until additional complaints surfaced.

But in January 2008 and again in Sept. 2009 further complaints, similar in nature, came to the attention of city police who interviewed witnesses–some of them reluctant ones–and launched formal inquiries. On Oct. 15 this year Bobbitt resigned his post as evening patrol supervisor. He had been suspended with pay on Sept. 9, pending results of the administrative investigation. He is not suspected of criminal wrong doing.

This outline of events emerged last week when city officials released documents related to Bobbitt’s tenure as a Bastrop police officer following a records request under the Texas Public Information Act. The documents do not include some information, including the names of complaining witnesses and where they worked when they encountered Bobbitt while he was on duty, often late in the evening or near closing time.

Still, the city files reviewed by Bastrop-News.com shed light on how police officials became concerned about Bobbitt’s conduct on duty and prepared to take disciplinary action against him, possibly including firing. Bobbitt, 63, resigned before any administrative action was imposed.

Those lodging complaints were women, some still in their teens, who objected to what they perceived as a pattern of unwelcome hugs, verbal comments on their appearance and touching their breasts and buttocks. Most of them seem to have worked in stores, restaurants and bars in Bastrop. Two of the women who gave statements, however, did not object to the sergeant’s hugs. At least eight others were offended and some said they were reluctant to tell him to stop or complain to higher authorities for fear of harassment by other city police officers.

Following the complaints of early 2008 Bobbitt was admonished in writing and reminded of the department’s standards for professional conduct, according to the documents.

But new allegations came to light in early September this year and led to Bobbitt’s resignation last month.

In his own defense, Bobbitt readily conceded he sometimes hugged or was hugged by those he visited while they were at work. Any more intimate contact was accidental or otherwise inadvertent, he said. Bobbitt insisted his behavior was to avoid appearing “stand offish” and to demonstrate that city officers were easily approachable by members of the public.

Whenever Bobbitt appeared where she worked, one witness told investigators, she promptly fled to another part of the establishment until he was gone. Other employees said they were aware of the woman’s reaction and attitude about the sergeant.

One witness told investigators Bobbitt touched her buttocks “at least 15 times” in the previous 12 months. That claim could not be independently confirmed, said one report.

Bobbitt was named the police department’s Employee of the Month for July 2007. Other records show he retired in 1996 after 20 years in the U.S. Army, mostly as a military policeman. Prior to joining the Bastrop force he also worked for police agencies in Bridge City and Nacogdoches. He was also previously employed as an investigator for the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office and was an insurance fraud investigator for the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.

Bobbitt earned an accounting degree from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1972.