The former Corpus Christi Police Department officer accused of impersonating a CPS worker was found not guilty on two counts of impersonating a public servant and found guilty on two counts of official oppression.
A Nueces County jury reached a verdict shortly after 3 p.m. Judge Sandra Watts announced Deleon would be sentenced Nov. 26, and Deleon requested Watts assess her punishment. That means Watts will decide her punishment, and not a jury.
Norma Deleon was facing charges after reportedly posing as a Child Protective Service employee to gain access to her boyfriend’s niece.
The charges stem from an incident on Nov. 29, 2018, when the CCPD said Deleon called two police officers to escort her to an apartment on Carroll Lane for a welfare check on a child.
They said she then passed herself off as a CPS employee so the girl’s father, Joshua Barnes, would allow her into the house.
Her defense attorney, Terry Shamsie, said Deleon never identified herself as a CPS worker. During the trial, he pointed out that, before Deleon arrived at the apartment on Carroll Lane, she along with the two officers mistakenly went to a home on Navarro Drive and questioned a couple there. Once there, the homeowner asked Deleon, who was in plain clothes, if she was a caseworker.
"Who are you? A caseworker? Right?" he can be heard saying in video taken by one of the officer's body cameras.
Deleon said "Yeah," and giggled. She later said "Nah, I'm cool."
Shamsie said the evidence showed that Deleon never conducted herself in a manner that would lead others to believe she was a CPS employee.
Once inside, police said Deleon found the girl and she used her cell phone to FaceTime with the girl's maternal grandmother.
Moments later, Barnes realized Deleon was not a case worker but, in fact, dating the child's uncle, fellow CCPD officer Tommy Cabello.
During Deleon's trial, Nueces Co. Asst. District Attorney Eric Flores said Deleon used her resources as a police officer, including a police computer, to find the young girl.
