FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A Fort Worth police task force that reviewed hundreds of cases handled by a crimes-against-children detective before his July firing has issued 85 arrest warrants.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the 13-member task force audited about 1,100 cases out of about 2,700 cases assigned to former detective Dennis Hutchins over 14 years with the Fort Worth Police Department crimes against children unit.
Last March, a children’s advocate asked Hutchins’ supervisor for an update on a victim’s 2014 case. The supervisor discovered the case hadn’t filed and the juvenile suspect had reached adulthood and could no longer be prosecuted. He said Hutchins told him “he simply forgot and lost track of the case.”
Hutchins’ attorney, Terry Daffron, has said Hutchins suffered from “burnout” because of crushing caseloads and insufficient staffing.