Ya win some, ya lose some
In a village where not much happens, and nothing happens quickly, La Manzanilla won – and lost – our first assistant chief of police with head-spinning speed. In less than a week, Frank Lara Orozco went from hero to villain in a scandal that rocked our town with anger, fear, and disbelief.
Frank introduced himself to a standing-room-only crowd of La Manzanilla residents during a meet-and-greet at restaurant Quinta Valentina on February 16. Response to his presentation and curricula vita with photographs, certificates, commendations, and press releases was extremely positive. At face value, the new lawman was impressive. Not everyone, however, was impressed.
Six days later, “a concerned resident” posted disturbing information from the Pierce County, Washington, sheriff’s office on the La Manzanilla message board. The official report was quickly verified. Our new hero had been convicted of a Level 3 sex offense.
Clearly, this charge contradicted Orozco’s purported history of serving with the Houston, Texas, SWAT team for several years. The tormenta de caca hit the local ventilador with hurricane force.
Confusion and unparalleled paranoia reigned. Some people refused to believe or were skeptical, at best. Many were outraged. A few called for sanity until we had definitive answers. No one wanted his or her name associated with information about or action against an unknown entity with authority and a gun.
A second meeting was quickly scheduled for Orozco to iron out this new wrinkle in his smartly starched resume, but he subsequently canceled it based on advisement from La Huerta due to “political reasons.” He did, however, speak to the issue in a brief interview transcribed on our message board. Describing the situation as “complicated,” Orozco admitted to serving seven years for the felony, saying it was a case of mistaken identity wherein the lives of his family were jeopardized.
In the meantime, a reliable source had received copies of court documents from the State of Washington with conclusive evidence indicating Orozco’s explanation of the incident was false. Additionally, someone else posted an email response from the Houston police department that ‘they had no record of a Frank Lara Orozco ever having worked for them.’
Less than a month after his official introduction to the community, Frank Orozco has faded from view in La Manzanilla. La Huerta recently issued a statement that “beginning March 1st, 2010, Mr. Frank Lora Orozco, who acted as Assistant Director of the Department of Public Security of La Huerta, left his official position under this municipal police force.” Orozco has since issued a statement on our message board that he is now “in charge of all police training programs for La Huerta county.”
Who is Frank Orozco? Opinions vary. He’s been tagged a psychopath and a menace by some, and defended by others as a man who deserves a second chance. Some think he should have won an Oscar for walking the walk and talking the talk so convincingly. A few people are still in denial that he’s ostensibly not quite the hero we wanted him to be.
Whoever he is, Frank Orozco certainly had an unprecedented impact on La Manzanilla. But, out of sight, out of mind. He’ll probably drift out of our lives like the last of the tourists and the winter residents heading north; this drama shoved aside in our collective conscious by the shenanigans and revelry of Semana Santa crowds. And then it will be summer again, when nothing really happens.
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