FBI investigating Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, chief liquor cop was promoted while under internal investigation

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission’s chief cop, Victor Kuykendoll, was promoted to the position while he was still under investigation for assaulting another agent, and even after the agency concluded that Kuykendoll had interfered with an ongoing criminal investigation of two of his friends. Meanwhile, the FBI and Travis County District Attorney’s Office are investigating Kuykendoll and other TABC officials (more on that below).

According to a heavily-redacted report released in response to an open records request, an unnamed agent alleged that he was groped by Kuykendoll and Sgt. Jeffery Farmer while attending a colleague’s retirement party in Waco. I received the report from Darryl Darnell, a retired lieutenant and regular thorn-in-the-side of the TABC brass (may God bless him), who noted that the “investigation” appeared to be an attempt to exonerate Kuykendoll.

The assault allegation was “not sustained” by the internal TABC investigator, Lt. Peter Heller, but the report contains findings far more damning than an assault. Consider this excerpt:

According to [TABC Special Investigations Unit] Investigative Reports, on September 13, 2017, Agent Marvin Padgett “saved screen shots showing friends” on the Facebook Page of AC [i.e., “Acting Chief”] Kuykendoll, and one of his “Facebook Friends”, Rami Altrach, was a person on a Terrorist Watch list. Based on this information, SIU opened the investigation into the alleged illegal activity of AC Kuykendoll, [Tom] Noble, and [Wayne] Stovall.

SIU discovered AC Kuykendoll began deleting Facebook pictures related to Rami Alatrach on or before October 27th. In stark contrast to “a couple months after” the October 26th party, that AC Kuykendoll asserted.

Kuykendoll, Noble and Stovall were longtime friends who had worked together in the Waco field office, according to a former TABC agent whom I’ll call “Agent X.” Rami Altrach was a Lebanese national who owned a night club and a car lot in Bell County, according to Agent X, and Agent X was fired by TABC in May after he reported the alleged criminal activity (more on that below).

[UPDATE (12/21/2018 10:50 a.m. ET): I received an email (click here) and record excerpt (click here) from Wayne Stovall indicating that TABC found the charges “unsustained” with respect to any connection between him and Altrach. The email is worth reading, and I’ve requested a full copy of the record.

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