He might have survived a rape charge in 2002 and his own admission that he deported his Honduran lover four years later, but Dallas County Mike Dupree resigned this afternoon during a court hearing on a petition seeking to remove him from office. Dan Wyde, a former Dallas County criminal court judge who brought the case against the beleaguered constable, tells Unfair Park that Dupree agreed to leave office after a visiting judge ruled that Wyde’s case could move forward. Wyde also says that Dupree accepted a plea with the state attorney general’s office -- which was conducting a criminal investigation of Dupree -- to a misdemeanor abuse of power charge that will include one year deferred probation.
Neither Dupree nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.
In January, the paper version of Unfair Park began reporting how Dupree deported his lover to Honduras in a jealous pique after the young man, who was a teenager when he and Dupree met, took up with a female stripper. Shortly after, Dupree’s employees called the paper and county officials about other acts of misconduct, including sexually harassing his own employees. In April, several of his employees filed a petition to remove him from office, alleging, among other things, that he ordered a deputy to shoot up a political rival’s car and relentlessly came on to his Hispanic underlings.
Wyde’s lawsuit was later amended to include more serious charges, including one accusing Dupree of putting his employees under surveillance because he suspected them of conspiring to get him out of office.
The last few months have been particularly stressful for Dupree. In addition to the petition to remove him from office, Dupree was also the subject of a county and state investigation. Earlier this week, the county inquiry, which was ordered by the Dallas County Commissioner’s Court, depicted Dupree as a serial sexual harasser. --Matt Pulle
