Texas Highway Patrol Museum to Close Following Settlement with State

The State of Texas has settled an enforcement action against the Texas Highway Patrol Museum.

The museum in San Antonio will close, following a court settlement reached with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office.

The State charged the group, organized by Kenneth Lane Denton, Timothy Tierney, and Steven Jenkins, with illegally soliciting charitable donations in December of 2011.

Abbott’s office held that the group falsely claimed that donations to the organizations would benefit the survivors of fallen state troopers, and breached their fiduciary duties as trustees of a charitable organization.

State investigators found that few survivors actually received any financial assistance from THPM, the Texas Highway Patrol Association, THPA Services, Inc, and others. They also found that many of the purported scholarship funds were awarded to children of TPHM’s board members.

The three individual defendants, along with other group board members, have been banned from any future involvement with non-profit or for-profit organizations related to law enforcement.

“Generous Texans opened their wallets to aid those whose loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice for our state – and the defendants took advantage of that generosity, spending donated funds as they deemed fit,” said Abbott.

“The state took action to secure these funds and ensure they will actually benefit the families of Texas’ fallen police officers.”