The Comal County Sheriff’s Office holds itself out as an agency where professionalism is not an option — it is a requirement woven into every aspect of its operations. Its Social Networking/Internet Posting policy is unyielding: electronic communication must never undermine the mission, credibility, or public confidence in the sheriff’s office. Deputies are warned that anything they publish online — any image, any comment, any joke — may affect not only their own standing but the integrity of the agency itself.
The policy emphasizes that deputies are public servants held to a higher standard. Intent matters less than impact. Perception matters as much as fact. And public trust, once compromised, is difficult to restore.
For an agency that frames its identity around reputation and order, nothing illustrates the tension between policy and practice more clearly than what happened next: a joke at a training exercise that eventually cost a deputy his career, while raising deeper questions about internal accountability, consistency, and who within the organization is allowed to make mistakes.
A Training Day That Turned Into a Turning Point
On June 30, 2025, deputies gathered at Canyon High School for ALERRT training — the high-stress, scenario-based drills designed to prepare officers for real-world active shooter events. These trainings are intense, tightly structured, and physically demanding. Laughter and camaraderie are not unusual. For some deputies, humor is part of surviving the grind.
Late that morning, Deputy Auralio Ornelas was seen adjusting his training gear — including a force-on-force jockstrap that he had initially put on incorrectly, drawing jokes from others. According to multiple accounts, including those in the official internal affairs report, the mood among the deputies was light. Ornelas laughed along. Esquivel laughed along. Corporal A. Luna laughed too.
Video later reviewed by internal affairs shows Deputy Anthony Esquivel, on break, walking toward his patrol vehicle. He opened the rear hatch, set something down, shut the hatch, and then began walking toward Ornelas. He raised his phone, snapped a picture, turned, and got into the passenger side of Corporal Luna’s patrol car. Moments later, Luna drove the vehicle away.
At that moment, nothing about the exchange stood out as malicious. It was, by every account, part of the humor of the day. Hours later, the training continued. Evaluations resumed. The mood moved on. But the photo did not.
Two Versions, Two Meanings — and Two Very Different Impacts
Days later, two versions of the same scene emerged. The first was the version taken by Esquivel during training: A deputy standing in the parking lot, holding two bottles, gear slightly disheveled, and with a jockstrap still visible. No clown face. No mocking caption. No edited features. A candid moment between coworkers. This was the version that was sent to a prior coworker.
The second image — the one altered — appeared later. The face was covered with a clown emoji. The name and identifying information were scribbled out. This doctored image accompanied the caption of “Don’t sweat it. This guy will help you.” and was posted to the Comal County, Texas Facebook page.
Members of the public seeing the altered version would have no way to know who the deputy was or which agency he worked for. Even in the unaltered version, the badge and patch are not clearly identifiable.
For investigators inside the Sheriff’s Office, however, the question wasn’t whether the public could identify the deputy. The question was whether a deputy had taken an image at a training event and shared it with someone outside the agency, knowing it could be misused.
Lt. Guerra Gets the Case — and an Investigation Begins
On July 8, 2025, then-Lieutenant Michael Guerra was notified about the photo and its online posting. Guerra immediately framed the situation as one involving potential harm to the agency, describing the post as an intentional effort “to embarrass Deputy Ornelas and discredit the Sheriff’s Office.”
Guerra contacted Comal ISD security to obtain surveillance footage. When the video confirmed Esquivel took the photo, he initiated a full internal affairs investigation. In this role, Guerra was responsible for determining whether a deputy had violated the Sheriff’s Office social media policy — a policy rooted in professionalism, judgment, and safeguarding the public’s trust.
The irony, however, is that Guerra himself had previously been investigated by the City of Seguin for releasing information to the media without authorization — a fact not disclosed in the internal affairs packet, but documented in our prior reporting.
Despite that history, Guerra now held the authority to decide whether another deputy’s actions threatened the reputation of the Sheriff’s Office.
Esquivel’s Statement: “It Was Joking and Laughing All Morning”
In his formal written response, Deputy Esquivel laid out his perspective with clarity: He attended ALERRT training with several other deputies. He saw Ornelas struggling with the jockstrap. Ornelas and several others laughed about it. The photo was taken during that joking atmosphere.
Esquivel described Ornelas as a well-liked deputy with a sense of humor, and the photo as harmless between colleagues. He said the image was sent to former deputy Richard Ormsby only at Ormsby’s request, and only because they had a longstanding, personal relationship. Esquivel insisted he never expected or intended for the photo to be shared publicly — and had no knowledge that it would be altered.
He also denied that he provided Ormsby with any agency-related information, any official context, or any access to non-public content. But once Esquivel hit “send,” the image left his control. And when Ormsby posted it publicly with mocking commentary, the Sheriff’s Office saw a violation — not of humor, but of policy.
Luna’s Side: Humor, Poor Judgment, and an Honest Admission
Corporal A. Luna provided a critical witness perspective. His statement offers an important balancing point in the narrative. Luna confirmed that he was present when the photo was taken. He described the environment as relaxed and filled with humor, noting that Ornelas had been joking with others that morning. Luna said he believed Ornelas himself found the situation funny.
Luna did not recall Esquivel expressing any malicious intent. He also denied sharing the photo with Ormsby, stating he does not communicate with him. However, Luna also acknowledged an important truth. Intent is not the same as outcome.
Luna stated that once the photo was posted online — especially in its altered, clown-faced version — it was inappropriate and could be perceived as disrespectful. He admitted that, in hindsight, the joking context at training did not translate to the public arena, where the image could be easily misunderstood or weaponized.
A Career Ends — Quickly and With Full Command Approval
Within thirteen days of Guerra first receiving the complaint, the decision was final. Sheriff Mark Reynolds terminated Deputy Esquivel on July 21, 2025, citing conduct that “brought discredit to the sheriff’s office” and “diminished the public’s confidence and trust.” The chain of approval was uniform and swift: Guerra conducted the IA investigation with a termination recommendation, Captain Gary Noegel seconded the recommended, Deputy Chief James W. Jones concurred and Sheriff Reynolds sustained the findings.
Seventeen and a half years of service ended with a single photograph.
But the Larger Question Remains: Who Guards the Guardians?
This story extends far beyond a single deputy, a single photo, or a single Facebook post. It raises a structural question about credibility and consistency inside the Comal County Sheriff’s Office.
Because the man who led the internal investigation — now Captain Guerra — had once been investigated elsewhere for similar issues involving the release of information. Because discipline is supposed to hinge on preserving public trust — yet public trust is harmed not just by the mistakes of deputies, but by the perception that rules are enforced unevenly. Because when lower-ranking deputies are held to strict, unforgiving standards while command staff move forward despite documented lapses in judgment, the public sees the imbalance. And so do the deputies who remain.
The Sheriff’s Office policy declares that professionalism is essential to legitimacy. But legitimacy requires consistency — not just in documents, but in practice. When the guardian of the rules once broke the same type of rule, the question becomes unavoidable: Does the policy protect the public trust — or protect the image of those at the top?
Transparency or Image Control? The Public Will Decide
The Sheriff’s Office maintains that Esquivel’s actions undermined public trust and violated policy. But the circumstances surrounding the photograph raise a more complex question about how “harm” is defined — and who benefits from that definition.
The two images at the center of this case, both the original and the altered version, reveal almost nothing identifying. The badge cannot be read. The patch is indistinct. The name plate is not visible. Even in the unedited photo, there is no clear indication of which agency the deputy belongs to. The edited version, with the clown face and markings scribbled out, obscures even more. Despite that, the Sheriff’s Office concluded that the potential for embarrassment was enough to justify termination.
Yet, as this story demonstrates, any publicly available photograph — including those posted on the Sheriff’s Office’s own website and social media pages — can be altered, repurposed, or mocked with the same ease. A side-by-side of an official agency photograph and its digitally altered counterpart shows just how quickly an image can take on a different meaning once it enters the public sphere.
The photo on the right is one posted on the Comal County Sheriff’s Office social media page on or about November 25, 2025, and the one on the left is used for demonstrative purposes only that any image can be altered by someone other than the original creator.
That reality complicates the justification for Esquivel’s firing. If the possibility that an image might be misused is grounds for dismissal, then the standard extends far beyond one deputy. It would apply to every employee whose photograph appears online, whether posted by the agency or by someone else.
Which raises the central issue: Was the discipline in this case about protecting the public trust — or protecting the Sheriff’s Office’s image?
The speed of the decision, the unanimity of command staff, and the contrast between Esquivel’s punishment and the past conduct of the officials involved in the investigation contribute to a broader concern about consistency. Public trust is not only shaped by the actions of deputies; it is shaped by how the agency responds, and whether those responses are applied evenly across ranks.
With the release of these documents, statements, and images, the public now has the opportunity to evaluate the decision for themselves — to consider whether a single photograph taken during a moment of levity warranted the end of a 17-year career, and whether the standard used to justify that decision can be applied fairly and universally.
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