Gary Painter

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Gary Wayne Painter​
Sheriff of Midland County, Texas​
In office January 1, 1985 ​ – May 26, ​2019
Preceded by	Dallas Smith​
Succeeded by	Richard Gillette (interim)
Born	April 2, 1947 Amherst, Lamb County, Texas
Died	May 26, ​2019 (aged 72) Midland, Texas
Resting place	Resthaven Cemetery in Midland​
Nationality	American ​
Political party	Republican​
Spouse(s)	Patsy A. Oaks Painter (married c. 1979-2019, his death)
Children	Sandy P. Stewart Jennifer Lynn Painter Justin Wayne Painter Parents: Wayne Vearl and Ella Elizabeth "Beth" Pemberton Painter.
Residence	Midland, Texas​
Alma mater	(1) Plainview (Texas) High School​ (2) Draughons Practical Business College ​ (3) Sul Ross State University (Alpine, Texas)​
Occupation	Law-enforcement officer Businessman​
Religion	Southern Baptist ​
Military Service
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps​
Years of service	1966-1970
Rank	Sergeant​
Battles/wars	Vietnam War: DMZ and Da Nan (two tours of duty)
Awards	(1) National Defense Service Medal (2) Vietnam Campaign Medal (3) Vietnam Service Ribbon with six devices (4) Presidential Unit Commendation (5) Vietnam Cross of Gallantry

​

Gary Wayne Painter (April 2, 1947 – May 26, 2019) was the Republican sheriff of Midland County, Texas, a position that he held from January 1, 1985, until his sudden death in office midway in his ninth four-year term.^[1]

Background[edit]

Painter was born in rural Amherst in Lamb County near Littlefield, Texas, one of two children of Wayne Vearl Painter (1924-1991), and the former Ella Elizabeth "Beth" Pemberton (1925-2017). His sister, Jane P. Penningto, resides in Amarillo, Texas. He was reared on a cotton and grain farm in Edmonson in Hale County. north of Lubbock. In 1965, he graduated from Plainview High School in Plainview, the seat of government of Hale County.^[2] From 1965 to 1966, he attended in Lubbock Draughons Practical Business College,^[3] since known as Daymar Institute.

On September 1, 1966, Painter enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served two tours of duty in the former South Vietnam. He earned the National Defense Service Medal, the [Presidential Unit Citation, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, and the United States Distinguished Service Medal. He was honorably discharged at the rank of sergeant on August 31, 1970, after exactly four years of service in the Marines.^[3]​ Immediately after leaving the military, he joined the Texas Department of Public Safety as a highway patrol officer.^[2]

Painter and his wife, the former Patsy A. Oaks (born 1949), had three children.^[4] A son, Justin Wayne Painter of Splendora in Montgomery County, Texas,^[2] served in the United States Air Force. A daughter, Jennifer Lynn Painter, is a public safety dispatcher with the City of Midland. Painter was a Southern Baptist and a member and the president from 2003 to 2004 of Lions International.^[3]​

Career[edit]

In September 1970, immediately after leaving the military, he joined the Texas Department of Public Safety as a highway patrol officer. He then became a highway patrol officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. He also worked with the sheriff's offices in Culberson and Presidio counties in southwestern Texas. In Alpine, Texas, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in police administration from Sul Ross State University, named for Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross (1838-1898), the 19th governor of Texas. Painter worked too for the Midland Police Department until 1982, when he joined the Midland County sheriff's office. There he was assigned to the detention division and became a criminal investigator and a patrol lieutenant.^[2]

In 1984, he ran for sheriff Painter but almost missed being placed on the Republican primary ballot in May 1984. As he filed his completed paperwork of candidacy, county party chairman William Toler Shaner (1931-1999), the officer in charge of accepting the material, had left early, closed the office, and was at an oil field site some 170 miles from Midland. Though Painter got the material to Shaner, with the filing fee, by 8 p.m. on the night of the Friday deadline, his papers were declared invalid because they were not filed by 5 p.m. Painter went to court to get on the ballot; the judge decreed that Painter met all ballot qualifications; the absence of the party chairman made the 5 p.m. deadline impossible to uphold.^[5]

In the 2008 Republican primary election, Painter scored 90.29 percent of the ballots cast over fellow Republican Joe D. Lozano, Sr.^[6] Eight years earlier, Lozano ran against Painter as an Independent in the 2000 general election and polled 18 percent of the vote.^[7]​

Other opponents who tried to derail Painter on alleged grounds of too much concentration on the war on drugs, ignoring the needs of Midland County, confiscation of drug money, and too many out-of-county arrest ventures were defeated time after time. Painter even managed to sink the re-nomination of a county judge and fellow Republican, Charles Wallis "Bro" Seltzer (born 1948), a Midland oil and natural gas attorney and reserve Air Force officer.^[8]​

A sheriff in Texas is a peace officer who enforces state criminal laws and is responsible for the county jail, bail bonds, civil process, and court security. In some smaller counties, he is also the tax collector.^[9] Sheriff Painter started the first still-functioning multi-jurisdictional narcotics task force in West Texas. He organized the Midland County Sheriff's Office Crisis Intervention Unit and worked to establish the Permian Basin Peace Officers Association, and was one of the founders of the organization "STAR," or Sheriffs of Texas Agreed Response,^[3] a tactical unit of deputies from some sixty counties organized like a "national guard." STAR was born amid the April 1997 standoff in Fort Davis, Texas, vis, where Richard Lance "Rick" McLaren (born c. 1953), a leader of the right-wing militia group called the "Republic of Texas," held two of his neighbors hostage for several days in a trailer park in the Davis Mountains before he agreed to surrender to state troopers.^[8]

Painter was honored by the 200 Club as "Officer of the Year" in 1988 and 1991. Recognized for his leadership abilities, He was a former president of the Sheriff's Association of Texas, in which he held a lifetime membership. He also served on the Legislative and Technology committees of the Sheriff's Association. He proposed legislation to strengthen law enforcement. He was also a former president of the regional Western States Sheriff's Association. In 2016, Texas Governor Greg Abbott appointed Painter as a commissioner of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles after earlier serving for seven years on the Texas Commission on Jail Standards under appointment olf Abbott's predecessor, Governor Rick Perry.^[2]

Law enforcement innovations[edit]

In 1990, after his first re-election, Painter pushed for construction of a new sheriff's office and detention facility, which relieved overcrowding at the then courthouse and spared the need to house surplus prisoners in other counties for a daily fee. He instituted many technological innovations, including the first, either locally or regionally:
​

• Color video imaging machine for mugshots​
• Digital radio system​
• Automated fingerprint identification system ​
• Live scan computerized fingerprint scanning system​
• In-car laptop computer mobile data system​
• In-car video cameras ​
• Radar with laser technology.^[3]

Warnings about terrorism[edit]

In 2014, Painter gained national attention when he spoke out against the danger of Islamic Iraq and ISIS terrorism along the border between the United States and Mexico. Painter said that law-enforcement personnel received alerts of terrorist cells from Iraq and Syria entering through what he called the "wide open" border:

There is no control on the border, it's not shut off. There's places along the Rio Grande you can walk across, there's no water in it. I worked the border for eight years. I walked back and forth across the Rio Grande ...

I think it'd be naive to say that ISIS is not here … We have found Muslim clothing ... Quran books that are lying on the side of the trail, so we know that there are Muslims that have come across and are being smuggled into the United States.

If they [terrorist cells] show their ugly head in our area, we'll send them to hell. ... And I think the United States needs to get busy. And they need to bomb them, they need to take them out.^[10]

References[edit]

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