A Houston County sheriff’s deputy and a Gladewater police officer have been arrested on child sex-crime charges following a joint investigation launched after a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Skylar Laza, 34, a deputy with the Houston County Sheriff’s Office, was taken into custody on November 5 in Palestine, Texas. He faces state charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony, and a federal indictment for the production of child pornography.
Kenan Keona Laza, 29, a Gladewater Police Department officer, was arrested the next day in Longview and charged with indecency with a child by exposure, a third-degree felony.
Both men have since been terminated from their respective departments, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
“The allegations and evidence presented in this case are deeply disturbing and have shocked this department to its core,” Gladewater Police Chief Kyle Ready said in a statement. “It is unthinkable that an individual entrusted with protecting our community could commit such a horrific act.”
Dallas police said the suspects and the victim know one another, though the nature of the relationship remains under investigation.
The case began when the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a cyber tip through NCMEC on November 5 reporting possible sexual abuse of a child. Detectives quickly identified the two men as suspects and determined both had allegedly assaulted the same child multiple times.
U.S. Marshals assisted in the arrest of the Gladewater officer. The case is filed under Dallas police case number 159498-2025.
In a separate and unrelated incident, a Dallas police officer was arrested on November 4 by the Royse City Police Department for alleged domestic violence.
Officer Armando Jaramillo, who joined DPD in 2022 and is assigned to the Northeast Patrol Division, has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.