Psychologist, husband plead guilty to 'tampering' with peace officer candidate evaluations

A Houston psychologist and her husband pleaded guilty Wednesday to tampering with mental health evaluations for peace officer candidates in a scandal that left more than a dozen police agencies in the Houston area scrambling to retest officers to ensure they are fit for duty.

Psychologist Carole Busick and her husband, Don Busick, a licensed professional counselor, were sentenced to 10 years probation with deferred adjudication, meaning the charges against them will be dropped if they complete the probationary term without incident.

They were accused of cutting corners on the exams of job candidates for peace officer or jailer positions by not performing face-to-face interviews with the candidates and using outdated tests, throwing the validity of thousands of previous certifications into question.

A Houston Chronicle investigation found that thousands of Houston-area peace officers do not have proper certification that they are mentally fit for the job.

The Busicks have maintained state regulators never informed them that face-to-face exams were required but performed them when asked by local agencies.

Officials from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, which initiated the investigation into the Busicks in 2014, did not respond to a request for comment regarding the plea deal.

A Harris County grand jury charged the couple in August 2015.

The Busicks, both 67, will voluntarily relinquish their professional licenses and retire from practice, according to the terms of the plea deal.

"They're out of the psychology business entirely," said their attorney, Michael Hinton, complimenting state District Judge Ryan Patrick and the Harris County District Attorney's Office for their professionalism.

The Busicks also were ordered to each repay $8,762.50 to four agencies that had paid for their services and are now retesting officers the couple had screened.

The four agencies are the Harris County Sheriff's Office, Metro Police, the Katy Police Department and the Spring ISD Police Department.

"We're glad Donald and Carole Busick had to give up their licenses to practice, so this will never happen again with these individuals," said Claire Morneau, the assistant district attorney handling the case, after the brief court hearing.

Commission officials said issues raised by the scandal had prompted them to review their rules and practices regarding the psychological screening process.

The sheriff's office has so far retested fewer than 100 of the more than 1,800 current employees screened by Busick and her husband.

The couple had been charged with three counts of tampering with a government document, a felony that carried a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in jail and $10,000 in fines. The two pleaded guilty to two counts of tampering with a governmental record each.

"It's a sad ending to a 30-year-plus career," Hinton said. "It is sad, but they've chosen to take this path."