Texas police chief commits suicide rather than face charges of having sex with black female suspect

Marlin Police Chief Nathan Sodek opted to die cowardly, shooting himself to death on August 23 as Texas Rangers arrived at his Bruceville-Eddy home to serve warrants.

This was after he had confessed to having sex with a 35-year-old Black woman accused of cheque forgery.

The woman, whose name is being shielded to protect her, told investigators in a sworn statement that she felt like she “had no other option but to have sex with him if I didn’t want to go to jail.”

Sodek, during an interview with a Texas Ranger, confessed to engaging in sexual intercourse (with the woman) while on duty in his city-issued police vehicle in late April.

The woman had been arrested when she tried to cash a cheque “from a deceased person’s account,” but was released and told to return to the Marlin Police Department the next day.

When she arrived the next day, she was told if she “went and made a buy from three dealers (she) wouldn’t have to worry about the warrant.”

“During the entire time of the buys, the chief was messaging me telling me how beautiful I was and how he wanted to go out with me on St. Patrick’s Day to have drinks on 6th Street in Austin,” the woman said in the statement.

Sodek, per the statement, also gave the woman his personal phone number, telling her “to text him on that number if it wasn’t pertaining to police work.”

Having left her ID at the library, Sodek retrieved and possessed it for two weeks, asking her to meet him in Falcon (Falconer) Park in the 600 block of Perry Street, the woman said.

“He showed up at (Falconer) Park with chocolate and told me he needed to talk to me about another buy, but we needed to go to the Marlin City Park.”

At the park, Sodek stepped out of his official vehicle, smoked a cigarette and then returned exposing his genitals to her.

“I was disgusted and shocked but knew where this situation was headed,” she said adding the police chief came around the passenger side and began “to pull my short and underwear down.”

The two “had intercourse for about five minutes,” according to the statement.

Afterwards, the woman said Sodek told her “nobody needs to find out about this,” and then dropped her off at a gas station and left.

The Texas Police chief’s actions have surprised station officers who reckoned that as a man with good interaction with people, he would have been been a distinguished police chief, having just assumed office in late 2018.

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara confirmed Sodek’s suicide, noting that Rangers met the chief on this front porch to serve the warrant, at which point he turned and ran back into the house, grabbed a handgun and took his life.