CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi Police Department no longer has any firearms examiners after two separate internal affairs investigations led to the departure of both employees. More than 200 cases from the past five years are now being reviewed, and future cases may face delays.
A firearms examiner analyzes guns, bullets, and other firearms evidence to help solve crimes and testify in court.
Todd Green, assistant chief of the Investigations Bureau at CCPD, described the role.
"Their job is to look at projectiles, casings, and firearms and try to see whether the casings from a crime scene match to a particular weapon or a bullet fragment," Todd Green, assistant chief of the Investigations Bureau at CCPD, said.
CCPD maintained two examiners so each could review the other's work before it moved forward.
Documents obtained by 6 Investigates show that in February 2025, one examiner, David Curtiss made a mistake that was caught by the other examiner, Carolyn Martinez. He was told to stop doing casework, but continued analyzing evidence anyway. The department discovered the violation and placed him on administrative leave. An internal affairs investigation began, but Curtiss retired in September before it was completed.
With one examiner remaining, CCPD reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety for help reviewing evidence.
"Texas Department of Public Safety Labs.... they would do the review for us," Green said.
Martinez resigned in May 2026 after a separate internal affairs investigation. Her husband was a volunteer within the department, but that title was stripped in November 2025 due to concerns about accountability. Despite being told he could no longer handle evidence, he was later found handling weapons and evidence. The examiner was placed under a disciplinary investigation and resigned "in lieu of termination."
Green said the internal processes worked as intended.
"None of these cases ever made it into court. We caught them all and we stopped it and went ahead and did initial review and we took precautions to make sure that will never happen," Green said.
With no examiners on staff, all CCPD cases must now go to DPS. If a firearms examiner is needed to testify in court, they will have to travel to Corpus Christi and wait to be called to the stand.
Nueces County District Attorney James "Jimmy" Granberry said that while he trusts the system, using outside examiners can slow the judicial process.
"We have to get them down, house them, feed them, put them up until they sit around and wait until their name is called and then take the stand and give their evidence," Granberry said.
Granberry said the impact on outcomes will be limited.
"It's not going to affect justice. It may slow it down a little bit, but the justice train will keep moving and we will continue to prosecute these cases," Granberry said.
CCPD has hired SCL Forensics, an outside firm, to reevaluate between 200 and 250 cases worked by the two examiners over the last five years. That contract costs around $40,000. Green said the department is actually saving money in the process.
"We are not paying the salaries of two firearms examiners which comes out to around $170,000 a year," Green said.
Green said the audit of previous cases could take six months to a year to complete. After that, the department will search for new firearms examiners. It is likely the department will have to train and certify a new examiner, a process that would take around two years.
