Mindy Janette Stephens (Texas Dept. of Corrections)
The 46-year-old wife of an assistant fire chief in Texas was arrested after she allegedly drove to her local police department and left approximately 50 pounds of “human shit” in front of the station and refused to pick it up.
Mindy Janette Stephens was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with one count of illegal dumping of more than five pounds but less than 500 pounds, a Class B misdemeanor, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a copy of the sworn probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, an officer at the Electra Police Department on Thursday, Dec. 1 was watching the station’s security camera footage when he observed “someone putting something outside the front” of the station, located in the 100 block of East Cleveland Avenue. The officer then went to the area in question to investigate.
“He went outside to see what was going on and discovered three, 5-gallon buckets of what appeared to be human waste,” the affidavit states. “He saw a person in an all-white haz-mat suit with a yellow mask walking back to a tan SUV with a trailer. He attempted to ask what they were doing and a female stated that the buckets were human shit and she was dropping them off. She then got in the vehicle and drove off.”
The officer went back inside of the police station and informed his supervising officer of the encounter. The supervising officer, a lieutenant, reviewed the security footage and allegedly “recognized the voice as being Mindy Stephens’ voice.”
According to police, the lieutenant earlier in the day had spoken with Stephens “in reference to the buckets of ‘Human Shit.'”
The lieutenant then reported the incident and Electra Chief of Police Terry Wooten contacted Electra City Administrator Steve Bowlin regarding the buckets of human waste. During the ensuing conversation, Wooten explained to Bowlin — who is also employed as a firefighter — what happened and noted that Stephens was the wife of the Electra Fire Department’s assistant chief. Bowlin reportedly told Wooten that he would contact Stephens and tell her she had to “come pick up the buckets or she could face charges.”
However, Bowlin at approximately 5:23 p.m. called police and informed them that he spoke to Stephens and she refused to retrieve the buckets. Stephens allegedly told the administrator that it was “not her problem,” the affidavit states. The city then sent a waste water employee to pick up the human waste buckets.
Police said that the combined weight of all three buckets filled with human waste was approximately 50 pounds.
Jail records show that Stephens had previously been arrested several times in the past. She was charged with assault in 2000, family violence assault in 2010, and aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury in 2020. In the 2020 case, she allegedly struck a male family member with a set of keys that punctured his hand and arm. She pleaded guilty in 2021 to a lesser assault charge in the case.
Stephens was processed at the Wichita County Jail on Thursday and released after posting $2,000 bond the following day.
[image via Texas Department of Corrections]