UTEP Lists CBP Official Accused of Sexual Misconduct on Website

Confusion at UTEP as a former border patrol official, allegedly accused of sexual misconduct, was in the past few days listed as a research fellow at the University.

Any and all reference to Dr. Tony Barker, former acting chief of the Border Patrol’s law enforcement operations directorate, as a "research fellow" has been scrubbed from the University of Texas at El Paso's website early Monday morning.

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According to a new story by El Paso Matters, "UTEP officials said the former official, Tony Barker, was improperly listed as a researcher for the university by a program director who also is a former Border Patrol official."

“Dr. Tony Barker is not or has never been an employee of UTEP,” Lucas Roebuck, UTEP’s vice president for marketing and communications wrote in a statement to the press.

Problems with Barker appeared in a report from NBC in January where it was revealed Barker was the subject of an internal investigation by Customs and Border Protection for "...allegations that he pressured a subordinate into having sexual relations."

Three other victims came forward with similar accounts.

Then the New York Times reported that Dr. Barker was up for a top spot at the Border Patrol last year but ended up retiring on Oct. 14th.

In a strange twist, he may not have been an official employee of UTEP but he was listed on a UTEP website by a UTEP official.

The UTEP press office commented again, this time from Victor Manjarrez Jr., the director of UTEP’s Center for Law and Human Behavior who later released his own statement saying,

“In early January, I listed Tony Barker as a research fellow on the Center for Law and Human Behavior (CLHB) website. My actions were not approved by UTEP. While he was listed on the website, Dr. Barker has never been an employee at UTEP..."