EDINBURG — Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said he fired a deputy sergeant arrested recently on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Treviño said he dismissed Mauricio Ramos after internal investigators found the sergeant had violated the sheriff’s office’s conduct policy.

Pharr police arrested Ramos about midnight Saturday outside Whataburger, 100 E. Expressway 83, according to the criminal complaint in the case.

Someone had called police after an individual nearly caused a collision in the restaurant’s parking lot, the complaint states. A “concerned citizen” in the parking lot flagged down the police officer and directed him to Ramos’ tan Toyota Tundra pickup truck.

Police said Ramos was improperly parked by a fence in the parking lot and appeared to be asleep behind the wheel, the complaint states.

Ramos had most recently been employed with the sheriff’s office since April 2005. Former sheriff Henry Escalon fired Ramos after a DWI arrest in 1999; that case was later dismissed. Treviño re-hired Ramos following that case’s dismissal and after Ramos worked as an officer in Elsa, Donna and Weslaco.

But the sheriff said he told Ramos upon hiring him that another arrest would likely result in his termination. Ramos has the option to appeal his firing as part of the civil service process.

“The dismissal has nothing to do with a conviction” in the DWI case, Treviño said. “His actions violated our official misconduct policy.”

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.