A white Jeep Grand Cherokee was speeding north on Rafael Reyna Street in Starr County, according to criminal complaints. Officer Josue Resendez turned on his lights. The driver did not stop.

That is the start of three felony cases against Jonathan Natanel Vasquez. The complaints say children were riding in the Jeep. They were his stepchildren, and every one of them was younger than 15.

The complaints say Vasquez turned west and kept going. He finally stopped at a home. Resendez wrote that he identified Vasquez as the driver.

El Tejano is not naming the children. We are also not printing the license plate or the address of the home.

Vasquez faces two charges of abandoning or endangering a child with imminent danger of bodily injury. Each is a second degree felony in this case. That can mean 2 to 20 years in prison.

The two complaints are almost the same. It appears there is one for each child, but the documents do not say so clearly.

He also faces a charge of evading arrest or detention with a vehicle. It is a state jail felony. That can mean 180 days to 2 years in a state jail.

The law behind the child charge is about danger, not about injury. No one has to be hurt. The State only has to show that a child was placed in imminent danger of being hurt.

The complaints say the Jeep was going fast and did not stop for police lights. Those two facts are the basis for the charge that children were in danger.

A vehicle that runs from police can crash. A child in the car cannot choose to get out.

The complaints do not say how fast the Jeep was going. They do not say how far it went, or how long the officer followed it. They do not say whether any other car or person was in the way.

They also have a date problem. The officer's story says the stop happened on Oct. 3, at about 8:15 p.m., in 2025. The charge language says Oct. 3, 2026. El Tejano is reporting the date as Oct. 3 and will update when the court clears up the year.

One complaint describes Resendez as a Starr County Sheriff's deputy. The others call him an officer. The documents do not explain the difference.

The copies El Tejano reviewed are marked as copies. The sworn block is blank on them. That means El Tejano cannot confirm from the copies alone that the officer signed under oath before a notary.

El Tejano did not find a bond amount or a court date in the complaints. A judge will set the first hearing. Vasquez will be able to enter a plea and answer each charge.

These are accusations from police complaints. They are not proof. Jonathan Natanel Vasquez is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.