A government employee from Plano is facing charges of obstruction and making false statements, a situation announced by U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton. Fredrick Antonio Waters, 47, hit with a federal indictment last week, is staring down the barrel of justice after an alleged leak concerning an ongoing criminal investigation.
Waters was cuffed on Thursday and appeared in court the next day before U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee Harris Toliver. The charges come after an incident on February 8, 2022, where Waters reportedly tipped off an individual that they were the subject of a criminal probe. When confronted, he told a Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent, “No I was looking up a humanitarian case and typed in the wrong Anumber,” according to the indictment released by the Department of Justice. That statement, however, was not just a slip of the fingers — it was a deliberate falsehood.
Authorities say Waters knew what he was doing when he entered an Alien number, assigned to a particular individual, into a Department of Homeland Security investigative system — to check if they were being investigated. While an indictment does not equate to a conviction, Waters must now navigate the legal labyrinth that could lock him away for up to 25 years should a guilty verdict come down.
The case against Waters is the product of the Homeland Security Investigations – Office of Professional Responsibility – El Paso office, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Walters wielding the prosecutorial hammer. Despite the swell of accusations, Waters maintains his innocence — for in the American legal tradition, he remains presumed innocent until, and unless proven guilty in the battleground of the courtroom.
Contact information was provided for Public Affairs Officer Erin Dooley for further inquiries into the case. Meanwhile, as the legal gears grind on, the outcome of this case will likely be closely watched — for it touches on the hallowed trust between government employees and the confidential nature of their work.
