Is Texas DHR Investigator An Extension of the Police ?

In Paez v. State, 681 S.W.2d 34, 36 (Tex. Crim. App. 1984), the Court of Criminal Appeals held that an investigator with the Texas Department of Human Resources ("DHR") was not an extension of the police because she was not conducting a child abuse investigation at the time the defendant inculpated herself. See Paez, 681 S.W.2d at 38. The defendant had been charged and tried for the murder of her husband, not for child abuse. See Paez, 681 S.W.2d at 35. The court reasoned that the DHR investigator's motivation for questioning the defendant was not to elicit incriminating statements from her regarding child abuse, but rather to determine the well-being of the defendant's children. See Paez, 681 S.W.2d at 37.