City of Dallas employee bribed business owner to avoid code citations: affidavit

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Published October 8, 2026 4:19 PM CDT

The Brief

    • Daelena Howard was arrested by the Dallas Police Department on March 24 and charged with bribery, a second-degree felony.
    • An arrest affidavit states Howard told a Dallas business owner to pay her directly to avoid being issued Dallas code violations, receiving $700 from the business owner.
    • The City of Dallas confirmed Howard was employed in the Code Compliance Services Department, but was terminated following the alleged incident.

DALLAS - A former Dallas city employee took money from a local business in exchange for not issuing code citations, according to arrest documents obtained by FOX 4.

What we know:

The Dallas Police Department arrested Daelena Howard on bribery charges on March 26, 2026. She has since bonded out of jail.

Howard was employed by the City of Dallas in its Code Compliance Services Department at the time of her arrest. 

The city confirmed to FOX 4 that Howard was placed on leave following her arrest and is no longer employed by the city.

(Max Faulkner/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Dig deeper:

According to an arrest warrant, Howard visited Oscar Rivera, the business owner, on September 27, 2025, with several code violations she could issue to the business.

Howard offered to keep Rivera's business out of the city's code enforcement database if Rivera paid her $290 per month, and Rivera complied.

Over the course of several months after the initial interaction, Rivera sent $700 to Howard's personal Zelle account, and his business never appeared in the violation database.

The other side:

FOX 4 has reached out to attorneys for Howard and Rivera, but has not heard back.

The Source: Information in this story comes from Dallas Police records and the City of Dallas.

DallasCrime and Public Safety