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EDINBURG, TEXAS (AP) -- A former Alton police chief accused of having sex with a woman behind an auto parts store has been acquitted of public lewdness.

Baldemar Flores maintains his September 2009 arrest was politically motived. motivated this year failed in his bid to unseat Mayor Norberto Salinas.

Flores was acquitted Wednesday in the case in which the store manager, while taking out some trash, reported seeing two people having sex in a car behind the store.

Manager Thomas Roland, during the trial, testified he could not identify either person in the vehicle.

Flores resigned as Alton police chief in February. The McAllen Monitor reports Flores and his wife now operate a private security firm in Mission.

The woman Flores allegedly was with when he was arrested still faces a public lewdness charge.

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