County intercepts commissioner’s emails; Child molester acts as jail house snitch

There is nothing inadvertent about the County Attorney and County Judge gaining access to (and carbon copying each other) a Commissioner’s emails before she reads them.

Cherokee County, TX:

County Attorney Craig Caldwell, following instructions from his handlers, has placed a target on Commissioner Katherine Pinotti. Caldwell and County Judge Chris Davis begin building their cases against the Commissioner before she even gets a chance to open her emails. The voting populace is to believe after decades of private improvements by Caldwell’s predecessors, Davis’ in-laws and their collective enablers, that the current Precinct 3 commissioner is the lone elected official who “may have broken the law.”

The next round of concocted controversy stems from Pct. 3 Commissioner Pinotti seeking budgetary advice from a private consultant and a Napa auto parts dealer in an attempt to reduce county expenses. The Commissioner’s Court has refused to pay for the consulting services of $1500. According to the County Attorney’s deliberate misinterpretation of the State’s Civil Code on competitive bidding, Commissioner Pinotti cannot negotiate county contracts. (Source: Cherokeean Herald Jan. 4, 2012)

After 30 + years of the generational corruption going on in Cherokee County, the county attorney’s office tells the news media that a $1500 business consultant is illegal, but not this:

• County employees and equipment building catfish ponds.
• Inlets and cattle guards for hunting clubs.
• Brand new roads to nowhere but Rusk city councilmen’s property.
• Trustees and probationers raking their yards.
• Bulldozing and graveling driveways for their kinfolks.
• Building a golf course for a private club, a’ la the Birmingham Golf Course.
• Giving their buddies construction jobs for kickbacks, with zero bidding.
• County credit cards and vehicles for personal use.

Hacked email correspondences between the vendor and Pinotti highlight the Jan. 5, 2012 interview of County Attorney Craig Caldwell by KETK reporters. According to Katherine Pinotti, she never received emails from a local parts dealer sent to her county email account; the same emails Caldwell and Judge Davis cite back and forth to each other and to the Cherokeean Herald. Pinotti was not even informed there was an issue paying her consultant until the Rusk, TX newspaper claimed she had done something illegal, in order to smear her again. Why does the Rusk Cherokeean refuse to fact check? KETK reporters did the minimal legal research when confronting the “argumentative” county attorney on his misapplication of the penal code.

(Courtesy: KETK Jan. 5, 2012)

Cherokee County doesn’t just hack emails; private and business calls and mail is intercepted for fodder for the District Attorney’s office. Their criminal logic is that if they claim to be “investigating a crime,” then they have legal access to the county servers, payphones, mail and anything else they fill entitled to. They believe they own it all. What is Pinotti talking about on the phone that makes their blood boil?

The statutory limit for formal competitive bidding at the county level is $50,000. (Source: Texas Local Gov’t. Code §262.023) All purchases under $50,000 require informal quotes and shall be made by the purchasing agent or in Cherokee County’s case, the Commissioner’s Court. Obviously a request to pay $1500 is under the statutory limit of the County Purchasing Act. Even services spelled out in the Texas Professional Services Procurement Act would be void and contrary to law if acquired through a bid basis; instead, professional services must be procured through the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process. (Source: Texas County Purchasing Association)

GOVERNMENT CODE
TITLE 10. GENERAL GOVERNMENT
SUBTITLE F. STATE AND LOCAL CONTRACTS AND FUND MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 2254. PROFESSIONAL AND CONSULTING SERVICES
SUBCHAPTER A. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Sec. 2254.003. SELECTION OF PROVIDER; FEES. (a) A governmental entity may not select a provider of professional services or a group or association of providers or award a contract for the services on the basis of competitive bids submitted for the contract or for the services, but shall make the selection and award: (1) on the basis of demonstrated competence and qualifications to perform the services; and (2) for a fair and reasonable price. (b) The professional fees under the contract may not exceed any maximum provided by law.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993. Amended by: Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1213, Sec. 14, eff. September 1, 2007.

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All this legal minutiae is irrelevant in Cherokee County; no need to explain the law to a tainted jury pool. If Commissioner Pinotti’s maiden name was the same as the County Attorney’s predecessors or County Judge’s in-laws there would be no controversy at all. In fact if she were related to the people who put these two in office, they would all be defending her and going after anyone who complained about it. The Cherokee County grand jury in concert with the district attorney is the weapon of choice against political rivals who don’t tow the corrupt county line. (Source: KETK May 4, 2001)

What ever happened to “all roads in the county need to be maintained by the commissioners…especially the ones leading to our hunting club and catfish ponds…while we’re at it, let’s build a private golf course with city employees and tax dollars for the County Attorney’s Golf Club…”

“An estimated $3,000 in dirt, manpower and equipment to haul, spread and level dirt, as well as backhoe for cleaning out ditch lines has been invested by authority of the city council at the 9-hole golf course on U.S. Highway 69 adjoining the New Southern Motor Hotel.” (Source: The Cherokeean, p. 1, October 26, 1978)

The Birmingham Golf Club golf course on the private property of the New Southern Motor Hotel in Rusk, TX was built by city employees for former County Attorney (and president) Charles Holcomb’s private golf club. With all the criminal activity going on in Cherokee County to date, it is the only honest and open elected official who is currently guilty? Who do these criminals think they are fooling?

Cherokee County prosecutors are notorious for concocting charges against their political rivals to place doubts in voters’ minds. At the same time local sex offenders and other low lifers vying for sweet deals move in and out of the Rusk, TX  jail, providing dirt for their keepers. While the Cherokee County grand jury has been called against Commissioner Pinotti for paving Patterson Lane a.k.a CR 3427 and to thwart her cost cutting measures, county tax dollars are spent housing admitted child sex offenders.

Jacksonville, TX:

After admitting to raping a 14-year old girl and threatening to kill her if she told, 53-year old Richard Glenn Dishman has sat in the Cherokee County jail and on the criminal docket for over 2 years, no doubt spilling the beans on his cellmates and drug contacts in hopes of leniency. (Source: KLTV March 20, 2009)

Dishman, whereabouts unknown, faced up to 25 years after his July 2009 indictment and has a history of drug possession charges, burglary and plea bargains within the county.  He has not been in front of a judge to face the music since making bail and there is the rumor of him cutting a deal. (Source: Cherokeean Herald July 22, 2009)

Richard Glenn Dishman courtesy Daily Progress

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The Jacksonville, TX resident is accused of molesting a neighbor child who inadvertently wandered into his garage “to get some ice cream for herself and her older brother.  Mr. Dishman followed her into the garage and sexually assaulted her there.” Dishman confessed the crime to investigating Jacksonville PD officers according to all newspapers and television stations reporting the incident. (Source:  Jacksonville Progress March 18, 2009)

Source:
2nd District Court, Cherokee County Criminal Docket; Case 17463; 
AGG SEXUAL ASSAULT CHILD
THE STATE OF TEXAS vs DISHMAN, RICHARD GLENN 
Filed 06/22/2009 - No Disposition

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Apparently his services are still needed. As of January 2012, the Richard Dishman case has not been heard on the docket despite prosecutors having a rock solid molestation case against him.  Instead, we’ve seen Cherokee County prosecutors spend your tax dollars conducting their personal vendettas as usual. Cherokee County voters have a choice this Spring who they want prosecuting criminals and who they want representing their interests. The county can remain corrupt, or move out of the realm of Third World politics.

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Parasites make for good bedfellows; Low scores for free college

It must be Christmas time in Cherokee County. Cherokee County Bar Association members pretend to run as opposing candidates to hedge votes away from viable office seekers potentially challenging the status quo during the upcoming primaries. Local newspapers repeat the facade to keep the cronyism alive and well. According to the liars, Cherokee County voters are supposed to believe that the Assistant District and Assistant County attorneys are actually vying for their bosses’ positions by running against the incumbent who employs them. (Source: Tyler Paper, Incumbents Face Opposition In Coming Cherokee County Elections, Dec. 18, 2011) That would be like Joe Biden switching to the Republican Party to challenge President Obama in the general election. So far, Cherokee County incumbents are running unchallenged again.

Meanwhile like clockwork, local attorneys make up reasons to bill the taxpayers by “settling” legal issues made up to exploit legitimate public concerns. Their job is deflecting attention away from the generational corruption and bilking the public coffers.

First, bogus legal crisis are created within the local city councils for embedded attorneys to charge hourly rates; it is the taxpayer who foots the bills. These lawyers have a blank check to solve these “issues” of public concern, that are issues that they themselves create. ‘Opposing counsel’ play both sides of made-up legal arguments that have no basis in fact, instead of addressing WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING. For decades, they stir up scenario another scenario between each other to pay their car notes, mortgages and children’s college tuition. With councilmen on board for the perpetual ruse, they drag out a hodgepodge of legal filings until their agreed amount of money is allocated.  All parties involved time the intended resolution of their fabricated “issue” towards the end of the fiscal year, when attorney fees are buried in city and county budget reports.

Secondly, local governments employ unaccountable members of the Cherokee County Bar Association to conceal the nepotism. Their job is to steer the community’s attention away what is really going on, by creating a rabbit trail of drawn out legal minutiae or fictitious campaigns. The local newspapers are recruited to dumb down the process and put a final spin on the cover up. They never answer the basic questions such as “Who got the money and how much do these homegrown attorneys cost the taxpayer?”  Or “Why is your so-called political opponent paying for your campaign?” It is all a money game to them.

The winners are the usual small town lawyers whose entire income comes from pubic sources, and therefore without oversight. After the smoke screen settles and the law is correctly interpreted, those on opposing sides can be found “on the same page.” The same page they were on from the beginning, between the sheets and behind closed doors.

What’s the deal with these guys working hand-in-hand to earn a living, even as opposing parties in lawsuits and criminal cases? Their wives work at the same shops on the Rusk, TX square and downtown Jacksonville. They are officers of the same companies for tax abatement purposes. They carpool to church together and are on each other’s Christmas card list. For some, that relationship goes beyond the amiable and into the bedroom. Exchanging pictures of each other’s wives in uncompromising positions keeps them on the same page and willing accomplices of the money grab. If a member of the Good Time Association steps out of line, they can expect to be sexually blackmailed with humiliating love letters, Glamour Shots and hotel receipts to their significant other or minister of their choice.

Meanwhile they also screw the county out of tens of thousands of dollars of public funds each year.

There is little fiscal oversight in the dark crevices of Cherokee County, Texas- just an engrained buddy system designed to sponge off the economic development of the county. A recent November 5, 2011 Daily Progress article “JEDCO’s accountability for nearly $1M in funds question” pretends to tackle the need for oversight.

 JACKSONVILLE— Jacksonville city officials have provided little oversight of the Jacksonville Economic Development Corporation’s handling of roughly $1 million annually in taxpayer money.

JEDCO’s failure to get city council approval before awarding economic development grants to local businesses appears to violate state law.

The article goes on to further state,

The seven-member board is not elected and is accountable to the city council, according to JEDCO’s founding documents.

The council is responsible for appointing members to the board and has the authority to remove members as well as reorganize or dissolve the corporation.

The Jacksonville Daily Progress asked five current and former city officials why the city has not fulfilled its obligation to ensure JEDCO follows state law, but none would answer on the record. (Source: Daily Progress, Nov. 5, 2011)

It is a moot point that a handful of people call the shots of where to spend $1 million of taxpayer dollars. JEDCO “volunteers” are appointed by the Jacksonville city council who (taxpayers are to believe) ironically were demanding oversight of their appointees (i.e. lovers and kinfolk). (Source: Jacksonville Progress, JEDCO, city struggle lasted more than a year, Nov. 19, 2011)

Yet the city council and local newspapers never ask to see the attorney bills nor answer the question “WHO GOT THE MONEY???”

Furthermore, if it is within the city charter to manage a quasi-government organization such as an economic development corporation, then why do attorneys need to rehash and re-bill for the same old ground for over a year? They don’t need to because the “city struggle” between JEDCO and city attorneys is only a means for these entities to milk the taxpayer. The same people have their fingers in the local school systems as well.

Another of Cherokee County’s institutions of higher learning, whose budget consists entirely of government Student Loan grants and “gifts,” cannot pass the financial responsibility test of Federal Student Aid programs because they won’t keep the money in reserve. (Source: Daily Progress, Dec. 9, 2011) KETK reports that Lon Morris Jr. College, located in Jacksonville, TX , delayed paying its staff for the umpteenth time this year. (Source: KETK, Lon Morris College delays paychecks again, Dec. 5, 2011)

Local newspapers con their readers by suggesting the current economy has something to do with teachers not being paid at the college. (Source: Tyler Paper, Some Lon Morris employees paid late, Dec. 6, 2011) Lon Morris continues to have its finances out of compliance, while at the same time being propped up by the local media as a viable Christian alternative to neighboring Tyler Jr. College. Since 2010, Lon Morris faculty continues to have their paychecks in limbo (Source: Tyler Paper, Dec. 6, 2011) while the school’s enrollment has doubled. The school continues to run on a deficit on the books and spends the Financial Student Aid deposits into the red. Where is the money going?

Earlier this year, KETK went to the Lon Morris College grounds in Jacksonville to interview employees and faced Cherokee County’s typical cult-like silence.

We found that employees and students alike are concerned about the finances at Lon Morris. When we went to the college, we were quickly informed by officials that employees were told not to say a word.

One student, Theodore Lloyd, says, “I need to know if this school is going bankrupt because I need to stop putting my money into it.”

Lon Morris officials are not giving students any answers. (Source: KETK, Lon Morris College employees not getting paychecks, April 5, 2011)

Why not try asking the Lon Morris Board of Trustees to do an internal and public audit? Surely members of Cherokee County’s CPA association would like a shot at billing the taxpayer for services rendered. The fact is the college’s “financial obstacles,” as it is spun, are not due to any bona fide economic challenge. According to the college’s webpage, 88% of Lon Morris students are on scholarships and 95% are on Federal Financial Aid.

In 2010, Lon Morris awarded over $1 million in financial aid to a student body of less than 1000. (Source: Wikipedia)  Despite this, the college will have to submit a letter of credit within 30 days to the DOE that it will keep at least 10% of the Financial Student Aid money in reserve and submit to administrative oversight. The Department of Education scores Lon Morris as “not financially responsible.” (Source: Tyler Paper, Dec. 13, 2011)

US Department of Education crime data also shows the 2 year college to have a low student retention and graduation rate, as well as a “relatively unsafe place” to go to school. (Source: American School Search) Quite the opposite from the spin promoted by local newspapers; these Lon Morris crime stats were never mentioned: between 2007 and 2009 there were 13 on-campus burglaries, 4 robberies, 2 aggravated assaults and 4 stolen vehicles. (Source: KLTV, East Texas college struggles with gang problem, Sep. 15, 2010) 11 students were expelled from the college last year after a gang related shooting. (Source: Daily Progress, LMC shooting still being investigated, Sep. 14, 2010)

Lon Morris student housing courtesy KETK.

In May 2011, the US Department of Education also found that Lon Morris was in violation of Federal Aid distribution requirements by holding students’ financial aid checks over 2 weeks after receiving them from the government. No doubt deposited in the First State Bank to draw a little interest off of. (Source: Daily Progress, LMC violates federal aid regulation, May 18, 2011) In Cherokee County there is no accountability for those holding the purse strings.

It doesn’t matter if the money comes from inflated property taxes, unreported Sales Tax revenue, stealing it out of people’s mail, bogus farm claims or Federal tuition assistance programs, it won’t appear on the county books because it will be in these people’s personal bank accounts.

To whom is the money going? In Cherokee County it goes to the families of these parasites whose spouses work together and share the same gene pool. They are business partners through and through, easily spotted divvying up gifts of insurance payouts and pretending to not only be opposing counsel, but political rivals.

As a footnote, Lon Morris College has been placed on a 12-month public sanction by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS COC) for “significant financial and accreditation noncompliance.”  (Source: KETK, Dec. 22, 2011)

To protect and serve themselves

Randall Kelton of Austin’s Rule of Law Radio was charged and convicted in Rusk, TX  for filing informal criminal complaints against the county and district attorney with a Cherokee County grand jury. After spending several weeks in the Rusk, TX jail, Kelton has been released on bond while awaiting his appeal. What is the “corruption” Randall Kelton presented to the March 2009 Cherokee County grand jury (as others have in complaints to the Attorney General and State Bar) and specifically what exactly does Cherokee County do that is ‘criminal activity?’ What did Kelton disclose from the public record that they retaliated against? Furthermore, what are Anderson and Cherokee Counties doing within their court systems that amounts to retaliation against Free Speech?

According to charges filed in Cherokee County, this bunch deemed it a Class A misdemeanor for the Rule of Law Radio talk show host to have met with a 2009 grand jury, speak of the cases they were considering and disclose any public information. (Source: Tyler Paper, “Austin Radio Talk Show Host Sentenced,” September 29, 2011) In late September, Randy Kelton was fined $4000 and sentenced to Cherokee County jail for 1 year after a kangaroo court and the local newspapers were told Kelton was part of the Robert Fox so-called “sovereign citizen” movement.

Translation: Randy Kelton and his radio show are ”dangerous,” therefore trampling the US Constitution was again necessary to stop the muckracking against their beloved little enclave.

A mishmash of witnesses including bailiffs who Rebel-Rouse under Confederate banner on the courthouse lawns and other direct descendants of the jury pool were called to testify against Kelton, who represented himself pro se. The County’s witnesses had nothing to do with the case, but everything to do with Kelton’s locally biased and misinformed jury. There goes another waste of their taxpayer dollars.

Of course any American citizen has the right to present public information to a grand jury (and circumvent prosecutors, bailiffs and investigators), therefore the charges against Kelton, his trial and subsequent incarceration are all false, malicious and retaliatory on their face.  A recent Houston Chronicle article spells out how a Harris County grand jury is excluding the district attorney in their ongoing probe into HPD’s breath alcohol testing procedures. Of course, the rule of law applies in Harris County and not in Cherokee County.

Grand jury may be targeting DA in HPD van probe.
Panel excluded prosecutors from investigation.
A Houston grand jury apparently investigating recent allegations about the Houston Police Department’s troubled mobile alcohol-testing vehicles may now be setting its sights on the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

An appellate court ruled on Thursday that the grand jury can continue to exclude prosecutors from listening to witnesses testify in secret proceedings in the ongoing investigation, despite protests from Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos. (Source: Houston Chronicle, October 22, 2011)

The Cherokee County grand and petit jury pools are illegally stacked and manipulated by the county clerks, district attorney, district attorney investigators, and sheriff’s department. In both civil and criminal cases, family members and pals of those testifying lie during voir dire in order to be impaneled. That is if there is any voir dire to speak of. Whether it is a criminal or civil case, these jurors are suborned and coached by the above entities to feign ignorance and deny any personal prejudice, when in fact most have a 100% conflict of interest. Local officials seeking revenge against those within their jurisdiction do so through the local court system.

These tricks are as old as the generational corruption within Cherokee County. State laws require jury pools of potential jurors to reflect the demographics of the county, not those who are puppets for the district attorney; however very few East Texas defense attorneys ever challenge the makeup of rural grand juries or trial juries during voir dire. Challenges must be made before juries are impaneled, which is impossible for Cherokee County’s version of sneak-attack indictments, such as those repeatedly against Robert Fox. In Cherokee County, individuals called to the grand jury are not random, they are cohorts and/or family members of prosecutors and law enforcement, thus illegal. These ‘pillars of the community’ were obviously found by Randall Kelton to be in complete conflict of interest for hearing cases against Robert Fox.

Article 4 Part 2 of the Texas Constitution (County Administrative Council) spells out how the county clerk of court is to conduct a random lottery of county residents every six months to form a pool of jurors, as well as make EVERY AND ALL county court proceedings and records available to the public. Section 6 reiterates that all county court juries and activities must be open to the public. Apparently this doesn’t apply in Corrupt Town, USA when an out-of-town investigative journalist snoops through the public record.

The county clerk of court shall conduct an at-random lottery of citizens to serve as county court jurors, record and maintain all files pertaining to each case as a court of record, maintain said files at court expense at such places as to safeguard said records, make records of every county court proceeding publicly available after filing in an easily searchable form which shall be open for public inspection, ensure that records are filed within thirty days of completion of each county court proceeding, place the seal of the court on all documents where a seal is necessary, and witness the authenticity of the documents. (Article 4, Part 2 Section F, Texas Constitution)

The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 19 also spells out in Article 19.01 Section B how district judges can get their fingers in the selection of jury commissions. Which brings us to another criminal conspiracy alive and well in Cherokee County: the passing of private information, including citizens’ stolen mail, illegally intercepted phone conversations and subpoenaed records doled out in advance to these potential jury pools.

When Cherokee County officials pass nonpublic information to their Good Ol’ Boy/Biddie network they are committing the crime of Misuse of Public Information. As spelled out in the Texas Attorney General’s online publication on public ethics, state law prohibits a public official or public employee from disclosing a citizen’s nonpublic information (such as their social security and driver license numbers) found under the Texas Government Code, Chapter 552. This same code spells out what information is public via the Freedom of Information Act. A district attorney’s criminal record, for example an old DUI right out of Law School and a night in Austin’s jail, is public record whether or not the charges were expunged, adjudicated or stricken from the voters’ access.

TEXAS PENAL CODE
TITLE 8. OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
CHAPTER 39. ABUSE OF OFFICE
§ 39.06. MISUSE OF OFFICIAL INFORMATION
(a) A public servant commits an offense if, in reliance on information to which he has access by virtue of his office or employment and that has not been made public, he: (1) acquires or aids another to acquire a pecuniary interest in any property, transaction, or enterprise that may be affected by the information; (2) speculates or aids another to speculate on the basis of the information; or (3) as a public servant, including as a principal of a school, coerces another into suppressing or failing to report that information to a law enforcement agency.
(b) A public servant commits an offense if with intent to obtain a benefit or with intent to harm or defraud another, he discloses or uses information for a nongovernmental purpose that: (1) he has access to by means of his office or employment; and (2) has not been made public.
(c) A person commits an offense if, with intent to obtain a benefit or with intent to harm or defraud another, he solicits or receives from a public servant information that: (1) the public servant has access to by means of his office or employment; and (2) has not been made public.
(d) In this section, “information that has not been made public” means any information to which the public does not generally have access, and that is prohibited from disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code.
(e) Except as provided by Subsection (f), an offense under this section is a felony of the third degree.
(f) An offense under Subsection (a)(3) is a Class C misdemeanor.
Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1983, 68th Leg., p. 3243, ch. 558, § 9, eff. Sept. 1, 1983; Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 30, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987; Acts 1987, 70th Leg., 2nd C.S., ch. 43, § 3, eff. Oct. 20, 1987; Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 927, § 1, eff. Aug. 28, 1989. Renumbered from V.T.C.A., Penal Code § 39.03 and amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, § 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994. Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 76, § 5.95(90), eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 76, § 14.52, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.

Arrest records, expired warrants, police reports, affidavits and sworn testimony is available even in rural areas for those who search online and/or public courthouse records. This type of information is what Randall Kelton has been accused of accessing in attempt to sway the Cherokee County grand jury in March 2009. Their collective response was only a licensed “investigator” can present evidence to a Texas grand jury when a private citizen files criminal complaints against them. Ain’t that convenient? Again, they butchered the Texas Occupational Code to retaliate against whistleblowers and are meeting behind closed doors with the 12th Court of Appeals in Tyler in hopes of rubber stamping their corruption.

Time to call in all the favors.

These are the same courts that can have a bailiff removal hearing for their highest paid constable the day before his Federal drug indictment. All the while claiming on the record that their appointed designee never showed up for work, and never mentioning his arrest. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress)  These are the same courts trying to sue Palestine, TX blogger Ricky Minton of Small Town Justice.com for expressing his opinion on how his friend’s criminal case was handled by Anderson County investigators. (Source: Tyler Tribune, October 24, 2011) These are the same courts that cash bond out absconding parolees caught with guns and drugs, who then go off and murder the next DPS trooper who stops them. (Source: Longview Marshall News Journal, May 8, 2008)

These are the same courts who attempt to exonerate a rapist cop facing federal prison by prosecuting his victims. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress  ”Protesters take to courthouse” January 25, 2006) These are the same courts making plea deals with drug addicts and pedophiles, while wasting taxpayer time and money by using these same courts against their political enemies. Now their targets are stretching beyond the realm of AM radio and into journalism and the blogosphere.

Are they trying to set some type of legal precedent in the local courts to silence every articulate complaint against them? Probably. They definitely want to have it both ways– as they did with federally convicted bailiff Randy Thompson: on one hand they claim their Cherokee County Pct. 3 Constable never served as bailiff in the 369th Judicial District, while at the same time threatened him with contempt of court for not continuing his duties. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, Jan. 7, 2006) Randall Thompson was supplementing his taxpayer paid salary by driving to the Mexican border to buy pseudoephedrine to make crystal meth for sale in Cherokee County, TX. This continued until federal authorities caught him on the border.

What does Cherokee County mean during the 2006 Thompson hearing “we don’t know where he is?” Constable Randy Thompson was removed from his bailiff position in absentia the day before his federal drug indictment. Cherokee County feigned ignorance in the newspapers as to Thompson’s whereabouts up to the day his TRUE BILL hit the presses. Only years after the fact can readers of the Jacksonville Daily Progress find hidden in their archives the articles about Randall Thompson being in contempt of the same court who didn’t know where he was…

The Daily Progress knew where Cherokee County Constable Thompson was and what he was doing, just as his employers knew of his arrest months before his indictment. Thompson was sentenced to 10 years. (Source: Tyler Paper, August 23, 2006) Whatever the case may be, Cherokee County circles the wagons when one of their own is caught red-handed engaged in some type of corruption.

On the other hand, found in easily obtainable court records, innocent citizens have been sentenced in Cherokee County for crimes that not only were never committed, but for homicides linked directly to law enforcement. They usually target the poor who can’t afford an attorney. As a result, destitute families have suffered the most within the county’s version of court-appointed legal representation. Cherokee County’s version of public defenders supplement their incomes by staying in the good graces of those who appoint them as indigents’ counsel. They know not to rock the boat or be culled from the ‘friend of the court’ list. They know if they challenge the court’s railroading they’ll lose that income to one of their less ethical colleagues. Some even know this rule of thumb so well, that they can show up at the Rusk, Texas courthouse drunk as skunks.

Amicus curiae gone amok.

The district attorney’s office in cahoots with the Cherokee County Bar Association has protected and coddled drunken attorneys on the county dole who have shown up inebriated at the Rusk courthouse and performed their court-appointed duties, drunk and derelict. They have in the past collectively lied directly to examining bar associates who follow-up on complaints against the drunks among Cherokee County’s bar association. In turn, they spend your taxpayer dollars blackmailing each other into silence and illegally harassing their political rivals with sexual innuendo.

Case in point, the recent ousting of Cherokee County’s lead sheriff investigator Chris White and the revelation that he was spending county time on county computers concocting false sexual harassment claims against Jacksonville Police Chief Reece Daniel. White, Cherokee County’s highest paid sheriff’s deputy, was sending out anonymous emails to the Tyler and other East Texas media claiming that Chief Daniel was facing sexual harassment suits, when in fact the police chief was not. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, December 19, 2009) A simple apology was all that was required to get both agencies to cooperate with each other and go back to violating people’s’ rights. No one would ever consider Capt. White’s libelous emails against the Jacksonville police chief to be worthy of a defamation lawsuit to be filed in either district court having jurisdiction. The only defamation lawsuits found in this area are against private citizens making critical comments against them while they, on the other hand, are allowed to perjure and slander to their hearts’ content.

Twin counties and double standards.

Juxtapose decades of all the above to what is happening to free speech bloggers and whistleblowers such as Randall Kelton of Jurisprudence.com and Ricky Minton of Small Town Justice. Kelton was sentenced to 1 year for asking the Cherokee County grand jury to investigate the corruption he had uncovered. Minton is being pursued in the same Anderson County court he alleges on his personal website allows investigators to perjure. What the hell is going on in backwater East Texas that the US Attorney General’s office allows private citizens to be targeted for expressing their opinion?

Any American citizen can post publicly accessible police affidavits online and challenge their validity, especially when all charges related to the police report have been dropped. Ricky Minton of Palestine, TX is being pulled into district court where a defamation lawsuit has been filed against him for complaining about an old police report on his Liberty Blog.  All in order to make him spend money and make an example of him. Detective Nathan Allen of the Palestine PD is seeking damages in the 369th District Court for ambiguous comments posted somewhere on Minton’s Small Town Justice website. We would post the comment here but we can’t find it; try the Ellis County Observer. With a scorned jury and sympathetic judge, they will ignore the fact that Detective Allen has been promoted time and time again, subsequent to Minton’s criticism and open letters to Allen’s superiors. The only ones reacting to Minton’s comments are those spending taxpayer time trolling the Internet. Minton’s website is Wikipedia based, an open forum and the epitome of Free Speech. And if read with honest intent, the site actually exonerates a lot of local public servants. They just can’t stand people reading about it.

“We’re watching you, boy…”

Because Ricky Minton (owner of the website) also resides in their pissing grounds, they get to use taxpayer money to stack his future civil jury with those he has been critical of. At the same time, the Palestine police officer filing suit continues to have his own popularity and career skyrocket in the local Palestine Herald, while claiming “emotional distress” from Minton’s randomly obscure website and a forgotten incident report [here]. We see how this works; citizens cannot be even slightly critical of anyone in the criminal justice system in Anderson and Cherokee Counties without being dragged through the same corrupt system. Federal authorities know that these ‘justice’ authorities will retaliate against anyone within their reach.

“You don’t talk about us, boy…now we’re gonna getcha…”

Is it 1st Amendment free speech to question the police skills of one of Palestine’s shining stars; and secondly Who Really Cares? Apparently the district court “having jurisdiction” to dole out the punishment thinks otherwise and has figured out a way to get their hands on the operator of Small Town Justice (just like they do everyone else who criticizes them).  Ricky Minton’s blog talk has not affected the Palestine Police Department’s promotion of Nathan Allen by one iota. The fact is Detective Nathan Allen has a fine career ahead of him, as his continual publicized promotions indicate.  They just can’t stand people putting a different perspective on their actions, even when they make simple mistakes.

It doesn’t get any more UN-Christian and UN-American than this, folks. What’s next? Are they going to shut down all the ISPs in East Texas like they do in China and Egypt, because of one person’s negative opinion? Is a rural East Texas jury going to find that a private citizen cannot write complaint letters and post them freely without reprisal from them? They already know the answer because the fix has been in the works the day a private citizen went public in their jurisdiction.

What about those openly public comments about police perjury on Rate My Cop, the online private citizen blotter? Police are rated on a scale from 4 Star excellent to über-BAD; these officers fare pretty well after the online criticism and accolades seen by millions.

It is an abuse of power for local attorneys in bed with criminal justice officials to use the legal system to target private citizens because of their personal comments. It should be called what it is: judicial terrorism.

Travelers and business people should know what they are getting into by challenging the status quo of these small towns. This area isn’t America, folks. They use taxpayer money and their public positions to retaliate against anyone they deem a threat to their government pensions. Each one of these miscarriages of justice above is linked to the corrupt stench of the same people who have been at it for decades. Sadly, their local inbred supporters are perfectly OK with it all, no matter how UNAMERICAN. They want things said in print the way they want it repeated, not the way it really is. They don’t just throw tantrums like a spoiled little rich brat when someone says something bad about them. They are rogue, rabid and out of control.

As a footnote, the civil suit filed against blog owner Ricky Minton has been dismissed; the blog ”Small Town Justice” has been taken down by Minton for other pursuits.

Lies under oath make for yellow journalism

Rule of thumb: never set foot in Cherokee County.
It was corrupt 30 years ago; it is corrupt now.

Rusk, TX:
Cherokee County systematically goes after those who file complaints and lawsuits against them. County newspapers fearing reprisal don’t mention the railroading of innocent people, nor the colossal cost to the taxpayer when the district courts play out their political vendettas. Locals associated with the courthouse agenda openly publicize their businesses in these small town rags, minus legally required occupational licenses. Homegrown fake real estate brokers, insurance agents and therapists openly advertise themselves on the Internet and in local papers without the fear of prosecution.

Scrutiny is deftly shunted from those in judges’ and prosecutors’ inner circle caught falsely advertising and accepting illegal sales commissions. By detouring their embedded reporters down rabbit trails, they turn readers’ and their constituents’ attention elsewhere. Last week, Austin AM Radio talk show host Randall Kelton was convicted of operating an “investigation company” without a license, while at the same time Cherokee County uses relatives of law enforcement as taxpayer paid confidential informants. Conflicts of interest by community leaders are ignored for decades in the local newspapers. For example, no one in the county would expect the Cherokee County Republican Party chairman — ousted from his Adult Protective Services position for renting his properties to his clients – to have a license to run assisted living quarters. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, April 16, 2011 “GOP confirms calls for Looney’s resignation”) Anywhere west of the Neches River, this in-your-face corruption would be seen as a black eye on the community. Not in Cherokee County; they know there are no repercussions whatsoever for this level of criminality.

Outsiders beware: you may answer to a Cherokee County grand jury as a smokescreen, just for passing through the county.

The Cherokee County grand jury serves a two-fold purpose when used for political maneuvering. The number one way is to go after personal enemies who openly talk negatively about the current status quo. Secondly, District Attorney Elmer Beckworth and County Attorney Craig Caldwell also call a handpicked grand jury to publicly exonerate those accused of corruption. As recently as 2 years ago, Pct. 3 Justice of the Peace James Morris filed a complaint against the commissioners’ court with the Texas Attorney General, which resulted in a quick No-Bill by the Cherokee County grand jury. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, August 13, 2009 “Commissioners’ grand jury case is no-billed”) Afterwards, JP Morris alleged a “cover up” to Tyler’s Channel 19. (Source: CBS 19 “Commissioners No Billed, Judge Alleges Cover-Up“)

Precinct 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti was summoned to a grand jury for no better reason than paving a mislabeled road, while her counterparts and predecessors have been maintaining private properties for decades with complete impunity. The most blatant attempts at convincing the locals that private property improvements by Cherokee County commissioners were legal was the attempt back in 1978 to have it “voted on” by “constitutional amendment” within the county. However statewide, Prop. 7 as it was called back then, only allowed for counties fewer than 5,000 people. That didn’t stop the City of Rusk, TX from building the private golf course for the Birmingham Golf Club represented by then County Attorney Charles Holcomb, and Jon Kelsey owner of the New Southern Motor Hotel. As president of the golf club, Charles Holcomb simultaneously pushed for increases in his public salary as County Attorney, while simultaneously acquiring the rights to the newly renovated private golf course.

(Source: The Cherokeean, p.1 July 6, 1978)

(Source: The Cherokeean, p. 16, November 9, 1978)

There was a time when Cherokee County editorials challenged even the most beloved good ol’ boys for in-your-face corruption. They reported THE WAY IT HAPPENED and as a result were accused of “yellow journalism” for simply reporting the facts.

“It is our intention to point out that this dispute has been made a public issue since the use of public-financed manpower has been utilized in improvements at the golf course.” (Source: The Cherokeean, p.2, November 9, 1978)

“An estimated $3,000 in dirt, manpower and equipment to haul, spread and level dirt, as well as backhoe for cleaning out ditch lines has been invested by authority of the city council at the 9-hole golf course on U.S. Highway 69 adjoining the New Southern Motor Hotel. “(Source: The Cherokeean, p. 1, October 26, 1978)

After a pseudo trial in the Cherokee County Court-at-Law last week, Randy Kelton was sentenced to one year jail time for trying to pass a note to Robert Fox’s grand jury in March 2009. Only one report from the Jacksonville, TX based reporter for the Tyler Paper mentions the jury selection, pseudo trial and sentencing. Kelton of “The Rule of Law Radio,” was accused of acting as an “investigator” in Cherokee County without a license. Kelton handed out a business card with the letters “I-N-V-E-S-T-I-G-A-T-O-R” printed on it. Every entity involved knows what a frame job looks like, and this is just another documented episode. The talk show host was targeted for telling the grand jury what they already knew, that Cherokee County is corrupt to the core. We’ll reprint his letter to the grand jury at the end of this posting.

Remember, these are the same people who let Brandon Robertson (a paroled drug dealer) out of jail after the DPS stopped him north of Rusk with a GUN and crystal meth. (Source: Longview News Journal, May 8, 2008 “Suspect arrested weeks before trooper’s shooting”) They did not inform the Smith County parole department he was in their custody. Instead, they pocketed the absconder’s bond money and set Robertson free to kill the next DPS trooper who stopped him. Trooper Scott Burns was murdered 3 weeks after the Rusk, TX city municipal judge set Robertson’s bond and the Sheriff’s Department refused to notify Smith County about the drug mule parolee carrying a gun. Robertson dropped $1,500 cash on the court’s table for bail.

To the local media it is perfectly OK for their elected officials to perjure. In an attempt to have his original “tampering with a government record” trial heard in another county, Robert Fox filed a motion for change of venue in October 2009. That motion was denied despite nearly 2 years of local newspaper reports of Fox being a “terrorist linked to Timothy McVeigh,” and some sort of dangerous Canadian anti-government fugitive. The Cherokee County district attorney challenged that motion by having the likes of the district judge, city councilmen and the sheriff testify that Fox could in fact have a “fair trial” in the same county he was suing. This after keeping him locked in the Rusk jail for 9 months without Due Process and them answering as defendants in Fox’s federal civil rights complaints.

After this lying under oath was rubberstamped, Sheriff James Campbell’s own son-in-law was seated as a juror at Robert Fox’s trial.

That is what Cherokee County calls a “fair trial.” Even though Fox’s case resulted in a mistrial in June 2011, Cherokee County cannot succeed in framing their intended targets when cases without merit are moved out of the region. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, June 2, 2011 “Mistrial declared for Fox“) Based upon Mr. Kelton’s own complaints earlier to the Robert Fox grand jury in 2009, he should have followed his own advice and never set foot in the county. As a radio personality and investigative journalist, he knows East Texas branches of the US Attorney’s office are complacent about this level of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of those in the crosshairs of local rogue prosecutors. They go along with the “sovereign citizen” rhetoric while turning a blind eye to rapist cops such as Jacksonville, TX police officer Larry Pugh. Unlike large metropolitan regions, Cherokee County’s law enforcement doesn’t have enough to do, and the axiom “idle hands make mischief” certainly applies to them; or in their case “idle hands make a rapist cop.”

That’s just the way Cherokee County, TX operates, folks. State representatives know it and the US Attorney’s office knows it; the Tyler branch of the FBI knows it. Randall Kelton, Robert Fox, county commissioners, JPs, along with hundreds of others have spelled out specific grievances to the State Bar, the State Attorney General and US Attorney’s offices about Cherokee County violating the law. So the question is: why do these agencies who are responsible for policing public corruption allow it to not just fester but to thrive under our noses? Until the voting population removes these people from office, they can expect the entire area to spiral down into insolvency. Neighboring counties and businesses are witnessing how things operate here, and now with the outspoken Randy Kelton in their jail, the economic repercussions will be generational.

There are several theories as to why the Feds enable corrupt East Texas authorities to make a living by framing ‘out of towners.’ The primary reason would be that prosecuting district attorneys after years of violating their oaths of office would undo decades’ worth of convictions. Convicted murderers from these counties could be set free; every Tom, Dick and Harry could have their criminal records expunged. It would take a colossal amount of time and money to review each case handled in these areas for the last 40 years. Hence, Cherokee County’s pattern consists of violating the simplest legal procedures and being corroborated in Tyler’s 12th Court of Appeals. How can prosecutors and bailiffs get away with suborning juries in front of everyone in the courthouse and planting juries with those who are coached to lie during voir dire?

Moreover, the Federal authorities in these areas rely on the phone tapping and other illegal snooping that these underling agencies are willing to do day in and day out. Why go through the hassle of getting a federal warrant to eavesdrop on who they call suspected drug dealers, when they have deputized telephone company employees, cable guys and bored small town cops willing to do it for them? Cherokee County’s telephone exchanges are one big party line.

Again, admission of this unconstitutional activity would result in thousands — if not tens of thousands — of court cases being overturned. Consequently, local justice authorities subvert their version of “investigating authority” into a means of listening to and controlling the lay population. This criminal activity is conducted as openly as the way they rig their ballot boxes. When incumbents receive more votes than actual registered voters, you would think that red flag would be investigated. Instead, they are allowed to cover up the corruption with hand-picked grand juries charged with “investigating” made up crimes that only a rogue district attorney can present to them.

Surely the thinking populace doesn’t believe Mr. Kelton is sitting in the Rusk, TX jail for being an investigative journalist with business cards. Is Kelly Gooch of the Tyler Paper next on their get list for covering the Pct. 3 JP’s complaint against Cherokee County’s open meeting violations? (Source: Tyler Paper, June 5, 2009 “Cherokee County JP makes accusations of corruption towards commissioners”)

Below is the March 2009 letter composed by Randall Kelton, on Robert Fox’s behalf, after his research of Cherokee County and federal authorities in East Texas refusing to intervene.

Dear Foreperson:

I am a radio show host out of Austin, Texas. I do not live in Cherokee County, neither do I have business there. My only contact has come through calls to my radio station. After looking into some of the allegations, what I found was disturbing. I talked to persons involved then came to court and witnessed acts personally that indicate that the police and courts in Cherokee County are totally out of control.

In an effort to give those involved fair notice, and without initiation any action against anyone, I filed a set of criminal complaints with the grand jury. They were not official as they were not signed or verified as would be required. It was my intent to simply give fair notice so that the individuals involved would know they were under scrutiny.

The problem was that any time anyone attempted to defend themselves in the county court, the court would start retaliation against them by filing false charges to have them arrested. The court would then set an outrageous bail, then arrest them again on another false charge, more outrageous bail, and on and on until the person was unable to raise bail. Attached is a statement detailing the abuses.

To my surprise, when I tried to give them fair warning, they were not impressed and filed criminal complaints against me because I filed the documents with the grand jury. They are now trying to trap me in their jail as they have been doing others.

I sent this document directly to you as the local United States Attorney and FBI are fully aware of what is going on and refuse to do anything to stop things.

I wrote this letter in the hope you would initial it and return it in the included envelope. The reason is that there is a standing practice on the part of United States Attorneys to secret evidence from federal grand juries. I ask for initials as the prosecutor has a stamp with your name on it and my investigations have shown that it is a common practice for the prosecutor to use the stamp without your knowledge, or the knowledge of the grand jury panel. This is especially a problem with superseding indictments.

Therefore, so that I can be sure the United States Attorney did not secret this from you, will you please initial this document and return it to me. And please, examine into the allegations made here. The problems in Cherokee County run very deep. Along with the retaliation as a matter of policy, people are kept in jail without bond beyond the 90 days allowed by law. This is done as a matter of course. People are arrested and secreted from magistrates, thrown in jail and no amount of motions or pleadings make any difference as they are all denied as a matter of course.

Please help us return the rule of law to Cherokee County, Texas.

Respectfully Submitted,

Randall Kelton

Grand Jury Foreperson: __________ Date: _________

(Courtesy: jurisprudence.com)

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District Attorney retaliates against civil rights suit

Judicial ethics Cherokee County style.

District Attorney Elmer Beckworth, among other Cherokee County officials, is a Defendant in the Robert Fox federal civil rights lawsuit filed in Marshall, TX (Source: Fox v. City of Jacksonville, Texas et al Case No. 2:2010cv00158 TX Eastern District). Elmer Beckworth is criminally prosecuting Fox in Cherokee County for filing the civil rights complaint. Beckworth refused to recuse himself early this year after he brought Robert Fox to trial under a bogus “tampering with a government record” charge in retaliation for Fox’s Notice To Sue against Beckworth personally, the sheriff’s department and the city of Jacksonville. And even though Sheriff James Campbell is also named as a Defendant in Fox’s lawsuit, Campbell’s own son-in-law sat as a juror in Elmer Beckworth’s “tampering with a government record” trial against Fox. Not to mention Campbell’s son-in-law’s apparent noncompliance with mandatory full disclosure to the court of any possible bias he might have toward Fox for naming his father-in-law as a Defendant in the federal civil rights case. As usual, the Cherokee County district court ignores the district attorney’s patent conflict of interest of empaneling jurists who lie about their association with a case in order to be seated at trial. Moreover, the DA himself is a federal Defendant responding to Fox’s civil rights suit.

Cherokee County has criminalized the filing of mere “paperwork” in the federal court system.

A mistrial was declared after tens of thousands of dollars of Cherokee County taxpayer money was spent stacking Fox’s jury with relatives of those he intends to sue. In yet another example of Cherokee County’s consummate waste of tax dollars, Beckworth has filed for another trial in March 2012, one year after the original mistrial and after the fall midterm elections. The district attorney’s goal is not just to convince his next handpicked jury an actual crime had been committed, because no crime ever took place. For solidarity’s sake, Elmer Beckworth must prove the Good Ol’ Boy network draining Cherokee County dry is above accountability. Robert Fox’s lawsuit among other things is in response to being held in the Cherokee County jail under bail set unconstitutionally high for 9 months and then being called a “federal fugitive” after being released on bond.

Robert Fox’s suit against Elmer Beckworth, et al is pending in the US District Court. Meanwhile, the cities of Wells, Texas and Alto, Texas have lost their police departments as revenue has been sucked up to county seat level to protect the sheriff’s department and district attorney’s office from civil rights suits. Cherokee County’s cabal is in full motion to criminalize federal civil rights suits against them.

For decades, innocent people have been framed by these so-called justice authorities for crimes perpetrated in collusion with dirty local law enforcement. Radio personality Randy Kelton was charged by Beckworth’s team in May 2009 for operating a detective agency without a license simply for speaking in Fox’s defense to the Cherokee County grand jury. It doesn’t matter to the district attorney that a defense witness doesn’t have to have a license to be an investigative journalist.

Would you like your door kicked in in the middle of the night by sheriff deputies because you filed a complaint with the FBI? Do you like the thought of backwoods law enforcement snooping through your mail and listening to personal phone calls?  Would you like your neighbors to be paid to watch your every move so your property can be violated while you’re out of town? Do you want to live in a county where known pedophiles, wife-beaters and drunk drivers are called to serve on jury duty so prosecutors can extort them to ensure their vote? Citizens outside of the region should understand the depth and breadth of this type of illegal activity that the US Eastern District is made aware of every year through civil rights suits. Unfortunately their pattern is to summarily dismiss, with pure homegrown Good Ol’ Boy bias, cases against their counterparts at the State level.

In typical East Texas unaccountability, the US Eastern District recently dismissed Robert Fox’s civil suit against the city of Jacksonville, TX. Apparently in the minds of federal justices from the Eastern District, their hometowns’ corrupt law enforcement and rogue prosecutors are off limits. Even when they kidnap, rape and torture women at gunpoint on the side of the road and drag them off into cemeteries. Or kick down the doors of law-abiding citizens. All trumped up charges against Robert Fox such as hording drugs, barratry, etc. were formally dismissed, yet Cherokee County’s district attorney continued to press forward to trial. The “tampering with a government record” charge was concocted to load up the Cherokee County court docket (which is exactly what the district attorney accuses Robert Fox of doing) after all charges against Fox were dismissed. Fox will be put on trial yet again for filing an “Intent to Sue” document in Smith County after his property was illegally raided and he was deprived of due process.

After word of Fox’s federal civil rights case against the city of Jacksonville was dismissed, district attorney Elmer Beckworth’s team immediately filed for a re-trial in Cherokee County court. Even though Fox’s felony charge of “tampering with a government record” was declared null and void in the mistrial earlier this year. No media personality in East Texas has asked much less  answered “How is filing a Notice to Sue in federal court in any way tampering with official records???” Instead, the local media was too busy in 2009 repeating the shit fed to them by the Jacksonville Police Department that Robert Fox was a “wanted federal fugitive” and active “terrorist sympathizer.” Fox is suing several media outlets for libel as well; however he can’t hold the city of Jacksonville responsible for its police department holding press conferences declaring him to be a terrorist, according to the US Eastern District. Current justices appear to be willing to perpetuate this pattern of unaccountability as they did by not holding the city of Jacksonville responsible for the actions of rapist cop Larry Pugh, sentenced to 15 years federal time for three counts of sexually assaulting women while on patrol. This judicial debacle was spelled out in the June 9, 2008 Burnt Orange Report.

That doesn’t stop Robert Fox from suing Sheriff James Campbell, Elmer Beckworth, and the whole kit and kaboodle individually and civilly. However, that doesn’t stop the district attorney either from planting the next Cherokee County jury with even more of the sheriff’s kinfolk come re-trial. So here we go again folks, your district attorney is going to waste another hundred thousand dollars of your taxes for yet another round at Robert Fox in March 2012, after the Fall elections. While the local media refuses to publish the certainty of Robert Fox prevailing, all the attention in the US Eastern District Court has reverberated throughout the Rusk, TX legal community and sent assistant district attorneys scurrying for anonymity.

The federal US Eastern District has a horrible track record of summarily dismissing viable complaints made against East Texas municipalities that employ small town cops who openly violate the citizenry’s rights. They allow backwater police and prosecutors to fabricate Penal Code statutes to retaliate against civil rights victims. Every single charge authored by district attorney Elmer Beckworth and initially levied against Robert Fox had no legal merit and was dismissed in Beckworth’s own court. The US Eastern District Court ignores this, despite Cherokee County incarcerating Fox for nine months without his ability to make bail. He is charged for a “paper trail” of bonafide complaints against Cherokee County’s rogue police tactics. Furthermore, his bail was set unconstitutionally high for charges that were summarily dismissed. Cherokee County still has not cleared those charges from their dockets.

If Robert Fox can’t say in print that Cherokee County, Texas is corrupt and rogue, then who can?

It’s not like they had to pay Robert Fox off to keep him quiet, like they do each other. If Fox’s lawsuit is frivolous and without merit, then it would not have been accepted in the US Eastern District’s jurisdiction, assigned a case identifier and scheduled on that docket. Cherokee County is so corrupt that they believe that answering a federal civil summons, which Elmer Beckworth, et al (including local media outlets Fox sued) did in fact do in November of last year, is somehow illegal and a State crime. Meanwhile, it is the taxpayer paying for this dog and pony show crafted by the Cherokee County DA’s office.

Cherokee County wants its citizens to think a piece of paper filed with a federal district clerk is reason to incarcerate someone without bail for nine months. Even if these rogue authorities finally convict Robert Fox of some made up crime through their frame job while the US Eastern District Court looks the other way, it will be the taxpayers picking up the tab. Apparently the locals are willing to have their entire police forces furloughed in order to pay for this ongoing criminal conspiracy.

Alto, Texas police cars sit locked up after tiny city laid off entire police force in cost-cutting move. (Courtesy CBS News)

Concerned citizens ask “Where has all the money gone?” when at the same time their property taxes are increasing for the first time in seven years to pay for the Rusk, TX courthouse’s increase in staff. (Source: Tyler Paper) While local schools and maintenance departments are tightening their pursestrings, Cherokee County is spending its money ‘lawyering up.’

These are the words that the Cherokee County, TX district court have deemed to be illegal, reprinted in part from Robert Fox’s civil rights claim heard earlier this summer:

ATTN: RISK MANAGEMENT
CLAIM:
NOTICE TO CURE/
NOTICE OF INTENT TO SUE
AS PRESENTED BY AFFIDAVIT OF
Robert James Fox

FACTS

1. This claim is based upon the event whereby I, Robert James Fox, was seized by force of arms on January 23, A.D. 2009, as a matter of RETALIATION, DISCRIMINATION, AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION, wherein the evidence goes to show that the alleged Jacksonville Police Department commenced their series of attacks by force of arms on May 15, A.D. 2008, by breaking the law by specific intent, or in other words FRAUD, as they executed their planned aggravated assault, armed robbery, wrongful incarceration, and TORTURE by specific intent.

2. Absent Fifth Amendment just compensation, theft of private property on May 15, May 22, and June 11, in the nature of armed robbery and/or conversion, was utilized as RETALIATION, DISCRIMINATION, AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION, as per Texas Civil Practice and Remedy Code, Chapter 106.001.

3. I, Robert James Fox, suffered injury due to the fact the Jacksonville Police Department DENIED DUE PROCESS, and absent commitment ORDER, I was summarily incarcerated from January 23rd to May the 24th contrary to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 17.151, by specific intent as evidenced by the testimony of Sheriff James Campbell who declared under penalty of perjury that it was a commitment ORDER from the City of Jacksonville that was responsible.

4. Absent lawful authority, for the non-crime of filing a Claim upon Risk Management pursuant to the Texas Tort Claims Act, I suffered summary incarceration beyond the legal limit in violation of Texas law, which creates personal liability for any and all parties involved at Jacksonville, and causing extreme emotional distress, as evidenced by the fact I was taken from the Cherokee County Jail by ambulance to the hospital for oxygen and nitro.

5. Outline of elements regarding CONSPIRACY:
A. 2 or more persons acted together,
B. they acted to accomplish an object,
C. they had a meeting of the minds on the object or course of action;
D. they committed one or more unlawful, overt acts; and
E. the plaintiff suffered injury as a proximate result.

(under conspiracy, joint and several liability is extended not only to the wrongdoer, but also to those who have agreed to assist the wrongdoer.)

It is plain and clear that the unlawful egregious conduct creating the damages that I have suffered is the result of city and county employees conspiring against me, in open defiance of God’s law, as well as State and Federal law, including but not limited to Texas Civil Practice and Remedy Code, Chapter 106.001.

6. All of the above matters, including but not limited to over two years of litigating the “Tampering with a Government Record” issue, has caused me extreme emotional distress which was inflicted intentionally in the nature of TORTURE.

July is Elder Abuse Prevention Month

Financial exploitation of the elderly costs as much as $2.6 billion per year (Source: AARP). In Cherokee County, Texas this translates to Adult Protective Services employees renting out their properties to the most vulnerable under their care for kickbacks. Your local district attorney and judges certainly won’t lift a finger to prosecute those engaged in conflict of interest profiteering. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, March 30, 2011)

Remember: their daily lifelong responsibility is to shunt the stench of corruption out from their inner circle and onto those not within the Good Ol’ Boy/Biddie network. It does them no good to bring legal action against their own cousins and in-laws (who are usually one and the same).

Visit the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) to learn more.
www.ncea.aoa.gov

Contribute to the National Alliance of Victims’ Rights Attorneys to help provide pro bono assistance to victims of domestic violence.

Murderers and drug addicts on the Cherokee County payroll

Michael Dashawn Harris, sentenced to life (with parole) for the murder of Jacksonville, TX resident Faye Bell Harris.

Time served: 6 years.

(Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, January 22, 2004)

“Harris faces competency hearing.”

The capital murder case of Michael Dashawn Harris is scheduled to get underway next week – in a preliminary sense – with a hearing to determine his competency to stand trial.

Judge Dwight Phifer, who oversees the state’s 2nd Judicial District, has also ordered that jury selection for the trial begin on either Feb. 9 or 17.

Police officers arrested Harris, 44, on Aug. 4, 2003, after he went to his mother-in-law’s house and allegedly shot and killed his estranged wife, Faye Harris. Harris was also charged with retaliation.

In Texas, any time a murder is committed in the course of committing certain felonies – such as retaliation – a person may be charged with capital murder and be eligible for the death penalty.

Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth has not said if he will seek the death penalty in the Harris case. (Courtesy: Daily Progress)

After trying to burn down their house and later murdering his ex-wife in front of their daughter, Michael Dashawn Harris passed away 6 years into a life sentence arranged by District Attorney Elmer Beckworth. The version of events promulgated by the folks in Cherokee County and the district attorney is that the murder was a result of lax felony bond requirements and that prosecutors followed the letter of the law. After all that money was spent on Beckworth traveling to Austin to ostensibly champion Faye Bell Harris as a victim’s rights advocate and to grandstand, Cherokee County newspapers did not contest Michael Harris’ possible early release to the Parole Board.

They are confident the ignorant public has been fooled completely in this case; they convinced the Harris family that they were not responsible for allowing a drug informant on the streets after repeatedly arresting him for escalating domestic violence. What is Michael Harris’ value to the district attorney’s office?

Michael Harris was initially arrested on a Cherokee County warrant by the Tyler Police Department on January 27, 2003. He was transported back to Cherokee County where he was charged with arson/attempt to cause bodily injury in a house of worship. He made bail and continued to repeatedly attack his estranged ex-wife while on felony bond.

Michael Dashawn Harris (Courtesy: Smith County)

Oddly enough, Michael D. Harris was not just charged with a homicide; he pleaded to murdering a “peace officer or fireman”  and attempting to burn down this so-called “place of worship.”  To the district attorney’s office, the Harris household was a religious safe house strategically located in the city of Jacksonville’s northern drug corridor. Hence Elmer Beckworth charged Michael Harris with murdering a “peace officer,” [the victim Mrs. Harris], i.e. the other informant living in the house and cooperating with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department. Faye Harris worked as a therapy technician at the Rusk State Hospital according to the Cherokeean Herald. Did Michael Harris murder their CI or was he charged under another one of Cherokee County’s made up statutes?

(Source: Cheorkeean April 30, 1998 Sec. A, p. 7) click for larger view

Sources:  Criminal Docket Case 15388: CAPITAL MURDER OF A PEACE OFFICER OR FIREMAN THE STATE OF TEXAS vs HARRIS, MICHAEL DASHAWN. Filed 09/22/2003 -Disposition: 10/18/2004 Conviction-guilty plea or nolo cont-no jury.

Case 15354: MURDER; Case 15387: ASSAULT CAUSES BODILY INJURY FAMILY VIOLENCE ENHANCED; Case 15250: ARSON BODILY INJURY/DEATH IN PLACE OF WORSHIP. 2nd District Court, District Clerk, Cherokee County, TX.

The Michael Harris case never went to trial; he pleaded No Contest to the 2003 homicide after his in-and-out rehab stints at the Rusk State Hospital. His bail was set and reset multiple times by the Cherokee County court system. Faye Harris’ calls to the district court to have her ex-husband locked up for his escalating domestic violence were ignored. Thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent to convince the public otherwise.

Are residents beginning to realize the depth and breadth of public corruption going on under their noses and why their municipalities’ police forces have dried up? Where has all the taxpayer money for public safety gone? Exactly how is the District Attorney’s Law Enforcement Fund from seizures being spent?

Taxpayer money is spent subsidizing the families and allies of the same group of people who have been draining Cherokee County dry for decades. Cherokee County is a family-operated criminal enterprise and along with their familial kickbacks, their confidential informants have bankrupted the city and county coffers. According to CBS News, the towns of Wells and Alto, TX have both had their entire police forces furloughed as their city councils do some fiduciary housecleaning. The tiny town of Alto, TX is making up for a $185,000 budget deficit with the layoffs. (Source: CBS News, Tiny Texas town lays off entire police force)

For the first time in modern history, these one stoplight towns have done a little fiscal oversight and discovered that their city services are in the RED. Too much taxpayer money has been allocated for personal use which includes paying law enforcement and their families to illegally monitor the law-abiding public. They have decided to cut their city law enforcement and have overextended sheriff’s deputies respond to their emergencies. The local Cherokeean Herald reports Alto, TX (population 1150) had five officers on payroll for nighttime alarm patrol in a one-horse town.

Looking for an oral history of Cherokee County, Texas? 

Chapter 1: A history of corruption that cannot be rewritten or ignored.

Former Alto police chiefs’ salaries have ranged from $16K to over $100K, depending on who the applicant was related to, even though the city’s population has remained at or below 1100 for the last 30 years. Their turnover has been frequent, controversial and bitter at times. Relatives of the former district attorney have framed past police chiefs to run them out of town and move themselves into a coveted salaried position. (Source: Cherokeean) Former Alto mayor Garwin Baugh tells the Jacksonville Daily Progress in 1992 how he and Police Chief Tom Griffith were targeted for openly discussing the coverup of a murdered feed store owner. (Source: Daily Progress May 1, 1992)

Chief Griffith was ousted and the district attorney’s investigator took his job to make sure the capital murder conviction in the case was not overturned. All public discussions of the case were quelled. The conviction was eventually overturned and an innocent defendant facing life in prison was released on time served.  The case was The State vs. Terry Watkins. Elmer Beckworth represented the State at Watkins’ appeal; his job was to thwart any and all evidentiary review hearings that proved Terry Watkins’ innocence. The victim’s life insurance was used among other things to pay State witnesses for the prosecutor, former district attorney Charles Holcomb. Taxpayer money has always been spent to keep the family clan in office and against whistleblowers. Proceeds from insurance payouts also come in handy for hush money.

Charles Holcomb takes money to hire witnesses (Source: Daily Progress August 23, 1990) 

click for larger view

During this current police furlough, the sheriff’s department and district attorney’s office will have to rely solely on their good ol’ boy/ bitty network to keep watch over the southern part of the county. Even more taxpayer money will be allocated for illegal phone drops, jury plants, ‘anonymous’ tipsters and other reserve officers’ clandestine eavesdropping.

Every week the local newspapers report the status of merchant sales tax revenues as if it were a true signal of the economic status of the county. Following their logic, these little towns rake in the sales tax but cannot afford to have police protection? Think again.

The only investigative technique utilized by law enforcement in this area is illegal phone tapping of its residents. At least since the 1920′s they have enlisted their family members to listen to and record as many perfectly legal telephone and innocuous business conversations as possible throughout the county. In their minds there is no need for an active police force in rural areas because their 3rd generation phone tapping network is intact and operating at 100%.

Informants provide routine drug busts to justify county and state level investigators and their salaries, while taxpayer money is pooled to help pay these CIs’ house bills and keep them in the county. Instead of being ostracized, murderers and drug addicts are on the dole in Cherokee County. When it comes to politicking, these informants provide pabulum for district attorney’s and sheriff investigators. That is where the money has gone. Tax revenue goes to keep these salaried parasites in office and against any and all who challenge them. Traveling public beware if you use the local telephone systems or post offices.

No need to dial 9-1-1 folks; they know about crime before it even takes place. Usually they are the perpetrators.

Sales tax reciprocity from the city to the county level will cease to exist until Cherokee County voters are brave enough to do some judiciary housecleaning. Meanwhile, Cherokee County taxpayer dollars are still being spent on prosecuting Robert Fox for filing a Notice to Sue in Smith County; investigating the Precinct 3 Commissioner for her bonafide due diligence; and decades of private property improvements by county officials in bed with the district attorney. The entire county, much less the small towns of Alto and Wells, TX, can no longer afford the public corruption that has been going on for decades.

Mistrial declared in Robert Fox “tampering with the government” case

Cherokee County tax dollars were further squandered this week as district attorney Elmer Beckworth brought bogus “Tampering with a Government Record” charges against Robert Fox to fruition. The nearly weeklong bullshit session ended in a deadlocked jury, with those relatives of law enforcement and prosecutors holding out a day and a half until deliberations were halted. Fox represented himself. His federal lawsuit against the city of Jacksonville, or as Beckworth’s office calls it “a tampered with government record,” has not been dismissed and is still on the Eastern District’s docket. Fox’s trial had been postponed for over a year after initial jury selection, in anticipation of his Federal lawsuit being heard in Tyler, TX this summer. (Source: Fox v. City of Jacksonville Texas et al Case No. 2:2010cv00158 TX Eastern District)

Robert Fox had faced a litany of concocted charges several years ago, including barratry, all of which were summarily dismissed despite the barrage of media reports about his so-called “activities” with the House of Israel. Cherokee County felt they had a blank check to storm the place and falsely accuse its members of any incendiary thing they could think of. Once Fox fought back with a Civil Rights suit against the city of Jacksonville, “tampering with a government record” charges were sought locally to quell his petition to the Tyler Federal Courts. Robert Fox spent 9 months in Cherokee County jail, unable to make his unconstitutionally high set bail. Not to mention being labeled a “terrorist threat” by the Jacksonville Police Department during press conferences. At trial Fox faced a jury composed of Sheriff James Campbell’s son-in-law and others related to the individuals listed in his federal complaints. That in itself would be grounds for a mistrial or remand, but glaring corruption is of no concern to those operating Cherokee County.

The goal of this still unreported “tampering” trial was to derail Robert Fox’s meticulous civil rights suit against the county in Tyler’s Federal Court. The city of Jacksonville, TX is preparing for the federal suit to be heard and discussing it with their attorneys. This is how personal vendettas and illegal raids (resulting in federal civil rights suits) are handled by the Cherokee County’s District Attorney’s office. It is certainly OK in the locals’ minds to have jury pools tampered with, false charges pushed through the court system, witnesses’ phones tapped, perjury by prosecutors during voir dire admitted as evidence, etc. etc. etc. Tens of thousands of dollars and countless man-hours have been spent poisoning the Robert Fox jury pool, while pedophiles, wife beaters and other riffraff related to these people go unprosecuted.

Meanwhile, the cities of Alto and Wells,TX have both lost their police departments (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress May 28, 2011), placing the financial strain of patrolling and responding to these areas entirely on the Sheriff Department. With school districts, county precincts and all other government agencies tightening their belts, apparently the district attorney’s budget is designed to stave off potentially large hits to the county’s liability insurance. We’re waiting to read about this latest miscarriage of justice in the local courthouse-affiliated newspapers.

Cherokee County, TX has criminalized the filing of Federal civil rights lawsuits. Jacksonville Police Chief Reece Daniel even told the Daily Progress the intent of Robert Fox’s “tampering with a government record” charge was to stop Fox from what Daniel saw as “cluttering up the county clerk’s office with false, frivolous documents.” (Source: Daily Progress Jan. 27, 2009) Robert Fox was charged with a felony for “his paper trail.” If Fox’s claims were frivolous, why weren’t his accusations simply ignored?

The charge stems from some paperwork he [Fox] has filed in a Smith County court, but because he delivered it and made the demands in Cherokee County, we have venue,” Daniel said. “He filed an official record with the clerk’s office, which is legally considered a governmental record. Under the law, if that record contains false information, then it has been tampered with.” (Source: Daily Progress Jan. 27, 2009)

Chief Daniel and his legal advisor Elmer Beckworth believe they are both judge and jury when it comes to what complaints or briefs Robert Fox files out of county. Had Fox filed a “frivolous” lawsuit then it would have been summarily dismissed as their own charges against him were. Had the city of Jacksonville police department not continued its campaigns of creating charges, dropping charges, then creating more against Robert James Fox, et al, then the federal lawsuits they face would never have been filed. The county’s liability insurance premiums would be safe and their standings with the Municipal League intact. Therefore, the prime mover in the Robert Fox case has always been, and shall ever be, the city of Jacksonville and district attorney’s office out of control criminal activities. Their own actions led to Robert Fox finally filing civil complaints against them. Anyone in the United States can file any lawsuit whenever they feel the need, even prisoners on death row.

The steps are simple and followed to the letter in Cherokee County:
1. get a misinformed city judge to sign off on an open-ended Search Warrant.
2. publicize legal material confiscated during the raid that wasn’t part of the scope of the original Warrant.
3. set the Bail unconstitutionally high based on bogus charges.
4. concoct another set of charges to re-arrest and conduct another open-ended raid.
5. do the above 3 or 4 times until the arrestee has exhausted funds for bonds.
6. perform an arrest again based upon more bogus charges when the defendant appears in court.
7. repeat all necessary steps while sending press releases on how “dangerous” the “wanted fugitive” in their custody is.
8. criminalize any and all defendant’s Motions and civil rights complaints.

Cherokee County has collectively tampered with government documents to claim it is a State felony to file a Federal lawsuit against them, in retaliation to Robert Fox’s civil rights cases. Then they placed Sheriff Campbell’s inner circle of in-laws on Fox’s jury. Their minions lap up this type of criminal conspiracy; they actually pat each other on the back for creating charges that have no basis in the penal code. They call this type of malicious prosecution as “being creative.” Joseph Goebbels himself would be proud of the propaganda the Cherokee County District Attorney told the courtroom this week. Unfortunately, many familial jurists and officers of the court are as well, but not enough to compose any press releases on the trial’s outcome. Cherokee County district court and the city of Jacksonville have absolutely no legal authority, jurisdiction or venue over any federal complaints filed in Smith County.

“The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.” — Joseph Goebbels

In America, government officials and law enforcement are accountable for their activities, both civilly and criminally. In any other part of the country these people would have been locked up and disbarred. These people have for decades used their political positions along with our tax dollars to silence opponents and crush political enemies to further their own personal agendas. Every free thinking person knows that Robert Fox has the legal to right to file any lawsuit in any Federal Court he chooses, no matter how “frivolous” or “vexatious;”  and that his, and thus our, constitutionally guaranteed right cannot be impeded upon. It is crystal clear that Cherokee County is renegade, malicious and out of bounds of the Law.

Enter at your own risk.

April 2011 is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, 1 in 6 women in the United States has been the victim of rape or attempted rape. Statistically 1 out of every 4 Cherokee County, TX residents is genetically related to prosecutors and law enforcement, which means only a small percentage of actual sex assaults and domestic violence claims are investigated. Non-relatives and out of region arrestees are brought to the front of the court dockets and front page newspapers, while local offenders are protected by the family clan operating the Rusk, TX courthouse.

The theme of the 2011 SAAM campaign is “It’s time to get involved.” Make yourselves aware of these individuals; they have operated in concert with the Cherokee County district attorney’s office for decades.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center promotes a community prevention approach that addresses the Good Ol’ Boy and Gal environment which allows sexual violence to occur without redress. Until the current nepotism is replaced with prosecuting attorneys without political and familial agendas, Cherokee County will continue to align itself against the safety and equality of its residents.

Cherokee County Republican Party Chairman forced to resign Adult Protective Services job

Jacksonville, TX:

The Jacksonville Daily Progress reports that Adult Protective Services investigator Stephen R. Looney was forced in December 2010 to resign his position with the Jacksonville branch of DFPS for alleged violations. The Daily Progress omits within its post-Primary article that Looney is the chairman for Cherokee County’s Republican Party.

Steve Looney, pictured below with local Republican officeholders, was elected as Cherokee County’s Republican Party chairman in March 2010. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress)

Pictured from left to right Pct. 2 Constable Jack White, Pct. 1 Constable Lynn Kelly, Republican County Chair Steve Looney, Lawrence Davis, Pct. 2 Justice of the Peace candidate Tony Johnson, County Judge Chris Davis, County Sheriff James Campbell, State Senator Robert Nichols, Pct. 3 Justice of the Peace candidate Phillip Grimes, District Clerk Janet Gates, and Pct. 4 Justice of the Peace candidate Roberta Durate. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, September 10, 2010)

According to the most recent Jacksonville Daily Progress article on the resignation,

Looney was recommended for dismissal by the Jacksonville department supervisor in a memorandum making claims he had inflated travel-mileage reports, falsified case reports, billed the department for services clients didn’t receive and, in one case, sexually harassed a client, according to documents received from the Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS), of which APS is a division. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, March 30, 2011)

Steve Looney, who had been employed with Cherokee County Adult Protective Services since 2008, was reprimanded by his superiors in February 2010 for personally renting a house to a client under his supervision, according to the Daily Progress.

It took the Jacksonville Daily Progress nearly 4 months to report the resignation of this Adult Protective Services employee with no mention of Looney’s Cherokee County political affiliations. These are the people charged with protecting the county’s at-risk adult and elderly population, while at the same time violating conflict of interest protocols. The overt pattern of not only conducting personal business on agency time, but simultaneously promoting their elected position in the newspapers, is indicative of their confidence in the corrupt Good Ol’ Boy system. This is yet another example of your local newspaper belatedly reporting only after the fact negative information in order to shield the county’s political hierarchy.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services website lists the services APS provides to exploited elderly or disabled adults. (Source: DFPS)

Probated Rusk, TX child molester arrested in California; First Degree child sex assault sentenced as Second Degree

This tip comes from a reader.

Rusk, TX:

The local newspapers will not report the probation violation of a registered sex offender caught out of state. Another homegrown Rusk, TX pedophile recommended for probation by the Cherokee County district attorney’s office has traveled out of the county and again placed people at risk. According to a reader’s tip, James Christopher Schlater, 53, was captured by authorities in Santa Clara County, California and transferred back to the Rusk jail where he quietly awaits his recommencing in Cherokee County, Texas. The victim of his original probated sex offense in Rusk is verified as a 6-year old female according to the Online TXDPS Sex Offender Registry.  J. Schlater is currently incarcerated in the Rusk, TX  jail where his probation violation is being whitewashed and ignored by the local media for the simple fact that Schlater’s re-offense makes Cherokee County’s ingrained corrupt criminal justice system look bad. They also won’t report how in-laws of the District Attorney’s staff work side-by-side while relatives are placed directly on jury panels.

James C. Schlater, courtesy of Homefacts.com and TXDPS

 

Texas Penal Code, Section 21.02- Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Young Child or Children
(h) An offense under this section is a felony of the first degree, punishable by imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life, or for any term of not more than 99 years or less than 25 years.

Cherokee County jury trials are for show. They are an opportunity to have local newspapers publish quotes of deliberate lies spun about existing legal statutes and to grandstand the corruption of all participants. The Tyler Paper and Jacksonville Daily Progress report Timothy Ray Hill, Sr. , 50, was recently convicted of molesting a 13-year old female over a 3 year period and sentenced to only 15 years in TDCJ.

Timothy Ray Hill, Sr. courtesy Tyler Paper

 

The Jacksonville Daily Progress reports the Hill sentencing:

According to Cherokee County First Assistant District Attorney Rachel Patton, sexual assault and indecency with a child by sexual contact are punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, Feb. 28, 2011)

Apparently the Jacksonville-based reporter is content being cited the punishment for Second Degree felonies, which Timothy Ray Hill, Sr. was sentenced under. However, Hill is reported to have committed a First Degree felony and only one case of sexual assault was filed by prosecutors in June 2010 (Source: Criminal Docket Case 17818, SEXUAL ASSAULT CHILD; THE STATE OF TEXAS vs HILL, TIMOTHY RAY, Filed 06/28/2010 – Disposition: 02/25/2011; 2nd District Court, District Clerk, Cherokee County, TX).

Corrupt little Cherokee County gets to have it both ways and they are going to report it as such. There is a decades old criminal mentality that permeates the county’s justice system and local media’s reporting protocol.

Sec. 12.33. SECOND DEGREE FELONY PUNISHMENT. (a) An individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the second degree shall be punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for any term of not more than 20 years or less than 2 years.
(b) In addition to imprisonment, an individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the second degree may be punished by a fine not to exceed $10,000. (Source: Texas Penal Code, Title 3, Chapter 12, Subchapter A)

There is no statute of limitations for sexual assault crimes under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Title 1 Chapter 12. However, if the Penal Code had been properly applied (and reported) in the Timothy Hill, Sr. case, the predator would have been sentenced to no less than 25 years concurrent for the continuous sexual abuse of a child. What is the efficacy of lying in print and misleading the public on Penal Codes and Statutes that are easily accessible other than to promote a corrupt solidarity between the Rusk, TX courthouse and local newspapers? Timothy Ray Hill, Sr. was convicted under ‘Apples’ but sentenced under ‘Oranges.’

 

If the facts don’t fit the story, change the facts.

Cherokee County newspapers have been spin doctoring their reports for decades. Take the recent Alto, Texas high school coach who recently pleaded to 10 years probation for having an improper teacher/student relationship with a female high schooler in the Elementary School gymnasium – a second degree felony in Texas. Kith and kin at the Cherokeean  newspaper quickly came to the rescue by deliberately reporting the age of the convicted Alto ISD faculty member to be 29, instead of his actual age of 39. That’s the story they want printed, that the victim was of the age of consent and that their local coach was 10 years younger than he really is. No retraction and no corrections are necessary for the same old blue-haired biddies assigned to endear the county by publishing ‘their version of events’ to soften the blow of outside scrutiny. They take their cues directly from a district attorney’s office who offers slap on the wrist plea bargains to child rapists and who openly perjures all the way to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Cherokee County media deliberately bury unsavory stories that make the county look bad. Especially those events and arrests of family members connected to the Rusk, TX courthouse. Whether it is the recidivate former Rusk, TX jailer facing parole revocation hearings after multiple DUIs or the arrests of the Rusk, TX dentist for escalating domestic violence involving a gun, the biddies quickly disconnect themselves from their incarcerated social network buddies after word spreads outside the county. Family-connected reporters conveniently misspell their jailed allies’ names to throw everyone off the trail.

Cherokee County is safe haven for recidivists directly connected to the Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney. Those familial bums arrested outside of the county quickly return to hometown Cherokee County for their Adult Probation and Supervision. They are given free rein to roam around and re-offend in order to snitch for the D.A. and Sheriff’s offices. For playing the jailhouse stoolie, they can be arrested once, twice, three and four times; up to the point they kill someone, as drug informant Michael Harris (who eventually murdered his ex-wife after multiple arrests and bail violations). With one phone call to neighboring counties, these entities can have their confidential informants released, Blue Warrants pulled and charges reduced if not entirely dropped. There will be a few uncooperative sacrificial lambs sentenced to TDCJ for the newspapers to periodically report. As stated earlier, usually the statute of limitations have either run out OR the sentencing does not meet the Texas Penal Code. To make matters worse, the Cherokee County courts will release known drug users such as Michael Harris and Brandon Robertson who corroborate information from law enforcements’ illegal telephone taps. Deputies listen to and record phone conversations 24/7 for the district attorney’s office in collaboration with these rapists and murderers.

They will set free a parole violator caught with a gun and crystal meth such as Brandon Robertson (who killed a DPS trooper two weeks later) who brings drug money into the county. They will completely fabricate stories and court hearings to cover up their appointed Precinct 3 Constable Randall Thompson driving to the Mexican border to purchase methamphetamines for distribution throughout the county. Yet the same corrupt court will incarcerate the likes of harmless Robert Fox for 9 months in solitary confinement before his pre-trial, simply because he filed a Federal Civil Rights complaint against them. The Tyler TV station that covers Thompson’s stomping grounds in Jacksonville interviewed the convicted constable on his way to work. Not to mention the certified mail Randall Thompson picked up and signed for as agent of the district court.

The local media jumps on the D.A.’s bandwagon when innocent citizens are falsely accused, but they can’t stand it when readers see in print the criminal activity of their elected officials’ family members. They have formed a symbiotic bond from decades of cronyism and they believe it is their duty to repeat the lies. It impresses them that the District Attorney and his cronies can violate the US Constitution at will, and nothing is done about it. In their minds it is not illegal if the district attorney’s office is doing it. And the District Attorney makes sure they feel as if they are contributing to the greater good, by enforcing the propaganda.

They also believe if it is in writing in the paper or printed in the court record, then that’s the story they’re sticking with. For example, the Daily Progress has never retracted any story or lie that Constable Randall Thompson was a complete no-show for his district court duties, prior to his federal drug indictment. All it would take is a one sentence correction buried in the classified section; however they stick to their collective story no matter how ludicrous. Like clockwork before pretrial (and Black History month), Randall Thompson’s replacement in the Confederate district court has the Rusk and Jacksonville newspapers print the Civil War Revisited for Dummies. Luckily for readers outside the region, the Tyler Morning Telegraph has on their staff new reporters who challenge the cultist pre-Reconstruction mentality of the Cherokee County newspapers.

A recent Texas Monthly article “When DAs Attack!” highlights the corrupt mentality permeating the East Texas judicial system. Smith County is the target of the critical exposé but the same is applicable to neighboring Cherokee County. In the now overturned Smith County “Mineola Sex Ring” case and Patrick Kelly conviction, the Houston Court of Appeals found that:

“The record is rife with error … the trial court adopted ad hoc evidentiary rules that operated to assist the State in proving its case, while impeding appellant’s ability to defend himself.”

As the Houston Court of Appeals said, “The trial court clearly abused its discretion,” i.e. the district judge in the case was not only openly supporting the district attorney’s weak and circumstantial case in front of the jury throughout the trial, the judge was making up judicial rules and ignoring evidentiary standards that proved the defense’s case. The Patrick Kelly case was remanded to Smith County and the original trial judge facing the complaints will preside over the retrial (Source: KLTV and Tyler Paper).

Other defendants in the “Mineola Sex Ring” have been found guilty and face retrial because of the way the cases have been handled by Smith County authorities (Source: KCEN). The Kerry Max Cook fiasco is another well-published example of East Texas prosecutorial misconduct. Cook was framed by Smith County officials and sat on death row for 20 years until exonerated with the help of DNA evidence. After multiple retrials, Smith County prosecutors offered Cook a never before “No-Contest” plea bargain for murder.

If these reported egregious acts of judicial misconduct are happening in large East Texas cities such as Tyler, TX, imagine what goes on in the small towns where news is buried to protect the area’s ability to make money. And local reporters are afraid of the consequences of printing anything critical of their elected officials. To the unreported south, Cherokee County’s versions of unethical acts and judicial bias occur during the plea bargain process. Indigent defendants are railroaded by the district attorney’s office, working in tandem with court appointed attorneys, to blindly accept an undisclosed sentence for pleading Guilty in front of the judge. If they don’t waste the court’s time and roll the dice, defendants may get a slap-on-the-wrist ‘Sweetheart of a Deal’. If the county is in desperate need of a sacrificial lamb, the court will violate the letter of the law and impose over-the-top prison terms with the hopes the Tyler Court of Appeals will rubberstamp the sentence.

Cherokee County court officials get to play God in their corrupt little world where their buddies in the newspapers shunt their activities from outside scrutiny. In the outside world, prosecutors and bonafide defense attorneys present written and agreed upon plea bargains to the judge, who then either accepts or denies the reduced sentence. Honorable court officials do not risk having wasteful mistrials and remands from higher courts. Cherokee County turns the judicial process into an egotistical crap game.

With every report of sentenced sex offenders and drug users in Cherokee County newspapers, there are multitudes more local probationers whose supervision fees enrich county coffers. This backwoods ego game in turn bolsters the D.A.’s primary motivation for recommending probation for heinous crimes, instead of prison. Cherokee County reporters know if those ignored offenders are jailed, those lawbreakers don’t pay into the county treasury. Those families and businesses out of the region contemplating moving into the Den of Iniquity should understand the sadistic satisfaction these cliques get in promulgating their takedown wolfpack mentality against the likes of Robert Fox, et al while harboring criminals in their midst.

Probated Cherokee County burglar kidnaps and rapes Henderson, TX woman; Anderson County Crime Stopper money missing

Another Cherokee County, TX probationer has reoffended, this time it is Aggravated Abduction and Rape.

Henderson, TX:

Probated Cherokee County burglar and Henderson resident Gary Lynn Jones, age 42, has pleaded guilty to the aggravated sexual assault of a female coworker, according to the Tyler Paper (Source: ”Henderson Man Pleads Guilty, Gets 50 Years On Sexual Assault,” January 16, 2011)

The 21-year old victim was tied up at gunpoint and raped repeatedly on the side of the road until she was able to escape and notify authorities. Jones was sentenced to 50 years in TDCJ. He had been serving 20 years adjudicated probation from a past burglary charge in Cherokee County, TX.

Gary Lynn Jones, courtesy tylerpaper.com

 

Gary Jones was placed on deferred adjudication in Cherokee County’s 2nd Judicial District Court for burglary of a habitation in October, 2000 (Source: Case 14337; THE STATE OF TEXAS vs JONES, GARY LYNN
Filed 06/26/2000 – Disposition: 10/13/2000 Deferred adjudication; 2nd District Court, District Clerk, Cherokee County, Texas). He was being supervised by Rusk County up to his revocation hearing in September, 2010.

Repeat offenders on probation and stoolies closely connected to the D.A.’s office can be involved in hit-and-runs, DWI’s, domestic violence, etc. etc. in other counties, yet their hometown parole supervision status in Cherokee County will remain unrevoked and unchanged. High-risk and especially repeat offenders facing incarceration are ideal candidates as ‘confidential’ informants for the Cherokee County district attorney’s office and local Sheriff’s Department. These probated criminals are not benign ‘Crime Stopper-esque’ informants who expose their drug dealers. No Sir, they are the “Go To” boys and biddies for the frame jobs concocted by these agencies.

Palestine, TX:
In other Crime Stopper News, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department has suspended 50-year old employee Terry Raybin after money disappeared from the tipster’s fund. Complaints were filed after county informants were told by Raybin that tip money had already been paid out. Mrs. Raybin had been Sheriff Greg Taylor’s personal secretary for several years according to the Tyler Paper. (Source: “Anderson Co. Sheriff’s Secretary Fired For Allegedly Stealing Crime Stoppers Money,” January 21, 2011)

Cherokee County’s version of Crime Stoppers has been supporting the otherwise unemployable family and friends of the District Attorney’s office and other agencies for decades. And they offer little oversight to the personal use of county equipment, hence the IRS has audited the county according to KETK and the Daily Progress (Sources: IRS investigating Cherokee County, KETK January 10, 2011 and IRS investigates county, Jacksonville Daily Progress January 8, 2011).

Troup ISD assistant principal resigns; New Summerfield ISD teacher investigated

Troup, TX:

Troup High School assistant principal Mike Staples was placed on administrative leave in November 2010 and subsequently resigned later last month after an undisclosed “complaint” against him by a parent surfaced. Vice Principal Staples had previously been the assistant principal of the West Rusk ISD, according to newspapers. (Source: Tyler Paper, Troup High School Vice Principal Resigns As Investigation Continues, December 4, 2010)

New Summerfield, TX:

According to the December 8th edition of the Tyler Paper, another unidentified New Summerfield ISD teacher under investigation resigned Tuesday, December 7, 2010. (Source: Tyler Paper, New Summerfield Teacher Being Investigated, December 8, 2010) Case closed. The end. No other reporting added or needed for the tiny school district of 410 students.

What is similar in both these stories is that they occurred in and around Cherokee County; are being initially glossed over by Cherokee County based reporters; and consequently contain absolutely no information for public assimilation. The published weather forecast has more qualitative content for the readers. The information disclosed regarding both of these school employees amounts to nothing more than announcements rather than actual reporting of the facts resulting in these resignations and “investigations.” In what other part of the State would newspaper editors bury pertinent information regarding the school districts their own children attend, especially in towns where the schools are the only newsworthy item? They report the cafeteria’s cream corn being served on Tuesday, but refuse to identify the allegations leading to another round of Cherokee County teachers being handed their walking papers. In the Freedom of Information Age is it that they believe their school districts and subsequent investigations of (kinfolk) personnel do not require transparency? Or are they just doing their part covering up the mess? What good is this lack of detail in the articles if the individuals are completely innocent? Ambiguous news writing usually shelters the politically well-connected or familial, while simultaneously harming via rumor and innuendo their targets outside that insulated group. Any parent planning to move to Cherokee County and have their children attend the public and private learning institutions in the area should consider how these school resignations are being ‘reported’ by the local media.

The cost of incumbency: Pensioners hit pay dirt

Retirement pensions based upon term pay scales are exponential burdens on taxpayers when incumbents stay in office until the minimum federal retirement age. Cherokee County could save millions allocated for insurance premiums and pension funding if citizens vote out long-term officeholders. There are no “political parties” within Cherokee County,  just strategically placed family members of the same people pretending to be Christian conservatives or civil-minded Democrats. Only candidates outside that family circle can bring both fiscal responsibility and citizen oversight to a political boss system that rewards itself with nepotism and cronyism. How many incumbents are also of Medicare age, but instead continue to have their county medical insurance coverage subsidized by the taxpayers?  The only way for Cherokee County to pull out of the current economic and unemployment quagmire is for voters to remove incumbents and start with fresh policies. The Cherokee County incumbents in November and in 2012 are relying on voter fraud, apathy, ignorance and undeserved trust to keep their coveted ever-expanding pensions.

This is especially true for those public officials who arrogantly lie in print and in person to the people, at whose will they are supposed to serve. Conversely, the new batch of candidates will not drain the taxpayers’ coffers because they haven’t become vested in the county retirement system. Plus their moral compasses will still be intact, making their tenures the more cost-effective over the Good Ol’ Boys and Biddies. For too long, the same clique has been rewarded for smearing political opponents and bringing false charges against them in order to distract from their own political chicanery. This has been the highest priority of the Cherokee County district attorney. Their admirers in the local newspapers follow suit and pile on the diversionary tactics each election cycle. Cherokee County recently witnessed the resignation of a sheriff’s deputy (who sent out slanderous emails about the Jacksonville police chief), only to be praised for his actions by his employers and offered his job back when presumably the stench dissipates. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, May 20, 2010) Taxpayers are not only subsidizing this criminally malicious behavior, they are funding it past retirement age and for the next generation of nepotists and cronies.

Why reward with accruing perks those who abuse the power of their elected offices, lie to their constituents and squander taxpayer dollars on blatant political witch hunts? Look no further than those on the bandwagon trying to focus attention on Precinct 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti, while the rural properties of the judge’s dog kin have been maintained for decades with county equipment. Look at the salary expenditures for public servants in the district attorney’s office and sheriff’s department (along with their under-the-counter designees) who claim to be “investigating” the propriety of a truckload of gravel rolled out on Patterson Lane. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, September 18, 2010) They never “investigated” themselves for digging catfish ponds and paving deer leases for their bosses. They will however spend their salaried time illegally eavesdropping on the Commissioner’s phone conversations in order to vet the next round of grand jury members. Or as they call it, “continuing to investigate.” Working with an annual budget of about $20 million, incumbent members of County departments focus on political enemies, blackmailing each other, or stealing the money outright.

Whether out of fear of retaliatory loss of advertising revenue or plain ignorance, the local media spins reports on how taxes were unlawfully siphoned and withheld throughout decades of public corruption. Days before the 2010 midterms, the current county judge touts to have “saved” over $250,000 commissioners were forced to cut from the county budget, only because it became public that the county was being overtaxed. Was the money just floating around due to poor bookkeeping? (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, August 23, 2010)

The hucksters and supporters call it “a rainy day fund.” Imagine how much money off the record from overtaxed property owners has been confiscated in the last 30 years, to make it appear on the record that certain county agencies are running under budget. The current county judge has reigned over this budget for the last eight years before Cherokee County slowly nudged itself into fiscal oversight. The political gamesters actually congratulate each other for what they call “surplus” funds after court-ordered audits reveal a massive amount of overtaxation having to be stricken from the county budget. Proving Cherokee County’s decades-old policy of shuffling money out-of-sight and out-of-mind; funds that should have been lawfully dispersed to property owners and NOT into undisclosed interest-bearing accounts administered by the county.

Strategically placed supporters of incumbents defy logic with emotional and factless pleas to voters to keep the same people in office each election cycle. Skewed, even fabricated balanced county budgets are collectively and singularly praised in the local newspapers by these political choreographers. We certainly know by now to expect incumbents’ cousins and buddies to come out of the woodwork in support of the same song and dance. However a few brave citizens are beginning to break ranks and candidly discuss the facts surrounding the misuse of county funds and deliberate overtaxation, i.e. surpluses hidden from the public. Perhaps one aspect for discussion is the egregious property tax disparity between those associated with the dog kin of county employees and the inflated assessments on those not related to assessors.

Cherokee County’s auditing costs over 1% of the county’s approximate $20 million budget each year. The county auditor’s budget for 2010 was reported as $242,000; for 2011 it will be nearly $250,000. (Source: http://www.co.cherokee.tx.us/ips/cms/budgets/) More taxpayer money for accounting reconciliation is requested for each public official accused of embezzlement, i.e. the Rusk Water Department Clerk, the Director of Adult Probation, the Justice of the Peace Clerk, etc., etc. Prosecuting theft of public funds may be an economic booster for prosecutors, attorneys, investigators and auditors alike, but it is the taxpayer who picks up the bill. The thieves get to keep their City, State and County benefits. Until all the shysters are removed from office, Cherokee County taxpayer money will be used on inflated county pensions; against those who shake the family tree; and out-of-county auditors called in to clean up the mess. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, September 27, 2010)

Commissioners approve private road maintenance all over the county, circa 1979

Local newspapers and prosecutor lie about road maintenance.

Not only does Cherokee County equipment maintain private property of friends and relatives of local politicians, commissioners build completely new roads for well-connected landowners. In the documented past, the Cherokee County Commissioners Court was more than eager to annex private property in order to provide services for members of their clique. City and county road crews have been ordered to work on golf courses and hunting clubs used by their bosses. A stark editorial difference exists between the recent ousting attempts against Precinct 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti for paving a bona fide public road VERSUS local reporting that all roads in “Cherokee County need to be maintained because they are in the county.” (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, “Commissioner defends club road maintenance,” August 21, 1980)

Old newspaper articles show former County Commissioner William Kennedy authorizing culverts to be installed on roads all through the privately owned Cherokee County Hunting Club south of Rusk, TX. This type of isolated road improvement on private property was acknowledged and accepted in local newspapers. The current district and county attorneys’ mentors never considered prosecuting those Commissioners for improving their buddies’ private properties at taxpayer expense. The former Sheriff never dispatched his deputies to seize precinct maintenance logs to prove any impropriety. In their minds, it was good for everybody. They were open about their corrupt solidarity.

Jacksonville Daily Progress, August 21, 1980
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In 1979, County Commissioners openly defended using taxpayer dollars to pave the private “road to nowhere” on the personal property of Lewie Byers, a wealthy Rusk banker and former Rusk city councilman. The Byers landlocked property off FM 2962 had culverts, grading and other roadwork installed on it “almost entirely for Byers’ benefit, and practically no one else’s.” (Source: Rusk Cherokeean p. 1, 14, “Road to Nowhere But Banker’s Land,” September 13, 1979)

On Nov. 13, 1978, the Commissioners Court agreed to commit county funds and equipment, and accept the road as a county road, although it leads to nowhere except to Byers’ property. Now that the road has been taken over by the county, it will be maintained at the taxpayers’ expense. (Source: Rusk Cherokeean p. 1 “Road to Nowhere But Banker’s Land,” September 13, 1979)

County Helped Build This Road To Lewie Byers' Land 
(Source: Rusk Cherokeean Sept. 13, 1979 p.1)
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Rusk Cherokeean p. 1, 14 September 13, 1979
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An apologetic Alto Herald editorial was written in response to the Jacksonville radio station KEBE revelations to the public that the Lewie Byers property was being developed on the county’s dime.

After checking out the project, The Herald does not believe any criminal act has been committed. We firmly believe that County Commissioner William Kennedy is an honest and honorable man…
The taxpayers of Cherokee County simply don’t feel they should help Councilman Byers, or any other land speculator and developer, make possible windfall profits at their expense…(Source: Alto Herald p.2, editorial “Road to Nowhere” September 13, 1979)

 

Alto Herald p.2, editorial "Road to Nowhere" September 13, 1979
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Now fast forward to 2010 after Precinct 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti rattles their cages, Cherokee County newspapers forget their own articles on Lewie Byers and on their front pages claim a bonafide public road to be “private.” (Source: “Commissioner paves Patterson Lane” Cherokeean Herald August 25, 2010) The corrupt Good Ol’ Boys and Biddies are not just trying to have it both ways; they claim a nonexistent oversight has been committed by the Pct. 3 Commissioner for maintaining a school bus route. At the same time they pretend not to have had county subsidized improvements performed on their own and their buddies’ properties for the last three decades.

Cherokee County brand of gotcha politicking.  It’s way of life.

Embedded reporters writing propaganda for Cherokee County, Texas newspapers take their cues directly from the district attorney’s office. No physical meeting is needed on courthouse property after decades of printing lies fed to them; editors know to publish fabrications that either promote their collective corrupt agendas, or completely bury facts. Case in point: Precinct 3 County Commissioner Katherine Pinotti is under “investigation” by the corrupt county Good Ol’ Boy system, because she ostensibly authorized gravel to be spread on Patterson Lane, located in the northern part of the county.

With the help of sheriff deputies, the County Attorney spearheaded the fabricated “investigation” (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress August 26, 2010) into whether certain laws had been violated by Katherine Pinotti, because (according to them) there were conflicting reports about Patterson Lane being private or under the aegis of county maintenance. A mock commissioners court meeting was later held to declare the road as “private,” despite the outdated mapping system delineating Patterson Lane as a County Road under past maintenance. The sham investigation is now in the hands of the District Attorney. Local reporters have done their duty to pile on the lies by claiming Commissioner Katherine Pinotti paved an unmarked road.

Is it plausible that Cherokee County’s longtime newspaper reporters have become amnesiacs? Probably not. Perhaps the goal is for their younger readers to remain oblivious to what the local press has archived about the insidious public corruption in their home communities. Meanwhile, they assume their more mature readers won’t remember the commissioners court, et al law-breakers of yesterday. Editorials and articles written in the same newspapers as far back as 1978 show that commissioners and city councilmen alike were more than eager to build roads on private property, hunting clubs and golf courses frequented by the Cherokee County ruling class. The Rusk Cherokeean (prior to combining with the Alto Herald) became a punching bag for local politicians in the Fall of 1978 for having the audacity to report that the City of Rusk and commissioners were using public equipment and labor to improve the local golf course located on the New Southern Motor Hotel grounds. Local attorneys, prosecutors, judges and the whole shebang of corrupt Good Ol’ Boys past, present and future played golf on the “obviously illegal” and  ”public-funded subsidy of a private interest group.” (Source: Rusk Cherokeean editorial p. 2, Nov. 2, 1978) They were all active members of the New Southern Motor Hotel Country Club located on Hwy 69. Many of them are life members.

Rusk Cherokeean editorial p. 2, Nov. 2, 1978
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County audits bring finger-pointing to Precinct 3; Bullard police officer admits having sex with minor

Jacksonville, TX:

Things are steaming up in Cherokee County, folks, but talk about ‘the pot calling the kettle black.’  The embedded corrupt aspect is targeting recently elected officials who shake the tree and expose the ingrained favoritism. Longtime Cherokee County elected officials and generational county employees have funneled the equivalent of millions of taxpayers’ dollars to themselves and their ilk over the last several decades. County equipment has been used to bulldoze, pave and enhance the private properties of in-laws for the last 30 years. The installation of culverts, cattle crossing guards, wooden bridges and roadbed are routine for Cherokee County’s so-called elite on their rural properties. In order to distract from the ingrained corruption, Cherokee County is attempting again what they do best, that is to blame someone else for exactly what they themselves blatantly do. Their target this month is the only forthright County Commissioner in their ranks.

They hope to pass the stench over to agencies within the county who do not buckle under the pressure of the corrupt Rusk, TX courthouse. Local reporters enable false charges by deliberately not fact-checking the accusations made against the whistleblowers. And the Cherokeean Herald is Johnny-on-the-spot eager to publish the crap fed them by current occupants of the Rusk courthouse. According to the Daily Progress, Precinct 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti is being investigated by law enforcement for maintaining a misidentified county road. Instead of keeping his nose in his own jurisdiction, longtime Precinct 4 Commissioner Byron Underwood has tattled on his political opponents’ maintenance of a segment of County Road 3403 (now called Patterson Lane), 5 miles north of Jacksonville in the Mount Selman area. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress August 26, 2010)

The county road in dispute, Patterson Lane, is currently maintained by Precinct 3 because it is a thoroughfare from CR 3401 (Old Jacksonville Rd.) to CR 3404,  just West of HWY 69. According to the Daily Progress article, Commissioner Pinotti performed her due diligence in requesting county maps be updated to reflect the delineation of missing roads and her constituents’ requests to maintain Patterson Lane. Especially after the heavy rains her boss County Judge Chris Davis claims to have championed just months earlier. The fact is Patterson Lane is not a private road. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department that is spearheading the “investigation” and County Attorney hope the rest of the county thinks otherwise. It all depends on who you are related to as to whether or not you can get away with using county equipment on private property. Precinct 3 has been open and has kept records about its maintenance of Patterson Lane. How dare this woman publish how and where the precinct maintenance money is spent!

The good ol’ boys are playing gotcha politics with the only female Commissioner in Cherokee County, Texas. Their tactics are as old as the corruption they perpetuate: criminalize perfectly legal actions and prosecute those outside of their circle for the shenanigans that they themselves commit every single day. Once again their goal is to make a law-abider spend thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight a trumped up charge. Their modus operandi is always the same; they use the Sheriff’s Department and courthouse to ruin the reputations and the lives of political opponents. The County Bosses hold the purse strings and they aren’t letting go until Cherokee County taxpayers wise up, shed their inertia and vote them all out.

Commissioner Pinotti is not under attack for merely ingratiating herself by extending county services to the residents on Patterson Lane; she is accused of the crime of “misusing county funds” that her entrenched political peers have been committing for decades. They say she improperly used county equipment, labor and time to maintain a road not under the aegis of her Precinct. Of course it is not a crime for a county commissioner to maintain a lateral road on which dozens of homesteads are located.

Those on the attack want Precinct 3 residents to believe as a commissioner, Pinotti has no discretion as to where she sends her crews. Does she have to, according to County Attorney Craig Caldwell, ask for the male members of the Commissioner’s Court to grant her permission to fix a street name sign?  Has Caldwell ever held the other commissioners to that standard during his tenure? Of course not. Patterson Lane is not a private driveway; it is a school bus route used to pick up the children living up and down the road. In the County Attorney’s mind the contiguous tracts of land are still conveniently ”undeveloped” but part of a ”subdivision,” nonetheless. (Source: “Commissioner paves Patterson Lane” Cherokeean Herald August 25, 2010) So where’s the crime?

Let’s look at those private catfish ponds dug by county employees on the clock and with county equipment. Let’s look at community service workers maintaining private driveways, such as the ones all over Precinct 2 and Precinct 4. 

How dare a woman challenge the good ol’ boy network!

Unfortunately for the Pinotti family, every single private phone conversation they’ve ever had in that county has been intercepted by law enforcement and their mail rifled through by post office employees since she began upsetting the political hiarchy. Those in high places must not like what she has to say about them in private phone calls and certainly don’t like her candidness with the voters. It is their plan to have Commissioner Pinotti buckle under the financial strain of hiring an attorney to chase rabbit trails and coerce her to admit to “some type of mapping error.” In order for the Commissioner’s Court to go back to the way it was in the good ol’ pre-Women’s Lib days of meeting behind closed doors with no citizen or fiscal oversight.

It’s like the foxes guarding the chicken coop!

A few weeks prior to this façade, the Jacksonville Daily Progress reported Justice of the Peace clerk Heidi Jones Tyler was accused of stealing cash money straight out of the Precinct 3 office. She was placed on administrative leave after preliminary county audits of Pct. 3 funds fell short by $30,000. (Source: “Up to $30,000 missing” Cherokeean Herald August 18, 2010)

Justice of the Peace James Morris was alerted when a resident asked for a cash receipt for a previously paid fine. The fine had been falsely entered as “dismissed.” Sources close to the investigation report an arrest in the case is imminent.  (Source: CBS 19TV August 13, 2010) J.P. Morris has also been outspoken about the corruption he has witnessed at the Commissioner’s Court meetings and has written letters to the Texas Attorney General’s office. After bowing to pressure from new county commissioners, Cherokee County’s local and 3rd party auditors are revealing the depth and breadth of missing funds in particular agencies.

Perhaps “missing funds” are made up for by the county’s unethical revenue-generating tactic of withholding proceeds payable to owners of real and mineral properties. Cherokee County deposits unlawfully nondispersed funds into interest-bearing accounts with associated cumulative fees generating for the county treasurer’s and county clerk’s offices to ‘administer.’  The county certainly knows how to utilize its databases when it demands bloated taxes from its citizens. But those good ol’ boys and gals in the Rusk, TX courthouse just can’t seem to come up with a serviceable mailing address when the county has its mitts on funds due to those on their Muck With List.  

The Cherokeean Herald cites another $18,881 stolen in 2009 from the Adult Probation Office that taxpayers will have to reimburse. Cherokee County Adult Probation Director Carl Phillips was charged in December 2009 with embezzling over $60,000 in illicit credit card purchases during an alleged 10-year spending spree. County Auditor L.H. Crockett tells the Herald readers:

I understand that when Tommy Kerzee [incoming probation director] replaced Mr. Phillips, he was told what was going on. It seems some probation department staff members knew about the credit card charges. Mr. Kerzee called the state and they sent (state) auditors to go through the old records,”
County Investigator Lt. John Raffield said that Mr. Kerzee came to him, District Attorney Elmer Beckworth and DA Investigator Randy Hatch.

The article continues:

Mr. Raffield said at least two persons in the probation department knew that Mr. Phillips was allegedly using the credit card for his own personal use. (Source: Cherokeean Herald December 23, 2009)

Despite the evidence and county employee witnesses, initial charges against Phillips were dismissed on July 29, 2010. In order to drag the case out indefinitely and shunt from public spectacle, the case was re-entered on the Cherokee County docket. It’s good to have friends in high places who you can collect dirt on to stave off a costly defense. Does it normally take a decade of witnesses coming forward and a handful of district attorney investigators for Elmer Beckworth to prosecute one of his favorite jury panelists?

Sources:

Criminal Docket; Case 17638; THEFT OF PROPERTY BY PUBLIC SERVANT GREATER THAN $20K LESS THAN $100K
THE STATE OF TEXAS vs CARL PHILLIPS
Filed 11/23/2009 – Disposition: 07/29/2010 Dismissed-insufficient evidence; 2nd District Court, Cherokee County, TX.

Criminal Docket; Case 17845; THEFT OF PROPERTY BY PUBLIC SERVANT GREATER THAN $20K LESS THAN $100K                                                              
THE STATE OF TEXAS vs CARL PHILLIPS
Filed 07/26/2010 – Disposition: current; 2nd District Court, Cherokee County, TX.

Bullard, TX:

Cherokee County resident and resource officer for the Bullard ISD, Steven Wayne Morris, age 26 has been with the Bullard Police Department for two years. Officer Morris was suspended without pay in June 2010 during an investigation involving an undisclosed student at the Bullard High School. The patrolman initially lied to his superiors about having a relationship with a student and was terminated. During questioning by the Texas Rangers, Morris admitted to having repeated sexual encounters with a 15-year-old Bullard student in the back of her car. Officer Morris has been charged with sexual assault of a child and is incarcerated in Smith County jail on a $350,000 bond. (Source: ”Bullard police officer charged with sexual assault of child” KLTV, August 20, 2010)

Convictions reaped from planted juries; Sex offender waives cut-and-paste jury trial

Rusk, TX:

A May 17, 2010 article in the Tyler, TX newspaper “Friends, Family Of Suspects Motivated To Testify For Many Reasons” attempts to clarify why East Texas jury trials are stacked with relatives of opposing parties. It is concluded that family members testify against their relatives for a variety of reasons ranging from a sense of civic duty, to ingratiating themselves with law enforcement, to domestic vendettas. No mention of the limited size of untainted jury pools in these rural areas where everyone is related.

In Cherokee County courts, indigent defendants’ family members unwilling to testify are faced with the threat of bogus obstruction charges for not reciting the district attorney’s version of events. They are not as eager to falsely testify against loved ones as the article suggests, especially in the case of capital murder and when the death penalty is in play. Furthermore, the article completely ignores the fact that the District Clerk, via the district attorney’s office, plants the petit juries with relatives of law enforcement and/or alleged ‘victims.’ In Cherokee County this is taken to a whole ‘nother level of corruption by actually placing relatives of State witnesses directly in the jury box. These family jewels are willingly coached to lie during voir dire to feign ignorance of the case, to slip past opposing counsel and be seated. And let’s not forget Cherokee County’s practice of fabricating “friends” of the Defendant who deliver “anonymous” tips to local law enforcement. It’s all smoke and mirrors to cover up illegal phone tapping and perjury, if not a complete fabrication of alleged crimes.

As the Tyler news article attempts to deflect, these “relatives of the defendant” are called into court in order to express intangibly what they “felt in their hearts,” as opposed to what actually happened based upon the tangible physical evidence. This is a tried and true technique of a corrupted Cherokee County judicial system, which is to prosecute criminal cases based upon a preponderance of intangible feelings such as “the crime could have happened,” rather than using tangible evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime actually took place. The Tyler News apology piece begins by citing the recent murder conviction of Jessie Smith of Jacksonville, TX in Cherokee County’s 2nd Judicial District Court.

Friends and family testified in the trial of Jessie Smith because they felt “very strongly” that a murder had occurred, Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth said. (Source: Tyler Paper, Friends, Family Of Suspects Motivated To Testify For Many Reasons, May 17, 2010)

In other words, hearsay and conjecture are accepted as completely reliable and admissible sources of testimony in Cherokee County. The intention is to get an already partialized jury to falsely convict based on the preponderance of feelings and emotions rather than on bona fide proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Cherokee County’s district attorney concludes by citing a fictitious Rusk jailhouse molestation case that never made it to the newspapers, docket or court records. No facts or fact checking required ‘round here.

Beckworth recalled a 2001 child molestation case in which a defendant was trying to make arrangements with another inmate to kill witnesses who would testify against him.
The defendant even drew a map of where he wanted the inmate to go, he said.
However, the inmate told authorities about the plot, and the defendant ended up getting a life sentence. (Source: Tyler Paper, Friends, Family Of Suspects Motivated To Testify For Many Reasons, May 17, 2010)

District Attorney Beckworth would lead the readers of the Tyler Morning Telegraph to believe that his own modesty in 2001 kept him from reporting that a [nonexistent] jailhouse informant was given leniency for helping thwart yet another [nonexistent] incarcerated child molester from “murdering” State witnesses for a case he made up on the spot.  As we see time and time again, this is the way the political game is played by backwoods sycophants trying to cover up, for example, the two hundred plus Cherokee County sex offenders put on probation during Beckworth’s tenure.

Cherokee County prosecution 101: It’s a popularity contest

Elmer Beckworth and other small town prosecutors are motivated to suborn defendants’ friends, co-workers or loved ones who they think can be easily gulled to voice perjury placed in their mouths by authority figures. As the Smith County prosecutor and defense attorney suggest in the article, favored targets for suborned testimony in a rural setting are the timid, the superstitious, the jealous and the grudge holders; especially those with most favored status with the DA. Cherokee County prosecutors are equally motivated to coerce a friend, co-worker or loved one to turn against the defendant in order to boost charges that do not meet the Texas Penal Code. The Cherokee County district attorney’s office will also trump up charges on those they deem as a threat to the Big Lie, as they did to Randy Kelton and the Robert Fox defense team. They’ll collectively spend more time and taxpayer dollars smear mongering their credible opposition than reviewing the legalities of their caseload.

Cherokee County stands resolute in its tradition of stacking juries with those closest to the case. And if a “friend” or “family member” doesn’t exist to testify against the defendant, then the district attorney’s office will conjure one up. Behind closed doors in corrupt Smalltown USA, the grand jury may be presented anonymous letters from a concerned write-in citizen; accusations composed by the district attorney. However, they will not be presented for scrutiny damning evidence of official oppression or countywide petitions demanding investigations into the local corruption.

“See, even this jailbird believes the Defendant is guilty…”

Another prime example of this official misconduct can be found in the Buenka Adams and Richard Cobb capital murder case in which Beckworth and his investigator helped pardon a convicted felon arrested again for possession of a firearm simply for the incarcerated felon’s willingness to repeat the district attorney’s talking points at trial. Then with the district attorney himself lying to the Court of Criminal Appeals that a leniency offer in writing never took place for the felon’s jailhouse testimony:

Another letter was written by Beckworth on January 10, 2003. Although it was addressed “to whom it may concern,” Beckworth testified that it was sent to [the informant’s] parole officer, Roy Shamblin. The letter stated: “Please be advised that this office will not seek prosecution on [the informant] for the offense of Unlawful Possession of Firearm by Felon. If anything further is needed please contact this office.”

Beckworth testified that the State did not make any deal with [the informant] regarding his charge for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. (Source: AP-74,875 Richard Aaron Cobb, Appellant vs. The State of Texas from Cause No. 15054 in the 2nd District Court Cherokee County)

It was ruled in the Richard Cobb appeal that the deal cut with the jailhouse informant was immaterial because it would not have changed the outcome of the Cobb murder trial. However, the existence of a written leniency agreement signed by District Attorney Elmer Beckworth in exchange for a State Witness’ testimony is exculpatory evidence that should have been disclosed pretrial to defense attorneys.

Jacksonville, TX:

On May 17, 2010 Jacksonville resident Horacio Gonzalez waived his rights to a jury trial for one count of the aggravated sexual assault of a child and was expeditiously sentenced to 30 years by the 2nd Judicial District judge. Gonzalez, 33, chose to have his case heard by the judge and face the assistant district attorney. For two years Gonzalez successfully avoided Cherokee County’s cookie-cutter jury selection.

To confuse and distract further, the Tyler Paper reports Horacio Gonzalez’s residence to be in Houston, rather than his actual habitation in Cherokee County, where the incident occurred.  (Source: Tyler Paper, May 25, 2010)
According to Gonzalez’s court appointed attorney,

There were two potential findings other than ‘not guilty; one was aggravated sexual assault of a child and the other was indecency with a child. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, May 24, 2010)

 
The district judge believed there wasn’t enough evidence in April 2009 to convict Gonzalez of exposing himself to the alleged victim, but a year later the district court, minus a jury trial, was convinced a crime did occur. (Source: Cherokee County, TX Criminal Docket; Case 17474 ; INDECENCY W/CHILD; THE STATE OF TEXAS vs GONZALEZ, HORACIO and Case 17369 ; AGG SEXUAL ASSAULT CHILD; THE STATE OF TEXAS vs GONZALEZ, HORACIO)

The month of May wraps up in the usual hackneyed lies, heart-felt testimony and another misleading child molestation case for the Cherokee County, Texas archives. Next month we will examine the Robert Fox civil rights reboot in the Eastern District of Texas filed on May 14, 2010 and the murder for remuneration case in Shelby County.

April 2010 is proclaimed Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Source: National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC)

 

By proclamation, President Obama has declared April 2010 as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The month of April has been designated Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). The goal of SAAM is to raise public awareness about sexual violence (focusing on sexual assault and rape) and to educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence. (Source: National Sexual Violence Resource Center)

Contributions to actual resource centers, such as those funded by the NSVRC (and not outlets for political grandstanding), are what make a difference. Please donate directly to the NSVRC to provide continuing assistance on date rape prevention and awareness in rural areas.

Hogtied and beaten in Cherokee County custody, circa 2006

March 15, 2010

Jacksonville Daily Progress
“Case against White dismissed”
Lauren LaFleur CNHI

JACKSONVILLE — Charges against Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Chris White were dismissed Monday.

White was accused of kicking Michael Jones of Jacksonville in the face on the night of Aug. 3, 2006, after Jones was restrained in handcuffs.

White had no comment Monday afternoon about the matter.

“We are pleased with the Court’s decision,” said Chad Rook, one of the attorneys representing White. “The Court clearly made the correct ruling in dismissing all claims against Captain White, as not a shred of evidence exists that he did anything to Mr. Jones.”

Jones initially filed a suit against Cherokee County because of his alleged attack. However, the county was dismissed by the court on summary judgment.

Jones was charged with evading arrest for the night in question — witnesses said they saw Jones hitting a woman in his car that night. When a Bullard police officer tried to pull Jones over to investigate the matter, Jones fled.

He was found about five hours later behind a convenience store in Troup, after abandoning his vehicle and fleeing on foot.

Ted Garrigan, Jones’ court-appointed attorney, said Jones was subdued and laying on the ground, cuffed at wrists and ankles, when Texas Department of Criminal Justice officers turned him over to Cherokee County officers.

“By the time he got to the Smith County Jail, he had six teeth knocked out and his nose was broken,” Garrigan said in a previous interview. “He said he remembers lying on the ground face down completely restrained. A Cherokee County deputy vehicle pulls up, a deputy steps out of it and kicks him in the face until he blacked out.”

Michael Clyde Jones, "allegedly" beaten up (courtesy Smith Co. 8/3/2006)

 

According to Rook and Robert Davis, the other attorney representing White, Jones could provide a physical description of his alleged attacker — approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 150-180 pounds.

But the claims that he was kicked in the face and subsequent description of his attacker didn’t come for a while.

“He never made this claim at the scene or for months following his arrest,” Rook said, via an e-mailed response to questions sent by a Daily Progress reporter. “He only started making such a claim at some point during his criminal proceedings months later.”

Rook said only three Cherokee County officers were on the scene, and White was only named because he fit the description of the man Jones claimed kicked him.

Statements were filed by officers on the scene, including those by seven TDCJ officers, all dated between Aug. 15, 2006, and Aug. 18, 2006. Six of those seven ended their written statements by stating they did not see anyone kick, hit or mistreat Jones after he was cuffed. While the wording among the six statements vary, they each express that they did not witness Jones being mistreated by any officers on the scene.

In fact, according to records obtained by the Daily Progress, only one officer recorded that any sort of attack was made on Jones — former Bullard Police Department Officer Bryan Richards recorded that a single officer involved in the incident, Troup’s Officer L. Becker, referenced [the] alleged incident at all.

“While Officer Becker was at the Bullard Police Department, he advised me that he saw a Cherokee County deputy kick Michael Jones in the mouth after he was restrained with hand and leg restraints,” according to Richards’ report. “This statement was not documented in the incident report that was provided to the Bullard Police Department.”

Becker’s statement was dated Aug. 11, 2006.

(Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress March 15, 2010)

Jones may appeal his excessive force case, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph.

Prosecutor wastes taxpayer dollars during Recession

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”                - Adolph Hitler

Something smells rotten, and this ain’t Denmark- it’s Cherokee County, Texas, folks. The Faye Bell Harris saga is actually the story of her ex-husband being a drug snitch for the district attorney’s office gone really badly. That’s not the version the district attorney, sheriff’s department and those rallying around the “Faye Bell Harris Amendment” would tell in 2005 when Elmer Beckworth told his fib all the way to the state capitol. They would have you believe a drunken, drugged and dangerous individual on Felony Bail could actually be repeatedly arrested and RELEASED after threatening the woman whose house he had repeatedly tried to burn down. Before the epiphany that perhaps a Cherokee County district judge should order the incarceration of a deranged drug addict whose pattern of trespassing and stalking might lead to cold-blooded murder.

DPS officer James Scott Burns would not have been murdered on April 29, 2008 if Cherokee County’s elected officials had simply kept their promises to the voters to diligently and without bias obey the law themselves. Rather than deposit the $15,000 in bond money into the local coffers per the district attorney’s recommendations. Collectively they illegally released Smith County parolee Brandon Wayne Robertson after his felony arrest April 7, 2008 for narcotics and gun possession. (Source: Longview-Marshall News Journal May 8, 2008)

Of course the local Cherokee County media omits the part about Brandon Robertson being arrested by the DPS for having a GUN and drugs. So we’ll go ahead and reprint it here:

Suspect arrested weeks before trooper’s shooting

By    RANDY ROSS rross@longview-news.com
Published May 8, 2008

A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stopped and arrested Brandon Wayne Robertson about three weeks before officials believe the convicted felon fatally shot Trooper James Scott Burns. According to the Department of Public Safety, Robertson was stopped about 9:40 a.m April 6 on Texas 135 in Cherokee County. Officials did not immediately say what initiated the stop. Robertson was arrested on charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of a firearm by a felon. He was released the next day on two $7,500 bonds, according to sheriff’s office records. A call to the bondsman was not immediately returned, and it was unclear who contacted him.

Judge Forrest Phifer, who works for the municipal court in Rusk, Wales and Cuney, said he set the two bonds at an amount typical for the charges. He said he could not set an “oppressive amount” without violating the U.S. Constitution.

Phifer said that he thought the trooper who arrested Robertson said there were no problems during the traffic stop and that the firearm was found in the trunk of the vehicle. He added that he didn’t recall information that would have indicated that Robertson posed a risk that justified a higher bond.

 Officials say Robertson fatally shot Burns after Burns pulled Robertson over in Marion County the night of April 29. Robertson was found dead May 1 with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to law officers.

 Jennifer Lynne Petrick, 36, was found with Robertson and arrested on charges of possession of marijuana and probation violations. Petrick remains in Cass County jail on a $5,000 bond, according to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators say Petrick was in the car driven by Robertson on the night of the killing.

 (c) 2008 Cox Newspapers, Inc. – Longview News-Journal

Cherokee County’s elected bureaucrats always try to finagle the system in order to enrich county coffers, as they did when setting in motion the murder of Trooper Scott Burns. Instead of denying that lucrative bond and maintaining custody of a very dangerous armed drug mule/ parole violator, such as Brandon Robertson.  And these hubristic officeholders didn’t bungle their releasing of the above-mentioned drug addict Michael Harris in 2003. Their price tag to ignore the laws about notifying a parole violator’s Smith County parole officer and required no-bond detention was $15,000 and less and nonexistent for Michael Harris. More on this in a moment. Insidious corruption along with voter complacency enables this infrastructure not to just survive but to thrive decade after decade.

Voters in the upcoming March primaries should consider which candidates support wasting taxpayer dollars versus those who pledge to clean up the “corruption” and nepotism that has been going on for decades in plain sight. Which candidates support long and frivolous court cases that perpetuate never-ending whitewashes of lies and postponed hearings, as in the case this month against Robert Fox?  Which candidates support using the judicial system as a means to grandstand fictitious claims of “terrorism” and a “win at all cost” mentality? Even after spending and wasting tens of thousands of your tax dollars trying to keep the likes of a harmless Robert Fox in jail for nine (9) months with bond set so exorbitantly high in order to ensure his inability to pay it. And so they could deprive Fox of his freedom (at taxpayers’ expense) while they juggle to figure out what more they need to invent to finally convict him of ‘something’. Yet they let Brandon Robertson and Michael Harris walk out the door to kill, with virtually no Probable Cause hearings whatsoever. Is it because Robert Fox is destitute and offers no money to the Cherokee County infrastructure?

Cherokee County, TX and related Robert Fox court hearings in 2009 alone range from the preposterous to the completely fabricated by the district attorney’s office. Elmer Beckworth et al‘s following cases against Robert Fox and associates have been dismissed:
• Feb 15, 2009 Felony Parole Absconder EXTRADITION FAILURE
• March 11, 2009 Felony Barratry DEPORTATION FAILURE
• April 28, 2009 Felony Tampering with a Government Record DISMISSED
• July 28, 2009 Class A Misdemeanor DISMISSED
• July 28, 2009 Class A Misdemeanor DISMISSED
• July 28, 2009 Class A Misdemeanor DISMISSED
• July 28, 2009 Class A Misdemeanor DISMISSED
• Nov. 19, 2009 Simulating Legal Process case against Robert Fox DISMISSED

The media again has taken its cues from a corrupt Cherokee County judicial system and fails to report that Robert Fox is facing yet another day in court at the end of February for a bogus “tampering with a government record” charge. Trial dates have been picked right before the March elections in order for Fox’s stacked local jury to decide whether or not the city of Jacksonville should have its liability insurance premiums threatened by civil rights violation suits. Even after all charges related to the open-ended raid of his property have been dismissed.

This month Cherokee County’s lead prosecutor Elmer Beckworth takes on Robert Fox’s court-appointed attorney by having the district court hear Motions in Limine to keep the release of armed parolee Brandon Robertson stricken from the record and from the ears of jurors. As usual, doing the State’s best to draw the court’s attention away from the relative facts. The District Attorney wants to hush-hush the illegal treatment of Fox by Reece Daniel and other Jacksonville police officers with the State’s motions. It appears police misconduct is the backbone of the Robert Fox defense. At the same time, the Cherokee County Sheriff”s Department was caught sending false emails in retaliation of Jacksonville chief of police Reece Daniel’s outspoken complaints about the way Elmer Beckworth has been handling the Fox case. (Source: Tyler Paper December 19, 2009)

 A problem arises if the motion in limine is granted to the prosecution to exclude evidence needed by the defense to exculpate him/her from the accusations of the prosecution. For an example of this, see the Branch Davidian trial, in which the bench denied the defense the right to present evidence of misconduct by the federal agents who conducted the siege, evidence that if presented would likely have brought acquittals of all defendants. The original standard of due process was that in criminal cases motions in limine could be granted only to the defense. (Source: Wikipedia)

The fact is District Attorney Elmer Beckworth is filing Motions in Limine in order to castrate Fox’s court-appointed attorney’s efforts to adequately defend his client. And the DA wouldn’t do that if the State’s case was clean. Beckworth has to have the judge grant his limine motions because he must keep from the jury and off the court’s record certain FACTS that Fox’s side can present. Like the fact they granted bail to an armed and dangerous thug two years ago who went on to kill a DPS trooper, while they kept Robert Fox in solitary confinement for nine months. Is this the way you want your courts run?

Cherokee County voters often have little choice in who actually gets on the ballot and eventually represents them in their communities. With the help of a few strategically placed election judges, the stage is set for another sweep by the corrupt old guard. March 2010’s primaries bring out the best and the worst, but clear choices are available in several candidacies after decades of stagnant nepotism. Unfortunately, Cherokee County’s statewide known pattern going back as far as the 1960’s is to make the wrong choice. As we all know, Cherokee County is corrupt and it will take quite a shake-up this time around to remove those with an engrained belief of entitlement and grandiose sense of importance.

Welcome to Pathological Lying 101

Again, we need to look no further than the published track record of Cherokee County’s egocentric district attorney. The mantra “I’m the DA and you’re a nobody;”  “the Law says what I tell you it says”  has gone on long enough, has it not?

 “I say it, therefore it is.”

A repeated pattern of knowingly misrepresenting case facts and legal code prima facie to the media and even to the State Legislature is what Cherokee County’s District Attorney appears to do best.  Mr. Beckworth’s most successful articulate attempt has been convincing the mother of slain Jacksonville resident Faye Bell Harris that her daughter’s senseless murder in 2003 was a result of the Texas constitution being too lenient on Felony Bond. Instead of the fact that drug informant Michael Harris murdered her daughter because District Attorney Beckworth offered no limitations to Harris’ court-ordered drug rehab along with no court-imposed restrictions. Nor enforced any Protective Orders that would have kept Harris from continuing buying drugs, threatening to kill his ex-wife and snitching on his dealers. Per Elmer Beckworth, Michael Harris was arrested repeatedly while on Felony Bond and in Cherokee County custody at the Rusk State Hospital, and repeatedly released to buy more drugs and threaten his ex-wife. The Cherokee County District Court did nothing to protect Faye Harris, even though her ex was arrested REPEATEDLY on her doorstep threatening to kill her. Even though his original Felony Bond was for trying to burn her house down.

…Michael Harris was charged with arson. His bond was reduced at a habeas corpus hearing in March, at which time the district judge required as a condition of bail that the defendant not contact or communicate with his ex-wife. After the habeas corpus hearing, Michael Harris assaulted Faye, vandalized her vehicle, and continued to contact and harass her, disregarding the judge’s conditions of bail. (Elmer Beckworth to the TDCAA Oct. 2005)

Then why didn’t you and your Narcotics Officers enforce the judge’s conditions, Elmer?

The 2010 US census will put Cherokee County at almost 50,000 people, but the county certainly is structured like a run of the mill, pre-1960’s Southern ghetto. Taxpayer dollars have been used since the turn of the century to line the pockets of local politicians and their families. Yet Cherokee County has been hit pretty hard during the recent economic downturn. Can we afford to continue to prosecute baseless charges in the name of personal vendettas, as Cherokee County’s District Attorney is continuing in the Robert Fox case? While at the same time letting drug addicts/informants like Michael Harris and Brandon Robertson out on bond the day after they are arrested, armed and dangerous?

Robert Fox was housed on the taxpayer dole for 270 days in the Rusk jail. Michael Harris spent his time in the cozy Rusk State Hospital after his multiple attacks on his ex-wife. Parolee Brandon Robertson spent one night in Cherokee County jail after being arrested on Hwy 84 for carrying a gun and crystal meth. Robertson’s bail was granted, deposited; and he set out and murdered the next DPS trooper who stopped him, three weeks later. These are just a few published and well-documented examples. What of the other family members coming forward about slain loves by the more recent batch of Cherokee County drug informants?

Are Cherokee County voters going to let this colossal waste of taxpayer dollars continue indefinitely? While they think about it, do they want their taxpayer dollars continuing to play this TIT FOR TAT in the Robert Fox case, that Elmer Beckworth and these men seem to thrive on? While the entire county is put at risk for lawsuit after lawsuit ? In the meantime, Beckworth, et al hurries these child molesters through Adult Probation because they won’t spend their budgets prosecuting them, again putting us all at risk. Wouldn’t you rather have pedophiles prosecuted? The following Registered Sex Offenders were ‘prosecuted’ by Elmer Beckworth and placed on probation in Cherokee County, Texas:

• Frank Birden Guinn, age 82, Alto TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 12-year-old female;
• Michael Morrison, 48, Alto TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old female;
• Gary Mark Hayles, 43, Bullard TX, indecency with a child by contact of an 8-year-old female;
• Wesley Boyd Mohr, 60, Bullard TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 10-year-old female;
• William Barry Travis, 54, Bullard TX, aggravated sexual assault of a child of an 8-year-old female;
• Matthew Isaiah White, 17 (published), Bullard TX, indecency by exposure involving a 15-year-old female;
• Christopher Steven Goleman, 33, Gallatin TX, aggravated sexual assault of a disabled 39 year-old female;
• Tommy Junior Allen, 54, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 11-year-old female;
• William Tracy Arnold, 42, Jacksonville TX, burglary and felony involving a 34-year-old female;
• James Travis Baker, 22, Jacksonville TX, indecency of a child by contact of a 6-year-old female;
• James Isaac Barnett, 18, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child of a 14-year-old-female;
• Brian D. Black, 19, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 10-year-old female;
• Vernon Willis Blackshire, 29, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 14-year-old female;
• Anthony Eugene Boone, 38, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 6-year-old male;
• Cole Joseph Brooks, 22, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old female;
• Christopher Lee Calley, 25, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 3-year-old female;
• Gark Michael Clark, Jacksonville TX, 52, sexual assault of a child of a 16-year-old girl;
• Arturo Allen Cochran, 26, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old female;
• Carlos Jerome Conner, 37, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old female;
• Steven Daille, 58, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• James William Dennis, 64, Jacksonville TX, agg. kidnapping/sex assault of a 38-year-old female;
• Jose Ramon Galan, 53, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 9-year-old female;
• Jonathan Keith Glenn, 23, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of an 8-year-old female;
• James Henry Golden, 52, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 36-year-old female;
• Nathan Wayne Grimes, 61, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a 9-year-old female;
• Ollie Ray Grogan, 62, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a 5-year-old male and 7-year-old female;
• Nickolas Noel Harwell, 31, Jacksonville TX, two counts of aggravated sex assault of a 12-year-old female;
• Kevin Lyn Hawes, 42, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 15-year-old;
• Christopher Michael Hennessy, Jacksonville TX, 25, sexual assault of a 15-year-old female; absconded.
• William Lee Hershiser, 48, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• Roger Hunter, 72, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 14-year-old female;
• Aaron Lee Joslin, 25, Jacksonville TX, two counts of sexual performance of a 7-year-old male;
• Robert Michael Lane, 33, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 10-year-old female;
• Jackie Neal Locke, 46, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 13-year-old female;
• Ben Mallard, 47, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 11-year-old female;
• James Donald McClain, 56, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 20-year-old female and 11-year-old female;
• Leroy Edward McCuen, 56, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 9-year-old female;
• Kenneth Ray Messick, 59, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 14-year-old female and 16-year-old female;
• Stacy Bernard Mills, 39, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 11-year-old female;
• Tracey Dewayne Moseley, 33, Jacksonville TX, indecency by exposure to a 15-year-old female;
• Jamie Lee Newburn, 28, Jacksonville TX, two counts of attempted sexual performance of a 14-year-old female;
• Sammy Carroll Newman, 54, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 12-year-old female;
• Patrick Brian Norsworthy, 43, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of an 8-year-old female;
• Derrick Wendell Owens, 34, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 9-year-old female;
• Kevin Wayne Patton, 36, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 14-year-old female;
• Glenn Durrell Pierce, 49 years of age, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old male;
• Bruce Townsend Powell, 48, Jacksonville TX, attempted sexual assault of a 30-year-old male;
• Jimmy Reed, 47, Jacksonville TX, attempted sexual assault of a 25-year-old female and unknown female;
• Mandell Rhodes Jr., 43, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 52-year-old female;
• Thompson Ward Stricklen, 43, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 11-year-old female;
• Paul Arlen Taylor, 51, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 13-year-old female;
• Terry Lawrence Taylor, 48, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 12-year-old female;
• James L. Wells, 52, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 5-year-old female and 6-year-old female;
• Johnny Decole Wells, 25, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• Larry Wayne White, 45, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of an 8-year-old female;
• Timothy Kevin Zweck, 32, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• Robby Lee Buffalo, 32, Rusk TX, prohibited sexual assault (incest) of a 11-year-old female;
• Richard Dean Davis, 47, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 14-year-old female;
• Nile James Dean, 39, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 8-year-old female;
• James William Hammons, 45, Rusk TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old female;
• Jason Aaron Husband, 29, Rusk TX, sexual assault of a child of a 15-year-old female;
• Elbert James Patton, deceased, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact with an 8-year-old female and 9-year-old female;
• Delian Brenanard Session, 43, Rusk TX, sexual assault of a 34-year-old female and 11-year-old-female;
• Troy Gibbs Sutherland, 31 years of age, Rusk TX, attempted sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• Aubrey Thomas Taylor, 48 years of age, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 10-year-old female;
• Dale Joseph Tylich, 51, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact of a female less than 16 years of age;
• Charles Clifton Bruner, 45, Troup TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 6-year-old female;
• Michael Servetus Childs, 31 years of age, Troup TX, sexual assault of a 14-year-old female;
• Tommy Robert Husband, 46 years of age, Troup TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 16-year-old female;
• Michael Sean Lee, 33 years of age, Troup TX, indecency with a child of a 13-year-old female;
• Timmey Martin, 41 years of age, Troup TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 14-year-old female;
• Michael Ryan McMichael, 34 years of age, Troup TX, indecency with a child of a 12-year-old female;
• Martin Otis Pitts, 51 years of age, Troup TX, two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a 7-year-old female;
• Bryan Thomas Toombs, 31 years of age, Troup TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old female.
• Alisha Arriola Corley, 36 years of age, Wells TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old male.    

 (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress 2006)

Where are your candidates’ priorities in the March primaries? Probation for child molesters and letting parole violators out to murder? Or endless prosecution and pre-trial incarceration of harmless individuals such as Robert Fox who rattle their cages by simply questioning their wrongdoings?

Director of Adult Probation in Rusk, Texas indicted for public theft. State Representative fined for ethics violations

Rusk, TX:
35-year veteran Cherokee County employee and Adult Supervision and Corrections Department director Carl Phillips was recently indicted on charges of theft by a public servant and misappropriation of public funds. The three-count indictment lists thefts of property beginning in 1999 and deliberate destruction of credit card receipts in excess of $20,000 but limited to $100,000. Phillips’ alleged stealing spree was reported in 1999 to, and ignored by, former Cherokee County District Attorney Investigator Randy Hatch according to the article (Source: Tyler Paper  December 17, 2009). Ten years later, Cherokee County Sheriff Department investigators revisited the original allegations. 

Carl Phillips began his employment with Cherokee County in 1974. The theft of funds was reported again to Phillips’ successors after the indictee’s 35-year retirement party. Phillips was Cherokee County’s longest employed public servant on record according to friends recusing themselves from pretrial. Friends such as all the district and county judges, the sheriff and every Grand Jury foreman for the last three decades. Notwithstanding his own recusal, good friend and District Attorney Elmer Beckworth predicts a traveling judge will hear the case (Source: Tyler Paper). Obviously not in the local Rusk diner where Phillips, et al might be found sipping ice tea, reminiscing about the good ol’ days and discussing those taxpayer subsidized mutual funds.

courtesy Jacksonville Daily Progress

Carl Phillips (l.) congratulated by current County Judge Chris Davis (r.) for 35 years of excellent public service.

 

House District 11:
Soon after switching parties, former Democrat and now Republican State Rep. Chuck Hopson (R) of Jacksonville has been fined for ethics violations for nondisclosure of political contributions. Rep. Hopson was ordered to pay $2900 in restitution by the Texas Ethics Commission for his campaign being in violation of section 253.032 of the Election Code and section 20.29 of the Ethics Commission Rules.  (Source: News-Journal January 13, 2010)

According to the Texas Ethics Commission, Rep. Hopson and his Cherokee County based campaign treasurer

failed to properly report and improperly reimbursed
political expenditures from personal funds, failed to disclose information regarding contributions
from out-of-state political committees, failed to properly disclose total political contributions
maintained, and converted political contributions to personal use.

The Commission continues, that State Representative Hopson (R-Jacksonville):

failed to disclose the payees, payee addresses,
dates, purposes and amounts of political expenditures for mileage made with personal funds
on his 30-day pre-election report for the November 7, 2006, general election, and January
and July semiannual reports for the years 2007 and 2008.

The nine page Order and Resolution can be read at : http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/sworncomp/2008/2809327.pdf

The original complaint can be read at : http://www.texasethicsreport.com/Hopson_TEC_10-1-2008.pdf

 

Don’t forget to read the ongoing corrupt activities in Cherokee County, Texas on Austin’s acclaimed Politico ”The Burnt Orange Report”

 

Agents of prevarication kiss and make up

Deputy Sheriff sends emails falsely claiming police chief is being sued for sexual harassment; public told to forget about it.

Jacksonville, TX/ Rusk, TX:

For argument’s sake, let’s say a high-ranking deputy with the city of Jacksonville police department sends a slew of anonymous emails to East Texas news agencies asking why they aren’t reporting that Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell is resigning under the pressure of multiple sexual harassment suits. Cherokee County taxpayers should ask themselves if they would witness a ‘kiss and make up’ scenario between those agencies, as the one we’ve just seen painted last week. (Source: Tyler Paper December 19, 2009) Or for the sake of debate, let’s say a lay citizen bombards news outlets with emails falsely claiming Sheriff Campbell is facing lawsuit after lawsuit for sexual harassment in the workplace. In the case of a private citizen making those types of false claims against Sheriff Campbell or Jacksonville police chief Reece Daniel, then the district attorney himself would crawl out from behind his facade of trustworthiness and beat the drums of prosecution. They all would be crowing from the Rusk courthouse steps about how they would hold that individual and his network of allies criminally accountable. With the local media chiming in to fan the flames of criminal/civil action and to pervert the jury pool.

However, the shoe is on the other foot: The outside world got a tiny glimpse last week into the slanderous and lowlife blackmail methods Cherokee County officials employ against each other and their political counterparts. Agencies that routinely share illegally obtained information and work hand-in-hand violating our constitutional rights make for bad bedfellows when one decides to complain to the Texas Attorney General’s office about the other. Or butt heads and embarrass the district attorney, as Chief Reece Daniel did in May of this year when he petitioned against Elmer Beckworth’s handling of the Robert Fox charges. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress May 3, 2009)

Sheriff James Campbell’s chief detective Chris White, captain for the Cherokee County sheriff’s department, recently sent anonymous emails to various East Texas news agencies claiming Jacksonville police chief Reece Daniel was resigning under the pressure of five (nonexistent) sexual harassment suits. Chief Daniel responded to the libelous accusations with a statement to the local press that the Jacksonville police department would no longer work alongside the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department until White was reprimanded or fired. Chief Daniel chooses his words carefully in his response to the Sheriff Department’s emailed accusations:

“Chris White told me he had sent the email in retaliation for me refusing to accept a case that originated in Cherokee County that he wanted my detectives to investigate. This is an extremely paltry reason for a law enforcement officer to get angry over and, in my opinion, violate the law. If he will do this to me knowing all the resources I have at my command then I worry about what he might do to an innocent civilian who makes his angry.”
(Source: KLTV December 14, 2009)

Statements like those can never be retracted, even though Chief Daniel has been counseled to sing Sheriff Campbell’s praises, and ignore the Penal Code statutes he himself cites within his complaint to TCLEOSE and in his response to Chris White’s accusations. Cherokee County taxpayers have the right to know why Sheriff Campbell refuses yet again to hold his deputy’s feet to the fire. Detective White’s actions cannot be undone and his anonymous emails (claiming sexual harassment) leave the recipients in those media outlets scratching their heads. How can Cherokee County’s sheriff continue to employ a deputy who retaliates against a fellow officer? What other dirt and mudslinging does the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department sanction? We know this latest published episode only scratches the surface. The broader intent of the emails was not only designed to smear Reece Daniel, but to frame someone else for sending the emails actually authored and distributed by a Cherokee County Sheriff’s deputy.

Campbell continues his decades-old pattern of unaccountability, even when his highest ranking deputy is caught red-handed emailing libelous content about a local police chief to news agencies. Campbell hides behind his department’s taxpayer supplied attorney rather than acknowledging his own deputy’s guilt. Sheriff Campbell’s statements deny knowledge of the emails’ “content,” but he surely knows his deputy White’s actions are rogue to say the least. (Source: KLTV December 14, 2009)

Instead of hiding behind his lawyers and saying that he knew nothing of the emails’ content, Sheriff Campbell could have taken the honorable route the day Chief Daniel responded to his accusers. Campbell could have made a simple statement that he would not tolerate this level of crap out of any of his employees. Despite the thousands of wasted taxpayers’ dollars and hours he and the Cherokee County newspapers have spent crooning about the county’s highest paid Deputy Sheriff.  Campbell chose to play word games that he was “unaware” of anything while he remained hidden from comment.

City and County lawyers warn Chief Daniel ‘not to go there’ by pointing out repeatedly that one female employed with the Jacksonville Police Department made one accusation of sexual harassment against the chief in the past. Which resulted in her prompt promotion out of the field and into a higher paying position within Cherokee County law enforcement (thanks to a deal brokered by the current city of Jacksonville attorney). Sources: Jacksonville Daily Progress and Cherokeean Herald December 16, 2009

And they top off yet another of Cherokee County’s notorious lies that the emails are a result of a “personal conflict” between Detective White and Chief Daniel. Then why the use of both a county attorney and the city of Jacksonville attorney for a private pissing match? Sheriff Campbell cannot make a statement to his constituents without an attorney looking over his shoulders and writing his unapologetic smokescreens. These are the questions the local media should be asking before closing the book on this latest installment of sexual blackmail, Cherokee County style. The pattern of unethical behavior is not over; it will continue as long as these people hold office.

There is enough criminal activity and dirt to spread around, so if these guys want to keep their jobs, it is apparent that in their minds, they had better stick together. They will have to continue to feign solidarity during intrajurisdictional disputes and target the innocent people Chief Daniel refers to in his statement. Hopefully, they believe, this sordid little story during the Christmas holidays will disappear from the evening news.

Chief Detective Chris White’s libelous emails about Reece Daniel are not only unethical, they shed light into the modus operandi that has been going on for decades in Cherokee County. Too many of these current public officials are bought and owned by these sexual harassment/ blackmail techniques. A thorough Spring house cleaning is long overdue. Get rid of these corrupt parasites at election or continue to have your taxpayer dollars lining their attorneys’ pockets. Or you can continue to support the vermin while they pay each other off with your hard earned tax dollars. You have just witnessed a microcosm of their unethical universe: a salaried deputy sheriff sending anonymous and inflammatory emails on a County computer in order to deflect media attention onto the police chief of Jacksonville. With the intention of blaming someone else for it until his IP address was traced.

Merry Christmas Cherokee County and have a blessed New Year. The March primaries are right around the corner; vote the prevaricators and provocateurs out. It is time to bring some semblance of honor into your public offices. Next month we will discuss the case of 35-year veteran Cherokee County employee and true friend of the courthouse Carl Phillips, the director of the Cherokee County Supervision and Corrections Department. Phillips was recently indicted for theft of services and allegedly tampering with government records while head of Adult Probation. (Source: Tyler Paper December 17, 2009)

November 25th is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Planting mens rea and having it both ways

Rusk Texas:
Cherokee County, TX is predictable because it is corrupt. Its court system is equally tainted and predictable, with its members lying through their collective teeth when the county’s liability insurance is in jeopardy of being depleted by civil rights suits. The complete opposite of what is reality can be read in the local news each week for those willing to follow the morass of lies. In the eyes of many within the circle of corruption, it is a crime to sue law enforcement for a bungled raid, but it is perfectly OK for cousins and business partners of those being sued to be planted on the petit jury. Apparently it is the job of the local district attorney, with the help of judges and city councilmen, to make innocent people into criminals. There is no such thing as a “fair trial” when the real criminals are conducting the jury vetting.

A change of venue has officially been denied in the Robert Fox “tampering with the government” trial, even after months of propaganda in the local Cherokee County media. Fox filed multiple defamation suits against his accusers.

The 2nd Judicial District Court ruled that absolutely no publicity ever surrounded the Robert Fox case, despite months of news articles citing the “Taliban link” to the House of Israel and widely publicized press conferences conducted by the Jacksonville Texas police department. All of which touted the terrorist contraband of Robert Fox and his gang of “anti-government” Separationists. Now they want everyone to believe that no one in Cherokee County had even heard of Robert Fox. This coincided with the local media voluntarily burying  actual accounts after Fox turned himself in.

As stated in this blog nearly a year ago, oral arguments in favor of moving the Fox proceedings away from the relatives of those Fox has sued (and the remainder of District Attorney Elmer Beckworth’s planted jurors and jurists) would be ruled as inconsequential to the outcome of the trial.

“The court heard testimony from various witnesses, including Jacksonville Councilman Kenneth Melvin, Cherokee County Judge Bascom W. Bentley III, [and] Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell.” (Source: Tyler Paper Oct. 10, 2009)

All of whom swore under oath that Robert Fox and associates could and would get a “fair trial” in Cherokee County. Are Cherokee County taxpayers truly convinced that a fair trial is feasible, or even a remote possibility? The District Attorney’s witnesses also testified that only residents of the city of Jacksonville, TX had heard about the case, again despite months of coverage in every newspaper and televised news agency in East Texas. Only a county this corrupt would allow its elected officials to speak on the record directly to the jury pool, to tell them to feign ignorance of the news reports during voir dire. Then print the same rubbish in the newspapers that ran every single fabricated accusation against Fox and his associates for the last two years.

In the Tyler Paper, Cherokee County’s district attorney planted his version of the Defendant Robert Fox’s criminal intent of “demanding money” from city of Jacksonville employees earlier this year.  (Source: Tyler Paper Oct. 10, 2009) That is, Robert Fox, et al threatened to and did monetarily sue in Federal civil court specific members of the Jacksonville, Texas police department for the illegal raid on the House of Israel. An open-ended raid which resulted in all previous charges against Fox being dismissed. Other leaks by Beckworth’s office refer to alleged documents that indicate Fox was paid for some of his “legal advice,” i.e. barratry. The barratry charges were also dismissed.

This is how the Cherokee County court system operates, though. They bask in each other’s brilliance of having it both ways, their initial bogus charges not cutting the legal mustard, yet continuing to lie under oath that these news articles never made it to the eyes of Robert Fox’s potential jurors:

JPD arrests federal fugitive-Tuesday, April 08, 2008

JPD nabs fed fugitive claiming affiliation with Republic of Texas- Wednesday, April 09, 2008

State fugitive nabbed, large cache of illegal drugs found inside House of Israel building- Sunday, May 18, 2008

House of Israel leader says he didn’t know drugs were there-Tuesday, May 20, 2008

House of Israel’s Robert Fox arrested-Thursday, May 22, 2008

Police say financial documents may show more evidence of illegality by House of Israel’s Fox- Saturday, May 24, 2008

BREAKING NEWS: Third search warrant in a month puts Fox back in jail -Thursday, June 12, 2008

JPD files felony warrant against House of Israel’s Fox- Saturday, July 26, 2008

Jacksonville residents react to charges against Robert Fox - Monday, July 28, 2008; reported by KLTV repeatedly on the nightly news. 

 

If one lie doesn’t stick, make another up and ignore existing Penal Codes.

Another fine example of the “having it both ways” scenario is the previous prosecution of Robert Fox’s associate Barry Brooks on practicing dentistry without a license. Barry Brooks, the founder of the House of Israel and who performed charitable orthodontic services in Jacksonville, TX, was convicted in 2007 of practicing without a license. The impetus of the raid on the House of Israel during Robert Fox’s occupancy last year was ostensibly to recover the expired painkillers left in the abandoned dental office next door. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress May 20, 2009)

former House of Israel, downtown Jacksonville, TX

 

Barry Brooks is currently serving seven years in TDCJ. (Source: Cherokeean Herald May 6, 2009)  However, Section 3 of the Texas Occupations Code was amended in 2005 to allow for charitable work for retired dentists.

SECTION 3 Amends Section 256.102, Occupations Code, by amending Subsection (c) and
adding Subsection (f), as follows:
(c) Creates an exception as provided by Subsection (f).
(f) Authorizes a dentist on retired status to perform an activity regulated under this
subtitle if the dentist’s practice consists only of voluntary charity care, as defined by
board rule. Requires the board’s rules under this subsection to prescribe the scope of
practice permitted for the retired dentist, the retired dentist’s authority to prescribe and
administer drugs, and any continuing education requirements applicable to the dentist. S.B. 610 (Dental Practice Act), Title 3, Chapter 256, Subchapter C, Section 256.102 – Retired Status

Former New Summerfield, TX Police Chief arrested for child porn

Dallas County:

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Cherokee County’s favorite unlicensed gypsy cop Michael Meissner was arrested by Dallas County authorities Monday September 14, 2009 on seven felony counts of child pornography, promoting underage prostitution, organized crime and allegedly soliciting nude pictures of teenage boys via explicit text messages on MySpace. He is currently in Dallas County jail under a $1.5 million bail. (Source: Star-Telegram September 15, 2009)

Michael Chase Meissner in custody

 

Michael Meissner was hired by the city of New Summerfield, TX in early March 2007 as Chief of Police, even though his Peace Officer’s certification was cancelled a year earlier on top of his documented history of moonlighting despite TCLEOSE reprimands in over 16 different jurisdictions. The city of New Summerfield also failed to properly vet the gypsy cop prior to his employment.  Or did they?

Meissner’s tenure in Cherokee County law enforcement was short lived, but nonetheless defended by those who hired him. The Cherokee County media continues to refer as Meissner as “a licensed Texas Peace Officer,” even though TCLEOSE reprimanded him on his bogus peace officer’s certification weeks before Cherokee County rolled out the welcome mat for him. (Source: Athens Daily Review January 27, 2007)

The fact is Michael Meissner would still be operating under the radar in tiny New Summerfield, TX and his actions completely buried by the local Cherokee County media, had it not been for the diligence of those out of the region who actually investigated, exposed and eventually arrested him. Michael Meissner was hired by Cherokee County because of his past and his proclivities. He would have been appointed to Deputy Constable in a matter of months after his hire.

More on this story as it develops.

Three felony charges (obstruction, retaliation and organized crime) against Meissner in Dallas County were dropped in September 25, 2009 according to KWTX Waco. He faces the remaining charges in Tarrant County, where prosecutors have not filed (Source: Temple Daily Telegram September 25, 2009). Meissner resigned in early August from his police chief position in Little River-Academy, TX, after complaints about his conduct surfaced. Meissner has been released pending the ongoing investigation in Tarrant County.

District Attorney makes reporting crimes a crime

On May 23, 2009 Austin-based AM radio talk show host Randall Kelton (of The Rule of Law) presented the Cherokee County, Texas grand jury a list of criminal complaints against Cherokee County officials, including the county judge and county attorney. The grand jury was informed by the district attorney’s office to ignore the 55 sealed complaints. Randall Kelton acting as a journalist was subsequently charged with “operating a private investigations company without a license,” a charge levied by outgoing district attorney investigator Joe Evans. Kelton’s exposition of corrupt Cherokee County politics was not just written off as a publicity stunt, it has been completely buried. Misdemeanor charges against Randall Kelton are still pending as Cherokee County contemplates how to violate the US Constitution one more time before the Primaries.

According to published court documents, Randall Kelton began his research into Cherokee County when the incarceration of Robert Fox and bogus charges of “tampering with government records” came to light on his show. Fox had been in and out of Cherokee County jail after an initial raid on his nondenominational ministry, the House of Israel located in downtown Jacksonville, Texas. Fox and others rounded up in the Nazi-esque purging filed civil and federal complaints against their accusers, all of which fell on deaf ears in the neighboring Tyler Court of Appeals and US Eastern District Court.

After years of settling federal lawsuits against Jacksonville, TX police officers, the newly appointed Chief of Police and overzealous investigators decided to finally clean up the City’s image by painting a dichotomy: Cherokee County citizens were to forget about the rapist cop they had once decorated, Larry Pugh who was now sitting in federal prison (for trying to drag one of his victims off by the hair of her head for going to the FBI after being raped in a cemetery at gunpoint by him in uniform- Source: US District Court Cause No. 6:06-CV-357). Citizens were to instead focus on the House of Israel and its members’ “sovereign citizen” rhetoric instead.

Robert Fox was found not guilty of possessing illegal drugs on Wednesday July 29, 2009, the impetus for the invalid raid conducted on the House of Israel over a year and half earlier. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress July 31, 2009)

Cherokee County officials and newspapers continued the propaganda piece of the validity of the illegal search and seizure, in reference to the possession of expired dental and pharmacological substances, i.e. antibiotics and painkillers. They also claim House of Israel members were Timothy McVeigh and Taliban sympathizers based upon the unlawful seizure of items not specifically spelled out in the open-ended Search Warrant.

It matters not to the local editors of Cherokee County owned and operated propaganda pieces that Robert Fox and associates have either had all initial criminal charges against them dropped, dismissed or have been acquitted. The local media is in business to continue the Cherokee County District Attorney office’s lie that filing a complaint against Cherokee County officials is a crime. Robert Fox’s latest charge of “tampering with a government record” is still on the backburner. 

Filing a complaint against Cherokee County officials after an illegal raid is also a Felony in the eyes of Cherokee County’s district attorney. Brain dead followers in the Daily Progress and Cherokeean Herald repeat this lie in print even though their own taxpayer dollars are being squandered to justify an ill-conceived, albeit typical illegal and open-ended Search Warrant composed no doubt by the district attorney himself.

Robert Fox is out of jail and stands acquitted of possessing narcotics so Cherokee County officials challenge his religion and patriotism to distract from the illegal seizure of items not specifically spelled out in the Search Warrant. Fox’s personal effects including his anti-establishment writings were seized and openly displayed for the willing press, even though it had nothing constitutionally to do with the seizure of the alleged illegal drugs. Cherokee County, Texas law enforcement is taught that as long as a willing city judge will sign off on a Warrant, then they are given carte blanche to illegally seize anything beyond the scope of the Arrest Affidavit. As in the Randy Kelton case, probable cause does not even need to be established. The Jacksonville Police Department was aware that Robert Fox’s former associate and founder of the House of Israel Barry Brooks (convicted of practicing dentistry without a license) had left behind expired dental drugs and supply within the building. They were after Fox’s legal writings to parade around to bolster another charge of barratry that was also eventually dropped.

The Jacksonville Chief of Police and his investigators made public these items though they are protected free speech under the US Constitution. The public is supposed to believe that the Robert Fox group is dangerous, while simultaneously believe the District Attorney’s office had nothing to do with the blatant persecution. Press conferences were held to laud the work of the Jacksonville Police Department for the “narcotics” raid and subsequent “Taliban Link” discovered within the House of Israel. Now there is barely a murmur in the East Texas newspapers that Robert Fox and associates have been acquitted.

Cherokee County, Texas is operated by liars and sycophants in the newspapers whose livelihoods depend on placating their advertisers. The Jacksonville Daily Progress has finally succumbed to internal pressure and shut down its own Hey Martha forum after its editor faced his third DWI in Cherokee County. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress July 9, 2009 and Jacksonville Daily Progress  Sept. 1, 2009) Free speech and actually debating official misconduct simply will not be tolerated.

If the local high school coach is accused of having sex with a student, then they bury the story. (Source: KLTV August 11, 2009) Justice authorities do their darndest to completely cover up the sordid details involving their own relatives. If any citizen disagrees with such unconstitutional acts perpetrated by these so-called ‘justice authorities,’ or exposes the crimes of these rogue officials, then those same officers of the court fabricate legal statutes out of thin air. And use their taxpayer subsidized salaries to go after their political enemies. Hence out of town radio personality Randall Kelton was given fair warning not to meddle with the District Attorney’s handpicked jurors.

Talk show host Randall Kelton has filed several motions in Cherokee County district and county court, including Statements of Witness Tampering, Probable Cause and Habeas Corpus that argue the bogus criminal affidavits filed against him and Robert Fox. As he states in his defense briefs, the State of Texas does not require a license to “investigate,” anymore than it requires a license to sit on a Grand Jury or sit behind a microphone.

And in Texas it is a felony NOT to report a felony. So who is violating the law? Kicking down people’s doors just because they aren’t welcome in town? Filing bogus and baseless charges against people because they don’t like what they say about them on the phone and on the air? Working as a Cherokee County Constable by day and selling crystal meth by night? Kidnapping women off the streets of Jacksonville in a patrol car and raping them while on duty?

Not one single Cherokee County newspaper reported that Randall Kelton had gone to the Cherokee County grand jury and presented criminal complaints against Cherokee County officials. Not one single Cherokee County newspaper reported that their District Attorney’s office filed criminal charges against Mr. Kelton for doing so.  This is yet another recent example of how the ongoing generational Cult of Confession continues to infect Cherokee County, Texas politics. If the newspaper will not report it, and those who do get charged with a crime, then who will notify the public of the ongoing criminal activity? They collectively hope and make sure no one will.

Plea bargains equal paybacks; Conflicts of Law and Order

A case for and against jury sentencing.

Rusk, TX:
The ongoing saga of the missing $147,000 from the Rusk Texas water department finally has closure. Prior to her July 2009 trial, Rusk water department clerk Doris Robinson had been quietly preparing to pay back the first round of $50,000 increments she had stolen during her tenure as a Cherokee County public servant. Robinson pleaded guilty in open court and a sentencing jury was swayed to give her 10 years probation. She was fined $5,000 and ordered by presiding Judge Bascom Bentley III to pay back over a four year period, the remaining taxpayer monies that she embezzled over a two year period. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress July 9, 2009)

District [369th] Judge Bascom Bentley added his own stipulation that Robinson make her restitution within four years, with payments of at least $10,000 due, Dec. 31 of each year. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress July 9, 2009)

Mrs. Robinson pleaded to embezzling over $145,000 from the taxpayers. Of course that would be $10,000 a year for four years for a total of $40,000; plus the $57,000 she paid at sentencing. That would leave an unnoticed remainder of $50,000 to go unaccounted…

courtesy Daily Progress

 

Not to go unnoticed in the news, the 369th District Court convened this mock trial on Wednesday July 8, 2009 and local newspapers followed suit. Mrs. Robinson agreed to have this local jury “decide” her punishment, which theoretically could have ranged from nothing to 10 years in state prison. The maleable jury was seated to assess only the punishment phase of the case. Robinson had previously waived her rights to a jury trial and she accepted District Attorney Elmer Beckworth’s plea bargain. Before deciding  Mrs. Robinson’s punishment, the Cherokee County jury heard opening statements, along with testimonies from witnesses. (Source: Tyler Paper July 9, 2009)

Strategically designated Cherokee County ’dignitaries’ bombarded jurors with accolades about the Robinson family, while the specific methodology implemented to achieve the embezzlement was swept under the carpet.  This was the punishment phase of the “trial;” guilt was already established though Mrs. Robinson was never forced to admit her guilt to the jurors. Local newspapers followed suit, leaving reasonable doubt that a clerical error could have resulted in the missing $150,000. It was in the hands of the 12 jurors to decide whether or not prison was appropriate for a 62-year old “Christian” woman without a CPA license (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress July 9, 2009)

The State did not vigorously present mitigating factors for a harsher sentence, hence the premeditated deliberation of 10 years community supervision. The process itself is a contradiction (plea bargain acceptance, then jury sentencing of the same punishment), and is a not so clever way for district attorneys and judges to appear to be removed from the case. In a tiny town of only 5,000 people, that concept is entirely ridiculous. Mrs. Robinson’s fate was determined in the judge’s chamber months before the jury was vetted.

The fact is the presiding judge had already accepted the punishment of the defendant, because the district court is mandated by law to show record of the defendant voluntarily waiving his or her rights to a trial and PLEADING GUILTY.

From the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, when a trial by jury has been waived, the district judge determines the sentence. To stave off embarrassment of a long and costly trial, the Doris Robinson case followed the prosecution’s recommendation of probation. District Judges can either accept or reject said plea bargains. The precedent of jury sentencing is always under fire due to the nature of the limited evidence heard at sentencing, versus extensive and specific evidence allowed at trial. So don’t be snookered into believing  it was the compassionate jury  composed of five white women, a black woman and six white men sentencing Mrs. Robinson after 1 hour and 45 minutes of ‘deliberation’ who meted out probation as her sentence. (Source: Cherokeean Herald July 8, 2009)

The fix was in from day one because she was a city employee and faced Elmer Beckworth and a Cherokee County jury instead of a legitimate federal jury. Cherokee County Texas prosecutors, law enforcement  and Beckworth’s handpicked jurors are more interested in putting Civil Rights complainants in prison than public servants caught stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in city revenue.

According to the July 8, 2009 Cherokeean Herald, Doris Robinson was sentenced that same day to 10 years in prison, with that sentence probated for 10 years, fined $5,000 in her “theft trial” and ordered to pay $143,000 in restitution. Readers of Rusk’s local Cherokeean newspaper are predictably misled into presuming defendant Robinson was scrutinized in a full-fledged “theft trial” by jurors who then sentenced her to repay the money in order to avoid imprisonment.

BEFORE July 8, 2009, Mrs. Doris Robinson pleaded guilty to theft of Rusk Water Department funds in her plea bargain, which resulted in her avoiding a “theft trial” by jury with its inherent risk of imposition of incarceration if found guilty by those trial jurors. So why in the world is it permissible for the court’s time (taxpayers’ money) to be squandered on assembling a jury panel solely for the purpose of sentencing confessed thief Mrs. Robinson when the district judge is the one with the authority to impose sentencing of plea bargainers?

It is quite implausible that Mrs. Robinson’s capable legal advisors would have approved her written admission of guilt if that document did not contain the specific requirements for avoidance of incarceration, to include but not limited to, her acknowledgement that she will repay within a set timeline the funds she admitted stealing. It’s smoke and mirrors Cherokee County style with public officials and local media creating the illusion that courthouse employees are honorably utilizing the salaries they draw from the taxpayers’ collective wallet. The fact is the Robinson probation sentence was already a done deal in verbiage of her signed plea and sentencing agreement.

As usual, they want to have it both ways when ‘Project Got to Fool ‘Em Everyday’ is in full swing. If a local steals the same amount of money from a federally insured bank, then a stiffer penalty and different outcome can be expected outside the tainted Cherokee County legal process.
 

Jacksonville, TX:
47-year old bank teller Lloyd Wayne Rock, also from Jacksonville, TX, was indicted in federal court for stealing over $145,000 from a Bank of America located in Tyler, TX. Rock is accused of stealing the money since he began his employment at the Tyler branch in 1995. Lloyd Rock pleaded guilty on July 29 to the embezzlement charge and faces up to 30 years in federal prison if convicted. (Source: Tyler Paper July 29, 2009)

Wood County, TX:
Wood County officials are requesting the Texas Rangers move their attention away from Cherokee County and come on down to help find $1,063 missing from the county treasurer’s office. Treasurer Becky Cannon faces a Wood County grand jury for the “misplaced funds” from the sale of scrap metal. (Source: Tyler Paper July 29, 2009)

Rusk County, TX:
A female prison guard at the Henderson Bradshaw Unit has been arraigned for paying an inmate to perform sex acts on her. Hether Bargsley, 32 was fired June 13 after admitting to officials she had paid a prisoner $200 for having sex in a doorway.

Rusk County Sheriff Department dispatcher and warrant clerk Kristy Campbell, 43, was charged on July 31 with cashing in a stolen money order of a missing $500 bond.Theft of service by a public official is a state jail felony. (Source Tyler Paper July 31, 2009)

Smith County, TX:
A Pct. 1 Smith County Deputy Constable, who is also the son of Precinct 3 Commissioner Terry Phillips, is under investigation for being on the payroll but not having a TCLEOSE police officer’s license. Derek Lee Phillips, age 23 had come under scrutiny by the Texas Rangers after an incident the night of June 29, in which he pulled a handgun on guests at his father’s property. Phillips has been patrolling with other deputies and identifying himself as a deputy constable, despite being unlicensed. (Source: Tyler Paper July 16, 2009)

One official said the county is liable for officers and deputies, and a person with as many citations as Phillips would also be a problem for insurance. (Source: Tyler Paper July 16, 2009)

A stark difference of facts presented in neighboring Smith County;
Cherokee County’s liability insurance provider in concert with elected officials have a proven track record of  schmoozing public opinion that its policyholder county is a low-risk client. Even after hiring gypsy cops and rapists who cause huge insurance claims for the county that employs them.

A female deputy Smith County constable  is also under Texas Ranger investigation and is also patrolling Pct. 1. This after she was alleged to have instigated a scuffle at her former boyfriend’s Tyler apartment complex. Newly licensed Minerva Martin is accused of going to a former boyfriend’s apartment to confront him and his current girlfriend, according to witnesses’ accounts and disturbance calls.( Source: Tyler Paper July 23, 2009)

It is also reported that TCLEOSE officials have recommended Precinct 1 Constable Henry Jackson’s license be revoked. Constable Jackson pleaded guilty in August 2008 to a Misdemeanor count of tampering with a governmental record and was given six months deferred adjudication. He also pleaded no contest to a Class C assault charge from sexual harassment and official oppression allegations. (Source: Tyler Paper July 17, 2009)

Constable Henry Jackson

 

Tyler, TX:

Tyler, TX Police Chaplain Anwar Khalifa was arrested in a Dallas hotel by an off duty Frisco, TX police officer, when the officer working security caught Khalifa smoking marijuana in the parking lot. Khalifa, the former head of the East Texas Islamic Society, was asked to resign by Tyler’s chief of police. (Source: Tyler Paper July 23, 2009)

Frisco Police Sgt. Crawford took the remainder of the marijuana and rolling paper and logged it as evidence and also notified the Tyler Police Department of the incident. (Source: Tyler Paper July 23, 2009)

Anwar Khalifa (Courtesy KLTV Tyler, TX)

 

Another stark difference from a recent Cherokee County, TX episode when Constable Randall Thompson was arrested by federal agents on the Mexican border for meth distribution. Instead of turning his badge in, Randy Thompson continued his role as Pct. 3 Constable up to the day he was indicted in federal court on drug charges. Employers of public officials such as Constable Thompson and Khalifa are always notified when the employee is arrested elsewhere. Despite Cherokee County’s pattern of pretending not to know their political allies have been arrested and are facing federal indictment the next day.  Cherokee County’s District Attorney’s office, the Sheriff’s Department and constables routinely “split the revenue” of seized property during drug raids (even airplanes), without oversight. (Source: Cherokeean Herald August 27, 2008)

 

Jacksonville, TX:
Jacksonville High School assistant coach Jerry Chism, 34 of Longview, was placed on administrative leave after being indicted for participating in illegal dog-fights. The football coach had been arrested in November 2008 for a DWI in Gregg County, before transferring to nearby Jacksonville ISD where he was employed for approximately one year. 

Jerry “Scotty” Chism was arrested July 8 in Panola County during a three-state sting which led to over 25 other defendants being indicted in federal court for animal cruelty. (Source: Tyler Paper July 16, 2009)

JHS Coach Jerry Chism

Justice of the Peace and readers speak out

Jacksonville, TX:

Several articles in the Jacksonville Daily Progress and Tyler Paper have cited an open letter from Justice of the Peace James Morris to State Attorney General Gregg Abbott requesting an investigation into the Cherokee County Commissioner’s Court. Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Morris alleges fraud, tax evasion, accepting bribes, violation of the Open Meetings Law and retaliation. Morris’ main complaint, which he later retracted, was that Cherokee County officials were accepting monthly contributions from a local proprietary tax software and law firm (Source: Tyler Paper June 27, 2009)

Our readers’ comments:

Re 6/2/2009 James Morris letter in Jacksonville Daily Progress and 6/12/2009 Progress article responses from Pct. 2 County Commissioner Kevin Pierce and Pct. 4 Commissioner Byron Underwood. I think Jacksonville’s New Hope Baptist Church Pastor / Pct. 3 JP James Morris’ and the county commissioners’ toing and froing is a just another diversion. One has decided to play the ‘victim;’  the other the so-called ‘bad guys.’ Cherokee County in its entirety is corrupt. It is not the Attorney General’s charge to investigate local corruption; it is the Cherokee County District Attorney’s office. It is almost laughable if it wasn’t so true.

 
Agreed, as stated in last month’s blog

The corrupt judicial hubris operating for decades in Cherokee County, Texas is itself anti-constitutional, illegal and un-American. It operates in a cohesive little unit of the same group of elected officials, who often as a diversionary tactic pretend to denunciate each other. Don’t be fooled.

The failed Brian Walker (R) campaign alleged that election Box 36 located in New Hope Baptist Church provided illegal swing votes that pushed incumbent Chuck Hopson (D) over the top to keep the Texas House District 11 seat for Cherokee County. Candidate Walker would have to legally challenge the election results in corrupt Cherokee County court, lose the contest in a tainted jury selection (containing the same old ladies who provided the illegal swing votes) and pay the enormous lawyer fees the Hopson defense team would have incurred. Brian Walker was obviously advised by his own attorneys he faced bankruptcy if he continued to press for an election outcome investigation.

Another reader elaborates:

The Pct. 3 election judge at Jacksonville’s New Hope Baptist Church voting location was more than two hours late turning in her ballots in Rusk when the drive from that location should have taken 15 minutes. The obviously inappropriate actions stink to high heaven of election fixing right there inside Morris’ own church. A 3/18/2009 article in the Cherokeean Herald quotes newly [re]elected State Representative Chuck Hopson of Jacksonville that “he is unaware of any illegal activities in elections in his district” and that, after talking with the registrars in his 4-county district, “they are not aware of any voter fraud in any elections. ”

Hopson says “However, if there is a perception, we need to know about it.” Well what about outright in-your-face doesn’t get any more blatant than your hometown’s Pct. 3 election judge violating election rules and showing up over two hours late to the County Seat in Rusk, TX on election night? In a squeaker election between Hopson and Brian Walker. Do any of us with two simultaneously functioning brain cells expect any voter registrar in the notorious east Texas pineywoods to just say you betcha Rep. Hopson, I can write an encyclopedia about the voter fraud I’ve witnessed in this region. Good grief, maybe you’re gulled but I’m not.

And lastly:

How many Cherokee County property owners know who selects their grand jurors? Behind the much misused veil of secrecy about the grand jury process hides the anti-American fact that here in Cherokee County there is no compunction whatsoever about violating Government Code, Title 5 Open Government; Ethics. Subtitle B. Ethics, Chapter 573. Degrees of Relationships; Nepotism Prohibitions when it comes to choosing their own relatives and close friends to be seated.

A bit off topic, but the Editor agrees that nepotism and corruption go hand in hand. Voter fraud is common in East Texas and the Attorney General’s office more often than not ignores the complaints. Smith County officials and the AG’s office were recently notified of illegal voting activities during the City of Winona’s Wet/Dry Elections according to the Tyler Paper.  Ineligible voters outside the city limits were allowed to cast their votes, according to complaints (Source: Tyler Paper June 20, 2009).

Similarly, Liberty County Judge Phil Fitzgerald was under investigation by the Attorney General for allegedly dropping DUI charges on his relatives (Source: Houston Chronicle April 19, 2009). Favoritism and sweetheart deals for relatives of East Texas officials have been going on for decades. There is simply not enough bandwidth on the Internet to document the Good ‘Ol Boy/Biddie network allowing the guilty to remain unaccountable. Their favorite technique with the help of small town prosecutors and newspapers is to blame innocents for the illegal activity they and their family members commit.

Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 James Morris’ open letter to the Attorney General:

 

The Ethics of Hubris

Hubris can be defined as blatant arrogance; the misuse of one’s position to commit violence against the knowledgeable and well-informed.

In Cherokee County, that translates into elected officials shaming others for the sole purpose of increasing their own standing within the community. That is why businesses and school teachers are leaving by the droves. Those who have made a living framing innocent people and those who propagate the district attorney’s disregard of the Texas Penal Code are the most dangerous individuals in greater East Texas. Cherokee County district attorney Elmer Beckworth has lied to State legislators, has lied to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and lies just as often in quotes from the Jacksonville Daily Progress.

The highest legal authority in Cherokee County has told the Texas District and County Attorney’s Association that the felony bond of one Michael Harris of Jacksonville, TX could not be revoked for repeated violations of protective orders. Beckworth’s office has filed briefs with the highest criminal court in Austin stating that he and his investigator did not seek to have an incarcerated felon’s parole dismissed in exchange for the parolee’s testimony against death row inmates Richard Cobb and Buenka Adams. And when questioned on how an infant molester can be offered probation, the District Attorney’s asinine answer is ”because the victim wouldn’t testify.”

Jacksonville, TX:
Not reported by the Jacksonville Daily Progress – Local mother and son arrested during the investigation of sex assaults on two infants, 1 and 2-years old. Dickie P.Bellanger, 21 and his mother Candi Bellanger, 36 were arrested in Jacksonville, TX on Friday May 22, 2009 after forensics obtained at the East Texas Medical Center showed evidence of ongoing sexual abuse of the two infants in their care. The one-year old showed signs of bruising and rape. After both infants were retrieved from the household by CPS, medical examinations showed evidence of sexual trauma on the two-year old sibling. Dickie Bellanger was charged with two counts each of aggravated sexual assault and injury to a child; his bond was set at $2 million. His mother Candi Bellanger was charged with child endangerment for not reporting the alleged crimes. They both are in custody waiting for their court-appointed attorneys to flip a coin.

 
Mother and son, Candi and Dickie Bellanger arraigned

The report of the arrest appears out of region in the Tyler TX newspaper. Actually reported by the Jacksonville Daily Progress in 2008: Dickie P. Bellanger was arrested in March 2008 on burglary of a building charges; his felony bond was set at $3500. After throwing himself at the mercy of Cherokee County prosecutors, his burglary charges were dropped.

Now one year later, it takes a newspaper 50 miles away to report the ongoing sexual abuse arrests of more Cherokee County residents. Will district attorney Elmer Beckworth wait until the injured children are old enough to speak before convening a grand jury? Will Cherokee County prosecutors instead have the Jacksonville Daily Progress print yet another conjured account on how the victims’ unwillingness to testify would therefore justify probation at sentencing? Or as current district attorney Elmer Beckworth puts it “because the victim isn’t able to participate in the trial.” (Source Jacksonville Daily Progress)

This is why the Jacksonville Daily Progress refuses to report on the alleged sex assault of two hometown Jacksonville, TX infants. Because the Tyler Paper mentioned the CPS report and medical forensics of the injured children. And local Cherokee County newspapers are programmed to print every lie fed to them by the supporters of the current political structure. Let’s face it folks, their livelihoods depend solely on covering their assets, so actual free and independent press they are not. Last month registered sex offender Kenneth Dexter Folmar, given eight years probation for the aggravated sex assault of a one-year baby girl, was rounded up three years into his deferred adjudication. Folmar was caught with beer cans and sentenced to 50 years in TDCJ by the same District Judge who gave him 8 years probation for raping a one-year old.

The District Attorney’s office continued the lie when word of the Kenneth Folmar probation violation (initially reported as a repeat sex offense) made it to print.

Kenneth Folmar

Cherokee County’s district attorney Elmer Beckworth told the Jacksonville Daily Progress that he did in fact speak to the victim before the trial. He spoke to a toddler who couldn’t get her story straight. Therefore the district attorney’s office had no choice but to offer 8 years probation for the sex assault of a 12-month old.

“I remember this case well. In talking with her myself, she was not able to talk about it at all, and when the case came to grand jury she was able to talk about it only minimally,” Beckworth said. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress April 26, 2009)

No mention of any medical exams conducted at the ETMC or any CPS investigation leading to the arrest of Kenneth Folmar. Just blatant lies by another Cherokee County elected official claiming to have interviewed a toddler, while ignoring forensics.

They obviously believe they have so much authority because of their hubris, that they can say and do whatever they want. The Rusk Cherokeean Herald and Jacksonville Daily Progress each divvy up the lies and print the story best suited for their supporters. Take for example the May 3, 2009 conflicting reports of the ongoing Robert Fox prosecution. On one hand the Daily Progress reports the City of Jacksonville mayor, chief of police and detectives are somehow at odds with the Cherokee County District Attorney (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress “Local fringe group has city and prosecutor squaring off”)

The article states that the mayor of Jacksonville Robert Haberle and Police Chief Reece Daniel petitioned the Attorney General to seat a special prosecutor to take criminal legal action against the House of Israel. They cited a lack of confidence with district attorney Elmer Beckworth’s handling of the Robert Fox case, alluding to Fox’s alleged intimidation tactics of filing multiple federal complaints against the county.

A sharp contrast to the same update on the upcoming Robert Fox plea bargain in the Cherokeean Herald. The Herald reports the mayor of Jacksonville simply “requested that the cases [against Robert Fox] be prosecuted more aggressively.” (Source: March 6, 2009 Cherokean Herald  “Anti-government group leader is indicted… ”) No mention of the Attorney General.

Before the headline is completed, the lie begins “similar cases have been fielded by district attorneys in Collin, Williamson counties.” Again, this is all smoke and mirrors coming from a corrupt legal system creating fictitious charges in order to justify its own ongoing unethical activity. The charges and indictments of “tampering with a government record and simulating a legal process” against Robert Fox is another penal statute created out of thin air to prevent federal lawsuits from being filed against out of control police departments.

Robert Fox

Despite Robert Fox’s failings as leader of the House of Israel prison ministry and as Jacksonville’s chief of police put it, his “voluminous frivolous legal findings and lawsuits in an attempt to intimidate the police, prosecutors and judges” (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress ),  Robert Fox did hit a raw nerve when he challenged the Jacksonville Police Department’s illegal raid on the House of Israel. In a well-articulated (and hard to find) petition for a Franks Hearing submitted by Fox, he clearly points out Cherokee County’s habit of generating a SEARCH WARRANT, prior to establishing genuine probable cause. Fox contends there was no reasonable reason for entry because there wasn’t an existing ARREST WARRANT on file.

The Jacksonville PD was given carte blanche to conduct an open-ended search to find whatever so-called incriminating items they may need within the House of Israel. Without stating verbatim per a bona fide legal SEARCH WARRANT the singularly specific items they were after. The search warrant itself would not stand up in an incorrupt courtroom.

The doors of the House of Israel were knocked down prior to any COMPLAINT being filed with the Cherokee County Clerk. The fact is that in Cherokee County and other small agencies, the district attorney himself composes the SEARCH WARRANT with investigating officers. And Cherokee County’s district attorney makes sure the Municipal Judges signing the Warrant allow for an open-ended search and therefore illegal seizure. Investigators tout confiscating Robert Fox’s legal writings during the multiple raids, claiming the Fox tirades to be pro-Taliban, though nonetheless NOT illegal and NOT part of the scope of the SEARCH WARRANT.

Cherokee County prosecutors realize the legal mess of having the Attorney General’s office scrutinizing an open-ended search, so they must attempt to criminalize Robert Fox’s cantankerous federal motions. Therefore, they and the local newspapers continue to attempt to brand Robert Fox as a dangerous terrorist sympathizer, in order to contaminate the jury pool.

Robert Fox was no-billed on the initial charge of barratry, written in the original arrest by district attorney Elmer Beckworth. Now Beckworth is taking the high road for not prosecuting all the charges against Robert Fox, levied by Beckworth himself? We’re supposed to feel good that the Jacksonville, TX police department stormed the House of Israel without probable cause? To arrest House of Israel members who had earlier been in Cherokee County custody?

Robert Fox’s lawsuits and thus his “records tampering” would have never come to fruition without the increasing unconstitutional harassment of Cherokee County law enforcement. They went after him to make themselves look better. In the Daily Progress, district attorney Elmer Beckworth lays the onus of the bogus charges on the over-zealous Jacksonville police department. The current focus on Robert Fox are his “dangerous” and highly argumentative (though often credible) legal briefs. Fox’s Civil Rights requests must be quelled by the District Attorney and labeled as “tampering with government records” in order for Project Got to Fool ‘Em to succeed.

The corrupt judicial hubris operating for decades in Cherokee County, Texas is itself anti-constitutional, illegal and un-American. It operates in a cohesive little unit of the same group of elected officials, who often as a diversionary tactic pretend to denunciate each other. Don’t be fooled.

If the District Court bailiff has been arrested in McAllen, TX for selling drugs to an undercover federal agent, then both the district judge and district attorney are notified by the Department of Justice. Wouldn’t want the Feds looking at the timecards of rapist cop Larry Pugh or mileage reports of Cherokee County Constable Randy Thompson busted for selling methamphetamines…

You know because Cherokee County had what they call a “lightning rod” for terrorism sitting in the Rusk, Texas jail, unable to post bail or hire an untethered defense attorney from another county. Which is ironic considering the 369th District Court can concoct government records to indicate Constable Randy Thompson as Missing In Action, one day before his federal drug trafficking indictment. Yet the same District Court can put Robert Fox on trial  for “tampering with government records” to censor his legal diatribe.  And to make sure to get at least one misinformed Texas trial jury to finally criminalize the filing of complaints and legal briefs by American citizens. Without the help of drunken and sycophantic lawyers in the District Attorney’s pocket.

In similar corruption news in neighboring counties where the law is applied appropriately—

Tyler, TX:
TCDJ prison guard Rudolph Regalado was arrested for allegedly hiring a hit man to murder the husband of his girlfriend. Cathryn Lake, the wife of the intended victim was also charged with solicitation for murder. “She was in the process of raising the husband’s life insurance, and we believe that was the main motive behind the plot,” according to investigators. (Source: Tyler Paper May 22, 2009)

In Cherokee County, the murder for remuneration would have resulted in an innocent outside the conspiracy being charged and the district attorney’s office dividing the insurance payouts with state witnesses, the widow and her lover. Similarly, former Cherokee County district attorney Charles Holcomb used the life insurance monies to pay State witnesses in State vs. Terry Watkins.  (Source: Cherokeean Herald June 3, 1993)

Palestine, TX:
State licensed firearm instructor Ronnie Cookwas charged with the murder of his wife after a May 13, 2009 standoff with police that lasted three hours. Palestine police had responded to a 911 call that indicated Cook may have shot his 62-year old wife.

Upshur County, TX:
Upshur County school teacher and coach John Cotcha Tiger, 40, of Longview, was sentenced by 115th District Court Judge Lauren Parish on charges of improper relationship between educator and student, and on-line solicitation of a minor, according to news releases. The victim was a 15-year old girl; Tiger was sentenced to two concurrent fifteen year prison terms. Sex assault of a minor charges were dropped, as part of the plea bargain.

Alto, TX:
Alto ISD PE coach Paul Dixon was indicted earlier this month for having an improper teacher/student relationship. His father, John Paul Dixon was also placed on administrative leave for allegedly interfering with witnesses and the investigation. (Source: Tyler Paper)

Bullard, TX:
City Secretary Patty McMillian Cooper , 63 of Troup, TX was fined and placed on probation for theft of city funds on March 27, 2007.  She stole over $84,000 over a four year period. On Sunday, April 12, 2009 she was rearrested for theft of funds from another previous employer, Tyler, TX based Williams Law Firm. She is out of Smith County Jail on a $100,000 bond. Theft of city funds is pretty common in the Piney Woods. (Source: Tyler Paper April 13, 2009)

Shelby County, TX:
Shelby County Sheriff Deputy Lana Sue “Susie” Calhoun , 49 of Timpson, was arrested for DWI by the DPS after a wreck in Garrison, TX. Sources indicate she had previously worked as a Nacogdoches County jailer and campus police for Stephen F. Austin State University. (Source: Longview News-Journal May 8, 2009)

Gregg County:
Two female Gregg County jailers have been arrested for assisting in the jail break of two inmates last week. Gracie Carrillo, 20 and Yvonne Oliver, 25 both from Longview, were charged with facilitating the escape of convicted murderer Desmond Jackson and murder suspect Bruce Kelly last Tuesday from the Gregg County jail. Carrillo and Oliver each face second and third degree felony charges. (Source: Tyler Paper May 23, 2009)