Jacksonville meth supplier sentenced in federal court; It takes crack to crack the case

2/16/22 – Pablo Antonio Sandoval, 200 block Tilley St.,  Jacksonville, TX

Jacksonville, TX:

In February 2022, Pablo Sandoval was busted with crystal meth and a stolen gun during an early morning traffic stop in Jacksonville, TX. He was held in Gregg County jail under a federal detainer for drug trafficking, and after pleading guilty, eventually moved to Henderson County custody to await his sentencing in US District Court.

Cherokee County, TX arrests for Feb. 15-21, 2022:

Pablo Antonio Sandoval, 23, Jacksonville, theft of firearm, no drivers licence [sic], traffic offense Class C, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

(Source: Jacksonville Progress)

Pablo Sandoval, 200 block Tilley St., Jacksonville, TX (courtesy Henderson Co.)

Crystal meth dealers living in Cherokee County travel throughout East Texas, delivering drugs and mayhem to neighboring counties. Low income housing, cheap hotels, RV parks and converted half-way homes are used as layovers for drug mules monitored by multiple agencies. Local addicts are in and out of jail based on the amount of snitching they can provide, no matter their escalating risk to the public. Resident crackheads are worth their weight in Narcotic Task Force funding.

10 years ago, Jacksonville City Council rezoned former dormitory buildings from defunct Lon Morris College into multifamily Section 8 apartments along Sunset and Tilley St. where Pablo Sandoval lived.

After the college went into bankruptcy, owner Tilley LLC took control of the property with the intention of combining pairs of the 38 smallish dorm rooms into roughly 22 larger apartments. There are some proposed “double bedrooms” in the plans, each of which will require three dorm rooms to be put together to create, [Jacksonville Public Works Director Will] Cole said. (Source: City Council rezones so former Lon Morris dorms can be converted to apartments, Jan. 10, 2013 Jacksonville Daily Progress)

23-year old Pablo Sandoval, who was born in California, admitted to distributing large amounts of crystal meth in Cherokee County after he was detained by Jacksonville PD in February 2022. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking last year in federal court and in April 2023, sentenced to 14 years.  (Source: KETK)

The “California man” as they call him, supplied crystal meth to his Jacksonville neighbors in October 2021, but wasn’t actually incarcerated until February 2022 when he was picked up in the wee morning hours. Apparently he just rode around town for 4 months without a driver’s license … even though the newspaper and Henderson County reported his Jacksonville, Texas residency.

From the US Attorney’s Eastern District of Texas press release April 19, 2023:

California Man Sentenced for Federal Drug Trafficking Violations in East Texas –

According to information presented in court, in October 2021, [Pablo] Sandoval supplied more than 500 grams of methamphetamine to drug dealers in Cherokee County, Texas, which he sourced from suppliers in California. Sandoval was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas in April 2022. (Source: DOJ)

United States v. Sandoval, 6:21-CR-00081-JDK

When a Nacogdoches, TX resident is sentenced for the same drug trafficking charges in the same US District Court, and on the same docket as Pablo Sandoval, the meth dealer is referred to a “Nacogdoches man” –  not by where his suppliers are located. (Source: April 28, 2023, Nacogdoches man sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to drug trafficking- KETK)

The same US District Court that sentences female embezzlers to federal prison for stealing from non-profits, totally ignores over $430,000 stolen by the Cherokee County Tax Assessor’s office.

East Texas authorities at the state and federal level attempt to blame other areas of the country for the crystal meth they know is manufactured in Cherokee County, Texas.  As if 23-year old Pablo Sandoval was driving back and forth from Bakersfield, California with no driver’s license to sell his homegrown East Texas poison. Cherokee County has a fine history of constables and police chiefs cooking up meth labs in the woods, a Jacksonville police officer raping transient women, girls being snatched from abuse shelters and their dead bodies dumped like trash; and unindicted Tax Assessor officials stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars out the Rusk, TX courthouse.

The more the local drug addicts steal, the more narcotics enforcement grant money the county can steal. 

(April 21, 2023- Vehicle theft ring investigation in Cherokee County leads to 4 arrests, 1 still at large,  KETK)

As a footnote, Cherokee County is patting themselves on the back for rounding up their favorite resident recidivist meth addicts, each averaging about a dozen catch-and-release arrests in the last few years, and charging the group with “Organized Crime.”  Their court mandated drug rehab at the Rusk State Hospital has escalated into Grand Theft Auto. One member of the group, Edward Jones, is still at large after being released in Cherokee County last year for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon on top of multiple drug arrests here, there, and everywhere.

Edward Lee Jones, Jacksonville TX

Cherokee County, TX arrests and releases:

03/25/2021 F.T.A. POSS MARIJ < 2OZ(CCSO) – Bond: $5000

02/10/2022 POSS CS PG 1/1-B >= 4G < 200G – Bond: $20000
POSS CS PG 1/1-B < 1G

02/28/2022 POSS CS PG 1/1-B <1G (JPD WARRANT)  – Bond: $2500.00 

05/21/2022 AGG ASSLT W/DEADLY WEAPON – Bond: $25000

02/07/2023  THEFT OF SERV >= $100 < $750 – Bond: $1000
THEFT OF SERV >= $100 < $750 – Bond: $1000
UNAUTH USE OF VEHICLE  – Bond: $2500
BURGLARY OF BUILDING – Bond: $2500

Footnote: fugitive Edward Jones was picked up in the Dallas area in mid June for stealing and shipped back home. He is facing facing theft / organized crime charges with a total $90,000 bond. The tattoos on his face gave him away.

Edward Jones (courtesy Dallas PD)

District Attorney runs Assistant DA as opponent; Attorney General investigates missing $1.3 million Lon Morris endowment

Rusk, TX:

‘Tis the season to fool everybody, and political ads have run simultaneously in local newspapers pretending not to know of the incestuous politicking of the Cherokee County district attorney’s office. Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth (Democrat) is being “challenged” by his assistant district attorney Rachel Patton Rogers, running as a Republican, in the ONLY so-called “contested” race in the county. Beckworth has won praise from his mentor former DA and retired Court of Criminal Appeals Justice Charles Holcomb, who also related to the majority of those at the courthouse, Rusk State Hospital, and remaining county government employees. (Source: Tyler Paper, Nov. 4, 2012)  Family ties go beyond political affiliations, hence public servants’ blatant nepotism for the last 40 years goes unreported during the electoral process. The only party lines in Cherokee County, Texas are the ones used to illegally eavesdrop on each other. So much for small town elections.

Do we really get a choice when one candidate’s only purpose is to keep viable challengers out of the primaries?

It is a common in-your-face tactic of Cherokee County shoring up the election, that is the hedging of votes against potential challengers. Both candidates pretend to be in competition by championing a horrible record of local child molestation cases they shared; over 300+ reported probated child sex offenders during Elmer Beckworth’s 20 year tenure alone. God only knows what the docket doesn’t show. Child molesters and recidivists who are offered probation per Beckworth’s office, and then fail their community service requirements is not a record to run on, but to be ashamed of. Nonetheless, the current district attorney’s further endorsements come from his published jury pools and the former Cherokee County sheriff – now part of a local cattlemen’s association. As long as familial and personal vendettas are played out in their small time political games, no child is safe in Cherokee County. No one is safe.

Ask the parents of molested children in Rusk and Jacksonville forced to live nextdoor to offenders who make sweet deals with the district court. Ask the loved ones slain by Cherokee County drug informants released after repeated bail violations. Asked those pepper sprayed and beaten up by Cherokee County law enforcement during high school events. Ask the sexual assault victims, battered wives and families of missing women who have to sue the county in Federal Court to get their rapes on the record.  Ask the district judge who’s own bailiff is sitting in federal prison for selling crystal meth.

As Assistant District Attorney for 20 years, Elmer Beckworth’s job has been to run interference for his predecessors’ judicial remands. Endorsee Charles Holcomb’s last case as Cherokee County district attorney resulted in the overturning of an innocent man’s so-called “murder for remuneration” conviction that resulted in a commuted life sentence. Even though all evidence pointed elsewhere, then assistant prosecutor Beckworth continued the facade of a bonafide investigation into the murder of Alto, TX feed store owner Jackie Hicks. As a district attorney Beckworth has continued that pattern of lying all the way to the state legislature in Austin.

Daily Progress, June 3, 1993

Rusk Cherokeean Herald, Feb 22, 1996

As Elmer Beckworth’s lead assistant prosecutor, Rachel Patton Rogers worked side-by-side with Beckworth and his investigators. Hence the cycle continues. Beckworth, a life long Democrat, sensed earlier in 2010 the political tides would swing overwhelmingly Republican during this county election cycle. Hence his “first assistant attorney” was quietly shuffled out last year and over onto the local Republican ticket. Are voters actually to believe that both Beckworth and his recruited assistant are vying for the job as Cherokee County’s top prosecutor simply because they appear in opposite political parties? The local newspapers would have their readers believe so. Her job has been to make sure the DA office stays “in the family.” Meanwhile, bogus political ads have been run simultaneously with articles on the Texas Attorney General’s investigation of missing endowment money at the former Lon Morris College. Over $1 million in a restrictive trust fund deposit according to the Rusk Cherokeean is not “missing” at all:

There is no missing money at Lon Morris College. “Contrary to recent news reports, we know where the money went…” (Source: front page Rusk Cherokeean, “No Missing Funds at Lon Morris,” Oct. 31, 2012)

All other legitimate news agencies are reporting the missing Dr. James Long endowment to Lon Morris College, now valued at $1.3 million. (Source: KLTV) By law, college endowment funds are restrictive, in that the principal (the $1 million gift) cannot be spent all at once, only accrued interest per the donation.

JACKSONVILLE, TX (KLTV) –
Months after the oldest two-year university in the state closed its doors, a serious investigation into its finances has been opened. The Texas Attorney General’s office and Lon Morris college are looking for $1.3 Million in missing endowment funds. A Rusk man left the money to the school, but explicitly stated in his will that the money would be transferred to Sam Houston State University if Lon Morris College ever closed its doors.

In 2009, a little more than $1 Million was willed to the school by Lon Morris graduate, Dr. James D. Long.
Because of interest, that endowment would now be worth about $1.3 Million.

The AG’s investigators are demanding a long list of documents, including emails, bank records and minutes from board meetings. They’re looking for anything that leads their office to who was managing the funds that should have been deferred to Sam Houston State University.

The Attorney General’s Office says the missing endowment funds were brought to their attention after a lawyer for the Long Estate contacted the Texas State University System.

(Source: KLTV, “Attorneys question if Lon Morris College honored donor’s will,” Oct. 25, 2012)

Attorney General questions if Lon Morris College honored donor’s will.

Lon Morris coach arrested for child porn at Cherokee County Jr. College.

Warning: Cherokee County Texas institutions are bastions of child exploitation and employ purveyors of child pornography.The mass exodus of Rusk Independent School District faculty members earlier this year is based upon the revelation that protected locals and administration officials with a penchant for photography have been under FBI scrutiny for years- stemming from the 2001-2002 Department of Justice crackdown of Palestine, Texas resident Mark Bates – the Webmaster of a worldwide e-mail child pornography ring originating from Internet servers in Anderson and Cherokee Counties.  Why did the Rusk High School principal and all those Rusk ISD teachers and coaches turn in their resignations?

The FBI sting called “Operation Candyman” netted individuals throughout the country, including an A&M cadet in Brownsville and two men from the Houston,TX area. 89 subscribers total were indicted. Mark Bates, age 33 of Palestine, TX was sentenced in December 2002 to 30 years prison for being the mastermind and moderator of the website used to download images federal prosecutors called “absolutely appalling in the depth of their depravity.”  Many arrested subscribers to Mark Bates’ email group  (such as Toby Barnett from Lufkin, Texas) were people ‘holding positions of trust with frequent contact with children.’  Mark Bates had two prior child molestation convictions and a history of mental disorders.

The ongoing cover up of this type of depraved and illegal activity should show the rest of the state just how duplicitous Cherokee County Texas really is. Especially when local officials pretend to have no knowledge of kiddie porn being distributed from computers owned by the school district. A place where under the guise of fake evangelicalism, the images of broken and bloody bodies of children have been traded like Green Stamps on the Internet for decades. While at the same time Cherokee County district attorney Elmer Beckworth offers probation to a Rusk Texas man who mutilated his own 12-month old daughter, and the district court voraciously accepts any and all plea bargains to over 3 dozen registered sex offenders within the county. Mark Bates’ child porn ring of 6 years ago apparently never ceased to exist outside the area, with ongoing federal sentences (such as  Jeffrey Scott Ray of Nacogdoches and Toby Barnett of Lufkin, TX) never making it to the pressroom.  The list continues.

Jacksonville, Texas:

Lon Morris College’s  head golf coach  Barry Dean Griffin, age 38, has been arraigned in federal court for possession and distribution of child pornography. Coach Barry Griffin was arrested Monday, June 9, 2008 after surrendering to federal authorities in Tyler, Texas. According to the June 10, 2008 issue of the Tyler Paper, Lon Morris faculty member Barry Griffin :  “has been charged by complaint for allegedly possessing and distributing child pornography on May 30 in Cherokee County [Texas]. If convicted, he could face 5 to 20 years in prison for the distribution charge and up to 10 years in prison for the possession charge.”

Monday’s appearance by Griffin in front of Tyler, TX based US Magistrate Judge John Love was reported here first. He has not been formally indicted.

Lon Morris College coach Barry Dean Griffin

Barry Griffin is a junior college Kinesiology instructor and coach for Jacksonville, Texas based Lon Morris and has been since 2005. The Lon Morris men’s golf team  took fourth place in a recently held NJCAA tournament in Huntsville, Alabama, with hotel accommodations arranged by the college. Griffin has also traveled out of state to Daytona, Florida where he accompanied the Lon Morris College girl’s golf team , who took a 4th place prize at the women’s NJCAA national championship games.

Similarly, the Jacksonville home of Rusk ISD drama coach Harold “Bo” Scallon was raided last year by federal authorities on a tip from the Longview, TX police department. The tip being that the High School teacher was distributing child pornography over the Internet. His personal laptop, school computer and hard drives were confiscated by the FBI. Scallon pleaded guilty on April 4, 2008 in federal court to possessing over 150 sadomasochistic images of minors. He taught for the Rusk Independent School District for nearly 30 years and with parents’ blessings, participated in numerous overnight ‘theater camps.’ Due to a plea agreement, his child porn distribution charge was dropped by federal prosecutors, though he still faces decades in federal prison. Certainly the community and school administrators will rally around to petition for Mr. Scallon’s early release and leniency prior to his sentencing date being reported. As they did with Alto, Texas postmaster Herbert Dominguez, prior to his federal sentencing for stealing $27,000 of United States Post Office material- but never reporting it.

Local Cherokee County, Texas media portray Rusk High School Theater class’ Bo Scallon official retirement and contractual obligations to the school district as ending in April 2007, prior to the FBI raid. However, Harold “Bo” Scallon’s continual employment with the Rusk ISD was apparent to the FBI because investigators seized his company computer from the Rusk High School and examined its hard drives. Forensics on his computers uncovered massive files storing violent and graphic depictions involving children.

mugshot of Rusk,TX teacher Harold “Bo” Scallon

The ongoing out-of-county reports of federal investigations compared to the nonexistent media coverage, nor local outcry, begs the question: Has Cherokee County, Texas always been a child molestation and child pornography refuge? Local offenders certainly do not have to worry about prison time if they cut deals with the Cherokee County District Attorney’s office after falling in the hands of Elmer Beckworth .

View the locations of registered child molesters living steps from the Rusk Texas courthouse and Rusk Texas Jr.-Sr. High Schools mapped on a website called FamilyWatchdog .                                              

Found at: http://www.familywatchdog.us                                                                                                

Infant molesters (whose victims are as young as 1 to 6 years-old) all handed probation and local Adult Supervision by the Cherokee County district attorney’s office -and not spending one day in prison.

 

 [known registered Rusk, TX sex offenders – courtesy of Family Watchdog]

As a footnote, Harold “Bo” Scallon was sentenced on Tuesday June 17, 2008 in the US District Courts to 6 1/2 years federal prison time for possessing Internet child pornography. He will remain under parole supervision for 5 years after completing his federal prison term. Had the Rusk ISD faculty member actually acted on his sick fantasies and molested a Jr. High student, then the Cherokee County district attorney would have offered Scallon a few months probation (just like Elmer Beckworth’s office did for Chris Hennessy, a Rusk Texas patrol officer offered a paltry probation sentence of months instead of years for raping a Rusk ISD Jr. High girl in 2004).  Or Cherokee County prosecutors would simply ignore the problem like the community and Rusk school board has for the last 30 years of Harold “Bo” Scallon’s teaching career.  The world may never know how many deals were struck to keep this guy’s perverted pastimes out of the Rusk ISD school bulletin and news.

Also buried in the archives and the local School Board meeting minutes is a report of another Rusk ISD school teacher and former Jacksonville High School faculty member, Brian Basse sentenced to 3 years TDCJ time in 2007 for sexual contact with a student. Explicit Instant Messages and photos were recovered from his laptop computer by the FBI. Basse had been a Rusk Texas school teacher for 7 years, before relocating from the Jacksonville ISD. Brian Basse’s 36 month sentence (which he may serve 80% of) was handed to him from the 2nd Judicial District Court in Rusk, TX.

 

And don’t forget about Josh Allen music teacher at the Jacksonville Christian Academy and youth minister for the Tyler Street Baptist Church being sentenced in 2007 to 4 years for possession of child pornography- over 600 graphic and violent images. Tyler Street Baptist Church is a long time polling place for voters in Cherokee County’s Precinct No. 15. The US District Court “noted that Allen has no past criminal history and that he had the support of his church – factors in issuing the relatively lenient sentence.”   Great.     Gregg County Texas charged Josh Allen for his porn distribution into their county, since Cherokee County Texas failed to do so. A local investigation was not required from the source because, as Allen told Federal Judge Leonard Davis during his January 4, 2007 sentencing, local authorities believed the choir director still “had an opportunity to be part of the solution to the problem” of child porn being distributed via the Internet from Cherokee County, Texas. Allen received the same lack of media attention coupled with an outpouring of local support as did Jeffrey Scott Ray and Toby Lynn Barnett. Ray’s residence in Nacogdoches, TX was raided by federal authorities in 2006 and his sentencing not reported; Jeffrey Ray Scott got 70 months in federal prison.  Toby Barnett was charged with possession of child porn and given 3 years probation in 2002 for “not having a prior criminal record,” even though he had been convicted in Nacogdoches, TX for assault in 1996.

Just do a comparison on how the legal system operates 40 miles away in Smith County, Texas. For instance, the recent Wednesday June 18, 2008 sentencing of Daniel Wayne Tidwell, age 29 of Tyler, in the 241st District Court doling out 50 years state prison time. This is after Tidwell pleading guilty to the sexual assault of a 15 year-old girl. Daniel Tidwell did have prior felony convictions, but regardless was facing 5 years to life for the rape.

Don’t forget the crack down on the Mineola Swinger’s Club that has made national news, either. The third defendant out of a string of arrests, Patrick “Booger Red” Kelly , a foster parent, is on trial for drugging children 9 years-old and younger and forcing them to perform strip club-esque dances for patrons of Mineola, Texas’ honky tonk. A version of what Cherokee County, Texas’ counterfeit Christians have been doing for decades: exploiting children and getting away with it. Smith County CPS removed the children from the homes of participants beginning in 2004 when it became apparent drug use and sexual abuse was occurring in the “deeply religious community.” Also awaiting trial are Dennis Boyd and Rebecca Pittman; and Jimmy Dale and Shelia Darlene Sones. Local swingers in the East Texas sex ring Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Loraine Mayo were convicted and sentenced to life in prison earlier in May, for their involvement in making children perform sex acts on stage.

An even better recent comparison would be the 2006 trial in Smith County of a preacher named Jefferson Marion Moore, age 58 at the time, also the Dogwood City Daycare and Preschool operator convicted of molesting a 6 year-old girl left in his care. He was a full time pastor for the Dogwood City Chapel, or “Brother Jeff” as they called him.  Jefferson Moore was convicted and sentenced to LIFE in prison for the rape he committed. Moore had been indicted on three counts of sexual assault of a minor involving a 6, 7 and 4  year-old. “Brother Jeff” Moore was also charged with retaliation after an altercation with Smith County prosecutors during courtroom deliberations and given 10 extra years. On the brighter side, the Tyler Paper reports in its June 25, 2008 edition that Jefferson Moore died of “natural causes” in his cellblock earlier this month after serving 2 years in prison. Dogwood City, Texas is a small unincorporated community on Lake Palestine and ideal retirement spot for district judges, located on the Cherokee County / Smith County border and 20 miles from downtown Jacksonville, Texas. No probation offers or lenient sentences for this child molester; the Smith County community certainly did not rally in support of the only preacher and licensed babysitter in their tiny town. Incidentally, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday June 25, 2008 that it is unconstitutional for states to execute child rapists. That will certainly keep Cherokee County’s sexual predator population on a steady incline.

 

 Pastor Jefferson Moore (deceased), daycare owner and child molester

In April 2005, the Kilgore, Texas newspaper The Kilgore News Herald began an expose, aptly named “Child Pornography Big Problem in East Texas,” on how pervasive the crime was becoming.

Next month, more East Texas child molesters off the streets and in federal prison, such as Franklin Albert Pearce of Wood County, Texas gets life for the sexual assault of a 6 year-old girl. William Allen Pipes of Gilmer, TX pleads guilty to distributing child porn and faces 10 years.

In local school news, the superintendent of Overton ISD Dr. Mark Stretcher, after “unexpectedly” resigning his post in January due to a “personal illness and pressure” and subsequently throwing the Overton, TX school district in disarray- why Dr. Stretcher has been charged with felony theft of public funds. Stretcher pleaded guilty to ‘theft in office’ on Friday June 27, 2008.  Beware Rusk County, Texas you are in a close second for most corrupt.