$150,000 stolen in Rusk City Hall; Texas Rangers to audit city government

Title should be: "TAX PAYERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS IN CHEROKEE COUNTY, TEXAS, BEWARE!" News sources are hard to find on this episode of embezzlement of city government funds. We post it here before it drops off the internet. Alleged city hall employee in Rusk, TX is under "investigation" for taking over 150 thousand dollars of missing 'good time' money.



"[City] employee is fired," so there is a suspect, but no grand jury indictment pending.
Rusk City Attorney/Judge Forrest Phifer predicts Elmer Beckworth will do the right thang, but Beckworth is "overloaded with violent crime investigation and Austin legislation." That will be the new mantra when avoiding the press when a blind eye needs to be turned. However the legislative body in Austin has no record of Elmer Beckworth, et al "testifying" on anything, even in rebuttal for something the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence (C220). No official mention of Beckworth on the capitol record during the month of March 2007 (when the Cherokeean article ran).

.... And of course the Cherokeean reporter wouldn't do any fact checking; that's OK it's almost time to bombard the locals with mediocre drug busts. Quickly now, you have to turn the taxpayers attention away from the rifling of the coffers of Cherokee County.

As a footnote, Elmer Beckworth was in Austin testifying against HB 1148 on April 11, 2007 as reported by the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. House Bill 1148 was introduced in February 2007, regarding the term "deadly weapon" when certain cases are prosecuted. Testimony and rebuttal probably did not include a drug addict in Cherokee County custody murdering his wife, a la Faye Bell Harris or vehicular manslaughter as in the Jennifer Hester case, both of Jacksonville, Texas.

Furthermore, Mr. or Ms. East Texas Reporter:
there is not one incident of violent crime on the Cherokee County docket, and there hasn't been one for a year. You can find that out on the University of North Texas' online law library citing the Texas Register. You might found out there, however, that there have been some drug dealing among your veteran Cherokee County Texas law enforcement. But I guess you would call that victimless and "an isolated incident."

Isolated only to a 60-year-old police chief dealing drugs over a 12 year period in Troup, TX. And a District Court bailiff and Cherokee County Constable making meth "from pseudoephedrine for the purpose of distribution" for the past 10 years.

So back to the rifling of tax payer dollars in the Rusk, TX city hall. Why have the Texas Rangers been called in to investigate, according to the other news articles on the incident? Texas law gives District Attorneys discretion in convening a grand jury.

Hero complex for local parasites.

Posting should be called "Smooth Sailing at the Bottom of the Bilge."
Local media puts the focus on the 'good ol' boys' to turn attention from Cherokee County law enforcement's recent drug dealing habits. These guys can be found planted in the back of the local Pentecostal or Baptist church of your choice, singing out of key and planning their next visit to the local Lion's Club. Put aside all the drug peddling the night before to boost Cherokee County's drug arrest quota. Of course no seized drugs are reported to the DPS; that would be plum silly.

Unfortunately, fellow drug trafficker Chester Kennedy (Troup, TX chief of police) AND Cherokee County Constable Randall Thompson are both arrested by US attorneys and Smith County Sheriff's Department.
The internet is swamped with out-of-region news reports on their illegal activity. Certainly an embarrassment to the engrained Cherokee County establishment, not of shame but of fear of the media spotlight being on their own corrupt methods. The activity has been going on for decades in and around East Texas, be it Wise County or Orange County or Houston County.
In 1990, the Dallas Morning News began an extensive expose’ on Wise County corruption involving Sheriff Leroy Eugene Burch. Sheriff Burch, his Chief Deputy and two local bail bondsmen were indicted by a Federal grand jury in Fort Worth for an extensive extortion scheme involving false arrests. The 11-count indictment accused the men of conspiring to use their elected positions to extort money from defendants; officials would reduce their charges if they paid “exorbitant fees” to a local Wise County bail bondsman.

Dallas Morning News p.1A April 15, 1992  


Dallas Morning News p. 16 A April 15, 1992 
Also in the early 1990’s Orange County’s Sheriff James Wade was arrested, indicted and sentenced on his own Federal methamphetamine charges by US Justice William Wayne Justice. Sheriff Wade was convicted on September 21, 1988 on nine counts of federal narcotics conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Lufkin Daily News Dec.4, 1988 and Jacksonville Daily Progress p.3 Feb. 14, 1990
And to the south of Cherokee County, neighboring Houston County Sheriff Claudie Kendrick had his day in Justice William Wayne Justice's court, and was sentenced in 1993 to one year federal prison and two years supervision for perjury. He had let a drug dealer out of Houston County jail according to prosecutors and lied during an inquest. The FBI had been investigating Houston County on alleged official corruption charges.

 

Jacksonville Daily Progress May 18, 1993
More recently, to keep the local Cherokee County taxpayers' attention (and contributions) turned away from the recent federal drug bust of Cherokee County officials, Rusk, Texas now has its very own "narcotics officer" for the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department. Sponging off mediocre drug busts from unsuspecting and out-of-town occupants of the Trade Winds Motel in Jacksonville Texas.

Two bags of marijuana; stop the presses!!
Does 2 ounces of pot undo the decades of officials such as Chief of Police, Troup TX, Chester Kennedy and Constable Randy Thompson dealing drugs under your noses?
Does a measly bag of weed put a dint in the fact Cherokee County Constable Randall Thompson (Pct.3) was mixing crack in the piney woods during the same time he was handing out subpoenas and working as your court bailiff?? These guys are facing decades in TDC, but I bet their arrests and drug seizures won't be overturned any time soon.... you can sleep well in your bed at night knowing the Spring Break recreational drug and marijuana trade is being stopped in its tracks.
Button down the hatch, the local media will be hoisting its parasitic cargo onto the Cherokee County populace. If you can stomach it, read it for yourself each week in the Jacksonville Daily Progress and/or Rusk's Cherokeean online. As Homer said in Ulysses "don't succumb to the blandiloquence of the other parasites." These worms mean business and their collective egos can't stand the sunlight.
Cherokee County, TX has the best and the brightest looking out for you, that's why the hire people like Larry Pugh to patrol your streets and Michael Meissner to do whatever.
Get prepared to be impressed, if you aren't basking in their glow yet. The local sorority fan club is waiting with bated breath.