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.

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 purse strings, 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

 

(Courtesy: Smith County)

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.

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.

 (Source: Cheorkeean April 30, 1998 Sec. A, p. 7)

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 cover up 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)

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.