Filthy jails and puppy dog tails

 

Rusk, TX:

Everything's not sugar and spice at the county jail. Someone forgot to tell the local news media that there's a new Sheriff in town. The Cherokee County Jail in Rusk, TX was a mess "a long time in the making," left over from previous office holders who include the Sheriff's father and his former bosses. Decades of jail violations and drippy faucets never leaked to the press before. Cherokee County's dirty laundry is being aired after State inspectors documented numerous mold, sanitation, and supervision problems that have gone unreported for years. Someone has the knives out for the new jail staff. Prisoners cooped up inside their cells without exercise and recreation spend a lot of time running their mouths off on the jailhouse pay phones. Deputies will have to be reassigned from inmate phone call monitoring duties to make-believe charitable events. (Source: State finds unsanitary conditions, many problems in Cherokee County Jail; sheriff says problems resolved - KETK)

Jail is not supposed to be the Hilton; however the Texas Commission on Jail Standards does enforce minimum safety requirements. Cherokee County has a history of jail citations from failing to properly screen incoming prisoners, to inmates killing themselves and female detainees being raped. The latest inspection of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department jail in Rusk, TX was on Oct. 15, 2020. (Source: State Cites Cherokee County Jail Violations- KLTV, Tyler TX)

Break out the salt for the slugs and snails.

With the holidays right around the corner and a rigged election under the carpet, county tax payers can forget about the Commissioners Court allocating millions of dollars for CCSO to run a non-compliant jail and think instead about growing beards for deer season. Somebody's cousin will be paid to go in, clean up the toxic mold and break some more waterlines. Nepotism always pays off when family members create slime problems their kids get appointed to fix. It would be so nice and cozy if only the Tyler news outlets would stop interviewing people in Cherokee County and stop reporting how the Sheriff Department spends its money.

(Source: TCJS report 10-15-2020)

Texas Government Code Chapter 573 

Cherokee County uses smoke and mirrors to distract from homegrown nepotism. In 2019, the County Attorney asked the State Attorney General's office if it were legal for in-laws of the incoming Tax Assessor-Collector to work in the same County office. (Source: TX Attorney General archive March 8, 2019) According to the AG, it is OK as long as the relatives were hired before their kinfolk took office. Otherwise, they use their maiden names or fly under the radar until retirement. The County Attorney never posed that question regarding employees of the City of Rusk and those working in the court house all being related.

Section 573.041 of the Government Code prohibits a public official from employing a person who is related to the public official by the specified degree of consanguinity or affinity. Section 573.062 excepts persons employed in a position for a specified continuous period of time prior to a relative's election or appointment to public office.

In other words, it is against the law for the Sheriff Department and the District Attorney's office to pay their cousins to be "confidential informants." It is against the law for the County Judge to use the Probation Department and county precinct equipment to mow and edge his property.

Jacksonville, TX:

It takes out of region news agencies to get wind of small town atrocities before the public is made aware that their County facilities have failed health inspections. Nursing homes quietly shut their doors without notice when they become financially insolvent after being caught abusing the residents. Substance abuse centers and halfway homes come and go like Pez Candy after years of neglect and tax write offs. Grant money is funneled to family-operated puppy mills with free advertising in local newspapers, lining their pockets and cages. In 2015, Jacksonville's Klein Animal Shelter closed after a surprise inspection revealed illegal animal euthanasia. The director and employees where charged with animal cruelty and torture. (Source: Police charge 2 for animal cruelty as Klein shelter investigation continues- KLTV Tyler) 

Klein Animal Shelter, Jacksonville TX (Courtesy KLTV)  

The Perfect Storm

The duly elected President of the United States is accused of secretly doing exactly what rogue politicians and law enforcement do in plain sight. The incestuous media repeats every lie fed to them while Silicon Valley tech giants actively participate in the inversion of reality. A large chunk of the population eagerly goes along with it, politically cheering on even what negatively impacts their own families. Government corruption is written off as unique circumstances that require more government to fix, i.e. a "perfect storm" of unfortunate but unrelated events that only they can solve - but never do. NO ONE IS EVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

Sound familiar Cherokee County?

 

Entrenched government employees illegally wiretap their political enemies. There are so many willing participants of in-your-face corruption that they can frame a 5-Star General and the President of the United States for something that never took place. They get away with it because affiliated judges allow prosecutors to bring in their allies to sit on the juries. When they get caught fabricating evidence and witness tampering, the appellate courts knowingly ignore it or make up laws on the bench to justify it. It is a perfect storm of corruption in the Deep State, the Swamp, and small town USA we all know about it. They get away with murder and silencing their critics. Their collective hatred routinely boils over after demonizing their political opponents and they start killing people. And they get away with it.

New York:

How did high profile sex offender Jeffrey Epstein kill himself in a federal jail cell under CCTV surveillance? The same maximum security facility where El Chapo is guarded?



Attorney General William Barr says Epstein's 'suicide' was “the perfect storm” of incompetent jailer screw-up, broken video cameras, and outdated prison procedures. Reassignments, terminations and reprimands resulted. NO ONE WAS HELD ACCOUNTABLE. (Source: Fox News)



New Jersey:

Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell is under protective custody in nearby federal holding facilities where she too faces being 'suicided.' (Source Fox News) Her mishandled prosecution will also be written off as "too many bad things happening at once" at the DOJ. Spokespeople for the New York Federal District Courts will claim "there's too much chaos going on with BLM protesters and COVID-19 lockdowns...and you know it is probably Donald Trump's Tweets causing all of this."



Washington DC:

In the summer of 2016, Bernie Sanders staffer Seth Rich was gun downed in the wee morning hours steps away from his Washington DC apartment. He is reported to be the link between WikiLeaks and the release of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s emails. His drinking buddies Democrat Congressional IT staffers Imran Awan and brother Abid had complete access to Democrat computers and email servers. Even though the brothers are tied to Pakistani Intelligence, they were hired and coddled by Democrat Party Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Awan was sentenced to 3 months probation for bank fraud after trying to flee the country, their crimes swept under the carpet and barely mentioned in national media. (Source: Washington Examiner)



Seth Rich had been at a local Washington DC bar with the Imran Awan brothers the night he was murdered. Rich was shot twice in the back and spoke to police before dying 2 hours later at the hospital. The attack was caught on unreleased surveillance cameras; he had not been robbed.  Julian Assange offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. (Source: People's Pundit Daily) Hillary Clinton’s and Congressional Democrat email servers have never been handed over to the FBI to prove any foreign hacking. The media says Seth Rich was "at the wrong place at the wrong time" and continue the Russian collusion delusion.




Operation Crossfire Hurricane: the license to illegally spy and lie under oath.



The NSA, CIA, and FBI in concert with media outlets illegally spied on the 2016 Trump campaign and continued after he took office. Multiple federal laws have been broken, including lying to the FISA courts. Top FBI officials are on record routinely leaking classified information to the media and lying about it under oath. Even though Inspector General Michael Horowitz' report spells out the fabrication of evidence in order to obtain multiple FISA surveillance warrants, NO ONE WAS HELD ACCOUNTABLE.  (Source: DOJ)



Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified he didn't even read the FISA Warrant applications he was signing for, the bulk of which the FBI outsourced to Clinton lawyers at Fusion GPS (Source: AMP) Like Jeffrey Epstein's jail crew, reprimands, reassignments, and terminations are touted by lily-livered politicians as being sufficient punishment. NO ONE IS BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

It's all Donald Trump's fault.

For over 3 years US Attorney John Durham has been investigating the Obama administration’s basis for illegal wire taps on Trump campaign staffer Carter Page and the genesis of the FBI's Operation Crossfire Hurricane Russian collusion probe. NO ONE IS BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

Meanwhile, Trump has been impeached for allegedly working for both the Russians and the Ukraine, along with being the cause of every natural disaster, pandemic, and murder of every black person on the planet since the beginning of time. The Deep State slow walks prosecuting members of the Swamp while it works double-time to frame, financially ruin, and lock up members of Trump's presidential transition team.

After Trump’s 2016 win, incoming National Security Adviser General Michael Flynn’s phone calls to world leaders were intercepted by Obama officials and illegally leaked to media outlets. Gen. Flynn was unmasked 53 times by 39 different Obama officials including VP Joe Biden. Even though Republicans run the Senate Judiciary Committee and are supposed to provide oversight, NO ONE IS BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR FRAMING A 3 STAR GENERAL.



Granted, it would be nearly impossible for Deep State prosecutors to bring Federal charges against former Obama officials in the Democrat run District of Columbia, especially during a presidential election. Democrat appointed judges oppose anything that may benefit Donald Trump. But they can lock up Trump supporters for "lying" about things that never took place.

FBI Director James Comey told the world in his infamous 2016 Press Conference (about Hillary Clinton's private email servers) that even though she broke multiple laws mishandling classified information, no Washington DC prosecutor would have the cojones to bring charges. No Washington DC judge would hear the case and no Washington DC jury would ever convict a Democrat for violating National Security.  On the other hand, low tier Trump allies face pre-dawn FBI raids, stacked juries, and Obama appointed judges.

Will the biggest hoax of the Trump/Russia collusion probe be that no one will be held accountable for the attempted coup of the President of the United States?

Illegally spying on presidential campaigners, the collusion with Russian assets, the framing of innocent Americans, and the colossal waste of tax dollars during the Mueller Probe will all be written off as THE PERFECT STORM of anti-Trumpers just doing what they thought was right at the time. The inevitable conclusion of the Russian Hoax probe will end in hand-wringing and promises by politicians "to try to do better in the future." Had any single one of these crimes even been alleged against any member of Trump's team, Republicans and Democrats alike would be demanding heads to roll and traitors to be locked up YESTERDAY.

Meanwhile, they have set the precedent to do it again and keep the public from finding out. They've accomplished swaying the 2018 midterm elections with Russian propaganda paid for with taxpayer dollars they ran 24-7 on cable news, regaining the House of Representatives and impeaching the President.



What are they covering up? Just the illegal wiretapping of private citizens to affect the outcome of a presidential election.

"You did everything by the book, right?..."

The American people will continue to be fed the lie that James Comey, Andrew McCabe, James Clapper, John Brennan, et al were simply “overzealous” in their duty to expose Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. That they made simple mistakes and multiple misjudgments along the way that were the “perfect storm” of mishandled classified information, unmasking and accidentally leaking phone calls, and that they were beguiled by Clinton opposition research (and their understandable hatred for Donald Trump).

The Attorney General of the United States knows a federal grand jury would scoff at the fact the entire Trump/Russian Collusion narrative was fabricated and perpetuated by the same rogue FBI agents who covered for Hillary Clinton’s illegal email server. He understands the entire story of the truth will be rewritten by a handful of traitors waiting for him to toss in the towel. The American people have to accept that a Democrat campaign can pay foreigners for made up dirt on opponents, the FBI can use Russian disinformation to obtain FISA warrants, and FBI agents are political hitmen.




Whether it is the federal government in Washington D.C., or the corrupt county courthouse in Podunk, USA, they will always lie and collectively cover their asses to stay in power. They not only need you to repeat their lies, they need you feel good about it.  It happens at the highest offices in the land, and it doesn't happen by accident or the mismanagement of "unforeseeable events." The cabal attacks in unison anything and anyone who exposes its criminal activity and threatens its existence. Murder for hire, blackmail, the sexual abuse of children, illegal interception of phone calls and emails; framing people and the misapplication of the law is how the unscrupulous few stay in power.

"Know your place, peasants."

A corrupt government breaks its contract with the people when it spreads Fake News, spies on its citizens, and fabricates criminal charges against political enemies. We are at the point in our history that the many in the federal bureaucracy think the citizens are slaves to the State. Hopefully the Washington Deep State will face a storm of patriots come November.

Report: Murdered Jacksonville, Texas woman was to testify against cop

Shunte Coleman (Courtesy CBS News, August 24, 2014)

Jacksonville, TX:

Authorities say they are treating the death of a Jacksonville, Texas woman whose remains were found earlier this year as a murder investigation, reports CBS affiliate KYTX.
Before her disappearance eight years ago, 26-year-old Shunte Coleman was expected to testify against Jacksonville police officer Larry Pugh, who was being investigated on sexual assault charges.





Police said they aren't ruling out Pugh as a potential suspect.
Coleman's remains were found in March, in a wooded area of San Augustine County, not far from where the body of another woman, Terri Reyes, was found in 2007.





Reyes was also expected to testify against Pugh. He was sentenced in 2007 to 12 years in prison for rape and other charges.



Courtesy Tyler Morning Telegraph, June 14, 2014

The remains of a woman who disappeared eight years ago after making outcries of sexual abuse against a former Jacksonville police officer have been found, officials reported on Friday.
Skeletal remains of Shunte M. Coleman, who was last seen July 3, 2006, were found on March 12 by a forester in a thickly wooded area in San Augustine County, east of the "T" intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 1196 and County Road 347, officials said Friday in a news release.

In 2007, Alvin Boykin talked to the Tyler Morning Telegraph about the day his friend, Ms. Coleman, left his Jacksonville home on foot. He said then that his home was an ad hoc shelter, offered to anyone needing a place to stay.

Ms. Coleman, a mother of two, had freely come and gone from his residence — but so had a handful of other women needing a boost. So when Ms. Coleman said she was leaving for a while, Boykin watched her go.

She didn't come back. Neither did another frequenter, Terri Renee Troublefield Reyes, who disappeared around the same time as Ms. Coleman. The 38-year-old Athens woman was last seen alive on May 21, 2006, and was found dead and unclothed in Angelina National Forest in fall 2006.
The women knew each other from Boykin's home, and both were pinpointed as potential witnesses to testify against former Jacksonville police officer Larry Pugh.

In 2006, Pugh was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the sexual assault of women while on duty and retaliating against a woman for reporting the crime.

Ms. Coleman and Ms. Reyes both went missing while Pugh was out of jail on bond — between February 2006 and August 2006.

In 2007, Pugh pleaded guilty to perjury for lying about sexually assaulting women while on duty. The next year, he was sentenced to 18 months for perjury. He was sued in two additional lawsuits by eight women claiming they also were sexually assaulted by him while he was an officer.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Pugh, 41, is incarcerated in Marianna, Florida, in a medium-security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp. His release date is listed as May 13, 2018.

Shortly after Ms. Reyes' remains were identified through DNA testing in 2007, attorney Curtis Stuckey told the Tyler Morning Telegraph that he might have used Ms. Reyes as a witness in the civil trial, but he never had an opportunity to talk to her because she disappeared.

"She had made an outcry" to law enforcement, like several other women, he said.
Stuckey represented a 43-year-old Jacksonville woman who was raped and retaliated against by Pugh in a civil lawsuit against the former officer.

Stuckey said he also would have been interested in talking to Ms. Coleman as a possible witness against Pugh if she had not disappeared.

San Augustine Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Gary Cunningham said Friday that at this point, law enforcement cannot connect Pugh to Ms. Coleman's disappearance and death, but officials are not ruling out any potential suspects.

He said an active investigation is being continued by the San Augustine County Sheriff's Office, the Texas Rangers and the FBI.

The San Augustine County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the Angelina County Sheriff's Office, the Texas Rangers and the FBI, recovered the remains, which were examined by a forensic anthropologist at Sam Houston State University and then delivered to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, where DNA extracted from the remains were entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), officials said.

On Thursday, the San Augustine County Sheriff's Office and the Jacksonville Police Department were notified that the remains belonged to Ms. Coleman.
The woman who won the civil lawsuit against Pugh in 2007 testified in federal court that she was walking one night in March 2005 when Pugh offered her a courtesy ride in his police car. Instead of taking her where she wanted to go, he took her to a dark, empty trailer house.
"He raped me," she said crying. "I was too scared to do anything."
She said Pugh drove her back to the neighborhood and dropped her off.

In August 2006, after Pugh had been indicted on federal charges, the woman was again walking at night when a man in a van who was wearing sunglasses approached and offered her a ride. She said she recognized Pugh's voice and declined.

As she walked away, Pugh got out of the vehicle and took his belt off. The two struggled and the victim tried to fight him, but he put his belt around her neck, she said. Pugh began dragging her toward his van and "by the grace of God," the belt snapped and she escaped.
The woman admitted she had a criminal record and was fighting a crack addiction, she said.
Pugh pleaded guilty to the charges but denied ever having sex with her or any of the other women.
Joe Evans, an investigator for the Cherokee County District Attorney's Office, testified at the time that the plaintiff was the first of many women who made outcries claiming they were sexually assaulted by Pugh.

Evans said he talked to 25 to 30 witnesses, including women who claimed they had been raped by Pugh and people they had told, including ministers and police officers, who substantiated their claims. He said the witnesses were from Athens, Tyler and other areas.
Evans said Pugh preyed on vulnerable women who lived on the street and had drug or legal problems. One-third of them had pending charges, one-third of them were on parole or probation and one-third of them had no criminal charges, he said.


(Courtesy KLTV)

Questions still loom for the grandmother of a woman's remains found in E Texas 
June 21, 2014

Tyler, TX:

The grandmother of an East Texas woman whose body was identified Friday says she always feared the worst had happened to her granddaughter. Shunte Coleman went missing in July of 2006. In March, skeletal remains found in San Augustine County were confirmed to be Shunte Coleman.
Shunte’s grandmother says almost eight years later, the family's questions still haven't been answered. Pictures of Shunte fill the walls of Margaret Anderson’s home.

"She was a very charming person, a good-hearted person. Most of all, Shunte loved to discuss the bible,” said Anderson.

Just two days before Anderson learned Shunte was missing, she says Shunte called her.
"She wanted to go to put some flowers on her mother's grave. [She asked if I would] go with her and I told her yes. I never heard from her since,” she said.

Anderson says she always knew something bad had happened to her beloved granddaughter.
"I didn't have hope. I knew after a few months. I felt like she was gone. I felt like I would have heard from Shunte, one way or another, if she was alive,” said Anderson.

When she heard that remains found in March had been identified as Shunte, she says she felt her prayers had been answered.

"Wednesday, that was the last thing I asked of God, to reveal what had happened to Shunte,” she said.
Although she finally knows Shunte is gone, Anderson says she still has so many questions.
"Of course I don't know how she died, what she went through with this death. I don't know that, but I know now she is really gone and there is no coming back," she said.

Hogtied and beaten in Cherokee County custody, circa 2006

Michael Clyde Jones, "allegedly" beaten up by Cherokee County, TX Sheriff Deputies (courtesy Smith Co. 8/3/2006)

March 15, 2010
Jacksonville Daily Progress
"Case against White dismissed"
Lauren LaFleur CNHI

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

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

White had no comment Monday afternoon about the matter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rook said only three Cherokee County officers were on the scene, and White was only named because he fit the description of the man Jones claimed kicked him.
Statements were filed by officers on the scene, including those by seven TDCJ officers, all dated between Aug. 15, 2006, and Aug. 18, 2006. Six of those seven ended their written statements by stating they did not see anyone kick, hit or mistreat Jones after he was cuffed. While the wording among the six statements vary, they each express that they did not witness Jones being mistreated by any officers on the scene.

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

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

Becker’s statement was dated Aug. 11, 2006. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress March 15, 2010)

Jones attempted to appeal his excessive force case, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
The 12th Court of Appeals published the vehicle traveling at 100MPH was a "deadly weapon" without reference to the illegal ass whoopin' Jones got when Cherokee County deputies arrived.  The TDCAA also fails to mention the beating after the high speed chase.
(Source: Michael Clyde Jones v. The State of Texas--Appeal from 241st District Court of Smith County)

Cherokee County Texas Deputy beats handcuffed black man; Cleared of excessive force

Allegations of Brutality Investigated, April 21, 2005 by Donna McCollum

Cherokee County, TX:

The NAACP is interested in John Brown's story. The Alto man's account of alleged police brutality begins when he heard family dogs barking on the dark night of April 11. "I thought somebody was stealing and when I got up on the person it was the police," recalled Brown with NAACP representative John Morrison closely listening.

Actually it was Cherokee County Sgt. Jamie Beene, a 10-year veteran with the sheriff's department. Sgt. Beene was in Brown's neighborhood chasing a drug suspect.

Brown said, "I seen the gun like this right here and he told me to put my hands up and I was terrified because I thought he was going to shoot me because I just ran up on him like that."
Brown described how he was arrested in front of his uncle's trailer where he was handcuffed and taken down a long driveway where he was allegedly beaten. "He told me to get down on my knees and I was attempting to get down on my knees and he kicked me and broke my ankle, just started kicking me."

Brown's father, a stroke victim in a wheelchair said he begged the officer to stop while feeling more helpless than his son. John Skinner cried as he recalled the night. "He kept doing it and he told me to shut up and go back in the house and I told him, 'I'm not going nowhere as long as he's kicking my son.'"

Nacogdoches NAACP spokesman John Morrison said, "Something just don't add up and to me it's totally a case of police brutality."

Shortly after the organization was contacted by Brown the request for an investigation by the Texas Rangers was submitted by authorities. Brown said, "I left messages on his [Texas Ranger Rudy Flores] answering machine for almost a week and then when the NAACP got involved here they come calling me."

Brown may be charged with assaulting a public servant, something difficult for him to understand with three plates and 16 pins in his leg. His injuries required surgery. He was taken to a hospital by an ambulance called by Alto police.

Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell and District Attorney Elmer Beckworth are declining interviews about this case until after the investigation. In previous reports Campbell denies any wrongdoing by his sergeant in this incident. By phone the D.A. said the evidence will be placed before the grand jury in the coming weeks.
 (Source: KTRE )

Alto, TX:
Cherokee County's Sheriff Department faced another civil rights lawsuit after Deputy Jamie Beene broke the ankle of former Alto high school football player John Brown for no legal reason.





Brown lives in the small town of Alto, and unfortunately was born black in East Texas. With nothing better to do on a quiet Spring night in the piney woods, Officer Jamie Beene spotlighted the property of John Brown's grandfather, ostensibly viewing an ongoing drug deal on the side of the road.
Even Sheriff James Campbell stands by his deputy's strange story, that John Brown was evading arrest, even though he was knocked down, handcuffed and bound, then his ankle shattered (requiring 3 plates and 16 pins).

Whodunit?:

Cherokee County's rising star Officer James Q. "Jamie" Beene, then patrolling the pocket change drug dealers in a rural area south of Alto, TX called the "Dope Tree." No mention of the fact that officer Beene was trespassing on private property. I guess the drug dealers went inside for a snack. Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth offered to charge John Brown with something, like interfering with an "official investigation" according to the aforementioned news article. Sheriff Campbell repeated the story that Brown somehow "attacked" his deputy, even though Brown was hogtied at gunpoint. Elmer Beckworth offers no comment, and no real investigation, a' la his handling of Jennifer Hester being run down in her apartment complex.

The FACTS:
Officer Jamie Beene traveled out of his jurisdiction to the home of John Brown about 2 km south of Alto, TX. After seeing trespassers on his property in the middle of the night, John Brown goes out to check on his dogs. He was then jumped, handcuffed and beaten by officer Jamie Beene, along with members of Alto P.D. about 2 km out of Alto, TX jurisdiction, according to the news articles. John Brown's ankle was broken in the process. Why? What was the motive for this obvious racially motivated attack? Was it that his adjudicated probation was winding down?

Officer Jamie Beene has since been promoted to Deputy Sargent, in Cherokee County Sheriff's so-called Narcotics Division. As of June 11, 2007 James Q. Beene is a Reserve Cherokee County Deputy by Commissioner Court approval. The Texas Rangers were called to "investigate" the beating of John Brown.

Instead of a reprimand, Officer Beene can pursue a fine career in Cherokee County. Officer Beene and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department are facing civil rights violation suits filed in Marshall, TX by the Brown family (at the time of writing). Local Cherokee County media refuses to publish the contents of the suit. Instead the Jacksonville Daily Progress promoted the narco-wonder cops by publishing the seizure of 4 "blunts" and 1 oz. of marijuana. Still waiting to be impressed? They also have the glorious pastime of monitoring the dank rooms at the Trade Winds Motel in Jacksonville, TX.

The brutal beating of John Brown by Alto P.D. was also reported by The BrownWatch: News for people of color. Ice Cube gets his fact skewed in this expose but the gist is the same. Beat a black guy up, break his legs while he's hogtied, then charge him for evading arrest. That is the heart and soul of Cherokee County, read it for yourselves.

As a footnote, the Tyler Paper reports on March 29, 2007 that Sgt. Beene has been cleared of the brutality claims. Read the article carefully:

"(Sgt.) Beene was on the property searching for a suspect unrelated to their case and arrested (John) Brown on a charge of interfering with a police investigation. During the arrest, Brown said, his ankle was broken and he was beaten. Several witnesses' statements matched Brown's."
Same article Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell says:
Officer "Beene was at a high drug trafficking area enforcing the law when Mr. Brown came onto the scene and interfered with his (Sgt. Beene's) job..."

So, according to the federal jury in Marshall, TX and Sheriff James Campbell, if get your ankle broke after being hogtied, because you have the audacity to confront a trespassing Cherokee County deputy, you deserve it. And the best thing to do is stay in your house like a frightened country Negro when you see the spotlights going across your property. Especially if you are black and you own property near a suspected drug drop. And expect to have every single phone call to and from your house to be tape recorded illegally forever.

Another charity another stolen $500,000

 
Tyler, TX:  

Jessica Rottab, executive director of the East Texas Center for Independent Living advocacy group for the disabled in Tyler, TX has been charged in the US Eastern District of Texas for stealing over $500,000 intended for handicapped clients. (Source: KLTV)

(Source: KETK)

According to US Attorneys, Rottab began stealing federal program funds in June 2017 through September 2018. Rottab has been ordered to return the stolen $530,000 and is facing formal charges pending a court date. (Source: US Eastern District)

The US Department of Health and Humans Services may operate slowly in East Texas, but it typically does not look kindly to the theft of government money and/or the abuse of special needs clients. Unfortunately, members of the family cliques in the area believe they are entitled through birthright to any and all cash flowing in and out of the non-profits. They also think they can get away with abusing the handicapped and elderly residents because Adult Protective Services often looks the other way.

In March 2020, Toni Marie Rambo, a QC director at the Azleway Boy's Ranch in Tyler was sentenced to 40 years state prison for stealing over $190,000 from the facility. (Source: KLTV)

 
Toni Marie Rambo

Two caregivers were caught on camera abusing an autistic teenage resident of the Community Access, Inc. group home in Tyler, TX.  On March 17, 2020, Bubacarr Ceesay, 24, of Tyler, and Auston Kile Reed, 23, of Lindale, were indicted in Smith County on multiple felony Injury to a Disable Person charges.  (Source: Tyler Paper)

 




Footnote:
July 7, 2020 at the Steger Federal Courthouse in Tyler, TX,  Jessica Rottab entered a guilty plea for embezzling $526,000 from the East Texas Center for Independent Living. Her deal includes 7 years in federal prison and an undisclosed fine. Sentencing is scheduled later in the Fall.

Cherokee County property tax appraisal – How taxpayers pay for nepotism

State Comptroller- Those with property in Cherokee County owe the State in school taxes:

Jacksonville ISD- $1 million

Rusk ISD- $700,000

Cherokee County, TX:
For decades land owned by the Good Ol’ Boys and Biddys has been appraised at a substantially lower (almost zero) tax rate compared to property owned by those not in the clique. A quick online review of elected officials’ appraised property tax values shows the glaring discrepancies. Cherokee County appraises commercial property in Jacksonville at 15% below actual market value, and 35% below realistic estimates in Rusk according to a recent State Comptroller’s property tax audit. (Source: Daily Progress)

Local attorneys, JEDCO and Chamber of Commerce members own the most valuable commercial and rental properties in Cherokee County and have favored status with the Cherokee County Appraisal District. They own the Low Income Housing, the halfway houses, and the old folks' homes, i.e. privately owned subsidized Section 8. They get first shot at federal housing authority grants.

Even though they own the majority of taxable properties within Cherokee County, they do not share the tax burden.

On the other hand, those who are not in the good graces of CCAD are hit arbitrarily with high taxes and lawsuits, forcing many to leave. To mitigate the loss, out of region companies are enticed to set up shop and pay into the County coffers or they too risk being sued out of existence. By hook or by crook, Cherokee County puts nepotism over the needs of its residents, regardless of the dwindling tax base loss to local school districts. Property owners living outside the county coterie can expect their Balance Due Notices in the mail first.

Why should those who run the county into the ground pay property tax?

In 2012 the State Comptroller's Office found the Cherokee County Appraisal District "UNSATISFACTORY" in its operational procedures and ability to implement a reappraisal plan. (Source: State Comptroller) School district tax values would continue to be reported too low under the State's enhanced Methods and Assistance Program auditing every 2 years.



School Board elections have consequences.

In 2015, Cherokee County had failed the State's audit of Non-Farm properties along Lake Striker in the New Summerfield School District. Residential sales were "not previously available" and those they recorded were as far as 25% below actual Market Value. Kinfolks' homesteads on Lake Striker had their unpaid tax liability limited at a 10% increase, while the rest of the county taxpayers made up the difference. (Source: Cherokee CAD) This shell game keeps the public from petitioning for a property tax rollback election and School Board members will never vote for a tax rate rollback. (Source: Texas State Comptroller)

 


















Do you know who is on your Agricultural Appraisal Advisory Board? 

In a 2015 property tax exemption workshop held in Jacksonville, TX for Cherokee County landowners, Chief Appraiser Lee Flowers blamed farmers' excessive agricultural and timber exemptions for the low residential property values. Meanwhile lake front property sales taxes are skirted or not recorded at all.

Cherokee County landowners fight tax break changes, March 29, 2015

Cherokee County Chief Appraiser Lee Flowers said around two-thirds of 2,900 property exemptions could be in jeopardy of failing to meet state requirements.

The district would require landowners with agriculture exemptions to provide proof of productivity and meet state production requirements. So landowners who produce hay must provide proof they are producing hay at amounts and quality levels consistent with state and regional numbers. Cow-calf operations would be required to meet per-acre head counts consistent with production requirements, he said.

A landowner claiming his property is an orchard, but only has four fruit trees on 10 acres, won't make the cut anymore, he said.

"We're aiming to stop abuses of what's required by state law," Flowers said. "So is it a qualified production operation or that ‘I just want lower taxes?'"

The same goes for land with timber exemptions. (Source: Tyler Paper, Cherokee County landowners fight tax break changes, March 29, 2015)

Two years later, the State Comptroller found in the 2016-2017 MAPS Report that Cherokee County's  Chief Appraiser had not appointed a qualified agricultural appraisal advisory board to meet once a year as required by Tax Code 6.21 (Source: State Comptroller)

 TAX CODE TITLE 1

Sec. 6.12. AGRICULTURAL APPRAISAL ADVISORY BOARD. (a) The chief appraiser of each appraisal district shall appoint, with the advice and consent of the board of directors, an agricultural advisory board composed of three or more members as determined by the board.

(b) The agricultural advisory board members must be landowners of the district whose land qualifies for appraisal under Subchapter C, D, E, or H, Chapter 23, and who have been residents of the district for at least five years.

(c) Members of the board serve for staggered terms of two years. In making the initial appointments of members of the agricultural advisory board the chief appraiser shall appoint for a term of one year one-half of the members, or if the number of members is an odd number, one fewer than a majority of the membership.

(d) The board shall meet at the call of the chief appraiser at least once a year.
(e) An employee or officer of an appraisal district may not be appointed and may not serve as a member of the agricultural advisory board.
(f) A member of the agricultural advisory board is not entitled to compensation.

(g) The board shall advise the chief appraiser on the valuation and use of land that may be designated for agricultural use or that may be open space agricultural or timber land within the district. (Source: Texas Property Tax Code)

The most recent 2018 audit "FAILED" the County's record keeping and property valuation procedures. (Source: State Comptroller)


  
Nepotism is a recipe for disaster.

The trend of not accurately recording real estate sales and shorting the State in property taxes continues today. 

As a result, the State Comptroller’s Office audit will penalize taxpayers $1 million in the Jacksonville School District and $700,000 in the Rusk School District.

The decision is on appeal. Taxpayers can expect another School Bond election and sales tax hike on the horizon. The school districts will ask for new facility funds that will actually go to pay off the tax deficit and funnel money back to Good Ol' Boy construction projects. Tax revenue from new construction will be excluded to solicit businesses while farms, ranches, and dairies will be hit hardest. As the State Comptroller found, Cherokee County "record keeping" does not pass the smell test.

Cherokee County Appraisal District fails state property study.

Feb 13, 2020
RUSK – Annual property study results recently released by the State Comptroller’s Office do not bode well for some Cherokee County taxpayers, said Cherokee County Chief Appraiser Lee Flowers.

According to information issued by the state Comptroller’s Property Tax Assistance Division, Jacksonville and Rusk schools could be penalized severely in state funding if a pending appeal by the appraisal district is not successful, Flowers said in a Feb. 12 release issued by his office.

“We first received notification on Jan. 31,” with amended updates arriving at his office later because “they've had to reissue numbers a couple of times,” Flowers said.
The state's study indicates the local appraisal district is below market value on both residential and commercial real estate valuations in the two school districts. The effect of an unsuccessful appeal could penalize JISD a million dollars and RISD $700,000 in overall state funding, according to the CCAD release.

Flowers said he doesn't agree with the state's overall assessment of commercial values, based on the market information available to his office.
“They (state findings) indicate we are 15 percent low on commercial real estate in JISD and 35 percent low on RISD commercial real estate. These types of property in our county are difficult for anyone to appraise,” he explained. “However, if the state has reliable data not previously available to us, we will analyze their information and move forward accordingly.”

Data from property value studies – which “looks at our values and our at-market values” – and something called a “MAP audit” (methods and assistance program audit) alternate each year, he said.
“The most recent MAP audit was in 2018, while the value study was in 2019,” he said, explaining that a grace period is what gaps the two.
“It is apparent that these schools might have received a grace period if not for a failure in the appraisal district’s most recent state procedures audit,” the CCAD release stated. “This grace period would have held the schools harmless in state funding for one year.”
For a school to qualify for the grace period, the state requires that the local appraisal district must score a “pass” on four key questions.

In 2018, the appraisal district missed one of those key questions, the release stated.
“That question contained 15 subparts. Of those subparts, Cherokee CAD passed all but one. In order for that key question to be considered a 'pass,' all 15 subparts must have been a 'yes.' Overall, the appraisal district successfully passed 77 out of 80 questions in the audit,” it added.

“The subpart preventing grace relates to the valuation of low-income housing. I made a decision to focus our resources on other critical matters relating to 2019 values, and take up the question of low-income housing data in 2020,” Flowers said, noting that the low-income housing question was not in previous audits.

He and his staff had from December to April to correct the deficiency.
“We would have appreciated either an earlier notice of the question’s inclusion or more time to assemble the data in order to properly implement the correction,” he said.
Currently, Flowers is appealing the value study, which has a March 23 deadline.
“Originally, it was March 11. The extra time can't hurt us, but that also delays any kind of resolution. If we think we have enough to file and feel comfortable in doing so, we'll file sooner,” rather than wait, he said.

Meanwhile, his office is focused on looking at all the properties considered by the state in their findings, and “we've submitted a request to see their work files,” Flowers said.
If the appeal is successful, the potential for loss to the schools could either be eliminated or substantially reduced, he said. (Source: Daily Progress)