2/16/22 - Pablo Antonio Sandoval, 200 block Tilley St. Jacksonville, TX
Jacksonville, TX:
In February 2022, Pablo Sandoval was busted with crystal meth and a stolen gun during an early morning traffic stop near his home in Jacksonville, TX. He was held in Gregg County jail under a federal detainer for drug trafficking, and after pleading guilty, eventually moved to Henderson County custody to await his sentencing in US District Court.
Cherokee County, TX arrests for Feb. 15-21, 2022:
Pablo Antonio Sandoval, 23, Jacksonville, theft of firearm, no drivers licence [sic], traffic offense Class C, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
Crystal meth dealers living in Cherokee County travel throughout East Texas, delivering drugs and mayhem to neighboring counties. Low income housing, cheap hotels, RV parks and converted half-way homes are used as layovers for drug mules monitored by multiple agencies. Local addicts are in and out of jail based on the amount of snitching they can provide, no matter their escalating risk to the public. Resident crackheads are worth their weight in Narcotic Task Force funding.
10 years ago, Jacksonville City Council rezoned former dormitory buildings from defunct Lon Morris College into multifamily Section 8 apartments along Sunset and Tilley St. where Pablo Sandoval lived.
After the college went into bankruptcy, owner Tilley LLC took control of the property with the intention of combining pairs of the 38 smallish dorm rooms into roughly 22 larger apartments. There are some proposed "double bedrooms" in the plans, each of which will require three dorm rooms to be put together to create, [Jacksonville Public Works Director Will] Cole said. (Source: City Council rezones so former Lon Morris dorms can be converted to apartments, Jan. 10, 2013 Jacksonville Daily Progress)
23-year old Pablo Sandoval, who was born in California, admitted to distributing large amounts of crystal meth in Cherokee County after he was detained by Jacksonville PD in February 2022. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking last year in federal court and in April 2023, sentenced to 14 years. (Source: KETK)
The "California man" as they call him, supplied crystal meth to his Jacksonville neighbors in October 2021, but wasn't actually incarcerated until February 2022 when he was picked up in the wee morning hours. Apparently he just rode around town for 4 months without a driver's license... even though the newspaper and Henderson County reported his Jacksonville, Texas residency.
From the US Attorney's Eastern District of Texas press release April 19, 2023:
California Man Sentenced for Federal Drug Trafficking Violations in East Texas -
According to information presented in court, in October 2021, [Pablo] Sandoval supplied more than 500 grams of methamphetamine to drug dealers in Cherokee County, Texas, which he sourced from suppliers in California. Sandoval was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas in April 2022. (Source: DOJ)
The same US District Court that sentences female embezzlers to federal
prison for stealing from non-profits, totally ignores over $430,000 stolen by the Cherokee County
Tax Assessor's office.
East Texas authorities at the state and federal level attempt to blame other areas of the country for the crystal meth they know is manufactured in Cherokee County, Texas. As if 23-year old Pablo Sandoval was driving back and forth from Bakersfield, California with no driver's license to sell his homegrown East Texas poison. Cherokee County has a fine history of constables and police chiefs cooking up meth labs in the woods,
a Jacksonville police officer raping transient women, girls being snatched from abuse shelters and their dead bodies dumped like trash; and unindicted Tax Assessor officials stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars out the Rusk, TX
courthouse.
The more the local drug addicts steal, the more narcotics enforcement grant money the county can steal.
As a footnote, Cherokee County is patting themselves on the back for rounding up their favorite resident recidivist meth addicts, each averaging about a dozen catch-and-release arrests in the last few years, and charging the group with "Organized Crime." Their court mandated drug rehab at the Rusk State Hospital has escalated into Grand Theft Auto. One member of the group, Edward Jones, is still at large after being released in Cherokee County last year for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon on top of multiple drug arrests here, there, and everywhere.
02/07/2023 THEFT OF SERV >= $100 < $750 - Bond: $1000 THEFT OF SERV >= $100 < $750 - Bond: $1000 UNAUTH USE OF VEHICLE - Bond: $2500 BURGLARY OF BUILDING - Bond: $2500
Footnote: fugitive Edward Jones was picked up in the Dallas area in mid June for stealing and shipped back home. He is facing facing theft / organized crime charges with a total $90,000 bond. The tattoos on his face gave him away.
60 year old Chester Kennedy, police chief of Troup, TX has been sentenced to 10 years prison time for stealing a gun and evidence tampering. Sgt. Samuel "Mark" Turner was sentenced to 3 years in prison for helping himself to seized marijuana in the evidence locker. In an article running in the Seattle Times, the Smith County prosecutor states: "In rural East Texas, methamphetamine labs can operate unnoticed. Misdemeanor drug charges in Smith County, about 100 miles southeast of Dallas, are as common as drunken-driving arrests, District Attorney Matt Bingham said. But in the past six years, the Troup police force sent just 11 drug cases to the district attorney's office."
According to the AP wire on the December 2006 conviction, the Troup police department "commonly accepted money and drugs as bribes." Troup has sent only 2 drug evidence samples to the Texas DPS crime lab since the year 2000!
Chester Kennedy had been acquitted in 1993 for indecency with a child charges in neighboring Wood County, while working as a Wood County Sheriff''s deputy, according to the Denton Record-Chronicle. The same article cites the time Chief Kennedy's son violated parole, went into hiding and was caught at Kennedy's home.
Footnote: the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department patrols the city of Troup. Don't let the cover up continue by local media sound bites that CCSD "now" after the Kennedy conviction "now CCSD patrols the southern part of Troup." Chester Kennedy's jurisdiction included Cherokee County.
Smith and Rusk Counties have attempted to clean up their law enforcement, with the help of local media outlets actually willing to report the FACTS. Rusk County's Sheriff Department personnel have had ongoing sexual harassment problems with its female staff. The latest has resulted in a federal lawsuit. It takes a Longview attorney to hold a press conference and "break the silence" of the civil rights violations happening in the Rusk County jail. Similarly, the police chief of Tatum, TX was fired after 9 years of on the job, by a city council vote of no-confidence.
Cherokee County would have reacted to the previous situations with blatantly false media reports and press releases from the Sheriff's Department to distract attention away from the sexual harassment. Perhaps a fictitious character would emerge to praise a rapist cop or drug dealing constable---but when they're caught tell the media that they hadn't shown up for duty in over a year, a la' Larry Pugh and Randall Thompson. Great stuff ain't it?
Does a district attorney need to meet a quota of capital murder convictions to declare himself a "victim's rights advocate?" Simple trials, as the Richard Cobb case in 2002 can make a big impact in a small town.
And even easier to give yourself a "Law and Order Award" immediately afterwards.
According to Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth, "juries pay attention to evidence and details."
What about the evidence that has been fabricated or tampered decade after decade in Cherokee County, Texas, a la Troup Chief of Police Chester Kennedy?
Veteran police officer Chester Kennedy was in East Texas law enforcement for 12 years, while he stole pistols from the Troup city hall. How many similar search warrants, grand juries and drug seizures has Elmer Beckworth, Chester Kennedy, et al sign off on, during Kennedy's 12 year tenure? In a town of 2000 in northern Cherokee County, it takes Smith County and federal agents to stop the blatant miscarriage of justice.
To stave off the stench of the corruption within his district, Todd Staples (R), Palestine and District Attorney Elmer Beckworth co-wrote and sponsored the meaningless "Faye Harris Amendment" otherwise now known as Proposition 4. East Texas is not known for championing the 4th Amendment, rather pulling the wool over the eyes of the populace.
This bill allows district attorneys to set the conditions and amount of bail, based on the nature of the accusation, without the messiness of waking up a district judge and having a hearing. Why not save the taxpayers some more money and just let Texas' district attorneys try murder cases in their heads, and forego the ruse of having an untainted/unbiased jury? Out of 20,000 registered voters, only a handful have served on Cherokee County grand and petit juries in the last 20 years. Small case load.
From 2002 to 2004 there have been only 2 murders committed in Cherokee County, the Vandeer case and the Faye Harris case. Larger counties like Travis, Tarrant and Harris counties see hundreds of murder trials in their respective district courts. Cherokee County has one or two every 2 to 3 years. And these murder trials are exploited by the locals to make it seem like they were living in the homicide center of the universe, instead of a drug dealing pile of microscopic sh*t.
As in the Faye Harris case in 2003, her estranged husband Michael Harris was repeatedly arrested and placed on bond for threatening to kill his wife. Arrested repeatedly, though his initial bond for a pending felony arson trial (Harris allegedly burned down his ex-wife's home) was never pulled by the Cherokee County district courts. Perhaps in hope that Harris would gun down his wife and the locals could again get their names in the paper for being 'victim rights advocates.' It's easy to prove murder in the first degree when the continual pleas from Faye Harris to "lock up her soon to be ex-husband" were deliberately ignored and his bond not rescinded.
Was it that Michael Harris was too valuable an asset to have arrested, being that he was seeking drug treatment at the Rusk State Hospital, under guard and escorted by the Cherokee County Sheriff Department? No reports of Michael Harris being a Confidential Informant for local law enforcement either. Habitual drug addicts face a revolving door sentencing process when they cop pleas with the district attorney's office.
Notice Beckworth had to take the case to another grand jury to get drug informant Michael Harris to cop a plea.
Every 6th grader knows that if the conditions of bail are violated, as in Michael Harris re-arrested for harassing his wife REPEATEDLY, not to mention his drug charges, then he would have been locked up the first time FOR VIOLATING HIS BOND. Bond would have been denied after he was caught spitting on the sidewalk. Does this impress the misinformed?
Knowing that a potential murderer is repeatedly attacking your daughter does not a Christian make, Mrs. Bell.
Your daughter would be alive if the Cherokee County district attorney's office was not more interested in keeping Michael Harris out of jail and on the streets of Jacksonville, than revoking his bail with one phone call to the district judge. Better to have a dead woman to champion, than a convicted drug addict not giving up his contacts to Cherokee County law enforcement. Maybe Michael Harris was one of bailiff Randal Thompson's dealers.
Only a county that corrupt would produce a district attorney so arrogant as to tell the world that he alone, found a "flaw in the Texas Constitution." With Proposition 4 still fresh in their East Texan minds, they have collectively butchered the Fourth Amendment. And they are eagerly waiting for the next Cherokee County homicide to grand stand on.
I have been doing internet research on East Texas corruption and came across the interview of Joe Gray from Henderson, TX posted in 2001. Mr. Gray gives detailed accounts of his experiences in nearby Anderson County and his theories about District Judge Bascom Bentley.
Judge Bentley also operates in neighboring Cherokee County and Leon County.
Joe Gray's article states East Texas officials have generationally benefited from the ongoing narcotics trade by being involved in it at ever level. Not only are federal monies under the Byrne grants siphoned off by these corrupt small town law enforcement agencies, but local officials use the Tulia Laws to grab up foreclosed property of supposed drug dealers. One of Mr. Gray's talking points is that Bascom Bentley III owned over 600 acres in Anderson County; land he apparently did not inherit but accumulated over the years to sell off. Tulia law injustices are common and even more common are Byrne grant monies being swindled to family members and political allies.
Mr. Gray's para-military/militia preoccupation would make his wild claims of "black helicopters" and DNA theft at the county jail seem laughable to the outside media and the US Attorney's office, thus making him, in the eyes of local officials, the ideal candidate for property foreclosure. Those who publicly complain about the corruption have been met with law suits, police raids, and death.
In Bentley v. Bunton- Texas, in 1996 Judge Bascom Bentley successfully filed a defamation suit against a Palestine radio talk show host who called the judge "corrupt" among other things on air. If that were the case then the South East Texas Political Review whose radio talk show host calls by name, the entire judiciary in Beaumont "corrupt and incompetent" would be liable (libel?) Who knows? Bentley may have just benefited by being in the system when the thousands of acres in Palestine were seized and put up for sale. Being a district judge may have given him first shot at low bid at the Sheriff's Auction.
Whatever the basis of Joe Buntly's "personal vendetta" against the Anderson/Cherokee County judge, the fact remains the legal and law enforcement system operating with the corrupt Dogwood Narcotics Task Force out of Palestine, has branched into drug dealing. And under Tulia laws, a simple accusation results in forfeiture of property. The rest of Texas is shying away from this practice and there is now legislation to reign in these rouge anti-drug task forces. It took Governor Rick Perry to pardon 35 innocent defendants convicted under Tulia laws, while the good ol' boys who prosecuted them 'retire' to Lake Palestine and Lake Jacksonville (with a little extra cash and land).(Source: CBS News
The drug trade in neighboring Cherokee County involves local constable precincts, not the district courts per se. The district courts are involved in more personal enrichment schemes, like sexual blackmail of enemies and phone tapping. Typically Anderson County probably does not operate the same as its twin sister Cherokee County. I would call Cherokee County the genetically defunct second cousin to Anderson County.Judge Bentley behaves one way on the record in Anderson County court and completely different in Cherokee County because he knows he is unaccountable in the Rusk, TX courthouse.
Cherokee County is simply not astute enough in its own self-worship to produce an official who would clean up the mess, without being extorted or blackmailed by the District Attorney's office. God knows they hate people talking about them, i.e. they have convinced themselves that it is moral, albeit illegal, to tape record phone calls of citizens throughout the county. They will collectively smear and repeat any propaganda that the District Attorney tells them, not matter how ludicrous or unrealistic, for job security. Mind you 90% of them are related. What a way to make an East Texas living.
Cherokee County law enforcement turns a blind eye to its own internal drug activity while at the same time paying off drug mules and jail house snitches. It is the usual suspects, one being a former DEA agent out of the Dogwood Narco-Force and a recently "retired" Cherokee County District Attorney Investigator. Readers should applaud that the corrupt Dogwood Narcotics Task Force, based out of Palestine is no more. The only thing the unchecked Tulia Laws created with this pseudo-agency was the ongoing drug trade by Cherokee County law enforcement. There is a vacuum of drug dealing to fill, now that these good ol' Christian men have "retired." It takes neighboring Smith County and the US Attorney to file charges on the current culprits while at the same time relying on the same people for drug bust quotas.
In regards to the drug dealing of law enforcement in Cherokee County; let me give you some info on Cherokee County's unscrupulous activity to be found on the internet. These news articles list the illegal activity in Cherokee County just this year alone, in 2006!!!
The firing of Constable Precinct 3 Randall Thompson who was also the Cherokee County District court's bailiff for Judge Bascom Bentley III. Fired for not showing up for his bailiff post. Local media portrays Thompson as missing for 6 months, then gathered a constable's hearing together the day before Thompson was indicted in federal court. Ostensibly, the district court did not know that Constable Randy Thompson had been making and selling speed, if you believe such nonsense. Details found at the US Department of Justice news release. Constable Randall Thompson had participated in all his assigned duties until his arrest.
Chief of Police Chester Kennedy of Troup and Sgt. Mark Turner arrested by Smith County Sheriff Department for selling drugs. NO arrests by Cherokee County officials.
Jacksonville, TX police officer Larry Pugh molesting women during traffic stops; it again takes the FBI to arrest him and charge him on 9 counts of rape and assault. AND when the guy is out on bond he tries to kill one of victims to keep from testifying.
More on Troup, Texas Police Chief Chester Kennedy caught tampering with drug evidence in future posts.
In New Summerfield, north of Rusk on Hwy 84. Chief of Police and city treasurer fired; mayor resigns after cleaning house.
A Jacksonville, TX woman is run down and killed in her own apartment complex. No investigation required according to current Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer C. Beckworth, Jr. The victim was a drunk 'passed out in the parking lot.' Beckworth offered no explanation for not bringing the case to trial; why bother to convene a formal grand jury when you know the outcome. Why even bother to NO-Bill the culprit, it's easier to smear a hit-and-run fatality to the media.
To combat the systemic corruption, HB 1239 was written in 2004 and debated after the Tulia debacle, when 46 people were rounded up in Swisher County Texas during a drug sting and put on trial. Their properties were seized and several quick convictions handed down. The Dogwood Trails Narcotic Task Force was quietly dissolved after bad publicity leaked out about the 72 indigent defendants with court appointed Anderson County lawyers being set free after their properties were seized.
60 Minutesdid an expose' in 2004 of the sham arrests in Tulia, TX.
The televised interview tells it all. Complete with gypsy cops with criminal records.
There were never any official arrests on record in Cherokee County by the Dogwood Task Force, though they conducted numerous raids. One botched raid simultaneously occurred in Jacksonville and Alto, TX, when the Force raided the wrong homes in an obvious attempt at "asset seizure." The Department of Justice documented that the Dogwood Trails Narcotic Task Force operating under the radar in Cherokee and Anderson County reported no seized assets during the year 2002, despite having conducted numerous raids. And no arrests to back up the raids. Where did the seized drugs and money go???
In neighboring Cherokee County, the get rich scheme of choice is insurance fraud. This trend started decades ago. Fire insurance policies are underwritten as quickly as property is destroyed. Unlicensed insurance agents have frequently set up shop in small towns like Alto, TX and Rusk, TX. Any 'claims adjustment' is done by local law enforcement. The county has been operated for over 30 years by family members and in-laws of the Cherokee County District Attorney's office. Namely, former District Attorney Charles Holcomb, who is now a sitting Justice on the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin.
Judge Charles Holcomb has deliberately omitted some factual tidbits from his State Bar profile about his "last big case in Alto, TX" back in 1990, in which Holcomb convicted an innocent man. Holcomb fails to mention in his profile that the 12th Court of Criminal Appeals in Tyler, which Holcomb was sitting on, reversed this conviction in 1993.
Charles Holcomb's state bar profile on "his last colorful case in Alto, TX" should accurately read:
In 1990, Cherokee County District Attorney Charles Holcomb succeeded in convincing a biased jury to convict an innocent man of murder. The victim's CPA, Terry Watkins of Nacogdoches, was sentenced to life in prison by relatives of the deceased who were planted on the trial jury. And lied during voir dire to be seated on the case-a typical Cherokee County maneuver. Holcomb also refused to recuse himself.
After intense public outcry and scrutiny, Watkins' attorney John Heath, Sr. (also of Nacogdoches, TX) was able to successfully petition the Tyler Court of Appeals and had Terry Watkins released 5 years into his life sentence. It was shown that "the sheriff deputy first on the scene," as Holcomb's publicist recalls, and the widow shared the "$800K" life insurance policy with the Cherokee County District Attorney's Office "to hire outside state witnesses" and according to Holcomb's statements to KTRE an investigator paid "not to solve the case."
District Attorney Charles Holcomb not only accepted money from the deceased’s father to hire an expert witness, Holcomb also accepted money from the murder victim’s widow to hire a private investigator. In an obvious attempt at shifting the onus of suspicion away from anyone other than Mr. Terry Watkins. Or in defense attorney John Heath, Sr.’s comments to hire an investigator but “not to solve the case.”
However the investigator was not allowed by Holcomb to interview the widow nor the Cherokee County Constable first on the scene. Eventually this private investigator came to Terry Watkins' defense during resentencing. As stated earlier, the sheriff deputy as Holcomb 'vaguely' recalls was actually a Cherokee County Constable Precinct 2 who formally married the victim's wife months after the murder.
The widow and Cherokee County Constable live happily ever after, splitting a murdered man's estate, the recipients of an accurately reported $650,000 life insurance payout to everyone involved. As if Charles Holcomb, the prosecutor and now a sitting Justice did not remember. Well preserved news article of the murder trial speak volumes.
Back to Justice Charles Holcomb's state bar profile, especially the part where he discusses "his last big case in Alto" from 1990. Charles Holcomb, as District Attorney, accepted monies from the widow of murdered business owner Jackie Hicks of Alto, TX as reported by KTRE and the Lufkin News, ostensibly to send a private investigator on a wild goose chase to south Texas. Even though Holcomb had the coffers of the state of Texas at his disposal.
Even though the number one suspect would have normally been the promiscuous widow receiving the $600- $800K insurance policy taken out on her estranged husband, Jackie Hicks. Of course the widow and her lover (a Cherokee County Constable "first on the scene") were never formally questioned nor deposed by the then District Attorney Charles Holcomb nor by his 'investigator.'
Holcomb gives his version of events to the State Bar in an attempt to rewrite history. The fact is an innocent man was released after 5 years on the above mentioned technicalities because of Charles Holcomb's handling of the case.
The question on the jurors' and the community's mind was why was the District Attorney Charles Holcomb accepting money to "hire state witnesses" when he had the coffers of the State of Texas and Cherokee County at his disposal? A double indemnity policy pays out for accidental deaths and would not have paid out in case of a homicide, another misdirection of the Cherokee County District Attorney's office even then. Holcomb's quick recap of the case in his State Bar profile quotes the widow "was rumored to have multiple affairs" throughout the community. Because of the number of multiple lovers of the widow that the defense called, State v. Terry Watkins (1990) was the longest running criminal trial in Cherokee County history.
Cherokeean Herald August 2, 1990
District Attorney Charles Holcomb was elected to the 12th Court of Appeals in Tyler, TX and his assistant Cherokee County District Attorney, Elmer C. Beckworth, Jr. continued the façade that the murder of Jackie Hicks was thoroughly "investigated." The case against Terry Watkins received so much public outcry and so many people cried foul, that the next-in-line Alto, TX police chief Thomas Griffith was called to a grand jury. Tyler Morning Telegraph article about former Alto, Texas police chief Thomas Griffith predicting the conviction of Terry Watkins for the murder of Alto, TX business owner Jackie Hicks would be reversed and the case reopened because:
“there are people in this area who possess information that would be very useful in this case.”
Chief Griffith would eventually be drummed out of his position by Charles Holcomb's relatives on the Alto, TX city council. Thomas Griffith had publicly maintained his belief that Terry Watkins was in fact innocent and had evidence to back up his statements. Holcomb's former investigator would eventually become the police chief of Alto, TX, a revolving door position. Any evidence maintaining Watkins' innocence would be ignored by Beckworth, et al, until Watkins' conviction was overturned. Elmer Beckworth argued for the State and against Watkins' early release which was eventually granted.
The 12th Court of Appeals reversed that conviction and acquitted Watkins in 1992 of capital murder. At a 1995 resentencing, Watkins was denied an early release and sentenced to five years for murder (he had already served over 4 years) as reported in 1996 by Charles Holcomb's hometown paper The Cherokeean Herald.
Cherokeean Herald Feb. 22, 1996
Terry Watkins was freed by the Texas 12th Court of Appeals, with a commuted murder sentence, thereby closing the door on a local 'investigation' into the murder of Jackie Hicks of Alto. However, the statute of limitations is always open for the State's Attorney to seek murder charges. If any reader has information on this conspiracy, they should contact the Attorney General’s office. Those guilty of this crime should not go unpunished, no matter whose wing they may be under and no matter how long it takes.
It may be commonplace in East Texas for innocent people to be charged with crimes committed by law enforcement, however a sitting Justice on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals lying to the State Bar about a murder case he prosecuted and lost on appeal is another thing all together. Good luck on your website and your expose' of East Texan politics both good and bad. The narco-trade is alive and well in Cherokee County. Each time I read about one, I'll post it for the world to see. Who knows, maybe a 6th grader in Rusk, TX might want to do a book report on local corruption or the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Or a kid in China might want to find out what's going on in East Texas. Or a Houston or Dallas/FW based entrepreneur might have second thoughts about doing business in a county that has an entrenched history of drug dealers, rapists and murderers on the payroll.
