Mother and 11-year old daughter pepper sprayed at Mudstock ATV event

In the Eastern District of Texas, United States District Court

Case 6:12-cv-00071, Janette Vaught and H.Y. a minor v. Cherokee County, Texas, Deputy Donald Williams, Unknown Sheriff’s Deputy, Sheriff James Campbell; and Townsquare Media, LLC

Jacksonville, TX:

The US Eastern District will be considering another civil rights complaint filed by a Smith County resident who attended Jacksonville’s Mudcreek Off-Road Park event in September 2010. Janette Vaught and her 11-year old daughter were pulled from a moving 4-wheeler driven by a third person, and all three kicked and maced by Cherokee County Sheriff Deputies working security at the annual Mudstock event. Participants in the pageant were pre-assigned drivers who paraded couples and family members around the arena. The driver of Ms. Vaught and her daughter’s ATV was David Barlow of Rusk, TX.  Barlow was charged with resisting arrest after the pepper spraying, and recently accepted a deferred adjudication agreement. As Barlow drove around the arena, he apparently failed to quickly respond to the command of Deputy Don Williams as the ATV carrying Ms. Vaught and her daughter approached the event center stage. As a result, Barlow was hauled off to jail that evening and mother and daughter were sent home bruised up with a belly full of mace. Ms. Vaught and her daughter reside in Tyler, TX, the child with relatives.

David Barlow is apparently no stranger to the Cherokee County criminal justice system. With a pending civil rights complaint against them, Barlow could have faced a courtroom of ineligible jurors in their back pockets, or have the district judge sentence him in hopes of quelling his passengers'  civil complaint. The fact is Cherokee County law enforcement knows they can lose their cool and there will be no repercussions for roughing up innocent bystanders and pepper spraying children in the process. Sheriff James Campbell does not reprimand his employees for violating the law and the higher courts will not hold that bunch accountable without a federal jury trial. Hence the US Eastern District's pattern of summarily dismissing civil rights cases across their jurisdiction, before a vetted federal jury can even consider the complaints.

In her complaint, Ms. Vaught is seeking punitive damages against the Cherokee County sheriff department and the radio station that organized of the off-road event. She claims the lack screening of drivers and security, as well as Sheriff James Campbell's departmental policies, lead to her and her daughter's injuries.

As the driver of the all-terrain vehicle approached a stage, police officers grabbed his [Barlow’s] arm and used Mace on the driver and on Vaught and her daughter.

Ms.Vaught further states that she attempted to file a written report with the sheriff regarding the incident but a proper investigation was not conducted.

She claims she was told to contact the FBI.

On behalf of the minor, the plaintiff is seeking damages for emotional trauma, loss of sleep, anxiety, loss of appetite and fear. (Source: Southeast Texas Record, Feb. 27, 2012 Radio station sued after police Mace child at Mudstock event)

Every spectator, vendor and contestant at the event witnessed the arrest of David Barlow and assault of his passengers, but only one media outlet located in Beaumont, TX reported the assaults and original Civil Tort Claim.

Count One: the violation of Ms. Vaught and her daughter’s constitutional right by the reckless behavior of the Cherokee County deputies and their policy in place of pretending that the pepper spraying and kicking of three compliant individuals, including a child, didn’t take place. Even though every single spectator at the stage level eye-witnessed the mother and daughter thrown from the 4-wheeler by deputies kicking David Barlow’s ass. Has any Cherokee County official in recent memory, other than County Attorney Craig Caldwell, ever issued a formal apology for making a mistake? (Source: KETK Jan. 19, 2012, “County Attorney apologizes to KETK”)

By their conduct and the ensuing lack of investigation or disciplinary actions, the Sheriff’s Department obviously endorsed an unwritten policy, practice, and/or custom of indifference to the rights and safety of by standers during arrests and demanding instant compliance despite the fact that the vehicle was still running. The target of the arrest had no weapons, and had apparently done nothing more than, at most, fail to immediately follow the instructions of Deputy Williams. Any reasonable deputy would have made sure the bystanders were safe before undertaking violent actions against someone in such close proximity in a public place.

In Count Two, Ms. Vaught spells out in her complaint the trauma her daughter suffered from a getting a lung full of pepper spray and the child’s loss of appetite and nightmares.

Although Plaintiffs’ injuries to their eyes and respiratory systems were temporary, the same were extremely painful and the effects lingered for several days. Psychologically, the injures were more profound. Plaintiff Vaught sought to hold the Defendant Deputies responsible or at least secure an apology and assurance that this type of behavior would be punished. Instead, she met with official indifference to the assault she and her minor daughter suffered. Having lost her voice, she suffered, and still suffers from physical manifestations of her emotional distress including loss of appetite, loss of sleep, anxiety and stress. Similarly, H.Y. suffered from painful irritation to her eyes, nose, throat, and lungs in addition to headaches. More importantly, she suffered severe emotional trauma and now has a fear/distrust of males in general, and law enforcement and authority figures in particular. Her schoolwork suffered and she experienced loss of sleep, anxiety, and loss of appetite among other psychological symptoms.”

Count Three addresses the Cherokee County deputies’ unlawful assault and battery that in itself was reckless with absolutely no regard to other’s safety or welfare. Such disregard for human life is apparent in the County’s and Sheriff’s policymaking, therefore Ms. Vaught’s complaint shows the deputies’ actions that day meet the approval of Sheriff James Campbell. The fact is the Cherokee County sheriff never apologizes for anything his deputies engage in, whether it is beating those in custody, or his lead investigator caught red handed emailing lies about the Jacksonville police chief. Campbell’s policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has been in effect since the days he and convicted child pornographer Harold 'Bo' Scallon stood watch over the Rusk Youth Center. (Source: Cherokeean Herald, March 3, 1983) The word “accountability” does not exist in Cherokee County lingo.

Count Four holds the Townsquare media organization negligent for hiring incompetent security who put the entire event at risk, as was done during the 2004 Tomato Bowl riot. The city of Jacksonville was forced to settle with those sustaining injuries in that preventable Homecoming football game melee. The Jacksonville Police Department was present during the Mudstock event and offered no assistance according to Janette Vaught’s tort claim. However, she is not suing the city, only members of the Sheriff Department and ATV pageant organizers.

We shall see if the US Eastern District again refuses to hold Cherokee County accountable for its documented and ongoing civil rights violations. We shall see if these homegrown judges find another battered woman and her minor daughter to be Cherokee County’s throw away collateral damage, since an underpaid deputy’s apology is out of the question.

(Source: Case 6:12-cv-00071, Janette Vaught and H.Y. a minor v. Cherokee County, Texas, Deputy Donald Williams, Unknown Sheriff’s Deputy, Sheriff James Campbell, and Townsquare Media, LLC)

District Attorney continues retaliation against civil rights claimant

Jury selection begins this Monday, March 19 for another re-trial against Robert Fox. A mistrial was declared after the first attempt by Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth to once again circumvent the Texas Penal Code with the help of tainted grand and petit juries. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, June 2, 2011 "Mistrial declared for Fox") Fox delivered a Notice to Sue for $30 million to the City of Jacksonville after his property was raided by police three times in a month period and accused of being a "terrorist."

The re-trial is slated for the following Tuesday March 27, 2012 after the jury plants are properly vetted and relatives of those Fox filed federal grievances against are culled from the pool. Then again, the trial is being held in Cherokee County where jurists lie under oath and jurors with dropped criminal charges vie to be seated after decades of ingratiation.

Even if you do not reside in Cherokee County and attempt to file a Civil Rights complaint in a neighboring county, District Attorney Elmer Beckworth will summon you in front of his friends sitting on his hand-picked juries. Prosecutors will call up their friends and relatives of those you are suing, and issue a warrant for your arrest. They will call you a “wanted federal fugitive” when you appear in court and re-arrest you on other trumped up charges. They will lock you in the Rusk, TX jailhouse and local judges will happily set your bail illegally beyond your ability to pay. They will raid your private property repeatedly in order to break you.

That is exactly what happened and is continuing to happen to former Jacksonville resident Robert J. Fox. Fox’s civil complaint against Beckworth and the City of Jacksonville was accepted by the US Eastern District and placed on the docket several years ago. (Source: Fox v. City of Jacksonville Texas et al Case No. 2:2010cv00158 TX Eastern District) This was not a government record that was tampered with.

Even when Cherokee County and City clerks refuse to accept any Notice to Sue, and you are forced to file your documents elsewhere, Elmer Beckworth, et al will file State criminal charges on you, claiming jurisdiction on a Federal matter. Cherokee County prosecutors and their willing accomplices will claim that they can bring charges against you, because you are suing them in Federal Court (Source: Fox v. City of Jacksonville Texas et al Case No. 2:2010cv00158 TX Eastern District) The 12th Court of Appeals in Tyler will rubberstamp this podunk county’s jurisdictional overreaching. As we and our readers have said before, be forewarned: Cherokee County is rogue, anti-American and out of control. These people make a living violating the law and people’s rights.

Rusk, TX:

Jury selection begins today for the Robert Fox retrial in Cherokee County district court. Elmer Beckworth refuses to recuse himself despite the fact he has answered Fox's federal complaint as a Defendant.  Again tax dollars will be wasted trying to bamboozle folks that Fox committed felony “tampering with a government record” for delivering an Intent to Sue to the City of Jacksonville. One element of Fox’s federal complaint is the refusal of the County Clerk and Cherokee County constables to endorse and serve his petitions under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. A Tort Claim form is not required to serve the City of Jacksonville Risk Management office, as it has been served under class action by victims of police officer Larry Pugh's rape on patrol spree and Tomato Bowl riot.

Texas Rules of Civil Procedure

Rule 106. Method of Service
Unless the citation or an order of the court otherwise directs, the citation shall be served by any person authorized by Rule 103 by
1. delivering to the defendant, in person, a true copy of the citation with the date of delivery endorsed thereon with a copy of the petition attached thereto, or
2. mailing to the defendant by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, a true copy of the citation with a copy of the petition attached thereto.

Robert Fox has been arrested, incarcerated and indicted on one false charge after another, all of which have either been dismissed (Barratry), found Not Guilty (Possession of an Illegal Substance), or resulted in mistrial (Tampering with a Government Record). This after being called a “terrorist sympathizer” by the Jacksonville Police Department and repeatedly by local newspapers. Fox has spent a total of 457 days in Cherokee County jail after his bail was set unconstitutionally high and his personal effects paraded around during a staged press conference. Every single accusation levied on him has come from the Cherokee County district attorney and those he intends to sue. Fox claims his constitutional rights were violated during multiple open-ended Swat-style raids on his commercial property in Jacksonville. Three such raids in one month alone. Cherokee County has answered to these types of claims in federal court before, but because three raids in one month is so blatantly illegal, they must trump up something to justify their criminal conspiracy to violate Fox's rights. Robert Fox has an easily provable case of malicious prosecution, illegal search and seizure and unconstitutional practices.

 

Robert Fox

What prosecutor in any legitimate county would pursue made up charges against a man, simply because the individual filed a bona fide legal document accepted onto the US Eastern District court docket? When Robert Fox’s Intent to Sue paperwork was mailed from Smith County, Elmer Beckworth’s office did not ask the FBI to charge Fox with mail fraud. Why? Because they know no other county or federal court could easily stack a jury to convict an innocent man. No crime had been committed with paperwork that could have easily been thrown in the trash upon receipt. Instead, they vilify the Plaintiff in a Civil Rights suit with “sovereign citizen” rhetoric, as they did recently with Austin radio talk show host Randy Kelton. No actual crime has been committed by Fox’s paperwork against them. But crimes are continually being committed against Robert Fox in Cherokee County. The FBI and Texas Rangers in the area appear to have zero interest in Fox, or the outcome of justice one way or another.

Robert Fox relocated in the late 1990’s from the Dallas/ Fort Worth area to Cherokee County. He and his associates were not greeted with open arms after setting up a satellite branch of the House of Israel in downtown Jacksonville, TX, directly across from the fire station. It was common knowledge that members usually refused to properly identify themselves when stopped and often successfully challenge minor traffic and legal infractions. This is a BIG No No in Dogtown, USA. The House of Israel members claim to practice their sovereign God-given rights; some say they are just asking for it when they challenge the status quo. The City of Jacksonville knows this and like most small town bored cops, started escalating their random stops of House of Israel members walking to the corner store. Not only that, the ministry's downtown location was prime real estate for those wanting the out-of-towners to get the Hell OUT. They called them a “lightning rod for terrorism” but would deny they illegally tapped the church's phones.

House of Israel, Jacksonville, TX

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Prior to Robert Fox’s arrival to Jacksonville, TX, local member Barry Brooks was convicted of operating a dental practice without a license and fought the district attorney's office tooth and nail. Brooks held no punches embarrassing prosecutors in open court. And we all know that small town police forces are just political arms of the court house. Cherokee County wanted the House of Israel dissolved and punished. Barry Brooks’ adjacent property to the ministry hall allegedly contained expired dental antibiotics, and thus the excuse for multiple raids after-the-fact on Robert Fox’s section of the downtown rental plaza. Fox was present during the raids, placed under arrest and was forced to cough up bail money in escalating amounts. Cherokee County law enforcement has always operated like this.

A fishing expedition.

By an open-ended raid, we mean an illegal Search Warrant that offers no scope within the Affidavit; just grab what you can and use it anyway you can, as they did against Robert Fox. Jacksonville detective Jason Price showed Fox’s personal effects (none of which was illegal to own or suggested criminal activity) to the local media during a press conference. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress)

 

 

 Jason Price, detective for the Jacksonville Police Department, held a press conference, Friday morning where he announced that a felony warrant had been issued for the arrest of  House of Israel leader Robert Fox. Price also explained that his investigation had uncovered connections between Fox and known terrorists. Progress photo by Kelly Young (Source: Daily Progress)

 

During this televised press conference, the Jacksonville Police Department claimed Robert Fox to be a terrorist sympathizer because of his so-called “anti-government/ lawyer” leanings. Tyler TV stations and local sycophant newspapers were invited to spread the word that “a terrorist” named Robert Fox had links to “the Taliban and Timothy McVeigh.” (Source: KLTV July 25, 2008, "House of Israel Leader has Taliban link; draws Timothy McVeigh comparison")

He's the ringleader of an anti-government group, caught here in East Texas.
Now he's been linked to a major terrorist organization - the Taliban.
Robert James Fox was arrested in May by Jacksonville Police and then again in June. He bonded out, and is now wanted for another felony charge.
Jacksonville Police held a press conference today and walked us through Fox's history and what they see as his potential threat...

"We believe there is the same kind threat potential with Robert Fox, as there was with Timothy McVeigh," Detective Jason Price told KLTV 7. "It's a pressurized pot and it's hard to say when it's going to blow." (Source: KLTV)

East Texas media outlets ran with the story for several months, on the word of small town criminals attempting to divert attention to away from their own stinking corruption, murder and rape. This House of Israel fiasco was going on during the time the City of Jacksonville was settling multiple federal lawsuits of their former rapist cop Larry Pugh of the Jacksonville PD. Officer Pugh, linked to missing women in the area, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for attacking one of his victims after she went to federal authorities.  (Source: Daily Progress)

Where was the press conference for Jacksonville PD Larry Pugh's missing victims? But we digress.

Robert Fox has never been a federal fugitive nor been wanted by the feds; furthermore the DOJ has never intervened to assist the city of Jacksonville or Cherokee County in their “sovereign citizen” lying dogshit. And that is exactly what it is. These people live in it and feed on it. The local media spreads it around.

Robert Fox and the House of Israel group have faced prosecution in the past for claiming religious rights when challenging minor traffic court cases, such as carrying passports to Heaven with “Elohim’s Kingdom of Israel” stamped on it. (Source: 766 F. Supp. 569 (1991) United States of America v. Robert James Fox, No. CR3-90-0288-H, United States District Court, N.D. Texas, Dallas Division, June 3, 1991) Fox’s own legal briefs are cantankerous and loaded with Biblical jargon that by design infuriates judges. No one would want to be on the receiving end of one of his Motions or lawsuits. If they were without legal merit, his court filings could be thrown in the trash or perhaps mailed back to him with a note instructing him to stick it up his ass and set it on fire--- in that order. Because Robert Fox was articulate in his federal complaint against Beckworth and the City of Jacksonville, et al they are retaliating by putting him on trial AGAIN for a bogus "tampering" charge, or "paper trail" as they call it. (Source: Daily Progress)

Sheriff James Campbell’s son-in-law was a juror on last year’s Robert Fox trial. For next week’s scheduled retrial, Elmer Beckworth does not want it leaked to the jury pool that he and James Campbell had to answer Fox’s Civil Rights complaint, because it was accepted and placed on the US Eastern District’s docket. Fox’s complaint was not summarily dismissed before all parties responded on the record. They should be recusing themselves and their kinfolk if it where a legitimate charge.

Parties in Fox’s federal complaint say he can’t file law suits and petition the government because a federal judge in Dallas labeled Fox a “vexatious litigant” back in 1993. The Cherokee County district attorney can not deny that Robert Fox’s civil rights have been constantly violated and the US Constitution trampled repeatedly; instead Elmer Beckworth responses to the civil rights suit claim that Fox has no right to recourse. Therefore anything Fox files is illegal (in Cherokee County), no matter where he files it. Elmer Beckworth’s retort to the US Eastern District does not deny Fox’s rights are being violated; Beckworth responded that Fox has no right to file any law suits. And what better way to settle a Civil Rights suit against the people you are suing, then by bringing fake criminal charges against the Plaintiff in a federal lawsuit? Cherokee County's Elmer Beckworth is being praised and patted on the back for implementing this violation of the letter of the law. They think Robert Fox deserves it--- to Hell with the Constitution.

Those in support of the District and County Attorney’s re-election campaigns are infuriated that the Robert Fox briefs mention Elmer Beckworth’s law school DWI and murdering drug informants such as Michael Harris who avoided prosecution. They want to ignore the decades’ worth of child molesters passed on the docket and given a few years probation living next door to them. They don’t care that a drug mule parolee named Brandon Robertson was released after being stopped with a gun and crystal meth, and went on to murder a Texas State Trooper 2 ½ weeks later. The City of Jacksonville cannot afford another round of civil rights suits after settling multiple class-action cases against rapist cop Larry Pugh. They don’t care that Craig Caldwell has spent the last 2 years accusing Pct. 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti of one made of up crime after another, while his predecessors had golf courses, private roads and ditches installed all over the county. (Source: KETK Jan. 19, 2012, "County Attorney apologizes to KETK")

Those in favor of the status quo don’t care when their county officials are caught stealing hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and not one of them do 1 year in prison. They don't care when women go missing after showing up at the Rape Crisis center.

They expect to get away with murder because they always have. According to the Justices operating in the US Eastern District, the City of Jacksonville was not responsible for employing a rapist cop who drug women out to the cemetery while on patrol, and molested them at gunpoint. The City of Jacksonville is not responsible for the women who their police officer raped while on duty or those who went missing after reporting it. According to this bunch, the City of Jacksonville, TX is not responsible for the nine women who survived and came forward, including the victim who escaped to testify. (Source: Evelyn Lewis vs. Larry Pugh, Mark Johnson, City of Jacksonville*)

*affirmed on Aug. 18, 2008 by the 5th Circuit Appeals in opinion No. 07- 40662  from the US Eastern District case 06-CV-357.  Read here: ftp://opinions.ca5.uscourts.gov/byDate/Aug2008/Aug18/07-40662.0.wpd.pdf

Accordingly to the same bunch, the City of Jacksonville is not responsible for the multiple raids and civil rights violations against Robert Fox and his friends passing through Cherokee County.

The City of Jacksonville, i.e. those in the community wanting the House of Israel property and the entire group removed by force, knows of the group’s tenacity and hard-headedness. Especially when it comes to the legal proceedings they complain most about, especially when they feel they are being done dirty. As stated earlier, Robert Fox has never been a “fugitive wanted on felony charges in Texas;” Fox has appeared to every single hearing, subpoena and summons he has been called to. Each time Robert Fox appeared to defend himself in Cherokee County’s courts, he has been charged again for another crime, ad nauseum, in order to stifle his civil rights suit.

There is no question that the entire Cherokee County jury pool knows who Robert Fox is, has heard about him, and have read about him in the paper. They all know he has filed civil complaints against the county. However they will never be instructed by the district judge that the Cherokee County district attorney's office has no federal jurisdiction to prosecute a piece of paper Fox filed in Smith County against Elmer Beckworth. A private citizen, as annoying as they may be, may file an Intent to Sue wherever and whenever they like in the United States of America. Fox's juries have been suborned to forget that fact.

After his multiple arrests in Cherokee County, Robert Fox was not released on his under his own personal recognizance; instead his bail was set unconstitutionally high and he was kept in the Rusk, TX jail for 235 days before his first hearing --- for a total of almost a year and half.  In March 2009, a traveling judge found Fox not guilty of “possession of dangerous drugs” in the County Court at Law. Charges of barratry were also dismissed. The reasons for the escalating raids and his multiple arrests failed the test of legality.

If filing an Intent to Sue at the Jacksonville, TX city hall  is “Tampering with a Government Record,” then why is Robert Fox’s civil rights complaint on the US Eastern District’s docket? Why was it accepted and reviewed? Why did Elmer Beckworth, the City of Jacksonville and local news outlet have to respond to it? Being locked in jail for over a year and half, raided at gunpoint for charges that were eventually dropped; and being called a "terrorist" is CRUEL and USUAL for them, i.e. TORTURE under the color of law elsewhere. What about the women tortured by Jacksonville patrolman/rapist Larry Pugh? What equity do they get from the bench? What about the families of the missing women and those murdered by Cherokee County drug mules and informants?

These judges and justices who rubber stamp this criminal activity don't just rely on their constituent equivocators to keep their pre-Civil Rights mentality alive and well; East Texas is teeming with rats and roaches crawling in and out of their back pockets. Hence, civil rights complaints get swept under the rug with the dung heaps they thrive in.

If nothing is done about this ongoing 21st Century corruption, the entire area should be economically quarantined, boycotted, closed off from the rest of the world (as they would prefer) and left to rot on the vine. There is not one entity working on this Robert Fox case that is not 10 thousand percent cognizant that Cherokee County is guilty of violating the law under the United States Constitution. Willfully, knowingly, openly and repeatedly.

March 31, 2012 update: Robert Fox’s 2nd trial began Tuesday March 27, 2012 and recessed early Wednesday March 28 due to Fox getting sick and requesting a continuance. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress “Trial session shortened after defendant falls ill” March 28, 2012) 
Fox's re-trial continues April 25, 2012.

County intercepts commissioner’s emails; Child molester acts as jail house snitch

There is nothing inadvertent about the County Attorney and County Judge gaining access to (and carbon copying each other) a Commissioner’s emails before she reads them.

Cherokee County, TX:

County Attorney Craig Caldwell, following instructions from his handlers, has placed a target on Commissioner Katherine Pinotti. Caldwell and County Judge Chris Davis begin building their cases against the Commissioner before she even gets a chance to open her emails. The voting populace is to believe after decades of private improvements by Caldwell’s predecessors, Davis’ in-laws and their collective enablers, that the current Precinct 3 commissioner is the lone elected official who “may have broken the law.”

The next round of concocted controversy stems from Pct. 3 Commissioner Pinotti seeking budgetary advice from a private consultant and a Napa auto parts dealer in an attempt to reduce county expenses. The Commissioner’s Court has refused to pay for the consulting services of $1500. According to the County Attorney’s deliberate misinterpretation of the State’s Civil Code on competitive bidding, Commissioner Pinotti cannot negotiate county contracts. (Source: Cherokeean Herald Jan. 4, 2012)

After 30 + years of the generational corruption going on in Cherokee County, the county attorney's office tells the news media that a $1500 business consultant is illegal, but not this:

• County employees and equipment building catfish ponds.
• Inlets and cattle guards for hunting clubs.
• Brand new roads to nowhere but Rusk city councilmen's property.
• Trustees and probationers raking their yards.
• Bulldozing and graveling driveways for their kinfolks.
• Building a golf course for a private club, a' la the Birmingham Golf Course.
• Giving their buddies construction jobs for kickbacks, with zero bidding.
• County credit cards and vehicles for personal use.

Hacked email correspondences between the vendor and Pinotti highlight the Jan. 5, 2012 interview of County Attorney Craig Caldwell by KETK reporters. According to Katherine Pinotti, she never received emails from a local parts dealer sent to her county email account; the same emails Caldwell and Judge Davis cite back and forth to each other and to the Cherokeean Herald. Pinotti was not even informed there was an issue paying her consultant until the Rusk, TX newspaper claimed she had done something illegal, in order to smear her again. Why does the Rusk Cherokeean refuse to fact check? KETK reporters did the minimal legal research when confronting the "argumentative" county attorney on his misapplication of the penal code.



(Courtesy: KETK Jan. 5, 2012)

Cherokee County doesn’t just hack emails; private and business calls and mail is intercepted for fodder for the District Attorney’s office. Their criminal logic is that if they claim to be "investigating a crime," then they have legal access to the county servers, payphones, mail and anything else they fill entitled to. They believe they own it all. What is Pinotti talking about on the phone that makes their blood boil?

The statutory limit for formal competitive bidding at the county level is $50,000. (Source: Texas Local Gov’t. Code §262.023) All purchases under $50,000 require informal quotes and shall be made by the purchasing agent or in Cherokee County's case, the Commissioner’s Court. Obviously a request to pay $1500 is under the statutory limit of the County Purchasing Act. Even services spelled out in the Texas Professional Services Procurement Act would be void and contrary to law if acquired through a bid basis; instead, professional services must be procured through the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process. (Source: Texas County Purchasing Association)

GOVERNMENT CODE
TITLE 10. GENERAL GOVERNMENT
SUBTITLE F. STATE AND LOCAL CONTRACTS AND FUND MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 2254. PROFESSIONAL AND CONSULTING SERVICES
SUBCHAPTER A. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Sec. 2254.003. SELECTION OF PROVIDER; FEES. (a) A governmental entity may not select a provider of professional services or a group or association of providers or award a contract for the services on the basis of competitive bids submitted for the contract or for the services, but shall make the selection and award: (1) on the basis of demonstrated competence and qualifications to perform the services; and (2) for a fair and reasonable price. (b) The professional fees under the contract may not exceed any maximum provided by law.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993. Amended by: Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1213, Sec. 14, eff. September 1, 2007.

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All this legal minutiae is irrelevant in Cherokee County; no need to explain the law to a tainted jury pool. If Commissioner Pinotti’s maiden name was the same as the County Attorney’s predecessors or County Judge's in-laws there would be no controversy at all. In fact if she were related to the people who put these two in office, they would all be defending her and going after anyone who complained about it. The Cherokee County grand jury in concert with the district attorney is the weapon of choice against political rivals who don’t tow the corrupt county line. (Source: KETK May 4, 2001)

What ever happened to "all roads in the county need to be maintained by the commissioners...especially the ones leading to our hunting club and catfish ponds...while we're at it, let's build a private golf course with city employees and tax dollars for the County Attorney's Golf Club..."

“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)

The Birmingham Golf Club golf course on the private property of the New Southern Motor Hotel in Rusk, TX was built by city employees for former County Attorney (and president) Charles Holcomb's private golf club. With all the criminal activity going on in Cherokee County to date, it is the only honest and open elected official who is currently guilty? Who do these criminals think they are fooling?

Cherokee County prosecutors are notorious for concocting charges against their political rivals to place doubts in voters' minds. At the same time local sex offenders and other low lifers vying for sweet deals move in and out of the Rusk, TX jail, providing dirt for their keepers. While the Cherokee County grand jury has been called against Commissioner Pinotti for paving Patterson Lane a.k.a CR 3427 and to thwart her cost cutting measures, county tax dollars are spent housing admitted child sex offenders.

Jacksonville, TX:

After admitting to raping a 14-year old girl and threatening to kill her if she told, 53-year old Richard Glenn Dishman has sat in the Cherokee County jail and on the criminal docket for over 2 years, no doubt spilling the beans on his cellmates and drug contacts in hopes of leniency. (Source: KLTV March 20, 2009)

Dishman, whereabouts unknown, faced up to 25 years after his July 2009 indictment and has a history of drug possession charges, burglary and plea bargains within the county. He has not been in front of a judge to face the music since making bail and there is the rumor of him cutting a deal. (Source: Cherokeean Herald July 22, 2009)

.Richard Glenn Dishman

The Jacksonville, TX resident is accused of molesting a neighbor child who inadvertently wandered into his garage “to get some ice cream for herself and her older brother. Mr. Dishman followed her into the garage and sexually assaulted her there.” Dishman confessed the crime to investigating Jacksonville PD officers according to all newspapers and television stations reporting the incident. (Source: Jacksonville Progress March 18, 2009)

Source:
2nd District Court, Cherokee County Criminal Docket; Case 17463; 
AGG SEXUAL ASSAULT CHILD
THE STATE OF TEXAS vs DISHMAN, RICHARD GLENN 
Filed 06/22/2009 - No Disposition

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Apparently his services are still needed. As of January 2012, the Richard Dishman case has not been heard on the docket despite prosecutors having a rock solid molestation case against him. Instead, we've seen Cherokee County prosecutors spend your tax dollars conducting their personal vendettas as usual. Cherokee County voters have a choice this Spring who they want prosecuting criminals and who they want representing their interests. The county can remain corrupt, or move out of the realm of Third World politics.

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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)

Commissioners approve private road maintenance all over the county, circa 1979

Local newspapers and prosecutor lie about road maintenance.

Not only does Cherokee County equipment maintain private property of friends and relatives of local politicians, commissioners build completely new roads for well-connected landowners. In the documented past, the Cherokee County Commissioners Court was more than eager to annex private property in order to provide services for members of their clique. City and county road crews have been ordered to work on golf courses and hunting clubs used by their bosses. A stark editorial difference exists between the recent ousting attempts against Precinct 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti for paving a bona fide public road VERSUS local reporting that all roads in “Cherokee County need to be maintained because they are in the county.” (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, "Commissioner defends club road maintenance," August 21, 1980)

Old newspaper articles show former County Commissioner William Kennedy authorizing culverts to be installed on roads all through the privately owned Cherokee County Hunting Club south of Rusk, TX. This type of isolated road improvement on private property was acknowledged and accepted in local newspapers. The current district and county attorneys' mentors never considered prosecuting those Commissioners for improving their buddies' private properties at taxpayer expense. The former Sheriff never dispatched his deputies to seize precinct maintenance logs to prove any impropriety. In their minds, it was good for everybody. They were open about their corrupt solidarity.



Jacksonville Daily Progress, August 21, 1980

In 1979, County Commissioners openly defended using taxpayer dollars to pave the private “road to nowhere” on the personal property of Lewie Byers, a wealthy Rusk banker and former Rusk city councilman. The Byers landlocked property off FM 2962 had culverts, grading and other roadwork installed on it “almost entirely for Byers’ benefit, and practically no one else’s.” (Source: Rusk Cherokeean p. 1, 14, "Road to Nowhere But Banker’s Land," September 13, 1979)

On Nov. 13, 1978, the Commissioners Court agreed to commit county funds and equipment, and accept the road as a county road, although it leads to nowhere except to Byers’ property. Now that the road has been taken over by the county, it will be maintained at the taxpayers’ expense. (Source: Rusk Cherokeean p. 1 "Road to Nowhere But Banker’s Land," September 13, 1979)

County Helped Build This Road To Lewie Byers' Land (Source: Rusk Cherokeean Sept. 13, 1979 p.1)

 

Rusk Cherokeean p. 1, 14 September 13, 1979

An apologetic Alto Herald editorial was written in response to the Jacksonville radio station KEBE revelations to the public that the Lewie Byers property was being developed on the county’s dime.

After checking out the project, The Herald does not believe any criminal act has been committed. We firmly believe that County Commissioner William Kennedy is an honest and honorable man… The taxpayers of Cherokee County simply don’t feel they should help Councilman Byers, or any other land speculator and developer, make possible windfall profits at their expense…(Source: Alto Herald p.2, editorial "Road to Nowhere" September 13, 1979)

Alto Herald p.2, editorial "Road to Nowhere" September 13, 1979

Now fast forward to 2010 after Precinct 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti rattles their cages, Cherokee County newspapers forget their own articles on Lewie Byers and on their front pages claim a bonafide public road to be “private.” (Source: “Commissioner paves Patterson Lane” Cherokeean Herald August 25, 2010) The corrupt Good Ol’ Boys and Biddies are not just trying to have it both ways; they claim a nonexistent oversight has been committed by the Pct. 3 Commissioner for maintaining a school bus route. At the same time they pretend not to have had county subsidized improvements performed on their own and their buddies' properties for the last three decades.

Cherokee County brand of gotcha politicking.  It's way of life.

Embedded reporters writing propaganda for Cherokee County, Texas newspapers take their cues directly from the district attorney’s office. No physical meeting is needed on courthouse property after decades of printing lies fed to them; editors know to publish fabrications that either promote their collective corrupt agendas, or completely bury facts. Case in point: Precinct 3 County Commissioner Katherine Pinotti is under “investigation” by the corrupt county Good Ol' Boy system, because she ostensibly authorized gravel to be spread on Patterson Lane, located in the northern part of the county.

With the help of sheriff deputies, the County Attorney spearheaded the fabricated “investigation” (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress August 26, 2010) into whether certain laws had been violated by Katherine Pinotti, because (according to them) there were conflicting reports about Patterson Lane being private or under the aegis of county maintenance. A mock commissioners court meeting was later held to declare the road as “private,” despite the outdated mapping system delineating Patterson Lane as a County Road under past maintenance. The sham investigation is now in the hands of the District Attorney. Local reporters have done their duty to pile on the lies by claiming Commissioner Katherine Pinotti paved an unmarked road.

Is it plausible that Cherokee County’s longtime newspaper reporters have become amnesiacs? Probably not. Perhaps the goal is for their younger readers to remain oblivious to what the local press has archived about the insidious public corruption in their home communities. Meanwhile, they assume their more mature readers won’t remember the commissioners court, et al law-breakers of yesterday. Editorials and articles written in the same newspapers as far back as 1978 show that commissioners and city councilmen alike were more than eager to build roads on private property, hunting clubs and golf courses frequented by the Cherokee County ruling class.

The Rusk Cherokeean (prior to combining with the Alto Herald) became a punching bag for local politicians in the Fall of 1978 for having the audacity to report that the City of Rusk and commissioners were using public equipment and labor to improve the local golf course located on the New Southern Motor Hotel grounds. Local attorneys, prosecutors, judges and the whole lot of corrupt Good Ol' Boys past, present and future played golf on the "obviously illegal" and  "public-funded subsidy of a private interest group." (Source: Rusk Cherokeean editorial p. 2, Nov. 2, 1978) They were all active members of the New Southern Motor Hotel Country Club located on Hwy 69. Many of them are life members.

 Rusk Cherokeean editorial p. 2, Nov. 2, 1978

County audits bring finger-pointing to Precinct 3; Bullard police officer admits having sex with minor

Jacksonville, TX:
Things are steaming up in Cherokee County, folks, but talk about 'the pot calling the kettle black.'  The embedded corrupt aspect is targeting recently elected officials who shake the tree and expose the ingrained favoritism. Longtime Cherokee County elected officials and generational county employees have funneled the equivalent of millions of taxpayers’ dollars to themselves and their ilk over the last several decades. County equipment has been used to bulldoze, pave and enhance the private properties of in-laws for the last 30 years. The installation of culverts, cattle crossing guards, wooden bridges and roadbed are routine for Cherokee County’s so-called elite on their rural properties. In order to distract from the ingrained corruption, Cherokee County is attempting again what they do best, that is to blame someone else for exactly what they themselves blatantly do. Their target this month is the only forthright County Commissioner in their ranks.

They hope to pass the stench over to agencies within the county who do not buckle under the pressure of the corrupt Rusk, TX courthouse. Local reporters enable false charges by deliberately not fact-checking the accusations made against the whistleblowers. And the Cherokeean Herald is Johnny-on-the-spot eager to publish the crap fed them by current occupants of the Rusk courthouse. According to the Daily Progress, Precinct 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti is being investigated by law enforcement for maintaining a misidentified county road. Instead of keeping his nose in his own jurisdiction, longtime Precinct 4 Commissioner Byron Underwood has tattled on his political opponents’ maintenance of a segment of County Road 3403 (now called Patterson Lane), 5 miles north of Jacksonville in the Mount Selman area. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress August 26, 2010)

The county road in dispute, Patterson Lane, is currently maintained by Precinct 3 because it is a thoroughfare from CR 3401 (Old Jacksonville Rd.) to CR 3404,  just West of HWY 69. According to the Daily Progress article, Commissioner Pinotti performed her due diligence in requesting county maps be updated to reflect the delineation of missing roads and her constituents’ requests to maintain Patterson Lane. Especially after the heavy rains her boss County Judge Chris Davis claims to have championed just months earlier. The fact is Patterson Lane is not a private road. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department that is spearheading the “investigation” and County Attorney hope the rest of the county thinks otherwise. It all depends on who you are related to as to whether or not you can get away with using county equipment on private property. Precinct 3 has been open and has kept records about its maintenance of Patterson Lane. How dare this woman publish how and where the precinct maintenance money is spent!

The good ol’ boys are playing gotcha politics with the only female Commissioner in Cherokee County, Texas. Their tactics are as old as the corruption they perpetuate: criminalize perfectly legal actions and prosecute those outside of their circle for the shenanigans that they themselves commit every single day. Once again their goal is to make a law-abider spend thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight a trumped up charge. Their modus operandi is always the same; they use the Sheriff's Department and courthouse to ruin the reputations and the lives of political opponents. The County Bosses hold the purse strings and they aren’t letting go until Cherokee County taxpayers wise up, shed their inertia and vote them all out.

Commissioner Pinotti is not under attack for merely ingratiating herself by extending county services to the residents on Patterson Lane; she is accused of the crime of “misusing county funds” that her entrenched political peers have been committing for decades. They say she improperly used county equipment, labor and time to maintain a road not under the aegis of her Precinct. Of course it is not a crime for a county commissioner to maintain a lateral road on which dozens of homesteads are located.

Those on the attack want Precinct 3 residents to believe as a commissioner, Pinotti has no discretion as to where she sends her crews. Does she have to, according to County Attorney Craig Caldwell, ask for the male members of the Commissioner's Court to grant her permission to fix a street name sign?  Has Caldwell ever held the other commissioners to that standard during his tenure? Of course not. Patterson Lane is not a private driveway; it is a school bus route used to pick up the children living up and down the road. In the County Attorney's mind the contiguous tracts of land are still conveniently "undeveloped" but part of a "subdivision," nonetheless. (Source: "Commissioner paves Patterson Lane" Cherokeean Herald August 25, 2010) So where's the crime?

Let's look at those private catfish ponds dug by county employees on the clock and with county equipment. Let's look at community service workers maintaining private driveways, such as the ones all over Precinct 2 and Precinct 4. 

How dare a woman challenge the good ol’ boy network!

Unfortunately for the Pinotti family, every single private phone conversation they’ve ever had in that county has been intercepted by law enforcement and their mail rifled through by post office employees since she began upsetting the political hiarchy. Those in high places must not like what she has to say about them in private phone calls and certainly don’t like her candidness with the voters. It is their plan to have Commissioner Pinotti buckle under the financial strain of hiring an attorney to chase rabbit trails and coerce her to admit to “some type of mapping error.” In order for the Commissioner’s Court to go back to the way it was in the good ol' pre-Women's Lib days of meeting behind closed doors with no citizen or fiscal oversight.



It’s like the foxes guarding the chicken coop!

A few weeks prior to this façade, the Jacksonville Daily Progress reported Justice of the Peace clerk Heidi Jones Tyler was accused of stealing cash money straight out of the Precinct 3 office. She was placed on administrative leave after preliminary county audits of Pct. 3 funds fell short by $30,000. (Source: “Up to $30,000 missing” Cherokeean Herald August 18, 2010)

Justice of the Peace James Morris was alerted when a resident asked for a cash receipt for a previously paid fine. The fine had been falsely entered as “dismissed.” Sources close to the investigation report an arrest in the case is imminent.  (Source: CBS 19TV August 13, 2010) J.P. Morris has also been outspoken about the corruption he has witnessed at the Commissioner’s Court meetings and has written letters to the Texas Attorney General’s office. After bowing to pressure from new county commissioners, Cherokee County’s local and 3rd party auditors are revealing the depth and breadth of missing funds in particular agencies.

Perhaps “missing funds” are made up for by the county’s unethical revenue-generating tactic of withholding proceeds payable to owners of real and mineral properties. Cherokee County deposits unlawfully nondispersed funds into interest-bearing accounts with associated cumulative fees generating for the county treasurer’s and county clerk’s offices to ‘administer.’ The county certainly knows how to utilize its databases when it demands bloated taxes from its citizens. But those good ol’ boys and gals in the Rusk, TX courthouse just can’t seem to come up with a serviceable mailing address when the county has its mitts on funds due to those on their Muck With List.  

The Cherokeean Herald cites another $18,881 stolen in 2009 from the Adult Probation Office that taxpayers will have to reimburse. Cherokee County Adult Probation Director Carl Phillips was charged in December 2009 with embezzling over $60,000 in illicit credit card purchases during an alleged 10-year spending spree. County Auditor L.H. Crockett tells the Herald readers:

I understand that when Tommy Kerzee [incoming probation director] replaced Mr. Phillips, he was told what was going on. It seems some probation department staff members knew about the credit card charges. Mr. Kerzee called the state and they sent (state) auditors to go through the old records,” County Investigator Lt. John Raffield said that Mr. Kerzee came to him, District Attorney Elmer Beckworth and DA Investigator Randy Hatch.

The article continues:

Mr. Raffield said at least two persons in the probation department knew that Mr. Phillips was allegedly using the credit card for his own personal use. (Source: Cherokeean Herald December 23, 2009)

Carl Phillips gets his service award from County Judge Chris Davis.

Despite the evidence and county employee witnesses, initial charges against Phillips were dismissed on July 29, 2010. In order to drag the case out indefinitely and shunt from public spectacle, the case was re-entered on the Cherokee County docket. It’s good to have friends in high places who you can collect dirt on to stave off a costly defense.

Does it normally take a decade of witnesses coming forward and a handful of district attorney investigators for Elmer Beckworth to prosecute one of his favorite jury panelists?

Sources: Criminal Docket; Case 17638; THEFT OF PROPERTY BY PUBLIC SERVANT GREATER THAN $20K LESS THAN $100K THE STATE OF TEXAS vs CARL PHILLIPS Filed 11/23/2009 - Disposition: 07/29/2010 Dismissed-insufficient evidence; 2nd District Court, Cherokee County, TX. Criminal Docket; Case 17845; THEFT OF PROPERTY BY PUBLIC SERVANT GREATER THAN $20K LESS THAN $100K THE STATE OF TEXAS vs CARL PHILLIPS Filed 07/26/2010 - Disposition: current; 2nd District Court, Cherokee County, TX.

Bullard, TX:



Steven Wayne Morris: Bullard, TX cop received 8 Years in prison for sexual assault to a child. The case began with intercepted texts to a 15-year old and his suspension as reported in local newspapers. (Source: KLTV) Morris is eligible for parole in 2020 thanks to Smith County prosecutors.

Cherokee County resident and resource officer for the Bullard ISD, Steven Wayne Morris, age 26 has been with the Bullard Police Department for two years. Officer Morris was suspended without pay in June 2010 during an investigation involving an undisclosed student at the Bullard High School. The patrolman initially lied to his superiors about having a relationship with a student and was terminated. During questioning by the Texas Rangers, Morris admitted to having repeated sexual encounters with a 15-year-old Bullard student in the back of her car. Officer Morris has been charged with sexual assault of a child and is incarcerated in Smith County jail on a $350,000 bond. (Source: "Bullard police officer charged with sexual assault of child" KLTV, August 20, 2010)

District Attorney makes reporting crimes a crime

On May 23, 2009 Austin-based AM radio talk show host Randall Kelton (of The Rule of Law) presented the Cherokee County, Texas grand jury a list of criminal complaints against Cherokee County officials, including the county judge and county attorney. The grand jury was informed by the district attorney’s office to ignore the 55 sealed complaints. Randall Kelton acting as a journalist was subsequently charged with “operating a private investigations company without a license,” a charge levied by outgoing district attorney investigator Joe Evans. Kelton's exposition of corrupt Cherokee County politics was not just written off as a publicity stunt, it has been completely buried. Misdemeanor charges against Randall Kelton are still pending as Cherokee County contemplates how to violate the US Constitution one more time before the Primaries.

According to published court documents, Randall Kelton began his research into Cherokee County when the incarceration of Robert Fox and bogus charges of “tampering with government records” came to light on his show. Fox had been in and out of Cherokee County jail after an initial raid on his nondenominational ministry, the House of Israel located in downtown Jacksonville, Texas. Fox and others rounded up in the Nazi-esque purging filed civil and federal complaints against their accusers, all of which fell on deaf ears in the neighboring Tyler Court of Appeals and US Eastern District Court.

After years of settling federal lawsuits against Jacksonville, TX police officers, the newly appointed Chief of Police and overzealous investigators decided to finally clean up the City’s image by painting a dichotomy: Cherokee County citizens were to forget about the rapist cop they had once decorated, Larry Pugh who was now sitting in federal prison (for trying to drag one of his victims off by the hair of her head for going to the FBI after being raped in a cemetery at gunpoint by him in uniform- Source: US District Court Cause No. 6:06-CV-357). Citizens were to instead focus on the House of Israel and its members’ “sovereign citizen” rhetoric instead.

Robert Fox was found not guilty of possessing illegal drugs on Wednesday July 29, 2009, the impetus for the invalid raid conducted on the House of Israel over a year and half earlier. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress July 31, 2009)

Cherokee County officials and newspapers continued the propaganda piece of the validity of the illegal search and seizure, in reference to the possession of expired dental and pharmacological substances, i.e. antibiotics and painkillers. They also claim House of Israel members were Timothy McVeigh and Taliban sympathizers based upon the unlawful seizure of items not specifically spelled out in the open-ended Search Warrant.

It matters not to the local editors of Cherokee County owned and operated propaganda pieces that Robert Fox and associates have either had all initial criminal charges against them dropped, dismissed or have been acquitted. The local media is in business to continue the Cherokee County District Attorney office’s lie that filing a complaint against Cherokee County officials is a crime. Robert Fox's latest charge of "tampering with a government record" is still on the backburner.

Filing a complaint against Cherokee County officials after an illegal raid is also a Felony in the eyes of Cherokee County's district attorney. Brain dead followers in the Daily Progress and Cherokeean Herald repeat this lie in print even though their own taxpayer dollars are being squandered to justify an ill-conceived, albeit typical illegal and open-ended Search Warrant composed no doubt by the district attorney himself.

Robert Fox is out of jail and stands acquitted of possessing narcotics so Cherokee County officials challenge his religion and patriotism to distract from the illegal seizure of items not specifically spelled out in the Search Warrant. Fox's personal effects including his anti-establishment writings were seized and openly displayed for the willing press, even though it had nothing constitutionally to do with the seizure of the alleged illegal drugs. Cherokee County, Texas law enforcement is taught that as long as a willing city judge will sign off on a Warrant, then they are given carte blanche to illegally seize anything beyond the scope of the Arrest Affidavit. As in the Randy Kelton case, probable cause does not even need to be established. The Jacksonville Police Department was aware that Robert Fox's former associate and founder of the House of Israel Barry Brooks (convicted of practicing dentistry without a license) had left behind expired dental drugs and supply within the building. They were after Fox's legal writings to parade around to bolster another charge of barratry that was also eventually dropped.

The Jacksonville Chief of Police and his investigators made public these items though they are protected free speech under the US Constitution. The public is supposed to believe that the Robert Fox group is dangerous, while simultaneously believe the District Attorney's office had nothing to do with the blatant persecution. Press conferences were held to laud the work of the Jacksonville Police Department for the "narcotics" raid and subsequent "Taliban Link" discovered within the House of Israel. Now there is barely a murmur in the East Texas newspapers that Robert Fox and associates have been acquitted.



Cherokee County, Texas is operated by liars and sycophants in the newspapers whose livelihoods depend on placating their advertisers. The Jacksonville Daily Progress has finally succumbed to internal pressure and shut down its own Hey Martha forum after its editor faced his third DWI in Cherokee County. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress July 9, 2009 and Jacksonville Daily Progress Sept. 1, 2009) Free speech and actually debating official misconduct simply will not be tolerated.

If the local high school coach is accused of having sex with a student, then they bury the story. (Source: KLTV August 11, 2009) Justice authorities do their darndest to completely cover up the sordid details involving their own relatives. If any citizen disagrees with such unconstitutional acts perpetrated by these so-called 'justice authorities,' or exposes the crimes of these rogue officials, then those same officers of the court fabricate legal statutes out of thin air. And use their taxpayer subsidized salaries to go after their political enemies. Hence out of town radio personality Randall Kelton was given fair warning not to meddle with the District Attorney's handpicked jurors.

Talk show host Randall Kelton has filed several motions in Cherokee County district and county court, including Statements of Witness Tampering, Probable Cause and Habeas Corpus that argue the bogus criminal affidavits filed against him and Robert Fox. As he states in his defense briefs, the State of Texas does not require a license to "investigate," anymore than it requires a license to sit on a Grand Jury or sit behind a microphone.

And in Texas it is a felony NOT to report a felony. So who is violating the law? Kicking down people's doors just because they aren't welcome in town? Filing bogus and baseless charges against people because they don't like what they say about them on the phone and on the air? Working as a Cherokee County Constable by day and selling crystal meth by night? Kidnapping women off the streets of Jacksonville in a patrol car and raping them while on duty?

Not one single Cherokee County newspaper reported that Randall Kelton had gone to the Cherokee County grand jury and presented criminal complaints against Cherokee County officials. Not one single Cherokee County newspaper reported that their District Attorney's office filed criminal charges against Mr. Kelton for doing so. This is yet another recent example of how the ongoing generational Cult of Confession continues to infect Cherokee County, Texas politics. If the newspaper will not report it, and those who do get charged with a crime, then who will notify the public of the ongoing criminal activity? They collectively hope and make sure no one will.