District Judge officiates wedding for Robert Fox witness

Sentencing delayed in Robert Fox "tampering with a government record" re-trial.

Robert Fox and his defense attorney have filed a motion to remove 2nd Judicial District Judge Dwight Phifer due to conflicts of interest. Judge Phifer officiated the wedding for the son of one of Fox's witnesses, who the district court and Cherokee County Sheriff's Department refused to subpoena. The April 2011 marriage ceremony took place in a Jacksonville restaurant owned by the individual Fox claims was the impetus for the multiple SWAT-style raids on the House of Israel. During his original trial in 2011, Fox had made multiple attempts to serve the Jacksonville resident named in his Civil Tort Action, but was told she was "unavailable" by the district court. He attempted again this year to call her to the re-trial, only to have his requests denied. Now we know why.

Carie Leigh Roland and Owen Michael Stanfill, both of Tyler, were married at twilight July 10, 2010 on the Veranda at Larissa House in Jacksonville.
The Honorable Judge Dwight Phifer, officiated the twilight ceremony below an oak tree, decorated in fresh flowers and satin ribbons. (Source: Jacksonville Progress)

Fox was found guilty of state tampering at his April 2012 re-trial. (Source: Daily Progress) His sentencing has been postponed as Administrative Judge John Ovard reviews his Motion to Recuse. Cherokee County's ingrained pattern of duplicitous behavior by judges and prosecutors is only the tip of the iceberg of the absolute familial corruption running the place. The Cherokee County District Attorney, Sheriff and District Judges have worked together to hide Robert Fox's key witnesses in attempts to keep their collective involvement off the record.

Robert Fox and his attorneys had made multiple requests to call local witnesses, only to be stifled by Cherokee County law enforcement who refused to serve subpoenas.

Barratry and bilge.

Robert Fox was arrested three times in 2008 after multiple raids on the House of Israel property in downtown Jacksonville, TX. He was charged with possession of control substances and two counts of barratry (litigation for harassment) in escalating attempts to incarcerate him after he filed an Intent to Sue against the Jacksonville Police Department. Jacksonville detective Jason Price, who headed the multiple raids and press conferences, told those willing to listen that Fox was a dangerous fugitive with ties to Timothy McVeigh and the Taliban.

“During the last few months we have been continuing the investigation, shoring up the case against him and getting it ready for prosecution. I’m confident that we have a grade-A case against him at this point, with some teeth and a lot of meat to it,” Price said. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, Dec. 29, 2008)

All alleged barratry charges against Fox were dismissed by the same administrative judge hearing his latest Motions, and Fox was found Not Guilty of possession of expired dental products. Despite the waste of taxpayer time, money and effort to frame Fox, the Cherokee County District Attorney charged him with "tampering with a government record" for filing a Civil Complaint heard on the federal US Eastern District docket -- a complaint that the District Attorney and others were forced to answer to. As they have collectively dragged out for years these bogus cases against Robert Fox, they have all mingled with local witnesses and planted the jury panels with their in-laws.

That is your tax dollars hard at work, Cherokee County.

To protect and serve themselves

Randall Kelton of Austin's Rule of Law Radio was charged and convicted in Rusk, TX  for filing informal criminal complaints against the county and district attorney with a Cherokee County grand jury. After spending several weeks in the Rusk, TX jail, Kelton has been released on bond while awaiting his appeal. What is the "corruption" Randall Kelton presented to the March 2009 Cherokee County grand jury (as others have in complaints to the Attorney General and State Bar) and specifically what exactly does Cherokee County do that is 'criminal activity?' What did Kelton disclose from the public record that they retaliated against? Furthermore, what are Anderson and Cherokee Counties doing within their court systems that amounts to retaliation against Free Speech?

According to charges filed in Cherokee County, this bunch deemed it a Class A misdemeanor for the Rule of Law Radio talk show host to have met with a 2009 grand jury, speak of the cases they were considering and disclose any public information. (Source: Tyler Paper, "Austin Radio Talk Show Host Sentenced," September 29, 2011) In late September, Randy Kelton was fined $4000 and sentenced to Cherokee County jail for 1 year after a kangaroo court and the local newspapers were told Kelton was part of the Robert Fox so-called "sovereign citizen" movement.

Translation: Randy Kelton and his radio show are "dangerous," therefore trampling the US Constitution was again necessary to stop the muckracking against their beloved little enclave.

A mishmash of witnesses including bailiffs who Rebel-Rouse under Confederate banner on the courthouse lawns and other direct descendants of the jury pool were called to testify against Kelton, who represented himself pro se. The County's witnesses had nothing to do with the case, but everything to do with Kelton's locally biased and misinformed jury. There goes another waste of their taxpayer dollars.

Of course any American citizen has the right to present public information to a grand jury (and circumvent prosecutors, bailiffs and investigators), therefore the charges against Kelton, his trial and subsequent incarceration are all false, malicious and retaliatory on their face.  A recent Houston Chronicle article spells out how a Harris County grand jury is excluding the district attorney in their ongoing probe into HPD's breath alcohol testing procedures. Of course, the rule of law applies in Harris County and not in Cherokee County.

Grand jury may be targeting DA in HPD van probe.
Panel excluded prosecutors from investigation.
A Houston grand jury apparently investigating recent allegations about the Houston Police Department's troubled mobile alcohol-testing vehicles may now be setting its sights on the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

An appellate court ruled on Thursday that the grand jury can continue to exclude prosecutors from listening to witnesses testify in secret proceedings in the ongoing investigation, despite protests from Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos. (Source: Houston Chronicle, October 22, 2011)

The Cherokee County grand and petit jury pools are illegally stacked and manipulated by the county clerks, district attorney, district attorney investigators, and sheriff's department. In both civil and criminal cases, family members and pals of those testifying lie during voir dire in order to be impaneled. That is if there is any voir dire to speak of. Whether it is a criminal or civil case, these jurors are suborned and coached by the above entities to feign ignorance and deny any personal prejudice, when in fact most have a 100% conflict of interest. Local officials seeking revenge against those within their jurisdiction do so through the local court system.

These tricks are as old as the generational corruption within Cherokee County. State laws require jury pools of potential jurors to reflect the demographics of the county, not those who are puppets for the district attorney; however very few East Texas defense attorneys ever challenge the makeup of rural grand juries or trial juries during voir dire. Challenges must be made before juries are impaneled, which is impossible for Cherokee County's version of sneak-attack indictments, such as those repeatedly against Robert Fox. In Cherokee County, individuals called to the grand jury are not random, they are cohorts and/or family members of prosecutors and law enforcement, thus illegal. These 'pillars of the community' were obviously found by Randall Kelton to be in complete conflict of interest for hearing cases against Robert Fox.



Article 4 Part 2 of the Texas Constitution (County Administrative Council) spells out how the county clerk of court is to conduct a random lottery of county residents every six months to form a pool of jurors, as well as make EVERY AND ALL county court proceedings and records available to the public. Section 6 reiterates that all county court juries and activities must be open to the public. Apparently this doesn't apply in Corrupt Town, USA when an out-of-town investigative journalist snoops through the public record.

The county clerk of court shall conduct an at-random lottery of citizens to serve as county court jurors, record and maintain all files pertaining to each case as a court of record, maintain said files at court expense at such places as to safeguard said records, make records of every county court proceeding publicly available after filing in an easily searchable form which shall be open for public inspection, ensure that records are filed within thirty days of completion of each county court proceeding, place the seal of the court on all documents where a seal is necessary, and witness the authenticity of the documents. (Article 4, Part 2 Section F, Texas Constitution)

The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 19 also spells out in Article 19.01 Section B how district judges can get their fingers in the selection of jury commissions. Which brings us to another criminal conspiracy alive and well in Cherokee County: the passing of private information, including citizens' stolen mail, illegally intercepted phone conversations and subpoenaed records doled out in advance to these potential jury pools.

When Cherokee County officials pass nonpublic information to their Good Ol' Boy/Biddie network they are committing the crime of Misuse of Public Information. As spelled out in the Texas Attorney General's online publication on public ethics, state law prohibits a public official or public employee from disclosing a citizen's nonpublic information (such as their social security and driver license numbers) found under the Texas Government Code, Chapter 552. This same code spells out what information is public via the Freedom of Information Act. A district attorney's criminal record, for example an old DUI right out of Law School and a night in Austin's jail, is public record whether or not the charges were expunged, adjudicated or stricken from the voters' access.

TEXAS PENAL CODE
TITLE 8. OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
CHAPTER 39. ABUSE OF OFFICE
§ 39.06. MISUSE OF OFFICIAL INFORMATION
(a) A public servant commits an offense if, in reliance on information to which he has access by virtue of his office or employment and that has not been made public, he: (1) acquires or aids another to acquire a pecuniary interest in any property, transaction, or enterprise that may be affected by the information; (2) speculates or aids another to speculate on the basis of the information; or (3) as a public servant, including as a principal of a school, coerces another into suppressing or failing to report that information to a law enforcement agency.
(b) A public servant commits an offense if with intent to obtain a benefit or with intent to harm or defraud another, he discloses or uses information for a nongovernmental purpose that: (1) he has access to by means of his office or employment; and (2) has not been made public.
(c) A person commits an offense if, with intent to obtain a benefit or with intent to harm or defraud another, he solicits or receives from a public servant information that: (1) the public servant has access to by means of his office or employment; and (2) has not been made public.
(d) In this section, "information that has not been made public" means any information to which the public does not generally have access, and that is prohibited from disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code.
(e) Except as provided by Subsection (f), an offense under this section is a felony of the third degree.
(f) An offense under Subsection (a)(3) is a Class C misdemeanor.
Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1983, 68th Leg., p. 3243, ch. 558, § 9, eff. Sept. 1, 1983; Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 30, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987; Acts 1987, 70th Leg., 2nd C.S., ch. 43, § 3, eff. Oct. 20, 1987; Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 927, § 1, eff. Aug. 28, 1989. Renumbered from V.T.C.A., Penal Code § 39.03 and amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, § 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994. Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 76, § 5.95(90), eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 76, § 14.52, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.

Arrest records, expired warrants, police reports, affidavits and sworn testimony is available even in rural areas for those who search online and/or public courthouse records. This type of information is what Randall Kelton has been accused of accessing in attempt to sway the Cherokee County grand jury in March 2009. Their collective response was only a licensed "investigator" can present evidence to a Texas grand jury when a private citizen files criminal complaints against them. Ain't that convenient? Again, they butchered the Texas Occupational Code to retaliate against whistleblowers and are meeting behind closed doors with the 12th Court of Appeals in Tyler in hopes of rubber stamping their corruption.

Time to call in all the favors.

These are the same courts that can have a bailiff removal hearing for their highest paid constable the day before his Federal drug indictment. All the while claiming on the record that their appointed designee never showed up for work, and never mentioning his arrest. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress)  These are the same courts trying to sue Palestine, TX blogger Ricky Minton of Small Town Justice.com for expressing his opinion on how his friend's criminal case was handled by Anderson County investigators. (Source: Tyler Tribune, October 24, 2011) These are the same courts that cash bond out absconding parolees caught with guns and drugs, who then go off and murder the next DPS trooper who stops them. (Source: Longview Marshall News Journal, May 8, 2008)

These are the same courts who attempt to exonerate a rapist cop facing federal prison by prosecuting his victims. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress  "Protesters take to courthouse" January 25, 2006) These are the same courts making plea deals with drug addicts and pedophiles, while wasting taxpayer time and money by using these same courts against their political enemies. Now their targets are stretching beyond the realm of AM radio and into journalism and the blogosphere.

Are they trying to set some type of legal precedent in the local courts to silence every articulate complaint against them? Probably. They definitely want to have it both ways-- as they did with federally convicted bailiff Randy Thompson: on one hand they claim their Cherokee County Pct. 3 Constable never served as bailiff in the 369th Judicial District, while at the same time threatened him with contempt of court for not continuing his duties. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, Jan. 7, 2006) Randall Thompson was supplementing his taxpayer paid salary by driving to the Mexican border to buy pseudoephedrine to make crystal meth for sale in Cherokee County, TX. This continued until federal authorities caught him on the border.

What does Cherokee County mean during the 2006 Thompson hearing "we don't know where he is?" Constable Randy Thompson was removed from his bailiff position in absentia the day before his federal drug indictment. Cherokee County feigned ignorance in the newspapers as to Thompson's whereabouts up to the day his TRUE BILL hit the presses. Only years after the fact can readers of the Jacksonville Daily Progress find hidden in their archives the articles about Randall Thompson being in contempt of the same court who didn't know where he was...

The Daily Progress knew where Cherokee County Constable Thompson was and what he was doing, just as his employers knew of his arrest months before his indictment. Thompson was sentenced to 10 years. (Source: Tyler Paper, August 23, 2006) Whatever the case may be, Cherokee County circles the wagons when one of their own is caught red-handed engaged in some type of corruption.



On the other hand, found in easily obtainable court records, innocent citizens have been sentenced in Cherokee County for crimes that not only were never committed, but for homicides linked directly to law enforcement. They usually target the poor who can't afford an attorney. As a result, destitute families have suffered the most within the county's version of court-appointed legal representation. Cherokee County's version of public defenders supplement their incomes by staying in the good graces of those who appoint them as indigents' counsel. They know not to rock the boat or be culled from the 'friend of the court' list. They know if they challenge the court's railroading they'll lose that income to one of their less ethical colleagues. Some even know this rule of thumb so well, that they can show up at the Rusk, Texas courthouse drunk as skunks.

Amicus curiae gone amok.

The district attorney's office in cahoots with the Cherokee County Bar Association has protected and coddled drunken attorneys on the county dole who have shown up inebriated at the Rusk courthouse and performed their court-appointed duties, drunk and derelict. They have in the past collectively lied directly to examining bar associates who follow-up on complaints against the drunks among Cherokee County's bar association. In turn, they spend your taxpayer dollars blackmailing each other into silence and illegally harassing their political rivals with sexual innuendo.

Case in point, the recent ousting of Cherokee County's lead sheriff investigator Chris White and the revelation that he was spending county time on county computers concocting false sexual harassment claims against Jacksonville Police Chief Reece Daniel. White, Cherokee County's highest paid sheriff's deputy, was sending out anonymous emails to the Tyler and other East Texas media claiming that Chief Daniel was facing sexual harassment suits, when in fact the police chief was not. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, December 19, 2009) A simple apology was all that was required to get both agencies to cooperate with each other and go back to violating people's' rights. No one would ever consider Capt. White's libelous emails against the Jacksonville police chief to be worthy of a defamation lawsuit to be filed in either district court having jurisdiction. The only defamation lawsuits found in this area are against private citizens making critical comments against them while they, on the other hand, are allowed to perjure and slander to their hearts' content.

Twin counties and double standards.

Juxtapose decades of all the above to what is happening to free speech bloggers and whistleblowers such as Randall Kelton of Jurisprudence.com and Ricky Minton of Small Town Justice. Kelton was sentenced to 1 year for asking the Cherokee County grand jury to investigate the corruption he had uncovered. Minton is being pursued in the same Anderson County court he alleges on his personal website allows investigators to perjure. What the hell is going on in backwater East Texas that the US Attorney General's office allows private citizens to be targeted for expressing their opinion?



Any American citizen can post publicly accessible police affidavits online and challenge their validity, especially when all charges related to the police report have been dropped. Ricky Minton of Palestine, TX is being pulled into district court where a defamation lawsuit has been filed against him for complaining about an old police report on his Liberty Blog.  All in order to make him spend money and make an example of him. Detective Nathan Allen of the Palestine PD is seeking damages in the 369th District Court for ambiguous comments posted somewhere on Minton's Small Town Justice website. We would post the comment here but we can't find it; try the Ellis County Observer. With a scorned jury and sympathetic judge, they will ignore the fact that Detective Allen has been promoted time and time again, subsequent to Minton's criticism and open letters to Allen's superiors. The only ones reacting to Minton's comments are those spending taxpayer time trolling the Internet. Minton's website is Wikipedia based, an open forum and the epitome of Free Speech. And if read with honest intent, the site actually exonerates a lot of local public servants. They just can't stand people reading about it.



"We're watching you, boy..."

Because Ricky Minton (owner of the website) also resides in their pissing grounds, they get to use taxpayer money to stack his future civil jury with those he has been critical of. At the same time, the Palestine police officer filing suit continues to have his own popularity and career skyrocket in the local Palestine Herald, while claiming "emotional distress" from Minton's randomly obscure website and a forgotten incident report [here]. We see how this works; citizens cannot be even slightly critical of anyone in the criminal justice system in Anderson and Cherokee Counties without being dragged through the same corrupt system. Federal authorities know that these 'justice' authorities will retaliate against anyone within their reach.

"You don't talk about us, boy...now we're gonna getcha..."

Is it 1st Amendment free speech to question the police skills of one of Palestine's shining stars; and secondly Who Really Cares? Apparently the district court "having jurisdiction" to dole out the punishment thinks otherwise and has figured out a way to get their hands on the operator of Small Town Justice (just like they do everyone else who criticizes them).  Ricky Minton's blog talk has not affected the Palestine Police Department's promotion of Nathan Allen by one iota. The fact is Detective Nathan Allen has a fine career ahead of him, as his continual publicized promotions indicate.  They just can't stand people putting a different perspective on their actions, even when they make simple mistakes.

It doesn't get any more UN-Christian and UN-American than this, folks. What's next? Are they going to shut down all the ISPs in East Texas like they do in China and Egypt, because of one person's negative opinion? Is a rural East Texas jury going to find that a private citizen cannot write complaint letters and post them freely without reprisal from them? They already know the answer because the fix has been in the works the day a private citizen went public in their jurisdiction.

What about those openly public comments about police perjury on Rate My Cop, the online private citizen blotter? Police are rated on a scale from 4 Star excellent to über-BAD; these officers fare pretty well after the online criticism and accolades seen by millions.



It is an abuse of power for local attorneys in bed with criminal justice officials to use the legal system to target private citizens because of their personal comments. It should be called what it is: judicial terrorism.

Travelers and business people should know what they are getting into by challenging the status quo of these small towns. This area isn't America, folks. They use taxpayer money and their public positions to retaliate against anyone they deem a threat to their government pensions. Each one of these miscarriages of justice above is linked to the corrupt stench of the same people who have been at it for decades. Sadly, their local inbred supporters are perfectly OK with it all, no matter how UNAMERICAN. They want things said in print the way they want it repeated, not the way it really is. They don't just throw tantrums like a spoiled little rich brat when someone says something bad about them. They are rogue, rabid and out of control.

Mistrial declared in Robert Fox “tampering with the government” case

Cherokee County tax dollars were further squandered this week as district attorney Elmer Beckworth brought bogus “Tampering with a Government Record” charges against Robert Fox to fruition. The nearly weeklong bullshit session ended in a deadlocked jury, with those relatives of law enforcement and prosecutors holding out a day and a half until deliberations were halted. Fox represented himself. His federal lawsuit against the city of Jacksonville, or as Beckworth's office calls it "a tampered with government record," has not been dismissed and is still on the Eastern District's docket. Fox's trial had been postponed for over a year after initial jury selection, in anticipation of his Federal lawsuit being heard in Tyler, TX this summer. (Source: Fox v. City of Jacksonville Texas et al Case No. 2:2010cv00158 TX Eastern District)

Robert Fox had faced a litany of concocted charges several years ago, including barratry, all of which were summarily dismissed despite the barrage of media reports about his so-called "activities" with the House of Israel. Cherokee County felt they had a blank check to storm the place and falsely accuse its members of any incendiary thing they could think of. Once Fox fought back with a Civil Rights suit against the city of Jacksonville, "tampering with a government record" charges were sought locally to quell his petition to the Tyler Federal Courts. Robert Fox spent 9 months in Cherokee County jail, unable to make his unconstitutionally high set bail. Not to mention being labeled a "terrorist threat" by the Jacksonville Police Department during press conferences. At trial Fox faced a jury composed of Sheriff James Campbell's son-in-law and others related to the individuals listed in his federal complaints. That in itself would be grounds for a mistrial or remand, but glaring corruption is of no concern to those operating Cherokee County.

The goal of this still unreported "tampering" trial was to derail Robert Fox’s meticulous civil rights suit against the county in Tyler’s Federal Court. The city of Jacksonville, TX is preparing for the federal suit to be heard and discussing it with their attorneys. This is how personal vendettas and illegal raids (resulting in federal civil rights suits) are handled by the Cherokee County’s District Attorney’s office. It is certainly OK in the locals' minds to have jury pools tampered with, false charges pushed through the court system, witnesses' phones tapped, perjury by prosecutors during voir dire admitted as evidence, etc. etc. etc. Tens of thousands of dollars and countless man-hours have been spent poisoning the Robert Fox jury pool, while pedophiles, wife beaters and other riffraff related to these people go unprosecuted.

Meanwhile, the cities of Alto and Wells,TX have both lost their police departments (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress May 28, 2011), placing the financial strain of patrolling and responding to these areas entirely on the Sheriff Department. With school districts, county precincts and all other government agencies tightening their belts, apparently the district attorney’s budget is designed to stave off potentially large hits to the county’s liability insurance. We're waiting to read about this latest miscarriage of justice in the local courthouse-affiliated newspapers.

Cherokee County, TX has criminalized the filing of Federal civil rights lawsuits. Jacksonville Police Chief Reece Daniel even told the Daily Progress the intent of Robert Fox's "tampering with a government record" charge was to stop Fox from what Daniel saw as "cluttering up the county clerk's office with false, frivolous documents." (Source: Daily Progress Jan. 27, 2009) Robert Fox was charged with a felony for "his paper trail." If Fox's claims were frivolous, why weren't his accusations simply ignored?

The charge stems from some paperwork he [Fox] has filed in a Smith County court, but because he delivered it and made the demands in Cherokee County, we have venue,” Daniel said. “He filed an official record with the clerk’s office, which is legally considered a governmental record. Under the law, if that record contains false information, then it has been tampered with.” (Source: Daily Progress Jan. 27, 2009)

Chief Daniel and his legal advisor Elmer Beckworth believe they are both judge and jury when it comes to what complaints or briefs Robert Fox files out of county. Had Fox filed a frivolous lawsuit then it would have been summarily dismissed as their own charges against him were. Had the city of Jacksonville police department not continued its campaigns of creating charges, dropping charges, then creating more against Robert James Fox, et al, then the federal lawsuits they face would never have been filed. The county’s liability insurance premiums would be safe and their standings with the Municipal League intact. Therefore, the prime mover in the Robert Fox case has always been, and shall ever be, the city of Jacksonville and district attorney’s office out of control criminal activities. Their own actions led to Robert Fox finally filing civil complaints against them. Anyone in the United States can file any lawsuit whenever they feel the need, even prisoners on death row.

The steps are simple and followed to the letter in Cherokee County:
1. get a misinformed city judge to sign off on an open-ended Search Warrant.
2. publicize legal material confiscated during the raid that wasn’t part of the scope of the original Warrant.
3. set the Bail unconstitutionally high based on bogus charges.
4. concoct another set of charges to re-arrest and conduct another open-ended raid.
5. do the above 3 or 4 times until the arrestee has exhausted funds for bonds.
6. perform an arrest again based upon more bogus charges when the defendant appears in court.
7. repeat all necessary steps while sending press releases on how “dangerous” the “wanted fugitive” in their custody is.
8. criminalize any and all defendant's Motions and civil rights complaints.

Cherokee County has collectively tampered with government documents to claim it is a State felony to file a Federal lawsuit against them, in retaliation to Robert Fox’s civil rights cases. Then they placed Sheriff Campbell's inner circle of in-laws on Fox's jury. Their minions lap up this type of criminal conspiracy; they actually pat each other on the back for creating charges that have no basis in the penal code. They call this type of malicious prosecution as “being creative.” Joseph Goebbels himself would be proud of the propaganda the Cherokee County District Attorney told the courtroom this week. Unfortunately, many familial jurists and officers of the court are as well, but not enough to compose any press releases on the trial’s outcome. Cherokee County district court and the city of Jacksonville have absolutely no legal authority, jurisdiction or venue over any federal complaints filed in Smith County.


"The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it." — Joseph Goebbels

In America, government officials and law enforcement are accountable for their activities, both civilly and criminally. In any other part of the country these people would have been locked up and disbarred. These people have for decades used their political positions along with our tax dollars to silence opponents and crush political enemies to further their own personal agendas. Every free thinking person knows that Robert Fox has the legal to right to file any lawsuit in any Federal Court he chooses, no matter how "frivolous" or "vexatious;"  and that his, and thus our, constitutionally guaranteed right cannot be impeded upon. It is crystal clear that Cherokee County is renegade, malicious and out of bounds of the Law.

Enter at your own risk.

Agents of prevarication kiss and make up

Deputy Sheriff sends emails falsely claiming police chief is being sued for sexual harassment; public told to forget about it.

Jacksonville, TX/ Rusk, TX:

For argument’s sake, let’s say a high-ranking deputy with the city of Jacksonville police department sends a slew of anonymous emails to East Texas news agencies asking why they aren’t reporting that Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell is resigning under the pressure of multiple sexual harassment suits. Cherokee County taxpayers should ask themselves if they would witness a ‘kiss and make up’ scenario between those agencies, as the one we’ve just seen painted last week. (Source: Tyler Paper December 19, 2009) Or for the sake of debate, let’s say a lay citizen bombards news outlets with emails falsely claiming Sheriff Campbell is facing lawsuit after lawsuit for sexual harassment in the workplace. In the case of a private citizen making those types of false claims against Sheriff Campbell or Jacksonville police chief Reece Daniel, then the district attorney himself would crawl out from behind his facade of trustworthiness and beat the drums of prosecution. They all would be crowing from the Rusk courthouse steps about how they would hold that individual and his network of allies criminally accountable. With the local media chiming in to fan the flames of criminal/civil action and to pervert the jury pool.

However, the shoe is on the other foot: The outside world got a tiny glimpse last week into the slanderous and lowlife blackmail methods Cherokee County officials employ against each other and their political counterparts. Agencies that routinely share illegally obtained information and work hand-in-hand violating our constitutional rights make for bad bedfellows when one decides to complain to the Texas Attorney General’s office about the other. Or butt heads and embarrass the district attorney, as Chief Reece Daniel did in May of this year when he petitioned against Elmer Beckworth's handling of the Robert Fox charges. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress May 3, 2009)

Sheriff James Campbell’s chief detective Chris White, captain for the Cherokee County sheriff’s department, recently sent anonymous emails to various East Texas news agencies claiming Jacksonville police chief Reece Daniel was resigning under the pressure of five (nonexistent) sexual harassment suits. Chief Daniel responded to the libelous accusations with a statement to the local press that the Jacksonville police department would no longer work alongside the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department until White was reprimanded or fired. Chief Daniel chooses his words carefully in his response to the Sheriff Department’s emailed accusations:

“Chris White told me he had sent the email in retaliation for me refusing to accept a case that originated in Cherokee County that he wanted my detectives to investigate. This is an extremely paltry reason for a law enforcement officer to get angry over and, in my opinion, violate the law. If he will do this to me knowing all the resources I have at my command then I worry about what he might do to an innocent civilian who makes his angry.”
(Source: KLTV December 14, 2009)

Statements like those can never be retracted, even though Chief Daniel has been counseled to sing Sheriff Campbell’s praises, and ignore the Penal Code statutes he himself cites within his complaint to TCLEOSE and in his response to Chris White’s accusations. Cherokee County taxpayers have the right to know why Sheriff Campbell refuses yet again to hold his deputy’s feet to the fire. Detective White’s actions cannot be undone and his anonymous emails (claiming sexual harassment) leave the recipients in those media outlets scratching their heads. How can Cherokee County’s sheriff continue to employ a deputy who retaliates against a fellow officer? What other dirt and mudslinging does the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department sanction? We know this latest published episode only scratches the surface. The broader intent of the emails was not only designed to smear Reece Daniel, but to frame someone else for sending the emails actually authored and distributed by a Cherokee County Sheriff’s deputy.

Campbell continues his decades-old pattern of unaccountability, even when his highest ranking deputy is caught red-handed emailing libelous content about a local police chief to news agencies. Campbell hides behind his department’s taxpayer supplied attorney rather than acknowledging his own deputy’s guilt. Sheriff Campbell’s statements deny knowledge of the emails’ “content,” but he surely knows his deputy White’s actions are rogue to say the least. (Source: KLTV December 14, 2009)

Instead of hiding behind his lawyers and saying that he knew nothing of the emails’ content, Sheriff Campbell could have taken the honorable route the day Chief Daniel responded to his accusers. Campbell could have made a simple statement that he would not tolerate this level of crap out of any of his employees. Despite the thousands of wasted taxpayers’ dollars and hours he and the Cherokee County newspapers have spent crooning about the county's highest paid Deputy Sheriff. Campbell chose to play word games that he was "unaware" of anything while he remained hidden from comment.

City and County lawyers warn Chief Daniel ‘not to go there’ by pointing out repeatedly that one female employed with the Jacksonville Police Department made one accusation of sexual harassment against the chief in the past. Which resulted in her prompt promotion out of the field and into a higher paying position within Cherokee County law enforcement (thanks to a deal brokered by the current city of Jacksonville attorney). Sources: Jacksonville Daily Progress and Cherokeean Herald December 16, 2009

And they top off yet another of Cherokee County’s notorious lies that the emails are a result of a “personal conflict” between Detective White and Chief Daniel. Then why the use of both a county attorney and the city of Jacksonville attorney for a private pissing match? Sheriff Campbell cannot make a statement to his constituents without an attorney looking over his shoulders and writing his unapologetic smokescreens. These are the questions the local media should be asking before closing the book on this latest installment of sexual blackmail, Cherokee County style. The pattern of unethical behavior is not over; it will continue as long as these people hold office.

There is enough criminal activity and dirt to spread around, so if these guys want to keep their jobs, it is apparent that in their minds, they had better stick together. They will have to continue to feign solidarity during intrajurisdictional disputes and target the innocent people Chief Daniel refers to in his statement. Hopefully, they believe, this sordid little story during the Christmas holidays will disappear from the evening news.

Chief Detective Chris White’s libelous emails about Reece Daniel are not only unethical, they shed light into the modus operandi that has been going on for decades in Cherokee County. Too many of these current public officials are bought and owned by these sexual harassment/ blackmail techniques. A thorough Spring house cleaning is long overdue. Get rid of these corrupt parasites at election or continue to have your taxpayer dollars lining their attorneys’ pockets. Or you can continue to support the vermin while they pay each other off with your hard earned tax dollars. You have just witnessed a microcosm of their unethical universe: a salaried deputy sheriff sending anonymous and inflammatory emails on a County computer in order to deflect media attention onto the police chief of Jacksonville. With the intention of blaming someone else for it until his IP address was traced.

Merry Christmas Cherokee County and have a blessed New Year. The March primaries are right around the corner; vote the prevaricators and provocateurs out. It is time to bring some semblance of honor into your public offices. Next month we will discuss the case of 35-year veteran Cherokee County employee and true friend of the courthouse Carl Phillips, the director of the Cherokee County Supervision and Corrections Department. Phillips was recently indicted for theft of services and allegedly tampering with government records while head of Adult Probation. (Source: Tyler Paper December 17, 2009)