Paroled drug snitch holds family hostage; Jacksonville Police Chief steps down

 

Jacksonville, TX 5/24/24- absconding parolee Justin Ray processed for the 23rd time after charges dropped by sympathetic prosecutors. (Courtesy CCSO)

369th District Court, Cherokee County, Texas
Criminal Docket Case 22515 EVADING ARREST/ DETENTION W/VEHICLE
THE STATE OF TEXAS vs RAY, JUSTIN ODELL
Filed 08/28/2023 - Disposition: 05/28/2024 Dismissed-insufficient evidence
 

Career criminals avoid prosecution by working with Cherokee County narcotics enforcement.

Drug dealers and habitual thieves have their parole violation warrants dismissed after pulling guns, assaulting victims, and running from arresting officers. It's a game of cat-and-mouse. By giving up their fellow meth users, they avoid Unlawful Possession of a Firearm by a Felon charges and have state jail felonies dismissed despite prior convictions. Of course they escalate their drug use and always reoffend while they're out on bail. Law enforcement who release them believe the public is too stupid to figure out what is going on.

Justin Ray, Jacksonville TX busted 8/24/2022

Justin Odell Ray, 32, of Jacksonville, TX was arrested for the umpteenth time for holding a gun on a group of people during a crystal meth binge. East Texas media incredulously reports Ray's in-and-out parole journey beginning early this year in Cherokee County. In March, Justin Ray had a parole violation warrant issued for drug possession charges; he was arrested by Jacksonville PD and released without a parole hearing.

Justin Ray, busted 6/2/2022

In June, Justin Ray was charged with assault and evading arrest, and again released. In August this year, the Texas Pardon and Parole issued another warrant for Ray's arrest, which led a few days later to a foot chase with local SWAT. Ray had pulled a gun and threatened to kill some folks in the interim.  (Source: East Texas man arrested, accused of multiple parole violations, holding family at gun point KETK)

Justin Ray, circa 2007

Criminal Docket; Case 17350 and Case 17351 ; BURGLARY OF HABITATION
THE STATE OF TEXAS vs RAY, JUSTIN ODELL
Filed 12/17/2008 - Disposition: 06/11/2009 Conviction-guilty plea or nolo cont-no jury
2nd District Court, District Clerk, Cherokee County, Texas

Criminal Docket; Case 19183 ; AGG ASSAULT W/DEADLY WEAPON
THE STATE OF TEXAS vs RAY, JUSTIN ODELL
Filed 05/27/2014 - Disposition:
2nd District Court, District Clerk, Cherokee County, Texas

Criminal Docket; Case 19248 ; POSS CS PG 1 <1G
THE STATE OF TEXAS vs RAY, JUSTIN ODELL
Filed 05/27/2014 - Disposition: 03/18/2016 Dismissed-insufficient evidence
2nd District Court, District Clerk, Cherokee County, Texas

 

 Some Jacksonville residents are more valuable on the streets than locked up and rehabilitated.

Justin Ray has been a stoolie for Cherokee County law enforcement for over a decade. Despite being a habitual parole violator, arrest after arrest have led to mediocre bonds and his immediate release. A small fraction of his charges were ever prosecuted. Ray's public rap sheet begins at the age 18 with arrests spanning several counties that include domestic violence on numerous occasions, burglary, assault, theft, drugs, and parole violations.  Who makes the decision to release a violent habitual parole violator back on the streets of Jacksonville to terrorize residents? KETK reports the Texas Pardon and Parole Board dismissed Ray's parole violation warrant back in March after he was charged with possessing and dealing crystal meth.

Texas Pardon and Parole lifted the March 2022 parole warrant for Ray’s arrest, “releasing him back into society.” 

He was found to be in possession of narcotics and ammunition at the time of his arrest, according to officials. (KETK)

In June 2022, Justin Ray was previously arrested by Jacksonville PD and released for:

#1 Evading Arrest or Detention with a Motor Vehicle
#2 Evading Arrest Detention
#3 Assault Causes Bodily Injury
#4 Parole Violation

In a matter of days, he was back out for his latest ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON crime spree.

The real question is,  who in Cherokee County pressures the Texas Pardon and Parole to lift warrants for a habitual criminal on parole for AGGRAVATED ASSAULT?

Jacksonville Police Chief Joe Williams

Chief Joe Williams has reportedly taken a few weeks sabbatical after a whistleblower made an anonymous complaint against him. On August 29, 2022, Williams voluntarily took administrative leave as the Jacksonville Police Department's dirty laundry is squelched by "outside" third party resources uninterested in alleged sexual misconduct. (Source: Jacksonville police chief placed on administrative leave following ‘allegation’ -KETK) The shakeup comes on the heels of the high profile Cody Roberts murder trial that resulted in a mistrial in March and a not guilty verdict a week earlier. (Source: Jury finds Cody Roberts not guilty of 2018 murder in Cherokee County - KETK) The trial highlighted the sloppiness of investigators and jurors' disbelief in the State's case.

In house fighting, finger pointing, and political shenanigans are common in small town rumor mills. Hopefully the allegations are not serious enough for any female complainant to be dismembered in some nearby National Forest.

Shunte Coleman, Jacksonville TX

"Forensic pathologist identifies remains of Texas woman missing since 2006" (Wikipedia)

The skeletal remains of Shunte Coleman, a missing person since 2006, have reportedly been found near the Angelina National Forest in the US state of Texas. On Friday, the San Augustine, Texas sherriff's department announced remains found in San Augustine by a forester earlier this year are a DNA match for Coleman.

A forensic anthropologist from Sam Houston State University assisted with the investigation and determined the findings matched Jacksonville resident Coleman.

In 2006 Coleman's family said the 26-year-old Shunte was likely dead. Connections were drawn between Coleman and Jacksonville Police Officer Larry Pugh, who was later sentenced in March 2007 to a twelve-year jail term for sex assault while on duty and retaliation against a witness.

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

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

Jacksonville, TX:

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





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





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



Courtesy Tyler Morning Telegraph, June 14, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


(Courtesy KLTV)

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

Tyler, TX:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is there a serial killer sitting in the Rusk, TX jail for a few weeks?

 

Larry Pugh


Offender Name: Larry Max Pugh, Jr.
Custody Status: In Custody
Age: 45
Location: CHEROKEE COUNTY JAIL
Race: White
Offender ID: 18051113362144
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: 10/18/1972
Aliases: Larry Pugh

Cherokee County, TX:
Former City of Jacksonville police officer and accused serial rapist Larry Pugh is back in town for the next few weeks doing a short stint in the county jail. According to the Daily Progress and reports from the district attorney himself, Pugh has completed his federal sentence and can quietly sit out Elmer Beckworth’s 2006 “assault with a deadly weapon” charge through August, courtesy of the Rusk, Texas jail.

Pugh's "assault" crime: trying to kidnap and murder a woman in a makeshift police van before she could testify in federal court about being raped at gunpoint in the Jacksonville City Cemetery.  The deadly weapon: a belt around her neck and his service revolver. (Source: Daily Progress)

No mention of the $300,000 civil suit settlement the City of Jacksonville was facing from nine (9) different women who were also raped on the side of the road by Officer Pugh while he was on duty. (Source: US Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit) If Pugh were brought up on actual murder charges, then the Federal Courts, the FBI and the City of Jacksonville would be proven "deliberately indifferent" to the testimony of 25 to 30 witnesses. (Source: KLTV)

The public is supposed to believe the reprinted lie that Larry Pugh tracked down his rape victims by "open records via the Freedom of Information Act" after they filed complaints. The FOIA has denied these reports.  In fact, he was told by investigators the names of those who came forward to testify. They were named in his indictment and went missing before his trial. (Source: The Pugh Connection, KLTV)



Jacksonville Police Officer Larry Pugh

Are the families of missing Jacksonville women going to have closure with the release of former J'ville Police Officer Larry Pugh from federal prison?

Not according to Elmer Beckworth, even though two missing Jacksonville women's remains have been identified as Pugh’s FBI complainants set to testify against him. Why the blasé attitude about a federally convicted rapist and the number one murder suspect? It’s simple: East Texas authorities want to protect the City of Jacksonville from more potential civil right suits and public scrutiny. Elmer Beckworth works with the same Jacksonville law firm that represents the City and County during Pugh's civil rights violation cases. They want his crimes buried the same way they discard his victims. They write them off as "prostitutes" and transient "drug addicts," while reminding us Cherokee County's halfway homes are whorehouses frequented by law enforcement.

Remember: these women went missing AFTER Pugh's indictment and before his trial.

According to the Jacksonville Police Department there is no connection between Pugh and MISSING FBI COMPLAINANT TERRI REYES, even though she is one of several named victims in Pugh's original sex assault indictment. They removed her name after she went "missing" as reported by KLTV to avoid "speculation," i.e. civil rights lawsuits against the city. The US District Court, along with every other incestuous agency in the region would rather bury civil rights violations than have the City of Jacksonville held responsible for their hiring practices. They would rather delete the names of the deceased in the Indictment than close the multiple homicide cases resulting in their cover up.

When Larry Pugh was indicted last February. One of his accusers was an unidentified woman with the initials T.R.  Those are the same initials as Terri Reyes, an Athens woman who went missing last May and whose body was found in the Angelina National Forest in September.

The original indictment against Pugh says he sexually assaulted T.R., depriving her of her constiutional right to liberty and bodily integrity, but in the subsequent indictments, issued after Reyes went missing, T.R. is never mentioned. 

The Nacogdoches attorney in a recent civil lawsuit against Pugh told us by phone he would have called Terri Reyes as a witness in the trial, but she disappeared before he had a chance. (Source: The Pugh Connection: KLTV 7 Investigates)

If they wanted to charge him for the disappearance of federal witnesses, then they would.

 If they wanted to exonerate him, they could do that to.

What Larry Pugh did in 2005 only scratches the surface of the sexual misconduct going on by Cherokee County, TX law enforcement. We have a district attorney’s office that uses the wives and in-laws of investigators to blackmail political rivals and contaminate jury pools.  We have a Sheriff Department that has engaged in illegal wiretapping for decades, with the blessing of federal and DEA agents. A rapist cop is another lowlife they own. Be on the lookout when he moves back in next door to the local brothel shelter.

Pugh has remained a suspect in several missing women’s homicides, even though authorities have tried to keep the cases closed. (Source: KTBS) These possible homicide cases remain 'unsolved' solely because they were witnesses against Pugh.

Reprinted from the Tyler Paper dated June 20, 2014 “Remains identified as 2006 missing person: Woman was possible witness against former J'Ville officer”

The remains of a woman who disappeared eight years ago after making outcries of sexual abuse against a former Jacksonville police officer have been found, officials reported on Friday. Skeletal remains of Shunte M. Coleman, who was last seen July 3, 2006, were found on March 12 by a forester in a thickly wooded area in San Augustine County, east of the "T" intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 1196 and County Road 347, officials said Friday in a news release. In 2007, Alvin Boykin talked to the Tyler Morning Telegraph about the day his friend, Ms. Coleman, left his Jacksonville home on foot. He said then that his home was an ad hoc shelter, offered to anyone needing a place to stay.


Shunte M. Coleman

Ms. Coleman, a mother of two, had freely come and gone from his residence — but so had a handful of other women needing a boost. So when Ms. Coleman said she was leaving for a while, Boykin watched her go. She didn't come back. Neither did another frequenter, Terri Renee Troublefield Reyes, who disappeared around the same time as Ms. Coleman. The 38-year-old Athens woman was last seen alive on May 21, 2006, and was found dead and unclothed in Angelina National Forest in fall 2006.


Terri Reyes

The women knew each other from Boykin's home, and both were pinpointed as potential witnesses to testify against former Jacksonville police officer Larry Pugh. In 2006, Pugh was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the sexual assault of women while on duty and retaliating against a woman for reporting the crime. Ms. Coleman and Ms. Reyes both went missing while Pugh was out of jail on bond — between February 2006 and August 2006. In 2007, Pugh pleaded guilty to perjury for lying about sexually assaulting women while on duty. The next year, he was sentenced to 18 months for perjury. He was sued in two additional lawsuits by eight women claiming they also were sexually assaulted by him while he was an officer.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Pugh, 41, is incarcerated in Marianna, Florida, in a medium-security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp. His release date is listed as May 13, 2018. Shortly after Ms. Reyes' remains were identified through DNA testing in 2007, attorney Curtis Stuckey told the Tyler Morning Telegraph that he might have used Ms. Reyes as a witness in the civil trial, but he never had an opportunity to talk to her because she disappeared. "She had made an outcry" to law enforcement, like several other women, he said. Stuckey represented a 43-year-old Jacksonville woman who was raped and retaliated against by Pugh in a civil lawsuit against the former officer. Stuckey said he also would have been interested in talking to Ms. Coleman as a possible witness against Pugh if she had not disappeared.

San Augustine Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Gary Cunningham said Friday that at this point, law enforcement cannot connect Pugh to Ms. Coleman's disappearance and death, but officials are not ruling out any potential suspects. He said an active investigation is being continued by the San Augustine County Sheriff's Office, the Texas Rangers and the FBI. The San Augustine County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the Angelina County Sheriff's Office, the Texas Rangers and the FBI, recovered the remains, which were examined by a forensic anthropologist at Sam Houston State University and then delivered to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, where DNA extracted from the remains were entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), officials said.

On Thursday, the San Augustine County Sheriff's Office and the Jacksonville Police Department were notified that the remains belonged to Ms. Coleman. The woman who won the civil lawsuit against Pugh in 2007 testified in federal court that she was walking one night in March 2005 when Pugh offered her a courtesy ride in his police car. Instead of taking her where she wanted to go, he took her to a dark, empty trailer house. "He raped me," she said crying. "I was too scared to do anything." She said Pugh drove her back to the neighborhood and dropped her off. In August 2006, after Pugh had been indicted on federal charges, the woman was again walking at night when a man in a van who was wearing sunglasses approached and offered her a ride. She said she recognized Pugh's voice and declined. As she walked away, Pugh got out of the vehicle and took his belt off. The two struggled and the victim tried to fight him, but he put his belt around her neck, she said. Pugh began dragging her toward his van and "by the grace of God," the belt snapped and she escaped. The woman admitted she had a criminal record and was fighting a crack addiction, she said. Pugh pleaded guilty to the charges but denied ever having sex with her or any of the other women.

Joe Evans, an investigator for the Cherokee County District Attorney's Office, testified at the time that the plaintiff was the first of many women who made outcries claiming they were sexually assaulted by Pugh. Evans said he talked to 25 to 30 witnesses, including women who claimed they had been raped by Pugh and people they had told, including ministers and police officers, who substantiated their claims. He said the witnesses were from Athens, Tyler and other areas. Evans said Pugh preyed on vulnerable women who lived on the street and had drug or legal problems. One-third of them had pending charges, one-third of them were on parole or probation and one-third of them had no criminal charges, he said.  

Terrorist Organization sets up shop in downtown Jacksonville, Texas

Jacksonville, TX:

The Jacksonville, Texas Police Department to hold a press conference at 10:00 am July 25, 2008 linking the House of Israel to "known terrorist groups," as reported in the Tyler Paper. Several members of the rag tag fugitive fleet of Christian anarchists have been arrested on various parole and probation violations, including their spiritual leader Robert Fox. Fox at Law, not an attorney, has allegedly been providing legal services via the Internet to convicts and reprobates throughout the country for a fee. The House of Israel has been linked to offshoots of the Republic of Texas and has been a local haven for meandering ex-cons seeking justice through illiterate means. Perfect place to set up International Headquarters. On Friday, July 25, 2008 the JPD will officially and publicly connect the hodgepodge of miscreants to terrorism. Instead of using the Jacksonville Daily Progress forums to anonymously castigate the Halfway House of drug addicts, distastefully lodging themselves across from the Main Street Fire Station.

A good deflection and distraction from the multitude of FBI investigations, civil rights violations, rapings, beatings and drug dealings of the city of Jacksonville's own law enforcement. They want to focus on this Robert Fox guy's giving out Oxycontin to jailbirds and teaching them how to clog the American judiciary with grievances and court cases ... and he's got a Bin Laden look-a-like wandering around his Canadian compound over by the Shop-A-Lot.

Is the rest of the State buying the preliminary Federal Court hearing propaganda? Or did the Jacksonville Police Department take over the role of Homeland Security and Department of Propaganda? Robert Fox is out on bond and not wanted by federal authorities.

Let's get this right: Cherokee County Texas, population 47 thousand, is a haven for drug addicts, child abusers, pedophiles, wife beaters, crystal meth dealers, rapists AND Terrorists?

The House of Israel, located in downtown Jacksonville, Texas, has been raided on numerous occasions by Cherokee County authorities on charges ranging from practicing dentistry without a license, to hording and reselling medical waste, i.e. antibiotics and expired painkillers. One of the arrestees, David Baugh a parole violator from Missouri, has a pending Civil Rights Suit against the city:

David George Baugh vs. city of Jacksonville, Texas et al, No. 6:2008cv00173 and No. 6:2008cv00219 (Us Dist Ct. E.D. Texas, Tyler Division May 5, 2008 and May 30, 2008).

Cherokee County Texas is more concerned with a Whack Job religious cult (made up of ex-cons on Welfare they once greeted with open arms) scratching out a living selling expired prescriptions, than they are their own Precinct 3 Constable Randall Thompson supplementing his child support payments (and County gas allowance) by manufacturing crystal meth for wholesale. And keeping that newly hatched Cherokee County Narcotics Task Force busy. As far as the Jacksonville, TX police department, we haven't heard of any complaints of rape and retaliation against members of the 'House of Terror' as we recently have on former Officer Larry Pugh, et al in Federal Civil Rights class action suits such as:
Sandra Rene Roca, Tonya Burns, Debra A Williams, Felicia A Colbert, Della Tyler, Wanda Wilson and Felicia Mosley v . Larry Pugh, the city of Jacksonville, Texas et al, No. 6:2007cv-00081(US Dist. Ct., E.D. Texas, Tyler Division, February 15, 2007).

Does the city of Jacksonville, TX remember all these women who were raped at the hands of a unsupervised Jacksonville police officer? Who is terrorizing who?

Jacksonville, TX: Convicted rapist cop linked to missing witness' remains, while JPD gets awards for crime reporting; Floods bring FEMA.

Despite the fact that former Jacksonville, TX police officer Larry Pugh has been sentenced to 12 years maximum confinement in federal prison for rape and retaliation, local Cherokee County media outlets appear to be in damage control. Officer Pugh is also linked to the skeletal remains of one of his sexual assault complainants, found in the Angelina National Forest last year. Newspapers out of the county report that two women slated to testify against Pugh in federal court went missing after Pugh made bond before his Civil Rights trial. Only callous reports of the dead witnesses by Cherokee County media, referring to the missing women as drug addicts and homeless bag ladies. Repeating Larry Pugh's perjury in print.


Former JPD Larry Pugh

But just for argument’s sake, let’s ask ourselves: So what if these women were homeless addicts. Our nation’s creed is justice for all. Not justice only for those with heavy wallets and fancy houses. Yet the deaths of those women were disregarded by local law enforcement as though they were nothing more than roadside litter. You can bet your bottom dollar that if those two now dead witnesses against Officer Pugh had instead been connected to Cherokee County’s version of high-class families, the mystery of their deaths (before they could testify about Pugh) would have been top priority for all the county’s ‘justice’ officials. No homicide investigation required in these missing women's cases.

Blood stained lies.

Lies are created by corrupt justice officials because public corruption at its basest, most indispensably fundamental level requires deception as its cornerstone. And perpetuation of that deceit into infinity, often with the help of small town newspapers and the old wives club. The inherent nature of the lies propagandized by corrupt law enforcement authorities requires habitual creation of new lies while simultaneously embellishing their old ones. In order to daily successfully gull the lay population, these very dangerous men AND women must never ever cease toiling to maintain their virtuous façades. And their first choice methodology is always smear mongering, reputation-pulverizing those who are able to expose their covert illegal activities.

The survival of their cult of confession is dependent upon their criminal activities remaining unknown and hidden from public scrutiny/accountability. So they destroy the credibility of anyone who places them at risk to be discovered. They are literally sociopaths who cannot allow those outside their cult to gain enough momentum to topple their slimy underground criminal world. Therefore they tell one lie, then another and another ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Thousands, and thousands and thousands of times. They have chosen to damn themselves into a netherworld of constant lying in order to feed their addiction to their creed, which is: "How many can we fool today?" "What can we get the local media to print this week?" Lies times ten thousand.

And, like true sociopaths, they find lying about those outside their cult of confession invigorating, exhilarating FUN. These men and women are comparable to serial killers in that they ENJOY destroying others. Example: the person(s) responsible for the deaths of those two missing material witnesses against ex-Jacksonville police officer Larry Pugh. The local media shows no remorse they can no longer testify. The killer is happily sated until, like Jack the Ripper, the urge to silence the next victim becomes uncontrollable again. In the interim, the killer and others in Cherokee County’s cult of confession will do what they do best: Lie as often and as effortlessly as they blink. While they occupy pews in the local churches and attend sorority luncheons and Lions Club functions. All the while maintaining constant vigil that somebody else will step forward and take the place of the murdered witnesses whose testimony would doubtless have further ruined that rapist/federal felon/Cherokee county 'law' officer AND his cohorts. This is standard operating procedure and has been for decades.
Ironically, ex-Officer Larry Pugh's former employers, the Jacksonville, TX police department got a recent rave review by the Texas Crime Information Center. In a strange stroke of luck, the TX Crime Info Center did a quick audit this month of Pugh's former employers and gave the Jacksonville police department gold stars for their 911 dispatch and crime reporting.

As a follow up from the May 12, 2007 posting regarding the Rape Crisis Centers operated by Anderson and Cherokee County after Larry Pugh's attacks have been reported in the following:
First a "change in funding" to the Jacksonville based crisis center, the one Pugh's last rape victims checked into. And another article on the loss of federal funds for the Jacksonville, TX Rape Crisis Center. That explains the city's apparent inaction in helping Pugh's victims and gives the story a nice little bow on top to explain away Larry Pugh's retaliation sentence ---he was convicted of raping a woman, then tracking her down in a van.

The Cherokee County safe house has an apparent poor rating with the East Texas Council of Governments, so its someone else's fault the Jacksonville based center can't collect a local police officer's DNA.

To win back the hearts and minds of the locals, The Jacksonville Daily Progress does report in its July 6, 2007 issue that the Jacksonville PD, along with the DEA, seized 127 grams of methamphetamines from a local crack head. Quite impressive given the fact that just last year Cherokee County's district court bailiff Randy Thompson (369th Judicial District) was sentenced to 10 years for having his own meth lab, while milking the county for gas money as Constable Precinct 3.


Another tactic by local East Texas media outlets is to put drug busts out of the area on their front pages, like The Tyler Morning Telegraph's July 22, 2007 issue that states "Agents Find Field with 10000 Marijuana Plants." You have to read it to find out the marijuana field was in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, not anywhere near Tyler, TX 150 miles away. Drugs seized in East Texas rarely make it out of the local precincts or are reported to the DPS.

Rusk county, TX: Nearby, the Tyler Morning Telegraph does report that neighboring Rusk County's Chief Deputy Daniel Flanagan admitted to beating a handcuffed prisoner back in November 2006 as part a plea agreement. Ex-Chief Deputy "Dusty" Flanagan faced US District Judge Michael Schneider after being investigated and charged with assault by the DPS office and Tyler, TX FBI.
Two other Rusk County deputies involved in the police brutality were not charged. Flanagan and Rusk Co. Sheriff Glen Deason are also involved in a sexual harassment suit. After decades of corruption charges and multiple federal investigations, the good people of Rusk County are starting to clean house in the Rusk County Sheriff's Department.
There has been a litany of charges against the Rusk County Sheriff's Department from civil rights violations, stealing drug seizure monies, child pornography and insurance fraud.

Local: Both The Jacksonville Daily Progress and Rusk's Cherokeean Herald plaster their front pages in the month of June and July with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision to uphold the murder conviction and death sentence of local dirtbag Beunka Adams, the easiest to prove capital murder case in Texas history.


TX death row inmate Beunka Adams

Each week a new update on the 2004 murderer's death row appeal----The only reported murder in the county in 3 years. The murders not championed or reported on are the ones of 2 missing women waiting to testify against Larry Pugh, Cherokee County and the City of Jacksonville, Texas. Where's the victims' advocacy for Officer Pugh's rape victims?

The Beunka Adams capital murder case has been reported so many times by the Cherokee County media (trying to keep it fresh in the minds of the readers) that one would think it happened in 2007.

The Jacksonville Daily Progress does lament on the fact that the population of Cherokee County only increased by 300 people in 2006 in its July 6, 2007 issue. Still, no mention of Jacksonville PD's Larry Pugh or his victim's body being found mutilated and decomposing. Maybe that explains Cherokee County's zero population growth...
No mention that this missing woman was to testify against Pugh, after her rape complaint was passed on by the Cherokee County District Attorney's office. It takes the Tyler Morning Telegraph to mention it.

Perhaps this why intelligent business people are fleeing the corrupt county at record rates.
The article cites that the city of Rusk gained 22 people and Alto, TX gained 1 citizen. That gives local law enforcement only 23 new illegal phone drops to install. Just like the good ol' days.

And another mediocre drug bust to champion, via an illegal phone drop on the local Jacksonville, TX crack dealer or as Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell calls it: "intelligence gathering." Everybody looks good after busting their drug informants and users.

According to the same article in a few years Cherokee County may actually have 50,000 residents; meaning about 250,000 illegally registered voters. As they say in Cherokee County during the primaries, "Vote Early and Vote Often!"


The months of June and July 2007 have seen record breaking rain events, with substantial flooding in the East Texas region. Smith County Judge Joel Baker (Tyler, TX) will be seeking federal relief funds for road and infrastructure repairs after the deluge. The city of Jacksonville, TX has been granted close to $100,000 for issues unrelated to flooding; mainly for fire safety and hydrilla problems in Lake Jacksonville. Creeks may have swollen to floodstage but you'll never read much about it in the Cherokee County media, because it might require county funds to address the issue (and matching county funds). Neighboring Smith County has a more observant media that will track the federal monies and hold their elected officials responsible for repairs.


In good 'ol Cherokee County to the south of Tyler, TX , county road and bridge repair will take the backseat for more effacacious uses for the grant money. Frequent rainfall in the months of June and July have produced broken sewer systems, contaminated well water and highway closures, however nothing is reported in the Cherokee County media, other than the opposite : "the rainfall has been good for hay bailing."

Despite the obvious county road closures and utility damage caused by the flooding, Cherokee County will barely disclose (in the fine print of a strategically placed front page picture) the fact that it too, is seeking federal disaster relief. People in northern Cherokee County, around Lake Jacksonville and the Texas State Railroad, expect their officials to use FEMA money to fix their neighborhoods after the deluge. The Jacksonville Daily Progress reports that Cherokee County is declared a disaster area because County Judge Chris Davis
has filed the paperwork with Gov. Rick Perry's office. It is reported that FEMA will set up shop in Jacksonville, TX and panhandlers and insurance defrauders alike are encouraged to register for the government handouts.
Neighboring counties have had actual loss-of-life, but for Cherokee County, Texas FEMA is sounding the dinner bell. Unfortunately, FEMA is basing the assistance on population, instead of ACTUAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS as reported in the following counties: Archer, Bell, Brown, Burnet, Cherokee, Comanche, Cooke, Coryell, Denton, Eastland, Grayson, Hamilton, Hood, Lampasas, Llano, Parker, Runnels, Smith, Starr, Tarrant, Travis, Victoria, Webb, Wichita and Williamson.

According to the local experts, Lake Jacksonville is a whopping 6 inches higher than normal. And besides, other counties to the north such as the ones actually hit the hardest are seeking federal aid packages. More financial assistance for Cherokee County is the request.

The focus on assistance by the local media is on the residents surrounding the flooded Lake Jacksonville, not the county bridges and roads in the outskirts of the county.

Editor's note: The Rusk, Texas Cherokeean Herald has not reported on the Larry Pugh case, despite the fact that Cherokee County District Attorney Investigator Joe Evans 'testified' at the Pugh civil rights violation trial. No mention of Pugh's actions against Jacksonville business owner Larry Hinton and no mention of Pugh's sentencing.

Why didn't the Rusk, TX Cherokeean Herald print the fact that the 369th District Court bailiff had been sentenced to 12 years for intent to distribute meth?
As far as any federal disaster relief, that money is obviously going to be made available to the rain soaked county.


Post script, the August 23, 2007 Cherokeean Herald online reports that Cherokee County will receive $445,000 in federal flood aid issued by FEMA to 223 people living in the county. Their names will be linked to for the readers' perusal. Neighboring Smith County and the hardest hit only collects $340,000. Cherokee County has a population of less than 50,000 based on the 2005 census and Smith County dwarfs them with 180,000 residents. Do the math.

Jacksonville, Texas police officer sentenced to 12 years for RAPE and RETALIATION; Victim put on trial by County Attorney, Other Awarded $300,000

Jacksonville, Texas, the economic center and largest city in Cherokee County, faces several lawsuits from the actions of convicted rapist and former police officer Larry Pugh. Not only did the rogue officer sexually assault several of his traffic stops during the course of working for the city of Jacksonville, he beat and tasered a black gentleman and his pregnant wife during the 2004 "Tomato Bowl Brawl." Pugh was recently sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for sexual assault while in uniform and retaliating against a witness after the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department alerted him to the federal complaints. Despite nine (9) of his alleged rapes being ignored by the city of Jacksonville, Texas and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department, the city will not be held liable by Pugh's last victim who barely survived being attacked a second time by the predator cop.


Jacksonville, TX exemplary policeman; months later convicted rapist and linked to missing Athens, TX woman's corpse.

The retaliation charge comes from Officer Pugh being notified about his last victim's plea to the Cherokee County District Attorney's office. DA Investigator Joe Evans comments at Pugh's civil trial that the rogue officer was "one of the coldest interviewees in Evans' 40 years of law enforcement." Articles suggest Pugh had over 30 women throughout East Texas file RAPE charges against him; the first investigation began with the Department of Justice. No investigation required by Cherokee County; the Cherokee County District Attorney's office waited for Larry Pugh until his federal indictment a la' Bailiff Randall Thompson (sentenced to 10 + years for making meth for distribution).

According to the May 24, 2007 issue of the Jacksonville Daily Progress, U.S. District Judge Michael Schneider saved the city by blocking a civil suit brought by Pugh's last victim (a total of 8 women claimed rape in the lawsuit). The case against the City of Jacksonville and the chief of police was stopped by Summary Judgment. Investigator Joe Evans began to "interview" the other 8 victims. Evans later testified he interviewed over 30 of Pugh's victims. Victim statements were created after Larry Pugh's racially motivated beating of Mr. Larry Hinton of Jacksonville and Hinton was exonerated after being put on trial by Joe Evan's bosses in the Cherokee County court. Despite Pugh's federal indictments, Cherokee County brought charges and tried one of Pugh's victims. The Tyler Morning Telegraph reports on June 20, 2007 that Officer Larry Pugh had  been linked to the skeletal remains of a missing Athens, TX woman who moved to Cherokee County and disappeared in May 2006. The article cites that another missing woman that encountered Pugh has yet to be found.

Nacogdoches, TX: The Daily Sentinel confirms that remains found in the Angelina National Forest are in fact those of one of Jacksonville Texas patrolman Larry Pugh's victims who was slated to testify against the rapist Cherokee County officer, while Pugh was out on federal bond (pending his federal rape and retaliation trial). No reports on the woman's remains by local Rusk or Jacksonville, TX newspaper or media outlets. Last year, the new Jacksonville, TX police chief Daniel Reese defended Larry Pugh to the Jacksonville Daily Progress, saying the victims that "disappeared under suspicious circumstances" was "speculation" on the part of out of region media. The fact is Larry Pugh probably did not act alone in his disposal of federal witnesses.  Additional civil suits are still pending against the city, however due to former Jacksonville police officer Larry Pugh's illegal activities. You have to do intricate internet research to find out a federal trial actually took place in the federal courts and that the jury voted in favor of the victim in U.S. District Judge Schneider's trial. The jury would have also voted to hold the city of Jacksonville, Texas and Cherokee County liable had the judge allowed it.

The Wednesday June 13, 2007 issue of the Tyler News reports that former JPD officer Larry Pugh's last rape victim was awarded $300,000 in punitive damages. Hard to collect from a convicted ex-officer.  Cherokee County District Attorney Investigator Joe Evans testified at the federal trial about "investigating" Officer Pugh's other rape victims. Obviously the Rusk, TX Cherokeean Herald will not mention the victim's victory in court in the June 13, 2007 issue keeping the simple norm of NOT reporting anything negative about the Cherokee County District Attorney office's failure to render aid to victims of violent crime. Despite Pugh's past, he was employed by the city of Jacksonville, TX as a peace officer. Despite over 35 complaints of sexual assault throughout Pugh's law enforcement career, Cherokee County law enforcement produced DA Investigator Joe Evans at Pugh's sentencing. Officer Pugh was said to had used the Freedom of Information Act to locate the majority of his complainants, several he had arrested on drug charges in the past after he raped them.

Evans testified that he had "interviewed" the majority of Pugh's victims, however it took the federal government to actually stop Pugh's appetite for destruction. Remember, Cherokee County does not arrest its own officers for anything; Pugh was therefore assisted by local law enforcement in locating those who had filed police reports or visited the Rape Crisis Center in Jacksonville, Texas. Larry Pugh would not have been also been charged with RETALIATION had he not been personally informed about the multiple victims' complaints to the Jacksonville Texas police department and the FBI. Pugh's police brutality sanctioned by Cherokee County, Texas does not just include raping homeless drug addicts living on the streets; those are easy prey. Pugh focused his attention on less prominent black residents in the community, where he could start a violent incident at random when finding his victims in a public place, knowing the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department would back his every move.

The "Tomato Bowl Brawl" was a race riot that occurred at the Jacksonville, TX high school football stadium and homecoming in October 2004. What began as juvenile rough housing, turned into a full blown race riot, complete with tasers, pepper spray and billy clubs. Fellow officer Larry Pugh beat several black attendees in the parking lot. A gentleman named Larry Hinton escorted his pregnant wife to their car, when the fighting broke out. He was by attacked and tasered by JPD Officer Pugh, his front teeth knocked out and his pregnant wife maced. Mr. Hinton was later charged with "interfering" with a police round-up. Mr. Hinton was actually put on trial by the Cherokee County attorney Craig Caldwell. Mr. Hinton and others filed a federal lawsuit and excessive force suits against the city of Jacksonville. Jacksonville recently "settled" the lawsuits pending from Larry Pugh's actions during the Tomato Bowl Brawl, after the exoneration of Mr. Hinton and other black citizens filed class action police brutality suits.

The Cherokee County media reported on Larry Hinton's "public misconduct" trial after concerned citizens took to the Rusk, TX courthouse steps in protest. During the same time Cherokee County District Attorney's office was "interviewing the 25-30 witnesses, including women who claimed they had been raped by Pugh and people they had told, including ministers and police officers, which substantiated their claims." The bogus Larry Hinton criminal trial took place AFTER Officer Larry Pugh was arrested and incarcerated for sexual assaulting women while in uniform. Mr. Hinton was later acquitted, as was a 13 year old girl, the center of the altercation. Cherokee County officers had "arrested" and kicked the junior high girl, when fellow citizens jumped into the fray created by Cherokee County officers. Mr. Hinton had simply refused Officer Pugh's request that he lay down while his front teeth got kicked out. Hinton's wife was punched and knocked down during the melee. Supporters for Mr. Larry Hinton took to the steps of the Cherokee County courthouse to demonstrate the community's zero tolerance for police brutality.


Cherokee County Attorney Craig Caldwell, who tried Larry Hinton, stated to the media that the Jacksonville Police Department "got control of the situation" and "they did a good job for the city that night." Caldwell's statements come after Hinton's acquittal and officer Pugh's federal indictments for rape.

Craig Caldwell's statements come after Mr. Hinton's testimony on how his jaw was broken that night in October 2004.
 

These statements on what a "good job" the Cherokee County peace officers did that night inciting a race riot. A riot the taxpayers of the city Jacksonville, Texas will be paying for years to come. Very little mention of the fact that Officer Larry Pugh pleaded guilty to one count of retaliation and two counts of civil rights violations in the local media. Those following the case will have to go to the Department of Justice's website and press releases to find out that Larry Pugh was sentenced to 12 years confinement in federal prison. The case was prosecuted by the US Attorney's office. One complaint by a white woman whom Pugh threatened to kill after having forced sex with her, apparently got the attention of the US Attorney's office; several excessive force complaints were ignored, including his actions during the October 2004 homecoming beatings.
 
Missing rape victims Shunte Coleman (l) and Terri Reyes (r),  of Larry Pugh's "good job" according to County Attorney Craig Caldwell.

The good news is that city of Jacksonville, TX and the family of Larry Hinton "settled" the civil rights class action suit for an undisclosed amount and Larry Pugh is settling in good at the federal prison where he can continue to "do a good job" for Cherokee County. And Pugh's last rape victim, though unable to collect a settlement from a convicted rapist, was awarded $300,000 for pain and suffering. After being raped and then almost murdered after Pugh was notified and totally cognizant about her complaints to the Cherokee County District Attorney's office. Pugh actually testified that the rape victim "had a bad reputation."As a footnote, the Palestine Herald-Press almost gets to reporting about Larry Pugh's federal civil rights violations in neighboring Cherokee County and indictment in 2006.

The Tyler News also reports that entire incident from both the victim's perspective and Larry Pugh's arrogant denial of the charges. He states he took the federal plea to spend 12 years in prison "to protect" his family, while denying the fact that other federal witnesses (including Cherokee County DA investigator Joe Evans) testified about being raped.
 

Read at URL: http://www.tylerpaper.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007706130312

The Jacksonville Daily Progress was recently awarded three (3) AMPE prizes for its coverage of rogue elements within the Jacksonville  Texas Police Department. Good going Daily Progress, the light is beginning to shine. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) has established a hotline and a secure website for victims of teen dating violence, for situations like those ongoing in Cherokee County. The Helpline is available 24 hrs at 1-866-331-9474 (TTY 866-331-8453) and at http://www.loveisrespect.org/
 

It took the US Attorney's office and the FBI to stop Jacksonville, Texas police officer Larry Pugh for continuing his sexual assaults on women driving through Cherokee County. According to the National Census of Domestic Violence Services (NCDVS) Survey show the counties of Anderson and Cherokee have miserable ratings based on the number of victims' service requests.
 

As a footnote, The Jacksonville Daily Progress reports in its May 24, 2007 issue that Larry Pugh's rape victim cannot proceed with her federal civil suit against the city of Jacksonville, TX.