Hogtied and beaten in Cherokee County custody, circa 2006

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

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

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

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

White had no comment Monday afternoon about the matter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cherokee County, TX:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

Whodunit?:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Brown lives in the small town of Alto, and unfortunately was born black in East Texas. With nothing better to do on a quiet Spring night in the piney woods, Officer Jamie Beene spotlighted the property of John Brown's grandfather, ostensibly viewing an ongoing drug deal on the side of the road.
Even Sheriff James Campbell stands by his deputy's strange story, that John Brown was evading arrest, even though he was knocked down, handcuffed and bound, then his ankle shattered (requiring 3 plates and 16 pins).
Whodunit?:
Cherokee County's rising star Officer James Q. "Jamie" Beene, then patrolling the pocket change drug dealers in a rural area south of Alto, TX called the "Dope Tree." No mention of the fact that officer Beene was trespasing on private property. I guess the drug dealers went inside for a snack. Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth offered to charge John Brown with something, like interfering with an "official investigation" according to the aforementioned news article. Sheriff Campbell repeated the story that Brown somehow "attacked" his deputy, even though Brown was hogtied at gunpoint. Elmer Beckworth offers no comment, and no real investigation, a' la his handling of Jennifer Hester being run down in her apartment complex.
The FACTS:
Officer Jamie Beene traveled out of his jurisdiction to the home of John Brown about 2 km south of Alto, TX. After seeing trespassers on his property in the middle of the night, John Brown goes out to check on his dogs. He was then jumped, handcuffed and beaten by officer Jamie Beene, along with members of Alto P.D. about 2 km out of Alto, TX jurisdiction, according to the news articles. John Brown's ankle was broken in the process. Why? What was the motive for this obvious racially motivated attack? Was it that his adjudicated probation was winding down?
Officer Jamie Beene has since been promoted to Deputy Sargeant, in Cherokee County Sheriff's so-called Narcotics Division. As of June 11, 2007 James Q. Beene is a Reserve Cherokee County Deputy by Commissioner Court approval. The Texas Rangers were called to "investigate" the beating of John Brown.
Instead of a reprimand, Officer Beene can pursue a fine career in Cherokee County. Officer Beene and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department are facing civil rights violation suits filed in Marshall, TX by the Brown family (at the time of writing). Local Cherokee County media refuses to publish the contents of the suit. Instead the Jacksonville Daily Progress promoted the narco-wonder cops by publishing the seizure of 4 "blunts" and 1 oz. of marijuana. Still waiting to be impressed? They also have the glorious pastime of monitoring the dank rooms at the Trade Winds Motel in Jacksonville, TX.
The brutal beating of John Brown by Alto P.D. was also reported by The BrownWatch: News for people of color. Ice Cube gets his fact skewed in this expose but the gist is the same. Beat a black guy up, break his legs while he's hogtied, then charge him for evading arrest. That is the heart and soul of Cherokee County, read it for yourselves.
As a footnote, the Tyler Paper reports on March 29, 2007 that Sgt. Beene has been cleared of the brutality claims. Read the article carefully:
"(Sgt.) Beene was on the property searching for a suspect unrelated to their case and arrested (John) Brown on a charge of interfering with a police investigation. During the arrest, Brown said, his ankle was broken and he was beaten. Several witnesses' statements matched Brown's."
Same article Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell says:
Officer "Beene was at a high drug trafficking area enforcing the law when Mr. Brown came onto the scene and interfered with his (Sgt. Beene's) job..."

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