District Attorney retaliates against civil rights suit

Judicial ethics Cherokee County style.

District Attorney Elmer Beckworth, among other Cherokee County officials, is a Defendant in the Robert Fox federal civil rights lawsuit filed in Marshall, TX (Source: Fox v. City of Jacksonville, Texas et al Case No. 2:2010cv00158 TX Eastern District). Elmer Beckworth is criminally prosecuting Fox in Cherokee County for filing the civil rights complaint. Beckworth refused to recuse himself early this year after he brought Robert Fox to trial under a bogus “tampering with a government record” charge in retaliation for Fox's Notice To Sue against Beckworth personally, the sheriff’s department and the city of Jacksonville. And even though Sheriff James Campbell is also named as a Defendant in Fox’s lawsuit, Campbell’s own son-in-law sat as a juror in Elmer Beckworth's "tampering with a government record" trial against Fox. Not to mention Campbell’s son-in-law’s apparent noncompliance with mandatory full disclosure to the court of any possible bias he might have toward Fox for naming his father-in-law as a Defendant in the federal civil rights case. As usual, the Cherokee County district court ignores the district attorney’s patent conflict of interest of empaneling jurists who lie about their association with a case in order to be seated at trial. Moreover, the DA himself is a federal Defendant responding to Fox's civil rights suit.

Cherokee County has criminalized the filing of mere "paperwork" in the federal court system.

A mistrial was declared after tens of thousands of dollars of Cherokee County taxpayer money was spent stacking Fox’s jury with relatives of those he intends to sue. In yet another example of Cherokee County’s consummate waste of tax dollars, Beckworth has filed for another trial in March 2012, one year after the original mistrial and after the fall midterm elections. The district attorney’s goal is not just to convince his next handpicked jury an actual crime had been committed, because no crime ever took place. For solidarity’s sake, Elmer Beckworth must prove the Good Ol’ Boy network draining Cherokee County dry is above accountability. Robert Fox's lawsuit among other things is in response to being held in the Cherokee County jail under bail set unconstitutionally high for 9 months and then being called a "federal fugitive" after being released on bond.

Robert Fox’s suit against Elmer Beckworth, et al is pending in the US District Court. Meanwhile, the cities of Wells, Texas and Alto, Texas have lost their police departments as revenue has been sucked up to county seat level to protect the sheriff’s department and district attorney’s office from civil rights suits. Cherokee County’s cabal is in full motion to criminalize federal civil rights suits against them.

For decades, innocent people have been framed by these so-called justice authorities for crimes perpetrated in collusion with dirty local law enforcement. Radio personality Randy Kelton was charged by Beckworth's team in May 2009 for operating a detective agency without a license simply for speaking in Fox's defense to the Cherokee County grand jury. It doesn't matter to the district attorney that a defense witness doesn't have to have a license to be an investigative journalist.

Would you like your door kicked in in the middle of the night by sheriff deputies because you filed a complaint with the FBI? Do you like the thought of backwoods law enforcement snooping through your mail and listening to personal phone calls?  Would you like your neighbors to be paid to watch your every move so your property can be violated while you’re out of town? Do you want to live in a county where known pedophiles, wife-beaters and drunk drivers are called to serve on jury duty so prosecutors can extort them to ensure their vote? Citizens outside of the region should understand the depth and breadth of this type of illegal activity that the US Eastern District is made aware of every year through civil rights suits. Unfortunately their pattern is to summarily dismiss, with pure homegrown Good Ol’ Boy bias, cases against their counterparts at the State level.

In typical East Texas unaccountability, the US Eastern District recently dismissed Robert Fox’s civil suit against the city of Jacksonville, TX. Apparently in the minds of federal justices from the Eastern District, their hometowns’ corrupt law enforcement and rogue prosecutors are off limits. Even when they kidnap, rape and torture women at gunpoint on the side of the road and drag them off into cemeteries. Or kick down the doors of law-abiding citizens. All trumped up charges against Robert Fox such as hording drugs, barratry, etc. were formally dismissed, yet Cherokee County’s district attorney continued to press forward to trial. The “tampering with a government record” charge was concocted to load up the Cherokee County court docket (which is exactly what the district attorney accuses Robert Fox of doing) after all charges against Fox were dismissed. Fox will be put on trial yet again for filing an “Intent to Sue” document in Smith County after his property was illegally raided and he was deprived of due process.

After word of Fox’s federal civil rights case against the city of Jacksonville was dismissed, district attorney Elmer Beckworth’s team immediately filed for a re-trial in Cherokee County court. Even though Fox’s felony charge of “tampering with a government record” was declared null and void in the mistrial earlier this year. No media personality in East Texas has asked much less  answered “How is filing a Notice to Sue in federal court in any way tampering with official records???” Instead, the local media was too busy in 2009 repeating the shit fed to them by the Jacksonville Police Department that Robert Fox was a “wanted federal fugitive” and active “terrorist sympathizer.” Fox is suing several media outlets for libel as well; however he can’t hold the city of Jacksonville responsible for its police department holding press conferences declaring him to be a terrorist, according to the US Eastern District. Current justices appear to be willing to perpetuate this pattern of unaccountability as they did by not holding the city of Jacksonville responsible for the actions of rapist cop Larry Pugh, sentenced to 15 years federal time for three counts of sexually assaulting women while on patrol. This judicial debacle was spelled out in the June 9, 2008 Burnt Orange Report.

That doesn't stop Robert Fox from suing Sheriff James Campbell, Elmer Beckworth, and the whole kit and kaboodle individually and civilly. However, that doesn't stop the district attorney either from planting the next Cherokee County jury with even more of the sheriff’s kinfolk come re-trial. So here we go again folks, your district attorney is going to waste another hundred thousand dollars of your taxes for yet another round at Robert Fox in March 2012, after the Fall elections. While the local media refuses to publish the certainty of Robert Fox prevailing, all the attention in the US Eastern District Court has reverberated throughout the Rusk, TX legal community and sent assistant district attorneys scurrying for anonymity.

The federal US Eastern District has a horrible track record of summarily dismissing viable complaints made against East Texas municipalities that employ small town cops who openly violate the citizenry’s rights. They allow backwater police and prosecutors to fabricate Penal Code statutes to retaliate against civil rights victims. Every single charge authored by district attorney Elmer Beckworth and initially levied against Robert Fox had no legal merit and was dismissed in Beckworth’s own court. The US Eastern District Court ignores this, despite Cherokee County incarcerating Fox for nine months without his ability to make bail. He is charged for a “paper trail” of bonafide complaints against Cherokee County’s rogue police tactics. Furthermore, his bail was set unconstitutionally high for charges that were summarily dismissed. Cherokee County still has not cleared those charges from their dockets.

If Robert Fox can’t say in print that Cherokee County, Texas is corrupt and rogue, then who can?

It’s not like they had to pay Robert Fox off to keep him quiet, like they do each other. If Fox's lawsuit is frivolous and without merit, then it would not have been accepted in the US Eastern District’s jurisdiction, assigned a case identifier and scheduled on that docket. Cherokee County is so corrupt that they believe that answering a federal civil summons, which Elmer Beckworth, et al (including local media outlets Fox sued) did in fact do in November of last year, is somehow illegal and a State crime. Meanwhile, it is the taxpayer paying for this dog and pony show crafted by the Cherokee County DA's office.

Cherokee County wants its citizens to think a piece of paper filed with a federal district clerk is reason to incarcerate someone without bail for nine months. Even if these rogue authorities finally convict Robert Fox of some made up crime through their frame job while the US Eastern District Court looks the other way, it will be the taxpayers picking up the tab. Apparently the locals are willing to have their entire police forces furloughed in order to pay for this ongoing criminal conspiracy.

Alto, Texas police cars sit locked up after tiny city laid off entire police force in cost-cutting move. (Courtesy CBS News)

Concerned citizens ask "Where has all the money gone?" when at the same time their property taxes are increasing for the first time in seven years to pay for the Rusk, TX courthouse's increase in staff. (Source: Tyler Paper) While local schools and maintenance departments are tightening their purse strings, Cherokee County is spending its money 'lawyering up.'

These are the words that the Cherokee County, TX district court have deemed to be illegal, reprinted in part from Robert Fox’s civil rights claim heard earlier this summer:

ATTN: RISK MANAGEMENT
CLAIM:
NOTICE TO CURE/
NOTICE OF INTENT TO SUE
AS PRESENTED BY AFFIDAVIT OF
Robert James Fox

FACTS

1. This claim is based upon the event whereby I, Robert James Fox, was seized by force of arms on January 23, A.D. 2009, as a matter of RETALIATION, DISCRIMINATION, AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION, wherein the evidence goes to show that the alleged Jacksonville Police Department commenced their series of attacks by force of arms on May 15, A.D. 2008, by breaking the law by specific intent, or in other words FRAUD, as they executed their planned aggravated assault, armed robbery, wrongful incarceration, and TORTURE by specific intent.

2. Absent Fifth Amendment just compensation, theft of private property on May 15, May 22, and June 11, in the nature of armed robbery and/or conversion, was utilized as RETALIATION, DISCRIMINATION, AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION, as per Texas Civil Practice and Remedy Code, Chapter 106.001.

3. I, Robert James Fox, suffered injury due to the fact the Jacksonville Police Department DENIED DUE PROCESS, and absent commitment ORDER, I was summarily incarcerated from January 23rd to May the 24th contrary to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 17.151, by specific intent as evidenced by the testimony of Sheriff James Campbell who declared under penalty of perjury that it was a commitment ORDER from the City of Jacksonville that was responsible.

4. Absent lawful authority, for the non-crime of filing a Claim upon Risk Management pursuant to the Texas Tort Claims Act, I suffered summary incarceration beyond the legal limit in violation of Texas law, which creates personal liability for any and all parties involved at Jacksonville, and causing extreme emotional distress, as evidenced by the fact I was taken from the Cherokee County Jail by ambulance to the hospital for oxygen and nitro.

5. Outline of elements regarding CONSPIRACY:
A. 2 or more persons acted together,
B. they acted to accomplish an object,
C. they had a meeting of the minds on the object or course of action;
D. they committed one or more unlawful, overt acts; and
E. the plaintiff suffered injury as a proximate result.

(under conspiracy, joint and several liability is extended not only to the wrongdoer, but also to those who have agreed to assist the wrongdoer.)

It is plain and clear that the unlawful egregious conduct creating the damages that I have suffered is the result of city and county employees conspiring against me, in open defiance of God’s law, as well as State and Federal law, including but not limited to Texas Civil Practice and Remedy Code, Chapter 106.001.

6. All of the above matters, including but not limited to over two years of litigating the “Tampering with a Government Record” issue, has caused me extreme emotional distress which was inflicted intentionally in the nature of TORTURE.

July is Elder Abuse Prevention Month

Financial exploitation of the elderly costs as much as $2.6 billion per year (Source: AARP). In Cherokee County, Texas this translates to Adult Protective Services employees renting out their properties to the most vulnerable under their care for kickbacks. Your local district attorney and judges certainly won’t lift a finger to prosecute those engaged in conflict of interest profiteering. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, March 30, 2011)

Remember: their daily lifelong responsibility is to shunt the stench of corruption out from their inner circle and onto those not within the Good Ol’ Boy/Biddie network. It does them no good to bring legal action against their own cousins and in-laws (who are usually one and the same).

Visit the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) to learn more.
www.ncea.aoa.gov

Contribute to the National Alliance of Victims' Rights Attorneys to help provide pro bono assistance to victims of domestic violence.

Murderers and drug addicts on the Cherokee County payroll

 

(Courtesy: Smith County)

Michael Dashawn Harris, sentenced to life (with parole) for the murder of Jacksonville, TX resident Faye Bell Harris.

Time served: 6 years.

(Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, January 22, 2004)

"Harris faces competency hearing."

The capital murder case of Michael Dashawn Harris is scheduled to get underway next week - in a preliminary sense - with a hearing to determine his competency to stand trial.

Judge Dwight Phifer, who oversees the state's 2nd Judicial District, has also ordered that jury selection for the trial begin on either Feb. 9 or 17.

Police officers arrested Harris, 44, on Aug. 4, 2003, after he went to his mother-in-law's house and allegedly shot and killed his estranged wife, Faye Harris. Harris was also charged with retaliation.

In Texas, any time a murder is committed in the course of committing certain felonies - such as retaliation - a person may be charged with capital murder and be eligible for the death penalty.

Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth has not said if he will seek the death penalty in the Harris case. (Courtesy: Daily Progress)

After trying to burn down their house and later murdering his ex-wife in front of their daughter, Michael Dashawn Harris passed away 6 years into a life sentence arranged by District Attorney Elmer Beckworth. The version of events promulgated by the folks in Cherokee County and the district attorney is that the murder was a result of lax felony bond requirements and that prosecutors followed the letter of the law. After all that money was spent on Beckworth traveling to Austin to ostensibly champion Faye Bell Harris as a victim's rights advocate and to grandstand, Cherokee County newspapers did not contest Michael Harris' possible early release to the Parole Board.

They are confident the ignorant public has been fooled completely in this case; they convinced the Harris family that they were not responsible for allowing a drug informant on the streets after repeatedly arresting him for escalating domestic violence. What is Michael Harris' value to the district attorney's office?

Michael Harris was initially arrested on a Cherokee County warrant by the Tyler Police Department on January 27, 2003. He was transported back to Cherokee County where he was charged with arson/attempt to cause bodily injury in a house of worship. He made bail and continued to repeatedly attack his estranged ex-wife while on felony bond.

Oddly enough, Michael D. Harris was not just charged with a homicide; he pleaded to murdering a "peace officer or fireman"  and attempting to burn down this so-called "place of worship."  To the district attorney's office, the Harris household was a religious safe house strategically located in the city of Jacksonville's northern drug corridor. Hence Elmer Beckworth charged Michael Harris with murdering a "peace officer," [the victim Mrs. Harris], i.e. the other informant living in the house and cooperating with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department. Faye Harris worked as a therapy technician at the Rusk State Hospital according to the Cherokeean Herald.

 (Source: Cheorkeean April 30, 1998 Sec. A, p. 7)

Sources:  Criminal Docket Case 15388: CAPITAL MURDER OF A PEACE OFFICER OR FIREMAN THE STATE OF TEXAS vs HARRIS, MICHAEL DASHAWN. Filed 09/22/2003 -Disposition: 10/18/2004 Conviction-guilty plea or nolo cont-no jury.

Case 15354: MURDER; Case 15387: ASSAULT CAUSES BODILY INJURY FAMILY VIOLENCE ENHANCED; Case 15250: ARSON BODILY INJURY/DEATH IN PLACE OF WORSHIP. 2nd District Court, District Clerk, Cherokee County, TX.

The Michael Harris case never went to trial; he pleaded No Contest to the 2003 homicide after his in-and-out rehab stints at the Rusk State Hospital. His bail was set and reset multiple times by the Cherokee County court system. Faye Harris' calls to the district court to have her ex-husband locked up for his escalating domestic violence were ignored. Thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent to convince the public otherwise.



Are residents beginning to realize the depth and breadth of public corruption going on under their noses and why their municipalities' police forces have dried up? Where has all the taxpayer money for public safety gone? Exactly how is the District Attorney's Law Enforcement Fund from seizures being spent?

Taxpayer money is spent subsidizing the families and allies of the same group of people who have been draining Cherokee County dry for decades. Cherokee County is a family-operated criminal enterprise and along with their familial kickbacks, their confidential informants have bankrupted the city and county coffers. According to CBS News, the towns of Wells and Alto, TX have both had their entire police forces furloughed as their city councils do some fiduciary housecleaning. The tiny town of Alto, TX is making up for a $185,000 budget deficit with the layoffs. (Source: CBS News, Tiny Texas town lays off entire police force)

For the first time in modern history, these one stoplight towns have done a little fiscal oversight and discovered that their city services are in the RED. Too much taxpayer money has been allocated for personal use which includes paying law enforcement and their families to illegally monitor the law-abiding public. They have decided to cut their city law enforcement and have overextended sheriff’s deputies respond to their emergencies. The local Cherokeean Herald reports Alto, TX (population 1150) had five officers on payroll for nighttime alarm patrol in a one-horse town.


Looking for an oral history of Cherokee County, Texas? 

Chapter 1: A history of corruption that cannot be rewritten or ignored.

Former Alto police chiefs’ salaries have ranged from $16K to over $100K, depending on who the applicant was related to, even though the city's population has remained at or below 1100 for the last 30 years. Their turnover has been frequent, controversial and bitter at times. Relatives of the former district attorney have framed past police chiefs to run them out of town and move themselves into a coveted salaried position. (Source: Cherokeean) Former Alto mayor Garwin Baugh tells the Jacksonville Daily Progress in 1992 how he and Police Chief Tom Griffith were targeted for openly discussing the cover up of a murdered feed store owner. (Source: Daily Progress May 1, 1992)

Chief Griffith was ousted and the district attorney's investigator took his job to make sure the capital murder conviction in the case was not overturned. All public discussions of the case were quelled. The conviction was eventually overturned and an innocent defendant facing life in prison was released on time served.  The case was The State vs. Terry Watkins. Elmer Beckworth represented the State at Watkins' appeal; his job was to thwart any and all evidentiary review hearings that proved Terry Watkins' innocence. The victim's life insurance was used among other things to pay State witnesses for the prosecutor, former district attorney Charles Holcomb. Taxpayer money has always been spent to keep the family clan in office and against whistleblowers. Proceeds from insurance payouts also come in handy for hush money.

Charles Holcomb takes money to hire witnesses (Source: Daily Progress August 23, 1990)

During this current police furlough, the sheriff’s department and district attorney’s office will have to rely solely on their good ol’ boy/ bitty network to keep watch over the southern part of the county. Even more taxpayer money will be allocated for illegal phone drops, jury plants, ‘anonymous’ tipsters and other reserve officers' clandestine eavesdropping.

Every week the local newspapers report the status of merchant sales tax revenues as if it were a true signal of the economic status of the county. Following their logic, these little towns rake in the sales tax but cannot afford to have police protection? Think again.



The only investigative technique utilized by law enforcement in this area is illegal phone tapping of its residents. At least since the 1920's they have enlisted their family members to listen to and record as many perfectly legal telephone and innocuous business conversations as possible throughout the county. In their minds there is no need for an active police force in rural areas because their 3rd generation phone tapping network is intact and operating at 100%.

Informants provide routine drug busts to justify county and state level investigators and their salaries, while taxpayer money is pooled to help pay these CIs' house bills and keep them in the county. Instead of being ostracized, murderers and drug addicts are on the dole in Cherokee County. When it comes to politicking, these informants provide pabulum for district attorney's and sheriff investigators. That is where the money has gone. Tax revenue goes to keep these salaried parasites in office and against any and all who challenge them. Traveling public beware if you use the local telephone systems or post offices.



No need to dial 9-1-1 folks; they know about crime before it even takes place. Usually they are the perpetrators.

Sales tax reciprocity from the city to the county level will cease to exist until Cherokee County voters are brave enough to do some judiciary housecleaning. Meanwhile, Cherokee County taxpayer dollars are still being spent on prosecuting Robert Fox for filing a Notice to Sue in Smith County; investigating the Precinct 3 Commissioner for her bonafide due diligence; and decades of private property improvements by county officials in bed with the district attorney. The entire county, much less the small towns of Alto and Wells, TX, can no longer afford the public corruption that has been going on for decades.

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.

April 2011 is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Cherokee County probationer Gary Lynn Jones, convicted of rape in Rusk County. Are you aware of who he's related to and why he was driving around East Texas raping women? According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, 1 in 6 women in the United States has been the victim of rape or attempted rape. Statistically 1 out of every 4 Cherokee County, TX residents is genetically related to prosecutors and law enforcement, which means only a small percentage of actual sex assaults and domestic violence claims are investigated. Non-relatives and out of region arrestees are brought to the front of the court dockets and front page newspapers, while local offenders are protected by the family clan operating the Rusk, TX courthouse.

The theme of the 2011 SAAM campaign is “It’s time to get involved.” Make yourselves aware of these individuals; they have operated in concert with the Cherokee County district attorney’s office for decades.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center promotes a community prevention approach that addresses the Good Ol’ Boy and Gal environment which allows sexual violence to occur without redress. Until the current nepotism is replaced with prosecuting attorneys without political and familial agendas, Cherokee County will continue to align itself against the safety and equality of its residents.

Cherokee County Republican Party Chairman forced to resign Adult Protective Services job

Jacksonville, TX:

The Jacksonville Daily Progress reports that Adult Protective Services investigator Stephen R. Looney was forced in December 2010 to resign his position with the Jacksonville branch of DFPS for alleged violations. The Daily Progress omits within its post-Primary article that Looney is the chairman for Cherokee County’s Republican Party. Steve Looney, pictured below with local Republican officeholders, was elected as Cherokee County’s Republican Party chairman in March 2010. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress)
Pictured from left to right Pct. 2 Constable Jack White, Pct. 1 Constable Lynn Kelly, Republican County Chair Steve Looney, Lawrence Davis, Pct. 2 Justice of the Peace candidate Tony Johnson, County Judge Chris Davis, County Sheriff James Campbell, State Senator Robert Nichols, Pct. 3 Justice of the Peace candidate Phillip Grimes, District Clerk Janet Gates, and Pct. 4 Justice of the Peace candidate Roberta Durate. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, September 10, 2010) According to the most recent Jacksonville Daily Progress article on the resignation,

Looney was recommended for dismissal by the Jacksonville department supervisor in a memorandum making claims he had inflated travel-mileage reports, falsified case reports, billed the department for services clients didn't receive and, in one case, sexually harassed a client, according to documents received from the Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS), of which APS is a division. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, March 30, 2011)

Steve Looney, who had been employed with Cherokee County Adult Protective Services since 2008, was reprimanded by his superiors in February 2010 for personally renting a house to a client under his supervision, according to the Daily Progress.


Steve Looney

It took the Jacksonville Daily Progress nearly 4 months to report the resignation of this Adult Protective Services employee with no mention of Looney’s Cherokee County political affiliations. These are the people charged with protecting the county’s at-risk adult and elderly population, while at the same time violating conflict of interest protocols. The overt pattern of not only conducting personal business on agency time, but simultaneously promoting their elected position in the newspapers, is indicative of their confidence in the corrupt Good Ol’ Boy system. This is yet another example of your local newspaper belatedly reporting only after the fact negative information in order to shield the county’s political hierarchy.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services website lists the services APS provides to exploited elderly or disabled adults. (Source: DFPS)

Probated Rusk, TX child molester arrested in California; First Degree child sex assault sentenced as Second Degree

This tip comes from a reader.

Rusk, TX:
The local newspapers will not report the probation violation of a registered sex offender caught out of state. Another homegrown Rusk, TX pedophile recommended for probation by the Cherokee County district attorney’s office has traveled out of the county and again placed people at risk. According to a reader's tip, James Christopher Schlater, 53, was captured by authorities in Santa Clara County, California and transferred back to the Rusk jail where he quietly awaits his recommencing in Cherokee County, Texas. The victim of his original probated sex offense in Rusk is verified as a 6-year old female according to the Online TXDPS Sex Offender Registry.

James Schlater is currently incarcerated in the Rusk, TX  jail where his probation violation is being whitewashed and ignored by the local media for the simple fact that Schlater’s re-offense makes Cherokee County’s ingrained corrupt criminal justice system look bad. They also won't report how in-laws of the District Attorney’s staff work side-by-side while relatives are placed directly on jury panels.


James C. Schlater, courtesy Homefacts.com/TXDPS

Texas Penal Code, Section 21.02- Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Young Child or Children (h) An offense under this section is a felony of the first degree, punishable by imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life, or for any term of not more than 99 years or less than 25 years.

Cherokee County jury trials are for show. They are an opportunity to have local newspapers publish quotes of deliberate lies spun about existing legal statutes and to grandstand the corruption of all participants. The Tyler Paper and Jacksonville Daily Progress report Timothy Ray Hill, Sr. , 50, was recently convicted of molesting a 13-year old female over a 3 year period and sentenced to only 15 years in TDCJ.

 Timothy Ray Hill, Sr. courtesy Tyler Paper The Jacksonville Daily Progress reports the Hill sentencing:

According to Cherokee County First Assistant District Attorney Rachel Patton, sexual assault and indecency with a child by sexual contact are punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, Feb. 28, 2011)

Apparently the Jacksonville-based reporter is content being cited the punishment for Second Degree felonies, which Timothy Ray Hill, Sr. was sentenced under. However, Hill is reported to have committed a First Degree felony and only one case of sexual assault was filed by prosecutors in June 2010 (Source: Criminal Docket Case 17818, SEXUAL ASSAULT CHILD; THE STATE OF TEXAS vs HILL, TIMOTHY RAY, Filed 06/28/2010 - Disposition: 02/25/2011; 2nd District Court, District Clerk, Cherokee County, TX).

Corrupt little Cherokee County gets to have it both ways and they are going to report it as such. There is a decades old criminal mentality that permeates the county’s justice system and local media’s reporting protocol.

Sec. 12.33. SECOND DEGREE FELONY PUNISHMENT. (a) An individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the second degree shall be punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for any term of not more than 20 years or less than 2 years. (b) In addition to imprisonment, an individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the second degree may be punished by a fine not to exceed $10,000. (Source: Texas Penal Code, Title 3, Chapter 12, Subchapter A)

There is no statute of limitations for sexual assault crimes under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Title 1 Chapter 12. However, if the Penal Code had been properly applied (and reported) in the Timothy Hill, Sr. case, the predator would have been sentenced to no less than 25 years concurrent for the continuous sexual abuse of a child. What is the efficacy of lying in print and misleading the public on Penal Codes and Statutes that are easily accessible other than to promote a corrupt solidarity between the Rusk, TX courthouse and local newspapers? Timothy Ray Hill, Sr. was convicted under ‘Apples’ but sentenced under ‘Oranges.’

If the facts don’t fit the story, change the facts.

Cherokee County newspapers have been spin doctoring their reports for decades. Take the recent Alto, Texas high school coach who recently pleaded to 10 years probation for having an improper teacher/student relationship with a female high schooler in the Elementary School gymnasium - a second degree felony in Texas. Kith and kin at the Cherokeean  newspaper quickly came to the rescue by deliberately reporting the age of the convicted Alto ISD faculty member to be 29, instead of his actual age of 39. That’s the story they want printed, that the victim was of the age of consent and that their local coach was 10 years younger than he really is. No retraction and no corrections are necessary for the same old blue-haired biddies assigned to endear the county by publishing ‘their version of events’ to soften the blow of outside scrutiny. They take their cues directly from a district attorney’s office who offers slap on the wrist plea bargains to child rapists and who openly perjures all the way to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Cherokee County media deliberately bury unsavory stories that make the county look bad. Especially those events and arrests of family members connected to the Rusk, TX courthouse. Whether it is the recidivate former Rusk, TX jailer facing parole revocation hearings after multiple DUIs or the arrests of the Rusk, TX dentist for escalating domestic violence involving a gun, the biddies quickly disconnect themselves from their incarcerated social network buddies after word spreads outside the county. Family-connected reporters conveniently misspell their jailed allies' names to throw everyone off the trail.

Cherokee County is safe haven for recidivists directly connected to the Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney. Those familial bums arrested outside of the county quickly return to hometown Cherokee County for their Adult Probation and Supervision. They are given free rein to roam around and re-offend in order to snitch for the D.A. and Sheriff’s offices. For playing the jailhouse stoolie, they can be arrested once, twice, three and four times; up to the point they kill someone, as drug informant Michael Harris (who eventually murdered his ex-wife after multiple arrests and bail violations). With one phone call to neighboring counties, these entities can have their confidential informants released, Blue Warrants pulled and charges reduced if not entirely dropped. There will be a few uncooperative sacrificial lambs sentenced to TDCJ for the newspapers to periodically report. As stated earlier, usually the statute of limitations have either run out OR the sentencing does not meet the Texas Penal Code. To make matters worse, the Cherokee County courts will release known drug users such as Michael Harris and Brandon Robertson who corroborate information from law enforcements’ illegal telephone taps. Deputies listen to and record phone conversations 24/7 for the district attorney’s office in collaboration with these rapists and murderers.

They will set free a parole violator caught with a gun and crystal meth such as Brandon Robertson (who killed a DPS trooper two weeks later) who brings drug money into the county. They will completely fabricate stories and court hearings to cover up their appointed Precinct 3 Constable Randall Thompson driving to the Mexican border to purchase methamphetamines for distribution throughout the county. Yet the same corrupt court will incarcerate the likes of harmless Robert Fox for 9 months in solitary confinement before his pre-trial, simply because he filed a Federal Civil Rights complaint against them. The Tyler TV station that covers Thompson’s stomping grounds in Jacksonville interviewed the convicted constable on his way to work. Not to mention the certified mail Randall Thompson picked up and signed for as agent of the district court.

The local media jumps on the D.A.’s bandwagon when innocent citizens are falsely accused, but they can’t stand it when readers see in print the criminal activity of their elected officials’ family members. They have formed a symbiotic bond from decades of cronyism and they believe it is their duty to repeat the lies. It impresses them that the District Attorney and his cronies can violate the US Constitution at will, and nothing is done about it. In their minds it is not illegal if the district attorney’s office is doing it. And the District Attorney makes sure they feel as if they are contributing to the greater good, by enforcing the propaganda.

They also believe if it is in writing in the paper or printed in the court record, then that’s the story they're sticking with. For example, the Daily Progress has never retracted any story or lie that Constable Randall Thompson was a complete no-show for his district court duties, prior to his federal drug indictment. All it would take is a one sentence correction buried in the classified section; however they stick to their collective story no matter how ludicrous. Like clockwork before pretrial (and Black History month), Randall Thompson’s replacement in the Confederate district court has the Rusk and Jacksonville newspapers print the Civil War Revisited for Dummies. Luckily for readers outside the region, the Tyler Morning Telegraph has on their staff new reporters who challenge the cultist pre-Reconstruction mentality of the Cherokee County newspapers.

A recent Texas Monthly article “When DAs Attack!” highlights the corrupt mentality permeating the East Texas judicial system. Smith County is the target of the critical exposé but the same is applicable to neighboring Cherokee County. In the now overturned Smith County “Mineola Sex Ring” case and Patrick Kelly conviction, the Houston Court of Appeals found that:

“The record is rife with error … the trial court adopted ad hoc evidentiary rules that operated to assist the State in proving its case, while impeding appellant’s ability to defend himself.”

As the Houston Court of Appeals said, “The trial court clearly abused its discretion,” i.e. the district judge in the case was not only openly supporting the district attorney’s weak and circumstantial case in front of the jury throughout the trial, the judge was making up judicial rules and ignoring evidentiary standards that proved the defense’s case. The Patrick Kelly case was remanded to Smith County and the original trial judge facing the complaints will preside over the retrial (Source: KLTV and Tyler Paper).

Other defendants in the "Mineola Sex Ring" have been found guilty and face retrial because of the way the cases have been handled by Smith County authorities (Source: KCEN). The Kerry Max Cook fiasco is another well-published example of East Texas prosecutorial misconduct. Cook was framed by Smith County officials and sat on death row for 20 years until exonerated with the help of DNA evidence. After multiple retrials, Smith County prosecutors offered Cook a never before “No-Contest” plea bargain for murder.

If these reported egregious acts of judicial misconduct are happening in large East Texas cities such as Tyler, TX, imagine what goes on in the small towns where news is buried to protect the area’s ability to make money. And local reporters are afraid of the consequences of printing anything critical of their elected officials. To the unreported south, Cherokee County’s versions of unethical acts and judicial bias occur during the plea bargain process. Indigent defendants are railroaded by the district attorney’s office, working in tandem with court appointed attorneys, to blindly accept an undisclosed sentence for pleading Guilty in front of the judge. If they don’t waste the court’s time and roll the dice, defendants may get a slap-on-the-wrist 'Sweetheart of a Deal'. If the county is in desperate need of a sacrificial lamb, the court will violate the letter of the law and impose over-the-top prison terms with the hopes the Tyler Court of Appeals will rubberstamp the sentence.

Cherokee County court officials get to play God in their corrupt little world where their buddies in the newspapers shunt their activities from outside scrutiny. In the outside world, prosecutors and bonafide defense attorneys present written and agreed upon plea bargains to the judge, who then either accepts or denies the reduced sentence. Honorable court officials do not risk having wasteful mistrials and remands from higher courts. Cherokee County turns the judicial process into an egotistical crap game.

With every report of sentenced sex offenders and drug users in Cherokee County newspapers, there are multitudes more local probationers whose supervision fees enrich county coffers. This backwoods ego game in turn bolsters the D.A.’s primary motivation for recommending probation for heinous crimes, instead of prison. Cherokee County reporters know if those ignored offenders are jailed, those lawbreakers don’t pay into the county treasury. Those families and businesses out of the region contemplating moving into the Den of Iniquity should understand the sadistic satisfaction these cliques get in promulgating their takedown wolfpack mentality against the likes of Robert Fox, et al while harboring criminals in their midst.

Probated Cherokee County burglar kidnaps and rapes Henderson, TX woman; Anderson County Crime Stopper money missing

Another Cherokee County, TX probationer has reoffended, this time it is Aggravated Abduction and Rape.

Henderson, TX:
Probated Cherokee County burglar and Henderson resident Gary Lynn Jones, age 42, has pleaded guilty to the aggravated sexual assault of a female coworker, according to the Tyler Paper (Source: "Henderson Man Pleads Guilty, Gets 50 Years On Sexual Assault," January 16, 2011) The 21-year old victim was tied up at gunpoint and raped repeatedly on the side of the road until she was able to escape and notify authorities. Jones was sentenced to 50 years in TDCJ. He had been serving 20 years adjudicated probation from a past burglary charge in Cherokee County, TX.

Gary Lynn Jones was placed on deferred adjudication in Cherokee County’s 2nd Judicial District Court for burglary of a habitation in October, 2000 (Source: Case 14337; THE STATE OF TEXAS vs JONES, GARY LYNN Filed 06/26/2000 - Disposition: 10/13/2000 Deferred adjudication; 2nd District Court, District Clerk, Cherokee County, Texas). He was being supervised by Rusk County up to his revocation hearing in September, 2010.

Repeat offenders on probation and stoolies closely connected to the D.A.’s office can be involved in hit-and-runs, DWI’s, domestic violence, etc. etc. in other counties, yet their hometown parole supervision status in Cherokee County will remain unrevoked and unchanged. High-risk and especially repeat offenders facing incarceration are ideal candidates as ‘confidential’ informants for the Cherokee County district attorney’s office and local Sheriff’s Department. These probated criminals are not benign ‘Crime Stopper-esque’ informants who expose their drug dealers. No Sir, they are the “Go To” boys and biddies for the frame jobs concocted by these agencies.

Palestine, TX:
In other Crime Stopper News, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department has suspended 50-year old employee Terry Raybin after money disappeared from the tipster’s fund. Complaints were filed after county informants were told by Raybin that tip money had already been paid out. Mrs. Raybin had been Sheriff Greg Taylor’s personal secretary for several years according to the Tyler Paper. (Source: "Anderson Co. Sheriff's Secretary Fired For Allegedly Stealing Crime Stoppers Money," January 21, 2011)



Cherokee County's version of Crime Stoppers has been supporting the otherwise unemployable family and friends of the District Attorney's office and other agencies for decades. And they offer little oversight to the personal use of county equipment, hence the IRS has audited the county according to KETK and the Daily Progress (Sources: IRS investigating Cherokee County, KETK January 10, 2011 and IRS investigates county, Jacksonville Daily Progress January 8, 2011).

Troup ISD assistant principal resigns; New Summerfield ISD teacher investigated

Troup, TX:

Troup High School assistant principal Mike Staples was placed on administrative leave in November 2010 and subsequently resigned later last month after an undisclosed “complaint” against him by a parent surfaced. Vice Principal Staples had previously been the assistant principal of the West Rusk ISD, according to newspapers. (Source: Tyler Paper, Troup High School Vice Principal Resigns As Investigation Continues, December 4, 2010)

New Summerfield, TX:

According to the December 8th edition of the Tyler Paper, another unidentified New Summerfield ISD teacher under investigation resigned Tuesday, December 7, 2010. (Source: Tyler Paper, New Summerfield Teacher Being Investigated, December 8, 2010) Case closed. The end. No other reporting added or needed for the tiny school district of 410 students.

What is similar in both these stories is that they occurred in and around Cherokee County; are being initially glossed over by Cherokee County based reporters; and consequently contain absolutely no information for public assimilation. The published weather forecast has more qualitative content for the readers. The information disclosed regarding both of these school employees amounts to nothing more than announcements rather than actual reporting of the facts resulting in these resignations and “investigations.” In what other part of the State would newspaper editors bury pertinent information regarding the school districts their own children attend, especially in towns where the schools are the only newsworthy item? They report the cafeteria's cream corn being served on Tuesday, but refuse to identify the allegations leading to another round of Cherokee County teachers being handed their walking papers. In the Freedom of Information Age is it that they believe their school districts and subsequent investigations of (kinfolk) personnel do not require transparency? Or are they just doing their part covering up the mess? What good is this lack of detail in the articles if the individuals are completely innocent? Ambiguous news writing usually shelters the politically well-connected or familial, while simultaneously harming via rumor and innuendo their targets outside that insulated group. Any parent planning to move to Cherokee County and have their children attend the public and private learning institutions in the area should consider how these school resignations are being ‘reported’ by the local media.

The cost of incumbency: Pensioners hit pay dirt

Retirement pensions based upon term pay scales are exponential burdens on taxpayers when incumbents stay in office until the minimum federal retirement age. Cherokee County could save millions allocated for insurance premiums and pension funding if citizens vote out long-term officeholders. There are no “political parties” within Cherokee County, just strategically placed family members of the same people pretending to be Christian conservatives or civil-minded Democrats. Only candidates outside that family circle can bring both fiscal responsibility and citizen oversight to a political boss system that rewards itself with nepotism and cronyism. How many incumbents are also of Medicare age, but instead continue to have their county medical insurance coverage subsidized by the taxpayers? The only way for Cherokee County to pull out of the current economic and unemployment quagmire is for voters to remove incumbents and start with fresh policies. The Cherokee County incumbents in November and in 2012 are relying on voter fraud, apathy, ignorance and undeserved trust to keep their coveted ever-expanding pensions.

This is especially true for those public officials who arrogantly lie in print and in person to the people, at whose will they are supposed to serve. Conversely, the new batch of candidates will not drain the taxpayers’ coffers because they haven’t become vested in the county retirement system. Plus their moral compasses will still be intact, making their tenures the more cost-effective over the Good Ol' Boys and Biddies. For too long, the same clique has been rewarded for smearing political opponents and bringing false charges against them in order to distract from their own political chicanery. This has been the highest priority of the Cherokee County district attorney. Their admirers in the local newspapers follow suit and pile on the diversionary tactics each election cycle. Cherokee County recently witnessed the resignation of a sheriff’s deputy (who sent out slanderous emails about the Jacksonville police chief), only to be praised for his actions by his employers and offered his job back when presumably the stench dissipates. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, May 20, 2010) Taxpayers are not only subsidizing this criminally malicious behavior, they are funding it past retirement age and for the next generation of nepotists and cronies.

Why reward with accruing perks those who abuse the power of their elected offices, lie to their constituents and squander taxpayer dollars on blatant political witch hunts? Look no further than those on the bandwagon trying to focus attention on Precinct 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti, while the rural properties of the judge’s dog kin have been maintained for decades with county equipment. Look at the salary expenditures for public servants in the district attorney’s office and sheriff’s department (along with their under-the-counter designees) who claim to be “investigating” the propriety of a truckload of gravel rolled out on Patterson Lane. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, September 18, 2010) They never “investigated” themselves for digging catfish ponds and paving deer leases for their bosses. They will however spend their salaried time illegally eavesdropping on the Commissioner’s phone conversations in order to vet the next round of grand jury members. Or as they call it, “continuing to investigate.” Working with an annual budget of about $20 million, incumbent members of County departments focus on political enemies, blackmailing each other, or stealing the money outright.

Whether out of fear of retaliatory loss of advertising revenue or plain ignorance, the local media spins reports on how taxes were unlawfully siphoned and withheld throughout decades of public corruption. Days before the 2010 midterms, the current county judge touts to have “saved” over $250,000 commissioners were forced to cut from the county budget, only because it became public that the county was being overtaxed. Was the money just floating around due to poor bookkeeping? (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, August 23, 2010)

The hucksters and supporters call it “a rainy day fund.” Imagine how much money off the record from overtaxed property owners has been confiscated in the last 30 years, to make it appear on the record that certain county agencies are running under budget. The current county judge has reigned over this budget for the last eight years before Cherokee County slowly nudged itself into fiscal oversight. The political gamesters actually congratulate each other for what they call “surplus” funds after court-ordered audits reveal a massive amount of overtaxation having to be stricken from the county budget. Proving Cherokee County’s decades-old policy of shuffling money out-of-sight and out-of-mind; funds that should have been lawfully dispersed to property owners and NOT into undisclosed interest-bearing accounts administered by the county.

Strategically placed supporters of incumbents defy logic with emotional and factless pleas to voters to keep the same people in office each election cycle. Skewed, even fabricated balanced county budgets are collectively and singularly praised in the local newspapers by these political choreographers. We certainly know by now to expect incumbents’ cousins and buddies to come out of the woodwork in support of the same song and dance. However a few brave citizens are beginning to break ranks and candidly discuss the facts surrounding the misuse of county funds and deliberate overtaxation, i.e. surpluses hidden from the public. Perhaps one aspect for discussion is the egregious property tax disparity between those associated with the dog kin of county employees and the inflated assessments on those not related to assessors.

Cherokee County’s auditing costs over 1% of the county’s approximate $20 million budget each year. The county auditor’s budget for 2010 was reported as $242,000; for 2011 it will be nearly $250,000. (Source: http://www.co.cherokee.tx.us/ips/cms/budgets/) More taxpayer money for accounting reconciliation is requested for each public official accused of embezzlement, i.e. the Rusk Water Department Clerk, the Director of Adult Probation, the Justice of the Peace Clerk, etc., etc. Prosecuting theft of public funds may be an economic booster for prosecutors, attorneys, investigators and auditors alike, but it is the taxpayer who picks up the bill. The thieves get to keep their City, State and County benefits. Until all the shysters are removed from office, Cherokee County taxpayer money will be used on inflated county pensions; against those who shake the family tree; and out-of-county auditors called in to clean up the mess. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, September 27, 2010)

Jacksonville, TX:

Former Tyler Bank Employees Sentenced in Separate Federal Cases U.S. Attorney’s Office February 22, 2010

From the Eastern District of Texas: U.S. Attorney John M. Bales announced today that two former bank employees have been sentenced to federal prison for separate federal criminal violations in the Eastern District of Texas.

LLOYD WAYNE ROCK, 47, of Jacksonville, Texas, pleaded guilty on July 28, 2009, to a charge of embezzlement by a bank employee and was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Judge Leonard E. Davis. Rock was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $145,000. According to information presented in court, from 1995 to December 2007, Rock was employed as a bank teller for Bank of America in Tyler. During this time, he embezzled approximately $145,000 from the bank. In an unrelated case, AMBER PENNER, 27, of Tyler, pleaded guilty on June 24, 2009, to making false bank entries and was sentenced to five months in federal prison today by Judge Davis. Penner was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $80,500. According to information presented in court, from 2005 to January 2008, Penner was employed as a bank teller for Southside Bank in Tyler. During this time, she embezzled funds from the bank and made fraudulent entries in the bank accounting system to conceal the scheme. These cases were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Coan. (Source: FBI press release 2/22/10)

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

Local newspapers and prosecutor lie about road maintenance.

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

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



Jacksonville Daily Progress, August 21, 1980

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

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

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

 

Rusk Cherokeean p. 1, 14 September 13, 1979

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



It’s like the foxes guarding the chicken coop!

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

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

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

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

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

The article continues:

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

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

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

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

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

Bullard, TX:



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

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