Cherokee County, TX election officials and newspapers hide primary election results going back to 2010. (Source: Cherokee County election department) They don't want the public to know, for example, that voters distrust their district attorney Elmer Beckworth so much that less than 500 people out of 26,552 registered voters actually vote for him during election cycles. Beckworth is running unopposed on the Democrat ticket for his 4th term and received 496 total votes. Elected officials such as the Cherokee County district attorney rely on horrible voter turnout and disenfranchised constituents to stay in office. It only takes a handful of supporters to discourage challengers through threat of small town exposition. They spend their time getting the dirt on one another, and holding it over their heads. Their own allies pretend to challenge them during elections to siphon votes from viable candidates and keep the status quo intact. Cherokee County voters are to believe that Beckworth's former assistant prosecutor on the Republican side is actually challenging him in the Fall with the intent to replace the status quo.
The Klan of Cherokee County Democrats have dwindling numbers this year.
The official results are in, and a paltry 2% of the county's voters cast ballots in the Democratic primary. Whereas other counties report and post primary results immediately, Cherokee County's embarrassing election turnout is kept from public scrutiny. They focus on run offs, the general election, and results from elsewhere in the newspapers. They don't publish actual election night returns.
Only 560 people, including early voters, voted in the March 29, 2012 Democratic primary, or about 2% of registered Cherokee County voters. The Republican primaries had a 21% turnout in reporting precincts. (Source: Secretary of State of Texas)
Cherokee County, TX election ballot results by Party
26,552 registered voters/ 26 precincts
Democrat:
528/560 +/- actual votes
1.98 to 2.07% turnout
Republican:
4.415/5,672 +/- actual votes
14.15% to 21.35% turnout
Why hasn't the county election administrators posted the last two years of results? Because unopposed incumbents lose to even uncommitted categories within their constituent ballots. Yet by law and under zero moral authority these losers stay in office and continue to draw public salaries. This why blackmail and official oppression is so common and in your face. To remain unopposed and re-elected with a handful votes, incumbents and their enablers target their opposition in the court systems before the elections. They shit smear them in the newspapers and threaten them in front of their hand-picked grand juries. This is how some of the lowest forms of human debris remain in office for ten to twenty years or more. They spend their time going after challengers by threat or by court order, and in Cherokee County's judicial system, they let child molesters and jail-house snitches do their dirty work.
Voters have to look no further than Elmer Beckworth's solicitation of an incarcerated parole violator's testimony against death row inmate Richard Cobb, in exchange for dropping felony possession of a gun charges. And what amounts to letters of accommodations to the felon's Rusk, TX parole officer. (Source: US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, case no. 11-70003)
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
Re: Wiliam Thomsen
Please be advised that this office will not seek prosecution of
the above individual for the offense of Unlawful Possession of
Firearm by Felon.
If anything further is needed please contact this office.
Sincerely,
Elmer C. Beckworth, Jr.
(Source: letter dated January 10, 2003 admitted the day before closing arguments in the Richard Cobb capital murder trial; Cause No. 15054 in the 2nd District Court Cherokee County; US Fifth Circuit.)
Terry Allan Watkins vs. the State of Texas - a lesson in the Kerry Max Cook exoneration.
Good Ol’ Boys always pat each other on the back when they get away with murder. They have been doing it for decades. Almost identical examples are Smith County’s Kerry Max Cook case revisited and Cherokee County’s Terry Watkins murder trial, circa 1978 and 1992 respectively. Both cases had investigators lying under oath, the fabrication of criminal intent, a locally tainted jury, and eager assistant prosecutors lying to the appeals courts year after year to cover the tracks of the real perpetrators working in their stead. Both cases had innocent men sitting in prison while administrative judges worked out deals for their release and to keep lying prosecutors in office. It is recently come to light that Kerry Max Cook evidence that would have exonerated him in the 70's was destroyed by prosecutors; the alleged murder weapon was kept as souvenir.
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Kerry Max Cook (Courtesy KLTV)
As an agreement to his release, Cook had to consent to enter a No-Contest plea with the Smith County district court to gain his freedom after being framed by local law enforcement. Cook, a resident of Jacksonville, TX, was originally convicted in 1978 for the murder of a Tyler woman and sentenced to death. He was retried twice and in 1994 convicted a second time until it was reversed and remanded because prosecutorial misconduct. The district attorney’s office hid evidence and fabricated fingerprint forensics to gain a conviction. (Kerry Max Cook, Appellant v. The State of Texas, Appellee Court of Criminal Appeals 940 S.W.2d 623 (1996))
Terry Alan Watkins of Nacogdoches had his original capital murder conviction remanded to the 2nd Judicial District and also had to agree to time served in order to get out of prison. Watkins spent 5 years of a life sentence in TDCJ until his conviction was overturned. He was accused of "murder for remuneration" after the wife of the deceased cashed in a $650K life insurance policy. (Watkins v. State 883 S.W.2d 377 (1994) Terry Alan Watkins, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.No. 12-93-00291-CR. Court of Appeals of Texas, Tyler. August 22, 1994)
Both of these cases show the extent of the “taint of prosecutors’ misconduct,” but State attorneys alone can’t do it without a willing East Texas judge and jury. How were these innocent men convicted? By a corrupted pool of local and non-resident jurors who were coached by prosecutors to lie in order to be seated.
The 1994 Smith County grand jury that re-indicted Kerry Max Cook was headed by Judge Cynthia Kent's law partner and former Smith County prosecutor. Terry Watkin's 1992 Cherokee County jury was wined and dined by the State prosecutor and his investigator throughout the trial. In fact, the Cherokee County district attorney accepted money from the deceased's family to hire an outside "investigator."
Kerry Max Cook and his attorneys are pushing to move his latest DNA hearing out of Smith County. That request has currently been denied.
Now, Cook is seeking additional DNA testing to legally clear his name, but he argues he doesn't stand a fighting chance if his case remains in Smith County, where the courts have found that prosecutors committed misconduct in the past. (Source: The Texas Tribune, May 15, 2012)
Law firms that have business in rural East Texas, and namely Rusk, TX, should do themselves a favor and do a thorough background check on every juror called upon. They are facing an illegally rigged jury system and complacent courthouse. Judges, opposing parties, and prosecutors are all bedfellows of the jury and witnesses. Even when prosecutors are caught red-handed tampering with evidence, they are given free reign to call as many tainted juries as it takes to get what they want. The jury system is a weapon for a rogue criminal justice system. Don't expect any better when the judges are intimately involved with State witnesses.
Jury Tampering 101
East Texas juries are stacked by the district and county courts with absolutely zero oversight or vetting by defense attorneys. These people are coached to perjure themselves in order to be impaneled. It is a back water con game orchestrated in complete solidarity with the higher courts. It has been going on since the day these people took office. Like their corrupt neighbors surrounding them, Cherokee County, TX juries are for sale. A small favor or some Glamour Shots of your wife are all that is needed.
Don’t have a voter ID and live somewhere else? Are your in-laws being sued in Cherokee County and you want to get the SOB filing the complaint? Do you live two counties over and just want to hang out on with the judges and sit on a jury for kicks? Even though you vote three or four times in another county? Do you want to cash in on a Slip-and-Fall claim on a big city employer and pretend you don’t know the Plaintiff?
Do you hide your married name on your juror questionnaire and deliberately misspell your true name, in hopes of sneaking on to a Cherokee County trial?
Are you a professional East Texas juror, roaming back and forth in between visits to your probation officer and the Food Stamp line?
Can Cherokee County prosecutors win criminal cases without the help of the County Clerk’s office calling on people from out of the county to sit on their juries? Are people from out of the county illegally summoned to sit on Cherokee County juries? Can the Cherokee County district attorney rely on homegrown residents to vote a verdict in his favor; or instead rely on illegally pooled people from other counties to sit on the jury?
These are the questions local media outlets should be asking, if in fact they weren't part of the problem.
How long should we hold our breath before we ever read about it in the local classified section?
Attention all out of town law firms! Back woods courthouse seats ineligible non-resident jurors in open violation of Texas law.
Judicial terrorism
When the court systems are used to cover up and frame someone for the homicides their public servant employees commit, they are essentially ordering the murder of innocent people. The injustices in the Cook and Watkins cases alone are staggering and should shed light on exactly the type of criminal justice operating in the region. Judges with conflicts of interest, aided and abetted by corrupt law enforcement and prosecutors, are free to condemn innocent people to death. They can accept money and wind up on the Court of Appeals, or hide evidence and join the Attorney General's office. Not one official has ever been held accountable for the homegrown corrupt-to-the-core judicial apparatus.
Larry Pugh and missing Terri Reyes
Nine women who were terrorized and raped by Jacksonville, TX police officer Larry Pugh lived to file a civil tort against him and the city. Other victims went missing and their remains discovered in neighboring counties. After previous complaints by thirty different women, only one resulted in his prosecution and incarceration.
The body of Terri Renee Troublefield Reyes, 38, of Athens, was found by hunters on or near a Texas Forest Service road recently. She had been missing since May 21, 2006.
The sheriff's department would not confirm what condition the body was in when it was found.
Reyes was a witness in a rape investigation involving former Jacksonville Police Department officer [Larry] Pugh. She and another woman, Shunte Coleman, disappeared while he was out on bond from federal court.
Coleman remains missing.
(Source: Daily ProgressJune 15, 2007 "Missing woman's body said found")
In the Eastern District of Texas, United States District Court
Case 6:12-cv-00071, Janette Vaught and H.Y. a minor v. Cherokee County, Texas, Deputy Donald Williams, Unknown Sheriff’s Deputy, Sheriff James Campbell; and Townsquare Media, LLC
Jacksonville, TX:
The US Eastern District will be considering another civil rights complaint filed by a Smith County resident who attended Jacksonville’s Mudcreek Off-Road Park event in September 2010. Janette Vaught and her 11-year old daughter were pulled from a moving 4-wheeler driven by a third person, and all three kicked and maced by Cherokee County Sheriff Deputies working security at the annual Mudstock event. Participants in the pageant were pre-assigned drivers who paraded couples and family members around the arena. The driver of Ms. Vaught and her daughter’s ATV was David Barlow of Rusk, TX. Barlow was charged with resisting arrest after the pepper spraying, and recently accepted a deferred adjudication agreement. As Barlow drove around the arena, he apparently failed to quickly respond to the command of Deputy Don Williams as the ATV carrying Ms. Vaught and her daughter approached the event center stage. As a result, Barlow was hauled off to jail that evening and mother and daughter were sent home bruised up with a belly full of mace. Ms. Vaught and her daughter reside in Tyler, TX, the child with relatives.
David Barlow is apparently no stranger to the Cherokee County criminal justice system. With a pending civil rights complaint against them, Barlow could have faced a courtroom of ineligible jurors in their back pockets, or have the district judge sentence him in hopes of quelling his passengers' civil complaint. The fact is Cherokee County law enforcement knows they can lose their cool and there will be no repercussions for roughing up innocent bystanders and pepper spraying children in the process. Sheriff James Campbell does not reprimand his employees for violating the law and the higher courts will not hold that bunch accountable without a federal jury trial. Hence the US Eastern District's pattern of summarily dismissing civil rights cases across their jurisdiction, before a vetted federal jury can even consider the complaints.
In her complaint, Ms. Vaught is seeking punitive damages against the Cherokee County sheriff department and the radio station that organized of the off-road event. She claims the lack screening of drivers and security, as well as Sheriff James Campbell's departmental policies, lead to her and her daughter's injuries.
As the driver of the all-terrain vehicle approached a stage, police officers grabbed his [Barlow’s] arm and used Mace on the driver and on Vaught and her daughter.
Ms.Vaught further states that she attempted to file a written report with the sheriff regarding the incident but a proper investigation was not conducted.
Every spectator, vendor and contestant at the event witnessed the arrest of David Barlow and assault of his passengers, but only one media outlet located in Beaumont, TX reported the assaults and original Civil Tort Claim.
Count One: the violation of Ms. Vaught and her daughter’s constitutional right by the reckless behavior of the Cherokee County deputies and their policy in place of pretending that the pepper spraying and kicking of three compliant individuals, including a child, didn’t take place. Even though every single spectator at the stage level eye-witnessed the mother and daughter thrown from the 4-wheeler by deputies kicking David Barlow’s ass. Has any Cherokee County official in recent memory, other than County Attorney Craig Caldwell, ever issued a formal apology for making a mistake? (Source: KETK Jan. 19, 2012, “County Attorney apologizes to KETK”)
By their conduct and the ensuing lack of investigation or disciplinary actions, the Sheriff’s Department obviously endorsed an unwritten policy, practice, and/or custom of indifference to the rights and safety of by standers during arrests and demanding instant compliance despite the fact that the vehicle was still running. The target of the arrest had no weapons, and had apparently done nothing more than, at most, fail to immediately follow the instructions of Deputy Williams. Any reasonable deputy would have made sure the bystanders were safe before undertaking violent actions against someone in such close proximity in a public place.
In Count Two, Ms. Vaught spells out in her complaint the trauma her daughter suffered from a getting a lung full of pepper spray and the child’s loss of appetite and nightmares.
Although Plaintiffs’ injuries to their eyes and respiratory systems were temporary, the same were extremely painful and the effects lingered for several days. Psychologically, the injures were more profound. Plaintiff Vaught sought to hold the Defendant Deputies responsible or at least secure an apology and assurance that this type of behavior would be punished. Instead, she met with official indifference to the assault she and her minor daughter suffered. Having lost her voice, she suffered, and still suffers from physical manifestations of her emotional distress including loss of appetite, loss of sleep, anxiety and stress. Similarly, H.Y. suffered from painful irritation to her eyes, nose, throat, and lungs in addition to headaches. More importantly, she suffered severe emotional trauma and now has a fear/distrust of males in general, and law enforcement and authority figures in particular. Her schoolwork suffered and she experienced loss of sleep, anxiety, and loss of appetite among other psychological symptoms.”
Count Three addresses the Cherokee County deputies’ unlawful assault and battery that in itself was reckless with absolutely no regard to other’s safety or welfare. Such disregard for human life is apparent in the County’s and Sheriff’s policymaking, therefore Ms. Vaught’s complaint shows the deputies’ actions that day meet the approval of Sheriff James Campbell. The fact is the Cherokee County sheriff never apologizes for anything his deputies engage in, whether it is beating those in custody, or his lead investigator caught red handed emailing lies about the Jacksonville police chief. Campbell’s policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has been in effect since the days he and convicted child pornographer Harold 'Bo' Scallon stood watch over the Rusk Youth Center. (Source: Cherokeean Herald, March 3, 1983) The word “accountability” does not exist in Cherokee County lingo.
Count Four holds the Townsquare media organization negligent for hiring incompetent security who put the entire event at risk, as was done during the 2004 Tomato Bowl riot. The city of Jacksonville was forced to settle with those sustaining injuries in that preventable Homecoming football game melee. The Jacksonville Police Department was present during the Mudstock event and offered no assistance according to Janette Vaught’s tort claim. However, she is not suing the city, only members of the Sheriff Department and ATV pageant organizers.
We shall see if the US Eastern District again refuses to hold Cherokee County accountable for its documented and ongoing civil rights violations. We shall see if these homegrown judges find another battered woman and her minor daughter to be Cherokee County’s throw away collateral damage, since an underpaid deputy’s apology is out of the question.
Jury selection begins this Monday, March 19 for another re-trial against Robert Fox. A mistrial was declared after the first attempt by Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth to once again circumvent the Texas Penal Code with the help of tainted grand and petit juries. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress, June 2, 2011 "Mistrial declared for Fox") Fox delivered a Notice to Sue for $30 million to the City of Jacksonville after his property was raided by police three times in a month period and accused of being a "terrorist."
The re-trial is slated for the following Tuesday March 27, 2012 after the jury plants are properly vetted and relatives of those Fox filed federal grievances against are culled from the pool. Then again, the trial is being held in Cherokee County where jurists lie under oath and jurors with dropped criminal charges vie to be seated after decades of ingratiation.
Even if you do not reside in Cherokee County and attempt to file a Civil Rights complaint in a neighboring county, District Attorney Elmer Beckworth will summon you in front of his friends sitting on his hand-picked juries. Prosecutors will call up their friends and relatives of those you are suing, and issue a warrant for your arrest. They will call you a “wanted federal fugitive” when you appear in court and re-arrest you on other trumped up charges. They will lock you in the Rusk, TX jailhouse and local judges will happily set your bail illegally beyond your ability to pay. They will raid your private property repeatedly in order to break you.
That is exactly what happened and is continuing to happen to former Jacksonville resident Robert J. Fox. Fox’s civil complaint against Beckworth and the City of Jacksonville was accepted by the US Eastern District and placed on the docket several years ago. (Source: Fox v. City of Jacksonville Texas et al Case No. 2:2010cv00158 TX Eastern District) This was not a government record that was tampered with.
Even when Cherokee County and City clerks refuse to accept any Notice to Sue, and you are forced to file your documents elsewhere, Elmer Beckworth, et al will file State criminal charges on you, claiming jurisdiction on a Federal matter. Cherokee County prosecutors and their willing accomplices will claim that they can bring charges against you, because you are suing them in Federal Court (Source: Fox v. City of Jacksonville Texas et al Case No. 2:2010cv00158 TX Eastern District) The 12th Court of Appeals in Tyler will rubberstamp this podunk county’s jurisdictional overreaching. As we and our readers have said before, be forewarned: Cherokee County is rogue, anti-American and out of control. These people make a living violating the law and people’s rights.
Rusk, TX:
Jury selection begins today for the Robert Fox retrial in Cherokee County district court. Elmer Beckworth refuses to recuse himself despite the fact he has answered Fox's federal complaint as a Defendant. Again tax dollars will be wasted trying to bamboozle folks that Fox committed felony “tampering with a government record” for delivering an Intent to Sue to the City of Jacksonville. One element of Fox’s federal complaint is the refusal of the County Clerk and Cherokee County constables to endorse and serve his petitions under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. A Tort Claim form is not required to serve the City of Jacksonville Risk Management office, as it has been served under class action by victims of police officer Larry Pugh's rape on patrol spree and Tomato Bowl riot.
Texas Rules of Civil Procedure
Rule 106. Method of Service
Unless the citation or an order of the court otherwise directs, the citation shall be served by any person authorized by Rule 103 by
1. delivering to the defendant, in person, a true copy of the citation with the date of delivery endorsed thereon with a copy of the petition attached thereto, or
2. mailing to the defendant by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, a true copy of the citation with a copy of the petition attached thereto.
Robert Fox has been arrested, incarcerated and indicted on one false charge after another, all of which have either been dismissed (Barratry), found Not Guilty (Possession of an Illegal Substance), or resulted in mistrial (Tampering with a Government Record). This after being called a “terrorist sympathizer” by the Jacksonville Police Department and repeatedly by local newspapers. Fox has spent a total of 457 days in Cherokee County jail after his bail was set unconstitutionally high and his personal effects paraded around during a staged press conference. Every single accusation levied on him has come from the Cherokee County district attorney and those he intends to sue. Fox claims his constitutional rights were violated during multiple open-ended Swat-style raids on his commercial property in Jacksonville. Three such raids in one month alone. Cherokee County has answered to these types of claims in federal court before, but because three raids in one month is so blatantly illegal, they must trump up something to justify their criminal conspiracy to violate Fox's rights. Robert Fox has an easily provable case of malicious prosecution, illegal search and seizure and unconstitutional practices.
Robert Fox
What prosecutor in any legitimate county would pursue made up charges against a man, simply because the individual filed a bona fide legal document accepted onto the US Eastern District court docket? When Robert Fox’s Intent to Sue paperwork was mailed from Smith County, Elmer Beckworth’s office did not ask the FBI to charge Fox with mail fraud. Why? Because they know no other county or federal court could easily stack a jury to convict an innocent man. No crime had been committed with paperwork that could have easily been thrown in the trash upon receipt. Instead, they vilify the Plaintiff in a Civil Rights suit with “sovereign citizen” rhetoric, as they did recently with Austin radio talk show host Randy Kelton. No actual crime has been committed by Fox’s paperwork against them. But crimes are continually being committed against Robert Fox in Cherokee County. The FBI and Texas Rangers in the area appear to have zero interest in Fox, or the outcome of justice one way or another.
Robert Fox relocated in the late 1990’s from the Dallas/ Fort Worth area to Cherokee County. He and his associates were not greeted with open arms after setting up a satellite branch of the House of Israel in downtown Jacksonville, TX, directly across from the fire station. It was common knowledge that members usually refused to properly identify themselves when stopped and often successfully challenge minor traffic and legal infractions. This is a BIG No No in Dogtown, USA. The House of Israel members claim to practice their sovereign God-given rights; some say they are just asking for it when they challenge the status quo. The City of Jacksonville knows this and like most small town bored cops, started escalating their random stops of House of Israel members walking to the corner store. Not only that, the ministry's downtown location was prime real estate for those wanting the out-of-towners to get the Hell OUT. They called them a “lightning rod for terrorism” but would deny they illegally tapped the church's phones.
House of Israel, Jacksonville, TX
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Prior to Robert Fox’s arrival to Jacksonville, TX, local member Barry Brooks was convicted of operating a dental practice without a license and fought the district attorney's office tooth and nail. Brooks held no punches embarrassing prosecutors in open court. And we all know that small town police forces are just political arms of the court house. Cherokee County wanted the House of Israel dissolved and punished. Barry Brooks’ adjacent property to the ministry hall allegedly contained expired dental antibiotics, and thus the excuse for multiple raids after-the-fact on Robert Fox’s section of the downtown rental plaza. Fox was present during the raids, placed under arrest and was forced to cough up bail money in escalating amounts. Cherokee County law enforcement has always operated like this.
A fishing expedition.
By an open-ended raid, we mean an illegal Search Warrant that offers no scope within the Affidavit; just grab what you can and use it anyway you can, as they did against Robert Fox. Jacksonville detective Jason Price showed Fox’s personal effects (none of which was illegal to own or suggested criminal activity) to the local media during a press conference. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress)
Jason Price, detective for the Jacksonville Police Department, held a press conference, Friday morning where he announced that a felony warrant had been issued for the arrest of House of Israel leader Robert Fox. Price also explained that his investigation had uncovered connections between Fox and known terrorists. Progress photo by Kelly Young (Source: Daily Progress)
During this televised press conference, the Jacksonville Police Department claimed Robert Fox to be a terrorist sympathizer because of his so-called “anti-government/ lawyer” leanings. Tyler TV stations and local sycophant newspapers were invited to spread the word that “a terrorist” named Robert Fox had links to “the Taliban and Timothy McVeigh.” (Source: KLTV July 25, 2008, "House of Israel Leader has Taliban link; draws Timothy McVeigh comparison")
He's the ringleader of an anti-government group, caught here in East Texas.
Now he's been linked to a major terrorist organization - the Taliban.
Robert James Fox was arrested in May by Jacksonville Police and then again in June. He bonded out, and is now wanted for another felony charge.
Jacksonville Police held a press conference today and walked us through Fox's history and what they see as his potential threat...
"We believe there is the same kind threat potential with Robert Fox, as there was with Timothy McVeigh," Detective Jason Price told KLTV 7. "It's a pressurized pot and it's hard to say when it's going to blow." (Source: KLTV)
East Texas media outlets ran with the story for several months, on the word of small town criminals attempting to divert attention to away from their own stinking corruption, murder and rape. This House of Israel fiasco was going on during the time the City of Jacksonville was settling multiple federal lawsuits of their former rapist cop Larry Pugh of the Jacksonville PD. Officer Pugh, linked to missing women in the area, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for attacking one of his victims after she went to federal authorities. (Source: Daily Progress)
Where was the press conference for Jacksonville PD Larry Pugh's missing victims? But we digress.
Robert Fox has never been a federal fugitive nor been wanted by the feds; furthermore the DOJ has never intervened to assist the city of Jacksonville or Cherokee County in their “sovereign citizen” lying dogshit. And that is exactly what it is. These people live in it and feed on it. The local media spreads it around.
Robert Fox and the House of Israel group have faced prosecution in the past for claiming religious rights when challenging minor traffic court cases, such as carrying passports to Heaven with “Elohim’s Kingdom of Israel” stamped on it. (Source: 766 F. Supp. 569 (1991) United States of America v. Robert James Fox, No. CR3-90-0288-H, United States District Court, N.D. Texas, Dallas Division, June 3, 1991) Fox’s own legal briefs are cantankerous and loaded with Biblical jargon that by design infuriates judges. No one would want to be on the receiving end of one of his Motions or lawsuits. If they were without legal merit, his court filings could be thrown in the trash or perhaps mailed back to him with a note instructing him to stick it up his ass and set it on fire--- in that order. Because Robert Fox was articulate in his federal complaint against Beckworth and the City of Jacksonville, et al they are retaliating by putting him on trial AGAIN for a bogus "tampering" charge, or "paper trail" as they call it. (Source: Daily Progress)
Sheriff James Campbell’s son-in-law was a juror on last year’s Robert Fox trial. For next week’s scheduled retrial, Elmer Beckworth does not want it leaked to the jury pool that he and James Campbell had to answer Fox’s Civil Rights complaint, because it was accepted and placed on the US Eastern District’s docket. Fox’s complaint was not summarily dismissed before all parties responded on the record. They should be recusing themselves and their kinfolk if it where a legitimate charge.
Parties in Fox’s federal complaint say he can’t file law suits and petition the government because a federal judge in Dallas labeled Fox a “vexatious litigant” back in 1993. The Cherokee County district attorney can not deny that Robert Fox’s civil rights have been constantly violated and the US Constitution trampled repeatedly; instead Elmer Beckworth responses to the civil rights suit claim that Fox has no right to recourse. Therefore anything Fox files is illegal (in Cherokee County), no matter where he files it. Elmer Beckworth’s retort to the US Eastern District does not deny Fox’s rights are being violated; Beckworth responded that Fox has no right to file any law suits. And what better way to settle a Civil Rights suit against the people you are suing, then by bringing fake criminal charges against the Plaintiff in a federal lawsuit? Cherokee County's Elmer Beckworth is being praised and patted on the back for implementing this violation of the letter of the law. They think Robert Fox deserves it--- to Hell with the Constitution.
Those in support of the District and County Attorney’s re-election campaigns are infuriated that the Robert Fox briefs mention Elmer Beckworth’s law school DWI and murdering drug informants such as Michael Harris who avoided prosecution. They want to ignore the decades’ worth of child molesters passed on the docket and given a few years probation living next door to them. They don’t care that a drug mule parolee named Brandon Robertson was released after being stopped with a gun and crystal meth, and went on to murder a Texas State Trooper 2 ½ weeks later. The City of Jacksonville cannot afford another round of civil rights suits after settling multiple class-action cases against rapist cop Larry Pugh. They don’t care that Craig Caldwell has spent the last 2 years accusing Pct. 3 Commissioner Katherine Pinotti of one made of up crime after another, while his predecessors had golf courses, private roads and ditches installed all over the county. (Source: KETKJan. 19, 2012, "County Attorney apologizes to KETK")
Those in favor of the status quo don’t care when their county officials are caught stealing hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and not one of them do 1 year in prison. They don't care when women go missing after showing up at the Rape Crisis center.
They expect to get away with murder because they always have. According to the Justices operating in the US Eastern District, the City of Jacksonville was not responsible for employing a rapist cop who drug women out to the cemetery while on patrol, and molested them at gunpoint. The City of Jacksonville is not responsible for the women who their police officer raped while on duty or those who went missing after reporting it. According to this bunch, the City of Jacksonville, TX is not responsible for the nine women who survived and came forward, including the victim who escaped to testify. (Source: Evelyn Lewis vs. Larry Pugh, Mark Johnson, City of Jacksonville*)
Accordingly to the same bunch, the City of Jacksonville is not responsible for the multiple raids and civil rights violations against Robert Fox and his friends passing through Cherokee County.
The City of Jacksonville, i.e. those in the community wanting the House of Israel property and the entire group removed by force, knows of the group’s tenacity and hard-headedness. Especially when it comes to the legal proceedings they complain most about, especially when they feel they are being done dirty. As stated earlier, Robert Fox has never been a “fugitive wanted on felony charges in Texas;” Fox has appeared to every single hearing, subpoena and summons he has been called to. Each time Robert Fox appeared to defend himself in Cherokee County’s courts, he has been charged again for another crime, ad nauseum, in order to stifle his civil rights suit.
There is no question that the entire Cherokee County jury pool knows who Robert Fox is, has heard about him, and have read about him in the paper. They all know he has filed civil complaints against the county. However they will never be instructed by the district judge that the Cherokee County district attorney's office has no federal jurisdiction to prosecute a piece of paper Fox filed in Smith County against Elmer Beckworth. A private citizen, as annoying as they may be, may file an Intent to Sue wherever and whenever they like in the United States of America. Fox's juries have been suborned to forget that fact.
After his multiple arrests in Cherokee County, Robert Fox was not released on his under his own personal recognizance; instead his bail was set unconstitutionally high and he was kept in the Rusk, TX jail for 235 days before his first hearing --- for a total of almost a year and half. In March 2009, a traveling judge found Fox not guilty of “possession of dangerous drugs” in the County Court at Law. Charges of barratry were also dismissed. The reasons for the escalating raids and his multiple arrests failed the test of legality.
If filing an Intent to Sue at the Jacksonville, TX city hall is “Tampering with a Government Record,” then why is Robert Fox’s civil rights complaint on the US Eastern District’s docket? Why was it accepted and reviewed? Why did Elmer Beckworth, the City of Jacksonville and local news outlet have to respond to it? Being locked in jail for over a year and half, raided at gunpoint for charges that were eventually dropped; and being called a "terrorist" is CRUEL and USUAL for them, i.e. TORTURE under the color of law elsewhere. What about the women tortured by Jacksonville patrolman/rapist Larry Pugh? What equity do they get from the bench? What about the families of the missing women and those murdered by Cherokee County drug mules and informants?
These judges and justices who rubber stamp this criminal activity don't just rely on their constituent equivocators to keep their pre-Civil Rights mentality alive and well; East Texas is teeming with rats and roaches crawling in and out of their back pockets. Hence, civil rights complaints get swept under the rug with the dung heaps they thrive in.
If nothing is done about this ongoing 21st Century corruption, the entire area should be economically quarantined, boycotted, closed off from the rest of the world (as they would prefer) and left to rot on the vine. There is not one entity working on this Robert Fox case that is not 10 thousand percent cognizant that Cherokee County is guilty of violating the law under the United States Constitution. Willfully, knowingly, openly and repeatedly.
March 31, 2012 update: Robert Fox’s 2nd trial began Tuesday March 27, 2012 and recessed early Wednesday March 28 due to Fox getting sick and requesting a continuance. (Source: Jacksonville Daily Progress “Trial session shortened after defendant falls ill” March 28, 2012) Fox's re-trial continues April 25, 2012.
It says a lot about a community when their local newspapers don’t want to be accessed by outsiders. Following other East Texas “news” agencies, the Jacksonville Daily Progress and Rusk Cherokeean Herald now require readers to pay and subscribe to their propaganda, in order to stave off outside scrutiny. Only a snippet of their articles will be viewable online to those linking to these papers, based upon the editors’ discretion and pressure from the Rusk, TX courthouse. The fact is small East Texas towns employ law enforcement and their familial informants to illegally tape record phone conversations, bug opponents' offices, hack emails, and even steal drugs to plant on innocent people. The reporters at the local newspapers are coddled with front row seats to every trial and grand jury, and some even get the chance to help monitor the lay population. Cherokee County papers know to tow the corrupt county line, or be culled from the district attorney's most favorite list.
Shelby County, TX:
Federal authorities out of Washington D.C. have cracked one of those deposed in the ongoing Tenaha, TX civil rights/"forfeiture scam" law suits. Shelby County Constable Precinct 4 Fred Walker has admitted in a federal affidavit that he and former City Marshal Rod McClure routinely bugged municipal offices as cover for their ongoing drug dealing. (Source: Longview News JournalFeb. 15, 2012) Walker admits in the statements to the FBI that he and McClure were stealing confiscated drugs from evidence lockers and staging fake break-ins at the City Marshal’s office. McClure and company were eventually blackmailed by one of their local drug dealers. Constable Walker and his Houston attorney denies the admissions were made. (Source: Houston ChronicleFeb. 15, 2012)
Small town law enforcement agencies have responded to the exposure in Tenaha and have apparently begun to cut off the phone services they are illegally monitoring. The Tyler Paper quickly reports non-existent Verizon phone outages are affecting “911 services” in the 2 most corrupt counties in greater East Texas, Cherokee and Rusk counties. (Source: Tyler Paper Phone Outages Affecting Some East Texas 911 Systems Feb. 16, 2012) The Daily Progress also reports that "Verizon wireless" outages somehow affect local landline phone services; Consolidated Communications, formerly the Lufkin Conroe Telephone Exchange, is the provider of landline (copper) residential phone service in Cherokee County and surrounding areas. Are they too currently dismantling their bugs?
Verizon is a wireless provider and does not offer landline service other than digital Voice over IP (fiber Internet) in areas of East Texas "reporting" outages. Secondly, it has no effect on 911 services provided by DETCOG. (Source: DETCOG Regional 911 Program) Embedded reporters should do a little fact checking when these sheriff departments are the spokesmen for local phone companies. There are no fiber optics for residential service in these small towns. They are however now under Federal scrutiny for the illegal phone drops, the ongoing drug trade and violation of civil rights. Corrupt law enforcement agencies are in direct control of all phone systems in their jurisdictions. Party lines are the method of choice for Cherokee County investigators; the goings on down the road in Tenaha, TX are just a drop in the bucket.
As we stated at the inception of this blog, travelers and businesses should never set foot into corrupt backwoods East Texas. Law enforcement, prosecutors and tenured public officials in this area openly violate Federal law and work hand-in-hand with their family members to rob and steal anything they can get their hands on. Those running for office who aren’t part of the family clique' will have their personal phone calls, postal mail and email hacked. Those who whistle blow against the corruption will be vilified in the local newspapers covering up the generational highway robbery. Some will be brought before a planted jury and accused of made-up crimes; some will be driven out of town by sexual blackmail and/or harassment. Others wind up dead in the nearby National Forests.
Travelers forfeit their privacy and safety in Cherokee County; they lose their wallets and their cars in neighboring Shelby County.
The Shelby County, TX corruption is a microcosm of what Federal authorities covering East Texas are aware of. Rural phones have been tapped by those holding the purse strings since the day they were installed by Ma Bell, from the payphones at the corner market, to Farmer Brown’s at the end of dirt road. USPS mail is opened with complete impunity by those assigned to do so. Now, even emails on county servers are hacked into as fodder for political rivals. What are people to think of prosecutors, investigators and judges who are not only cognizant of the systemic criminal activity going on in their neck of the Piney Woods, but who actively participate in it? --Who have benefited from it for decades and intend to pass it on to their political successors?
US 59, which runs through Shelby County, is known as a national drug corridor. US Route 69, another major drug trafficking route, runs north from Port Arthur through Angelina and Cherokee counties, to Tyler, TX and the DFW metroplex -- all the way to Minnesota. It is monitored by federal agencies and every Tom, Dick and Harry pseudo-cop along the way. The later are not just targeting drug traffickers; they are after innocent people's belongings.
Shelby County law enforcement is an example of how things operate in East Texas. Newspapers and reporters covering Cherokee County and surrounding areas will continue to do their best to convince their dedicated readers and advertisers the same has not been occurring for decades under their noses. When word begins to leak out about the criminal activity of public officials, these papers bury any reports by backdating and archiving the details, hiding them from the sunlight. They will only print what 'good Christian folks' they all are, with no knowledge that their own constables work as drug mules, a la' Cherokee County's Randall Thompson --sentenced to 10 years in 2006 for intent to distribute meth. (Source: Tyler PaperAug. 23, 2006)
Heck, in Cherokee County, the district judges and local newspapers didn't even know their own bailiff had been indicted in federal court --the same day they removed him from office for not showing up to work...never mentioning on the record Thompson had been busted by federal agents months earlier. (Source: Jacksonville Progress Court Date Set for Constable Removal Trial Jan. 11, 2006)
Shelby County District Attorney Linda Kaye Russell is also under DOJ investigation for allegedly offering bona fide drug runners leniency for forfeiture of their cash on hand to prosecutors. Under this practice, Shelby County collected over $800,000 in less than one year. Innocent motorists were also threatened with money laundering charges if they didn't turn over their property. Russell pleaded the 5th during an August 2, 2010 deposition in Nacogdoches County according to KTRE. (Source: Shelby County district attorney pleads fifth Aug. 3, 2010) The Tenaha civil rights class action suits still sitting on the Federal dockets are in response to the illegal search and seizure procedures of these county officials. The longer the cases are drawn out, the more revealing they become to those out of the region. You barely get a peep out the local newspapers.
The recent Associated Press article on Shelby County, Texas in its entirety:
Affidavit: Texas constable admits ordering bugging
Danny Robbins, Associated Press
Updated 05:23 p.m., Wednesday, February 15, 2012
DALLAS (AP) — A small-town Texas constable told the FBI he secretly bugged other officials' offices after they were accused of illegally forcing motorists to forfeit their cash, according to a search warrant affidavit.
The affidavit, based on interviews conducted by FBI agents and Texas Rangers, quotes Shelby County Constable Fred Walker as saying he authorized the installation of hidden surveillance cameras and digital recorders even though he didn't have legal authority. It also includes a statement from a witness who claims Walker helped organize a scheme to sell drugs seized from suspects.
It's just another chapter in a longtime drama in Tenaha, a town of 1,160 near the Louisiana border, where nearly $800,000 in cash seized from motorists stopped for traffic violations along U.S. Highway 59 has led to lawsuits and a federal criminal investigation of the county's former district attorney and other officials.
Walker, 53, was Tenaha's city marshal at the time the alleged bugging occurred. He was elected constable in 2010.
In a brief phone interview, Walker said he knew nothing about the affidavit, filed in U.S. District Court in Lufkin on Feb. 6. When asked if he arranged to have offices bugged, he hung up.
Walker's attorney, Bassey Akpaffiong of Houston, said prosecutors have told him to expect an indictment. Akpaffiong said Walker was never involved in selling drugs and never told the FBI he authorized the installation of secret listening devices.
Malcolm Bales, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, declined to comment.
The search warrant affidavit was filed as part of a federal case against the owner of a computer repair business in Tenaha. The business owner, Roderrette McClure, pleaded guilty Tuesday to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Authorities found the firearms after obtaining the warrant last August to search for hard drives and other computer devices on McClure's property.
According to the affidavit, McClure told authorities that Walker had him install surveillance cameras disguised as smoke detectors and hidden voice-activated digital recording equipment in the offices of Tenaha Mayor George Bowers and deputy city marshal Barry Washington. Walker said he wanted to "cover" himself over the traffic stops, most of which were conducted by Washington, McClure said in the affidavit.
Walker acknowledged in an interview the same day that he had authorized the installation of the devices in Washington's office and at City Hall, the affidavit states.
Washington and Bowers are among the defendants in a class action lawsuit asserting that authorities in Tenaha and Shelby County threatened innocent motorists, most of them black, with money laundering charges if they didn't forfeit the money they were carrying. Walker has been deposed as part of the suit, initiated in 2008, but isn't named as a defendant.
The Associated Press reported last October that the forfeitures, directed by District Attorney Lynda Kaye Russell, also allowed motorists who genuinely fit the description of drug runners or money launderers to receive light sentences or escape criminal prosecution altogether. Russell left her post at the end of 2011.
U.S. Highway 59, which runs from the U.S.-Mexico border to Canada, is one of the country's best-known drug-trafficking routes.
FBI agents have interviewed many of the motorists, and a federal grand jury in Tyler also has interviewed witnesses and collected evidence, according to individuals who have been questioned as part of the probe. The investigation is being headed by the Department of Justice's civil rights division in Washington.
The search warrant affidavit says the FBI and Texas Rangers began investigating Walker and McClure in August 2010 after Walker reported that 500 pounds of marijuana and other drugs were stolen from his evidence room. Investigators later thought the robbery had been staged, according to the affidavit.
In November 2010, Walker and McClure asked authorities to investigate extortion letters they received in which someone identified as "Jack Frost" sought money to keep quiet about selling drugs from the evidence room, the affidavit says. Investigators located a man who admitted writing the letters, and he said he had been recruited by McClure to sell marijuana and ecstasy, according to the affidavit.
The letter writer told authorities that McClure said he and Walker were stealing marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and hydrocodone from the room and selling it through other individuals, the affidavit says. The document quotes the man as saying McClure and Walker replaced the stolen marijuana with "fire bricks" and that the burglary was staged to cover for the missing drugs.
McClure's attorney, Lori Mack, did not respond to phone messages.
(Courtesy: Houston Chronicle via Associated Press 2012)
There is nothing inadvertent about the County Attorney and County Judge gaining access to (and carbon copying each other) a Commissioner’s emails before she reads them.
Cherokee County, TX:
County Attorney Craig Caldwell, following instructions from his handlers, has placed a target on Commissioner Katherine Pinotti. Caldwell and County Judge Chris Davis begin building their cases against the Commissioner before she even gets a chance to open her emails. The voting populace is to believe after decades of private improvements by Caldwell’s predecessors, Davis’ in-laws and their collective enablers, that the current Precinct 3 commissioner is the lone elected official who “may have broken the law.”
The next round of concocted controversy stems from Pct. 3 Commissioner Pinotti seeking budgetary advice from a private consultant and a Napa auto parts dealer in an attempt to reduce county expenses. The Commissioner’s Court has refused to pay for the consulting services of $1500. According to the County Attorney’s deliberate misinterpretation of the State’s Civil Code on competitive bidding, Commissioner Pinotti cannot negotiate county contracts. (Source: Cherokeean Herald Jan. 4, 2012)
After 30 + years of the generational corruption going on in Cherokee County, the county attorney's office tells the news media that a $1500 business consultant is illegal, but not this:
County employees and equipment building catfish ponds.
Bulldozing and graveling driveways for their kinfolks.
Building a golf course for a private club, a' la the Birmingham Golf Course.
Giving their buddies construction jobs for kickbacks, with zero bidding.
County credit cards and vehicles for personal use.
Hacked email correspondences between the vendor and Pinotti highlight the Jan. 5, 2012 interview of County Attorney Craig Caldwell by KETK reporters. According to Katherine Pinotti, she never received emails from a local parts dealer sent to her county email account; the same emails Caldwell and Judge Davis cite back and forth to each other and to the Cherokeean Herald. Pinotti was not even informed there was an issue paying her consultant until the Rusk, TX newspaper claimed she had done something illegal, in order to smear her again. Why does the Rusk Cherokeean refuse to fact check? KETK reporters did the minimal legal research when confronting the "argumentative" county attorney on his misapplication of the penal code.
Cherokee County doesn’t just hack emails; private and business calls and mail is intercepted for fodder for the District Attorney’s office. Their criminal logic is that if they claim to be "investigating a crime," then they have legal access to the county servers, payphones, mail and anything else they fill entitled to. They believe they own it all. What is Pinotti talking about on the phone that makes their blood boil?
The statutory limit for formal competitive bidding at the county level is $50,000. (Source: Texas Local Gov’t. Code §262.023) All purchases under $50,000 require informal quotes and shall be made by the purchasing agent or in Cherokee County's case, the Commissioner’s Court. Obviously a request to pay $1500 is under the statutory limit of the County Purchasing Act. Even services spelled out in the Texas Professional Services Procurement Act would be void and contrary to law if acquired through a bid basis; instead, professional services must be procured through the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process. (Source: Texas County Purchasing Association)
GOVERNMENT CODE
TITLE 10. GENERAL GOVERNMENT
SUBTITLE F. STATE AND LOCAL CONTRACTS AND FUND MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 2254. PROFESSIONAL AND CONSULTING SERVICES
SUBCHAPTER A. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Sec. 2254.003. SELECTION OF PROVIDER; FEES. (a) A governmental entity may not select a provider of professional services or a group or association of providers or award a contract for the services on the basis of competitive bids submitted for the contract or for the services, but shall make the selection and award: (1) on the basis of demonstrated competence and qualifications to perform the services; and (2) for a fair and reasonable price. (b) The professional fees under the contract may not exceed any maximum provided by law.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993. Amended by: Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1213, Sec. 14, eff. September 1, 2007.
.
All this legal minutiae is irrelevant in Cherokee County; no need to explain the law to a tainted jury pool. If Commissioner Pinotti’s maiden name was the same as the County Attorney’s predecessors or County Judge's in-laws there would be no controversy at all. In fact if she were related to the people who put these two in office, they would all be defending her and going after anyone who complained about it. The Cherokee County grand jury in concert with the district attorney is the weapon of choice against political rivals who don’t tow the corrupt county line. (Source: KETK May 4, 2001)
What ever happened to "all roads in the county need to be maintained by the commissioners...especially the ones leading to our hunting club and catfish ponds...while we're at it, let's build a private golf course with city employees and tax dollars for the County Attorney's Golf Club..."
“An estimated $3,000 in dirt, manpower and equipment to haul, spread and level dirt, as well as backhoe for cleaning out ditch lines has been invested by authority of the city council at the 9-hole golf course on U.S. Highway 69 adjoining the New Southern Motor Hotel." (Source: The Cherokeean, p. 1, October 26, 1978)
The Birmingham Golf Club golf course on the private property of the New Southern Motor Hotel in Rusk, TX was built by city employees for former County Attorney (and president) Charles Holcomb's private golf club. With all the criminal activity going on in Cherokee County to date, it is the only honest and open elected official who is currently guilty? Who do these criminals think they are fooling?
Cherokee County prosecutors are notorious for concocting charges against their political rivals to place doubts in voters' minds. At the same time local sex offenders and other low lifers vying for sweet deals move in and out of the Rusk, TX jail, providing dirt for their keepers. While the Cherokee County grand jury has been called against Commissioner Pinotti for paving Patterson Lane a.k.a CR 3427 and to thwart her cost cutting measures, county tax dollars are spent housing admitted child sex offenders.
Jacksonville, TX:
After admitting to raping a 14-year old girl and threatening to kill her if she told, 53-year old Richard Glenn Dishman has sat in the Cherokee County jail and on the criminal docket for over 2 years, no doubt spilling the beans on his cellmates and drug contacts in hopes of leniency. (Source: KLTV March 20, 2009)
Dishman, whereabouts unknown, faced up to 25 years after his July 2009 indictment and has a history of drug possession charges, burglary and plea bargains within the county. He has not been in front of a judge to face the music since making bail and there is the rumor of him cutting a deal. (Source: Cherokeean Herald July 22, 2009)
.Richard Glenn Dishman
The Jacksonville, TX resident is accused of molesting a neighbor child who inadvertently wandered into his garage “to get some ice cream for herself and her older brother. Mr. Dishman followed her into the garage and sexually assaulted her there.” Dishman confessed the crime to investigating Jacksonville PD officers according to all newspapers and television stations reporting the incident. (Source: Jacksonville Progress March 18, 2009)
Source:
2nd District Court, Cherokee County Criminal Docket; Case 17463;
AGG SEXUAL ASSAULT CHILD
THE STATE OF TEXAS vs DISHMAN, RICHARD GLENN
Filed 06/22/2009 - No Disposition
.
Apparently his services are still needed. As of January 2012, the Richard Dishman case has not been heard on the docket despite prosecutors having a rock solid molestation case against him. Instead, we've seen Cherokee County prosecutors spend your tax dollars conducting their personal vendettas as usual. Cherokee County voters have a choice this Spring who they want prosecuting criminals and who they want representing their interests. The county can remain corrupt, or move out of the realm of Third World politics.
It must be Christmas time in Cherokee County. Cherokee County Bar Association members pretend to run as opposing candidates to hedge votes away from viable office seekers potentially challenging the status quo during the upcoming primaries. Local newspapers repeat the facade to keep the cronyism alive and well. According to the liars, Cherokee County voters are supposed to believe that the Assistant District and Assistant County attorneys are actually vying for their bosses' positions by running against the incumbent who employs them. (Source: Tyler Paper, Incumbents Face Opposition In Coming Cherokee County Elections, Dec. 18, 2011) That would be like Joe Biden switching to the Republican Party to challenge President Obama in the general election. So far, Cherokee County incumbents are running unchallenged again.
Meanwhile like clockwork, local attorneys make up reasons to bill the taxpayers by “settling” legal issues made up to exploit legitimate public concerns. Their job is deflecting attention away from the generational corruption and bilking the public coffers.
First, bogus legal crisis are created within the local city councils for embedded attorneys to charge hourly rates; it is the taxpayer who foots the bills. These lawyers have a blank check to solve these "issues" of public concern, that are issues that they themselves create. ‘Opposing counsel’ play both sides of made-up legal arguments that have no basis in fact, instead of addressing WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING. For decades, they stir up scenario another scenario between each other to pay their car notes, mortgages and children's college tuition. With councilmen on board for the perpetual ruse, they drag out a hodgepodge of legal filings until their agreed amount of money is allocated. All parties involved time the intended resolution of their fabricated "issue" towards the end of the fiscal year, when attorney fees are buried in city and county budget reports.
Secondly, local governments employ unaccountable members of the Cherokee County Bar Association to conceal the nepotism. Their job is to steer the community’s attention away what is really going on, by creating a rabbit trail of drawn out legal minutiae or fictitious campaigns. The local newspapers are recruited to dumb down the process and put a final spin on the cover up. They never answer the basic questions such as "Who got the money and how much do these homegrown attorneys cost the taxpayer?" Or "Why is your so-called political opponent paying for your campaign?" It is all a money game to them.
The winners are the usual small town lawyers whose entire income comes from pubic sources, and therefore without oversight. After the smoke screen settles and the law is correctly interpreted, those on opposing sides can be found “on the same page.” The same page they were on from the beginning, between the sheets and behind closed doors.
What's the deal with these guys working hand-in-hand to earn a living, even as opposing parties in lawsuits and criminal cases? Their wives work at the same shops on the Rusk, TX square and downtown Jacksonville. They are officers of the same companies for tax abatement purposes. They carpool to church together and are on each other’s Christmas card list. For some, that relationship goes beyond the amiable and into the bedroom. Exchanging pictures of each other's wives in uncompromising positions keeps them on the same page and willing accomplices of the money grab. If a member of the Good Time Association steps out of line, they can expect to be sexually blackmailed with humiliating love letters, Glamour Shots and hotel receipts to their significant other or minister of their choice.
Meanwhile they also screw the county out of tens of thousands of dollars of public funds each year.
There is little fiscal oversight in the dark crevices of Cherokee County, Texas- just an engrained buddy system designed to sponge off the economic development of the county. A recent November 5, 2011 Daily Progress article “JEDCO’s accountability for nearly $1M in funds question” pretends to tackle the need for oversight.
JACKSONVILLE— Jacksonville city officials have provided little oversight of the Jacksonville Economic Development Corporation's handling of roughly $1 million annually in taxpayer money.
JEDCO's failure to get city council approval before awarding economic development grants to local businesses appears to violate state law.
The article goes on to further state,
The seven-member board is not elected and is accountable to the city council, according to JEDCO's founding documents.
The council is responsible for appointing members to the board and has the authority to remove members as well as reorganize or dissolve the corporation.
The Jacksonville Daily Progress asked five current and former city officials why the city has not fulfilled its obligation to ensure JEDCO follows state law, but none would answer on the record. (Source: Daily Progress, Nov. 5, 2011)
It is a moot point that a handful of people call the shots of where to spend $1 million of taxpayer dollars. JEDCO “volunteers” are appointed by the Jacksonville city council who (taxpayers are to believe) ironically were demanding oversight of their appointees (i.e. lovers and kinfolk). (Source: Jacksonville Progress, JEDCO, city struggle lasted more than a year, Nov. 19, 2011)
Yet the city council and local newspapers never ask to see the attorney bills nor answer the question “WHO GOT THE MONEY???”
Furthermore, if it is within the city charter to manage a quasi-government organization such as an economic development corporation, then why do attorneys need to rehash and re-bill for the same old ground for over a year? They don't need to because the "city struggle" between JEDCO and city attorneys is only a means for these entities to milk the taxpayer. The same people have their fingers in the local school systems as well.
Another of Cherokee County’s institutions of higher learning, whose budget consists entirely of government Student Loan grants and "gifts," cannot pass the financial responsibility test of Federal Student Aid programs because they won't keep the money in reserve. (Source: Daily Progress, Dec. 9, 2011) KETK reports that Lon Morris Jr. College, located in Jacksonville, TX , delayed paying its staff for the umpteenth time this year. (Source: KETK, Lon Morris College delays paychecks again, Dec. 5, 2011)
Local newspapers con their readers by suggesting the current economy has something to do with teachers not being paid at the college. (Source: Tyler Paper, Some Lon Morris employees paid late, Dec. 6, 2011) Lon Morris continues to have its finances out of compliance, while at the same time being propped up by the local media as a viable Christian alternative to neighboring Tyler Jr. College. Since 2010, Lon Morris faculty continues to have their paychecks in limbo (Source: Tyler Paper, Dec. 6, 2011) while the school's enrollment has doubled. The school continues to run on a deficit on the books and spends the Financial Student Aid deposits into the red. Where is the money going?
Earlier this year, KETK went to the Lon Morris College grounds in Jacksonville to interview employees and faced Cherokee County's typical cult-like silence.
We found that employees and students alike are concerned about the finances at Lon Morris. When we went to the college, we were quickly informed by officials that employees were told not to say a word.
One student, Theodore Lloyd, says, "I need to know if this school is going bankrupt because I need to stop putting my money into it."
Why not try asking the Lon Morris Board of Trustees to do an internal and public audit? Surely members of Cherokee County's CPA association would like a shot at billing the taxpayer for services rendered. The fact is the college's "financial obstacles," as it is spun, are not due to any bona fide economic challenge. According to the college's webpage, 88% of Lon Morris students are on scholarships and 95% are on Federal Financial Aid.
In 2010, Lon Morris awarded over $1 million in financial aid to a student body of less than 1000. (Source: Wikipedia) Despite this, the college will have to submit a letter of credit within 30 days to the DOE that it will keep at least 10% of the Financial Student Aid money in reserve and submit to administrative oversight. The Department of Education scores Lon Morris as "not financially responsible." (Source: Tyler Paper, Dec. 13, 2011)
US Department of Education crime data also shows the 2 year college to have a low student retention and graduation rate, as well as a "relatively unsafe place" to go to school. (Source: American School Search) Quite the opposite from the spin promoted by local newspapers; these Lon Morriscrime stats were never mentioned: between 2007 and 2009 there were 13 on-campus burglaries, 4 robberies, 2 aggravated assaults and 4 stolen vehicles. (Source: KLTV, East Texas college struggles with gang problem, Sep. 15, 2010) 11 students were expelled from the college last year after a gang related shooting. (Source: Daily Progress, LMC shooting still being investigated, Sep. 14, 2010)
In May 2011, the US Department of Education also found that Lon Morris was in violation of Federal Aid distribution requirements by holding students' financial aid checks over 2 weeks after receiving them from the government. No doubt deposited in the First State Bank to draw a little interest off of. (Source: Daily Progress, LMC violates federal aid regulation, May 18, 2011) In Cherokee County there is no accountability for those holding the purse strings.
It doesn't matter if the money comes from inflated property taxes, unreported Sales Tax revenue, stealing it out of people's mail, bogus farm claims or Federal tuition assistance programs, it won't appear on the county books because it will be in these people's personal bank accounts.
To whom is the money going? In Cherokee County it goes to the families of these parasites whose spouses work together and share the same gene pool. They are business partners through and through, easily spotted divvying up gifts of insurance payouts and pretending to not only be opposing counsel, but political rivals.
As a footnote, Lon Morris College has been placed on a 12-month public sanction by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS COC) for "significant financial and accreditation noncompliance." (Source: KETK, Dec. 22, 2011)
