Live By The Sword...
(Texas • Crime)
Consider the poor Texas county district attorney. When your main task is trying and convicting the criminal element, surely the job is rife with potential for ruffling feathers and angering the constituency. In fact, one has only to pay a quick Google visit to appreciate the frequency with which the office holder is sued.
Texas sheriffs, by virtue of the nature of their offices, also get sued all the time. When they do, their respective county governments foot the bill. Otherwise, who could afford the job?
But, by way of a ruling that seems to have garnered no media attention whatsoever, Attorney General Greg Abbott officially opined last week that, in the event of lawsuit, Texas district attorneys should expect no government help with their legal bills at all.
Perhaps the reader would find it difficult to dredge up pity for the object of Abbott’s opinion. After all, (as reported in some detail here) Shelby County District Attorney Lynda Russell stands accused of helping police confiscate $1 million or more – $2,000 to $5,000 at a time – from hapless dark-skinned motorists driving through the tiny town of Tenaha with too much cash at the wrong time.
OK, this is America, where all accused are presumed innocent until proven otherwise, and Russell has not been proven guilty of anything. But the plaintiffs say it went something like this: Police would see someone with dark skin driving a nice car. They’d be pulled over. Either the inside of their vehicle smelled like marijuana or police said it did, and they would be searched. If it turned out they possessed a significant amount of cash, they’d generally be taken somewhere and told that unless they forked over the money, they’d be jailed on charges of money laundering.
Then, the confiscated money would be put into a “seizure fund” that Russell maintained in her office.
One of the lawyers for the nine current plaintiffs in the case, now being prepped for class-action status, told me it appears Russell “was just using that for her personal money.” Russell herself never returned my calls, but said concisely in court records that none of the accusations against her are true.
Abbott’s office already had informed Russell once that she should expect no legal defense help from the state in her case. But she enlisted one of her assistants to seek another AG’s opinion after Shelby County commissioners decided they didn’t want to spend any local taxpayers’ money whatsoever in Russell’s defense.
So it is that Assistant Shelby County DA Kenneth Florence argued that some government entity surely should pay for Russell’s defense but, if not, then she really ought to be able to use some of the money she is alleged to have helped confiscate from motorists in order to defend herself from their charges that she helped confiscate their money.
Abbott was unimpressed with the argument:
“A county commissioners court has no duty to provide for the defense of a district attorney pursuant to Local Government Code section 157.901. The state is not obligated to indemnify a district attorney under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code sections 104.001 and 104.0035. A district attorney is not authorized to utilize forfeiture funds under Code of Criminal Procedure article 59.06©(1) to pay for the district attorney’s legal defense,” he said. “Very truly yours, Greg Abbott.”
Now, while this turn of events might seem somewhat karmic if applied merely to Russell while simultaneously ignoring the American presumption that she walks into court innocent, it brings to mind whatever that phrase is about using an ax instead of a scalpel when applied to all the rest of the district attorneys in the state of Texas.
Texas district attorneys, it would now seem, have been left hanging out to dry. If you’re rich and you want to mess with a DA for whom you have no love, all you have to do is concoct a lawsuit, file a cause of action and a few pleadings and motions and such, and watch as your opponent’s personal fortune erodes away.
Because, lawsuits are costly. For instance, Russell and the Tenaha mayor and police defendants in the case not only have to pay several attorneys, they hired former somewhat famous Travis County Sheriff Margo Frasier as an expert witness, in an apparent attempt to dissuade the judge in the case from declaring that it could go class-action.
Frasier said it should not.
“Given the facts of the various plaintiffs’ stops, searches and seizures, it does not appear that they will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class,” she said in a report to the court. “For instance, in some of the cases, there was the presence of the smell of burnt marijuana detected by the officer upon initial approach of the vehicle; in some of the cases, marijuana was found in the vehicle; and in some of the cases, the occupants admitted to possession of marijuana.”
You’ll laugh when I say this, because it’s probably pretty obvious, but I am not a lawyer. So I don’t quite grasp all the complexities of the former sheriff’s contention that people can’t join together in a class-action effort if some of them drove cars that contained the odor of marijuana, while others drove cars that actually contained the stuff. Perhaps coming into close proximity of the illegal substance prohibits one de facto from participating in a class-action suit, although I hasten to add that, as one of the plaintiff’s attorneys noted, none of his clients ever were charged with possession of marijuana in the first place.
Anyway, the point of bringing up former Sheriff Frasier was to illustrate the potential cost of litigation, by way of noting that she charged the defendants in the case $4,050 for an 18-page report that contained about 15 pages of resume.
My only immediate conclusion from all of this is, even if I were in possession of a law degree and a severe lack of clients, I don’t think I’d be contemplating a run for district attorney any time soon.
There are 8 million stories in the Texas Outback; this has been one of them.
→ B.Dunn, Jan 23, 2010, 09 56 am
Define "Safe"
(Crime • Fort Bend County)
As the reader may have gathered by now, city fathers at nearby Sugar Land are exceedingly public-relations conscious. Today, for instance, I received five email press releases, one of which noted that the city now has a Twitter account.
My favorite, though, was the one declaring “Sugar Land has been named the 11th-safest city in America, a distinction based on an analysis of FBI crime statistics.” It turns out that something called CQ Press gathers publicly available FBI statistics each year and turns them into an opportunity for America’s cities to brag and, one supposes, purchase a few bound copies for city government coffee tables. Lots of promotional possibilities all around.
But you know what they say about statistics. You can throw ‘em into a big paper sack, whap ‘em against the wall and bend ‘em around to mean darn near anything. (That is what they say about statistics, isn’t it?).
Now, I don’t mean to infer Sugar Land doesn’t have fewer violent crimes per 100,000 population than many other cities its size. That we know of. Uh-uh.
All I’m saying is it has to be just a tad humiliating for a municipality to allege it’s one of America’s safest when, less than two weeks earlier, its very own mayor stepped out of his own car in his own driveway only to be greeted by a man who pushed a gun against His Honor’s head. Said gunman then, by the way, went on to not only rob the mayor, but also made him crawl underneath his vehicle, apparently just because he could. Many of the sordid details are here, although you’ll have to use your own imagination to gauge how much fun it’s been to work as a Sugar Land patrol officer these days.
Now that’s security we can believe in.
→ B.Dunn, Nov 30, 2009, 04 52 pm
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Psychic Burglar Predicts Own Arrest
(Crime • Texas)
They say Guadalupe Cantu has a gift – a sixth sense that can foretell trouble before it drops out of the sky and grabs you by the arm.
Unfortunately, he also entirely lacks the ability to practice self-restraint, or so it appears.
Police say the 37-year-old Rosenberg man broke into the local Travis Elementary School without an appointment, at about 11 p.m. Sunday. It was clear that the school had been burglarized, clear that two radios were missing and, after peeking at security camera tape, clear that Cantu had been roaming the halls that night.
The Rosenberg Police Department informs us that Cantu was so well known to officers on the scene, they were able to recognize him in the video and even recalled his current address off the tops of their heads.
They rushed over to Cantu’s Sixth Street home “where he was found sitting on the porch,” the department said in a statement. “Once he saw the officers, he ran into the home and was followed by police.”
The cops surrounded the place, then searched the residence and found Cantu in a closet. “I knew ya’ll were coming,” he said, and surely the hairs on their arms must have stood at attention even as he proceeded to confess his misdeeds.
Yet the police, who recovered the wayward radios, must also have wondered: if this guy knew we were coming, why did he go through with the burglary in the first place? Or at least, why didn’t he go have a late breakfast at the Waffle House and avoid the bust?
It’s like that old joke where you dial up the town’s Psychic Healer (and in Rosenberg that would be on the south side of U.S. 90A near its intersection with State Route 36). When she answers, you say “Why’d you let the phone ring?”
Get it?
→ B.Dunn, Sep 22, 2009, 08 15 am
Defending the Tenaha Shake-down
(Texas • Crime)
(The original version of this story appeared in Harvey Kronberg’s Quorum Report.)
I have some grown-up children living in Arkansas, so periodically I find myself driving north on U.S. 59 out of Houston, headed for Texarkana and the state line. Among the little Texas towns in between is tiny Tenaha, with probably fewer than 1,100 residents, a couple of gas stations and a red light.
Possibly in part because I am what’s known as a white man, I never used to give Tenaha much thought as I passed through – other than to wish that the highway department would build a little loop around the town so I didn’t have to slow down for the light.
It turns out my wishes for a Tenaha detour have long been shared by others. Last year, the town gained national notoriety over allegations police systematically stop non-white motorists and seize their money and vehicles.
According to records from a federal lawsuit filed by seven African-Americans and one European-American in July 2008, Tenaha and Shelby County officials stopped dozens, if not hundreds, of mostly black drivers and passengers since at least 2006. Many of those found to be carrying significant amounts of cash were threatened with arrest on money laundering charges.
Those threats dissolved, however, when travelers signed papers agreeing to allow their money and property to be forfeited, the suit says. One plaintiff’s attorney estimated that city and Shelby County officials seized about $2 million over two years.
Now, add insult to the allegations of injury.
Shelby County District Attorney Lynda Russell, accused in the suit of directly participating in the “stop and seize” scheme, has asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office for permission to use money from the “asset forfeiture” fund she controls to pay for her legal defense.
“The most polite word I can use is ‘ironic,’” plaintiffs’ attorney Timothy Garrigan told me the other day. “They essentially committed highway robbery, and now she wants to use the booty to defend what she’s done.”
Russell, who didn’t return phone calls seeking comment for this post, has fallen on hard times lately, at least when it comes to finding someone to pay for her lawyers.
Shelby County commissioners won’t authorize money for her legal defense in the search-and-seizure suit, she said in an Aug. 25 letter to the Texas AG’s office. The commissioners’ position is, her salary is paid by the state of Texas, so the state should foot the bill for her defense.
But perhaps national publicity surrounding the lawsuit has turned the issue into a political hot potato. Texas Deputy Attorney General David Morales also rebuffed Russell’s request for representation.
“I understand that David Talbot, Chief of our Law Enforcement Defense Division, contacted you and advised you that under the circumstances of this case, we are not able to extend representation to you,” Morales said in a letter to Russell.
Among those circumstances, according to court and police records, is that of the lead plaintiff: At about 12:45 p.m. on Aug. 31, 2007, James Morrow, then 27, an African-American Pine Bluff, Ark., resident, was driving alone in his black 1995 Ford Explorer when Tenaha Deputy Marshall Barry Washington stopped him for “failure to drive in a single marked lane.”
In a police report, Washington said he smelled burning marijuana, and asked Morrow if he’d been smoking any.
“Morrow just laughed and said ‘no.’ Deputy Washington noticed several burns in seat upholstery and signs of marijuana use,” the police report said.
Morrow was ordered out of his car and Washington searched it. Then Shelby County Precinct 4 Constable Randy Whatley arrived with a police dog, and also searched the car.
“Defendant Washington asked Plaintiff Morrow if he had any money,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff Morrow conceded he had about $3,900 in his wallet. Defendants Washington and Whatley then seized, without legal justification, approximately $3,969 as well as two cell phones from Plaintiff Morrow.”
The police report says most of the money seized from Morrow was found on the console inside the SUV, not Morrow’s wallet, and was “wrapped in rubber bands.” Also, according to the report, Morrow “admitted to having, and has, an extensive history of transporting narcotics.” Police reports relating to stops of other plaintiffs in the suit also suggest people in the vehicles were smoking marijuana, and that the large amounts of cash seized from plaintiffs might be used to make drug buys.
In Morrow’s case, neither Washington, Whatley nor Whatley’s police dog found any narcotics in his SUV. But Morrow was arrested for money laundering and taken to the Shelby County constable’s office. The SUV followed behind, being towed by a driver for Mark Odom’s Wrecker Service.
Washington and a city secretary then “attempted to record the signs of marijuana use” in Morrow’s SUV, such as “marijuana seed burnes (sic) in floor carpte(sic), marijuana seed burns in upholstery and the attitude of the suspect, which was abusive.” That attitude notwithstanding, no marijuana was discovered in his vehicle.
At this point District Attorney Russell apparently arrived at the constable’s office. According to the lawsuit, she and Washington told Morrow “they would hold him prisoner and prosecute him for money laundering unless he would agree to forfeit the $3,969. Under this duress and these threats, defendants Washington and Russell coerced Plaintiff Morrow to execute documents memorialising the forfeiture, and released him, and warned him to not hire a lawyer or try to get his money back.”
Unfortunately for Russell, Washington and Whatley, Morrow did hire lawyers, who promptly named them as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Also named are Tenaha Mayor George Bowers and Shelby County District Attorney Investigator Danny Green.
Among other plaintiffs in the case are Jennifer Boatwright, a 33-year-old white woman from the Houston area, and Roland Henderson, a 38-year old black man, who were traveling through Tenaha in a rented Mercury Montego with their two young children at about 8:20 p.m. on April 26, 2007.
According to a police report, Washington and Whatley, who were on patrol, “observed a northbound silver car driving in the left lane for over a half mile without passing and crossing over white line.”
The car was stopped, the odor of marijuana allegedly was detected and a search “revealed a glass marijuana pipe in the center console as well as a large bundle of U.S. currency,” the police report states.
The two were detained and interrogated by Washington and Green, the DA inspector, according to the lawsuit. Then Green threatened to charge Boatwright and Henderson with money laundering “and to take their children and put them in foster care” if the two refused to sign papers “to authorize the seizure,” the lawsuit says. “Under coercion, Plaintiffs Boatwright and Henderson complied.”
While all the plaintiffs in the lawsuit had thousands of dollars seized from them, attorneys in the case say they don’t think police were tipped that particular motorists were traveling with large amounts of cash. Rather, they believe it’s more likely a large number of motorists were stopped, and only those with a sizeable amount of cash or other valuables were detained.
For instance, one Houston man, also an African-American, told plaintiffs’ lawyers that he had an elderly, sick relative in Arkansas, and his family pooled their money so that he could drive up and visit her once or twice a month.
He took U.S. 59, the main route from Texas to Arkansas, each time he traveled, and when he passed through Tenaha, “he got stopped every time,” attorney Garrigan said. The stops were so frequent, the man began carrying a tape recorder with him to record the incidents. But whether because he didn’t have much money with him, or for some other reason, police never detained the man.
For her part, Russell denies in court documents, without elaborating, all of the allegations made against her in the suit.
But Garrigan believes that she not only participated directly in a scheme to separate black motorists from their cash, “it appears she was just using that for her personal money.”
A partial accounting of the seizure funds maintained by Russell’s office shows money forfeited by people driving through Tenaha went to pay for district attorney “Christmas parties, parades, rodeos” and even charitable contributions ostensibly made by Russell herself, he said.
“She would give money to a local child advocacy organization,’ Garrigan said, “and then reimburse herself from the seizure fund.”
But before using seized money to pay for her own legal defense in a lawsuit accusing her of unconstitutionally seizing black citizens’ cash, Russell asked permission from the state attorney general.
No decision on that request has yet been made.
“We are surprised to see that she’s not being represented by the attorney general’s office,” Garrigan said. “I think it would be very ironic if the state refused to use their own resources to represent her, but allowed her to use the resources she essentially stole.”
→ B.Dunn, Sep 09, 2009, 01 44 am
