A drop in filed felony criminal cases in 2009 doesn’t tell the whole story about the crime rate or crime trends in Washington County, authorities say.
Most of the crimes in the county are committed by people who live outside the county, Washington County Sheriff J.W. Jankowski said.
“We are in a prime area between Austin and Houston,” Jankowski said. “In 2008, we picked up a guy involved with a lot of burglaries. He would come through Washington County, case the area, commit his crime and go back to Houston.
“We are just vulnerable with easy access.”
The best way to fight this is to be more aware of surroundings and don’t hesitate to call 911 if you see any thing suspicious, Jankowski said.
“We are starting a lot of neighborhood watches and anyone can contact Damon Wegner at the sheriff’s office for information on starting a program,” Jankowski said.
The caseload for the sheriff’s office went up to 962 cases for 2009 from 873 cases in 2008. These include felony and misdemeanor crimes. District courts handle the felony cases.
“A lot of this has to do with the economy,” Jankowski said. “People are struggling to make ends meet, and the drug pushers are making easy money and using juveniles to push their stuff.”
District Attorney William Parham agreed with Jankowski. He thinks the economy plays a big role in crime rates.
“The economy of the county and the country certainly does affect the crime rate,” Parham said. “But crime is also cyclical. Family violence goes up around January and February when the Christmas bills are due.”
Weather has a lot to do with rising or falling seasonal crime, Parham said.
If a holiday is over a long, hot weekend then more people will be pulled over for a DWI, he said.
“Right now, the economy is the big thing,” Parham said. “People losing jobs will do things they normally wouldn’t do.”
But over the past 10 years the trend shows felony crimes has increased, except for a few odd years.
The total number of crimes went up for 2001-03, 2005 and 2007-08. Parham said these upward trends have something to do with the economy, but also the district attorney’s office would process any case that came through the door.
“Sometimes cases are filed that shouldn’t be filed, or they were filed as felonies and not misdemeanors,” Parham said. “The District Attorney’s job is to look at every case individually to see if there is an offensive.
“We don’t charge high in hopes for pleading low. We charge for the crimes committed, not the ones that we have to reach for.”
Parham took office as district attorney of Washington and Burleson counties in January 2009. He was also the assistant district attorney for Washington County from 2000-04.
Washington County doesn’t have many violent offenders, Parham said. It does have its share, but the county isn’t overburdened with an exhorbitant violent crime rate, he said.
“The law enforcement we have here, like the Brenham Police Department and the sheriff’s department, is proactive and that helps us,” Parham said. “There are a lot of criminal cases made on basic traffic stops.”
Routine checks during traffic stops often find subject wanted on warrants, including in other counties.
“They are wisely proactive,” Parham said. “The officers are not out there writing a bunch of tickets.”
Probation rates may be another cause in crime rising, Parham said. When people are handed probation they are less afraid about going to prison, he said.
“This is sending the wrong message,” Parham said. “Why are we wasting time with people who won’t make probation? I don’t try to bargain with probation and if the crime is serious enough, I don’t offer it.
“They will have to get it from a judge or a jury because they are not getting it from me.”
But putting more people in prison is not going to bring down the crime rate, Parham said, if the district attorney’s office doesn’t go after the professional criminals who escape the system and continue to commit crimes.
He said helping parolees to go straight after they have served their time has a big impact on the overall crime rate.
“There are individual successes with adjusting back into society,” Parham said. “It can be done but it depends on the person.”
There are programs that help parolees, Jankowski said. The Texas Workforce Commission and temporary agencies try to find them a job, and the parole officers have the information the parolee needs to restart his life.
“But that means they have to get away from what sent them to prison in the first place,” Parham said. “They have very little chance of changing anything if they remain in the same place doing the same thing.
“If they get a soft sentence then they don’t get the message, but if they get a tougher sentence based on the crime then we are sending the message that if they commit a crime they will go to jail.”
Parham said he doesn’t mind sending criminals to jail, but he wants to make sure that he has the elements of the offense to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person deserves prison time.
“The last thing I want to do is put an innocent person in prison,”
Source
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Excerpts from recent Illinois editorials
You may soon be hearing a lot more from your favorite drugmaker or bank about which political candidates it favors and why.
That's the upshot of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on Thursday. The court in a 5-4 ruling overturned a century of law and said that corporations enjoy freedom of speech, including the right to bankroll political speech through paid advertising.We understand the deep concern about this ruling. Bank of America and Pfizer have a lot more money than you do, and that means they can speak more loudly than you can at campaign time. A corporation with the will and the deep pockets could overwhelm a candidate it doesn't like with negative ads.
The bottom line, though: We're not afraid of information. We trust voters to sift through political messages, consider the source, and vote their best judgment.
It's not as though corporations don't already influence politics. They bankroll campaigns through political action committees, those though do have spending limits.
So what now? Will you start to see candidate endorsements on the back of Wheaties boxes? Probably not. But you probably will see more efforts by companies large and small to get their views and their candidate preferences across to voters. (Direct donations by companies to candidates' campaigns are still barred.) If Motorola thinks Pat Quinn shouldn't be governor because of his stance on, say, texting while driving, then you may hear about that.
We suspect this means that candidates will have less control of the message in their campaigns. They're going to have new competition. Those with long memories will recall when then-Sen. Chuck Percy had to contend with a California businessman who bankrolled ubiquitous ads in 1984 that compared Percy to a chameleon.
We suspect this also means there will be pressure to raise the caps on how much candidates themselves can raise and spend. Those caps should be raised, or abolished.
Some analysts predict a flood of corporate political spending, with companies creating slick spots or hogging the air to make their case. But don't be so sure about that. If anything, corporate influence may become more transparent than it is now. A company that pours money into a campaign to back one candidate or slap another candidate, or that steps out in public to offer its views on an incendiary issue at campaign time, risks a backlash. It could lose a lot of customers who disagree with its views.
Take note: What the Supreme Court on Thursday allowed corporations to do in federal elections, they have always been able to do in Illinois elections. Yet we have not seen corporations mount their own campaigns for or against state candidates here.
In a dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said the majority decision "threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation." We'd like to think democracy is stronger than that.
Source
That's the upshot of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on Thursday. The court in a 5-4 ruling overturned a century of law and said that corporations enjoy freedom of speech, including the right to bankroll political speech through paid advertising.We understand the deep concern about this ruling. Bank of America and Pfizer have a lot more money than you do, and that means they can speak more loudly than you can at campaign time. A corporation with the will and the deep pockets could overwhelm a candidate it doesn't like with negative ads.
The bottom line, though: We're not afraid of information. We trust voters to sift through political messages, consider the source, and vote their best judgment.
It's not as though corporations don't already influence politics. They bankroll campaigns through political action committees, those though do have spending limits.
So what now? Will you start to see candidate endorsements on the back of Wheaties boxes? Probably not. But you probably will see more efforts by companies large and small to get their views and their candidate preferences across to voters. (Direct donations by companies to candidates' campaigns are still barred.) If Motorola thinks Pat Quinn shouldn't be governor because of his stance on, say, texting while driving, then you may hear about that.
We suspect this means that candidates will have less control of the message in their campaigns. They're going to have new competition. Those with long memories will recall when then-Sen. Chuck Percy had to contend with a California businessman who bankrolled ubiquitous ads in 1984 that compared Percy to a chameleon.
We suspect this also means there will be pressure to raise the caps on how much candidates themselves can raise and spend. Those caps should be raised, or abolished.
Some analysts predict a flood of corporate political spending, with companies creating slick spots or hogging the air to make their case. But don't be so sure about that. If anything, corporate influence may become more transparent than it is now. A company that pours money into a campaign to back one candidate or slap another candidate, or that steps out in public to offer its views on an incendiary issue at campaign time, risks a backlash. It could lose a lot of customers who disagree with its views.
Take note: What the Supreme Court on Thursday allowed corporations to do in federal elections, they have always been able to do in Illinois elections. Yet we have not seen corporations mount their own campaigns for or against state candidates here.
In a dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said the majority decision "threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation." We'd like to think democracy is stronger than that.
Source
Sunday, November 15, 2009
La Porte parolee charged in head-on fatal collision
A La Porte man with four prior drunken driving convictions who was paroled from prison was charged Thursday with criminally negligent homicide for a head-on crash that killed another motorist on Genoa Red Bluff Road.
Rodney Craig Price, 47, is being prosecuted as a habitual offender because of his prior convictions and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of the charge, said Harris County assistant district attorney Ryan Patrick.
A criminal complaint accuses Price, a crane operator, of driving on the wrong side of the two-lane road when the crash occurred Feb. 11, killing Troy Augst, 30, of the Sagemont area of southeast Houston.
Two witnesses told Houston police that Price was trying to pass other vehicles when he veered into the oncoming lane of traffic before the collision, the complaint shows.
Price remains at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center under police guard and has been ordered held without bond once the hospital releases him. He is in good condition with broken ribs and a fractured ankle, police said.
He declined to comment when reached in his hospital room.
The victim’s mother expressed outrage that Price, who has done three stints in prison, had been paroled for a second time in 2007.
“If he had been in jail, my son would still be alive today,” Sharon Augst said. “Who makes the decision that this man can be released and get out and kill my son?”
Police noticed an odor of alcohol on Price’s breath after the crash two weeks ago, but blood tests revealed his blood alcohol concentration was 0.02, below the legal limit of 0.08, the complaint shows. Authorities are still testing Price’s blood for the presence of drugs, Patrick said.
James Landry Jr. of Baytown stopped to help after the crash. Landry stayed with Augst, a 1997 Dobie High School graduate, who was trapped inside the wreckage of his truck. Landry, who placed a hand on Augst’s shoulder, recalled the injured man’s last words were, “Please help me.”
Price, who has a record of 16 arrests in Harris County dating back to 1982, was being supervised by a parole officer and was supposed to remain on supervision until 2011, records show.
Each of Price’s four DWI convictions — in 1997, 1992, 1990 and 1986 — put him behind bars. His last DWI arrest, in which he was also charged with retaliation for threatening to kill a La Porte police officer, landed him a 12-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to both charges, records show.
He was paroled four years later in March 2002, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said. His parole was revoked in 2004 after he was arrested for the aggravated assault of his sister, who suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung, according to a La Porte Police Department report.
Price pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of misdemeanor assault and returned to prison for another two and a half years. He was paroled again in March 2007.
Price’s 16-year-old daughter called Augst’s family the day after the crash to express her sorrow for Augst’s death, said the victim’s brother, Eric Wilcox. Price’s family confirmed to the Chronicle that the teenager made the phone call.
Source
Rodney Craig Price, 47, is being prosecuted as a habitual offender because of his prior convictions and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of the charge, said Harris County assistant district attorney Ryan Patrick.
A criminal complaint accuses Price, a crane operator, of driving on the wrong side of the two-lane road when the crash occurred Feb. 11, killing Troy Augst, 30, of the Sagemont area of southeast Houston.
Two witnesses told Houston police that Price was trying to pass other vehicles when he veered into the oncoming lane of traffic before the collision, the complaint shows.
Price remains at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center under police guard and has been ordered held without bond once the hospital releases him. He is in good condition with broken ribs and a fractured ankle, police said.
He declined to comment when reached in his hospital room.
The victim’s mother expressed outrage that Price, who has done three stints in prison, had been paroled for a second time in 2007.
“If he had been in jail, my son would still be alive today,” Sharon Augst said. “Who makes the decision that this man can be released and get out and kill my son?”
Police noticed an odor of alcohol on Price’s breath after the crash two weeks ago, but blood tests revealed his blood alcohol concentration was 0.02, below the legal limit of 0.08, the complaint shows. Authorities are still testing Price’s blood for the presence of drugs, Patrick said.
James Landry Jr. of Baytown stopped to help after the crash. Landry stayed with Augst, a 1997 Dobie High School graduate, who was trapped inside the wreckage of his truck. Landry, who placed a hand on Augst’s shoulder, recalled the injured man’s last words were, “Please help me.”
Price, who has a record of 16 arrests in Harris County dating back to 1982, was being supervised by a parole officer and was supposed to remain on supervision until 2011, records show.
Each of Price’s four DWI convictions — in 1997, 1992, 1990 and 1986 — put him behind bars. His last DWI arrest, in which he was also charged with retaliation for threatening to kill a La Porte police officer, landed him a 12-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to both charges, records show.
He was paroled four years later in March 2002, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said. His parole was revoked in 2004 after he was arrested for the aggravated assault of his sister, who suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung, according to a La Porte Police Department report.
Price pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of misdemeanor assault and returned to prison for another two and a half years. He was paroled again in March 2007.
Price’s 16-year-old daughter called Augst’s family the day after the crash to express her sorrow for Augst’s death, said the victim’s brother, Eric Wilcox. Price’s family confirmed to the Chronicle that the teenager made the phone call.
Source
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Texas and Southwest briefs
AUSTIN – A Central Texas man got a 30-day jail sentence for contempt of court after criticizing a judge in a Caldwell County Courthouse men's room.
State District Judge Jack Robison ordered Don Bandelman, 69, released after two days in jail after a state appeals court in Austin made inquiries into the matter. Officials said Robison had granted temporary custody of Bandleman's granddaughter to his son's ex-wife instead of his son. Bandleman then followed the judge into the men's room and berated him as "a fool," officials said.
Officer shoots, kills holdup suspect
SAN ANTONIO – A rookie San Antonio police officer fatally shot a suspect in a predawn gas station holdup Tuesday.
Police said Julio Molinar, 19, died at Brooke Army Medical Center shortly after the shooting in northeast San Antonio. They said Officer Michael Ruiz, who graduated from the police academy five months ago, drove into the parking lot of the gas station and shot Molinar after the suspect pointed a shotgun at him. He has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the police investigation.
Prison guard fired after inmate's death
McALESTER, Okla. – A prison guard was fired and his supervisor suspended after an inmate was beaten to death after being placed in the same cell with a co-defendant he testified against.
Paul Duran, 23, was killed March 11 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and Jesse Dalton, 33, remains a suspect in the case, officials said. The two had been charged in an Oklahoma City murder case.
Judge accused of sex offer is suspended
HOUSTON – The State Commission on Judicial Conduct on Tuesday suspended a Harris County criminal court-at-law judge under indictment for allegedly offering to help a defendant in exchange for sex.
Judge Donald Jackson, 59, is accused of propositioning a young female drunken-driving defendant. His attorney has said his client is not guilty.
Source
State District Judge Jack Robison ordered Don Bandelman, 69, released after two days in jail after a state appeals court in Austin made inquiries into the matter. Officials said Robison had granted temporary custody of Bandleman's granddaughter to his son's ex-wife instead of his son. Bandleman then followed the judge into the men's room and berated him as "a fool," officials said.
Officer shoots, kills holdup suspect
SAN ANTONIO – A rookie San Antonio police officer fatally shot a suspect in a predawn gas station holdup Tuesday.
Police said Julio Molinar, 19, died at Brooke Army Medical Center shortly after the shooting in northeast San Antonio. They said Officer Michael Ruiz, who graduated from the police academy five months ago, drove into the parking lot of the gas station and shot Molinar after the suspect pointed a shotgun at him. He has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the police investigation.
Prison guard fired after inmate's death
McALESTER, Okla. – A prison guard was fired and his supervisor suspended after an inmate was beaten to death after being placed in the same cell with a co-defendant he testified against.
Paul Duran, 23, was killed March 11 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and Jesse Dalton, 33, remains a suspect in the case, officials said. The two had been charged in an Oklahoma City murder case.
Judge accused of sex offer is suspended
HOUSTON – The State Commission on Judicial Conduct on Tuesday suspended a Harris County criminal court-at-law judge under indictment for allegedly offering to help a defendant in exchange for sex.
Judge Donald Jackson, 59, is accused of propositioning a young female drunken-driving defendant. His attorney has said his client is not guilty.
Source
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Austin officer's killer files new claim Petition about union ad is filed as judge was to consider execution date.
The day before a judge was to begin considering the execution date of a man convicted of killing an Austin police officer, his lawyer filed new court documents with information he said could have swayed jurors in separate trials.
According to the petition, a newspaper advertisement last year paid for by the Austin police union set forth a sequence of events in the 1978 shooting of officer Ralph Ablanedo that differed from what investigators and prosecutors previously presented.
The full-page ad, published in the Austin American-Statesman to mark the 30th anniversary of Ablanedo's death, said Ablanedo fired nine rounds at David Lee Powell. Powell was convicted of murder and remains on Texas death row in the shooting.
Val Escobar, executive director of the Austin Police Association, said Wednesday that she pulled a narrative of the shooting used in the ad from the Internet and that it wasn't based on official documents or interviews.
Defense attorney Richard Burr said in the court documents: "Had the evidence that Officer Ablanedo returned fire nine times been available, the picture of the crime would have changed dramatically. This evidence would have cast other strands of evidence in a different light."
Burr said that had Ablanedo fired, the incident would have been considered a gunfight instead of an "ambush or execution."
The petition asks that a trial court determine whether the claim has a basis.
Bruce Mills, who was Ablanedo's patrol partner, said Ablanedo's gun was still in its holster when he arrived at the scene.
"No shots were fired from his gun," Mills said. He said the petition is "a feeble attempt to draw a distraction."
The petition said it is possible that Ablanedo had a second gun.
Travis County prosecutors last month asked state District Judge Mike Lynch to set an execution date for Powell in October. The defense requested more time to file a petition about the new information with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Lynch signed an order saying that he would wait until after Wednesday to allow Burr more time.
The court must decide if the petition can be considered under state law. Burr must show that he has found new evidence not previously available or that state law or court precedent has changed in a way favorable to Powell.
Powell was found guilty and sentenced to death soon after the shooting in the 900 block of East Live Oak Street in South Austin. According to court documents, he shot Ablanedo 10 times with an AK-47 during a traffic stop before trying to kill other officers as they closed in.
Powell appealed his conviction, saying that he had talked to a psychiatrist without being warned of his rights, and got a new trial in 1991. Powell also appealed that guilty verdict and, after he said he had been improperly sentenced, was given a new sentencing trial in 1999. He was again given the death penalty.
Powell's lawyers appealed that decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and lost.
During a hearing last year, attorneys said prosecutors did not disclose information in a timely manner that could have helped Powell's defense, including documents from the parole file of Powell's girlfriend, Sheila Meinert. They said the records showed Meinert fired shots at Ablanedo and that she had thrown a grenade at officers.
Source
According to the petition, a newspaper advertisement last year paid for by the Austin police union set forth a sequence of events in the 1978 shooting of officer Ralph Ablanedo that differed from what investigators and prosecutors previously presented.
The full-page ad, published in the Austin American-Statesman to mark the 30th anniversary of Ablanedo's death, said Ablanedo fired nine rounds at David Lee Powell. Powell was convicted of murder and remains on Texas death row in the shooting.
Val Escobar, executive director of the Austin Police Association, said Wednesday that she pulled a narrative of the shooting used in the ad from the Internet and that it wasn't based on official documents or interviews.
Defense attorney Richard Burr said in the court documents: "Had the evidence that Officer Ablanedo returned fire nine times been available, the picture of the crime would have changed dramatically. This evidence would have cast other strands of evidence in a different light."
Burr said that had Ablanedo fired, the incident would have been considered a gunfight instead of an "ambush or execution."
The petition asks that a trial court determine whether the claim has a basis.
Bruce Mills, who was Ablanedo's patrol partner, said Ablanedo's gun was still in its holster when he arrived at the scene.
"No shots were fired from his gun," Mills said. He said the petition is "a feeble attempt to draw a distraction."
The petition said it is possible that Ablanedo had a second gun.
Travis County prosecutors last month asked state District Judge Mike Lynch to set an execution date for Powell in October. The defense requested more time to file a petition about the new information with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Lynch signed an order saying that he would wait until after Wednesday to allow Burr more time.
The court must decide if the petition can be considered under state law. Burr must show that he has found new evidence not previously available or that state law or court precedent has changed in a way favorable to Powell.
Powell was found guilty and sentenced to death soon after the shooting in the 900 block of East Live Oak Street in South Austin. According to court documents, he shot Ablanedo 10 times with an AK-47 during a traffic stop before trying to kill other officers as they closed in.
Powell appealed his conviction, saying that he had talked to a psychiatrist without being warned of his rights, and got a new trial in 1991. Powell also appealed that guilty verdict and, after he said he had been improperly sentenced, was given a new sentencing trial in 1999. He was again given the death penalty.
Powell's lawyers appealed that decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and lost.
During a hearing last year, attorneys said prosecutors did not disclose information in a timely manner that could have helped Powell's defense, including documents from the parole file of Powell's girlfriend, Sheila Meinert. They said the records showed Meinert fired shots at Ablanedo and that she had thrown a grenade at officers.
Source
Monday, September 28, 2009
Texas lawmaker: Death row inmate made Web threats
AUSTIN, Texas — Prison officials are investigating whether a Texas death row inmate accused of threatening a state lawmaker using a smuggled cell phone is behind an Internet posting that threatens the lawmaker and his family.
State Sen. John Whitmire said he's convinced Richard Lee Tabler is behind a rambling May 29 posting on a site dedicated to death row inmates and their cases. The posting was first reported Friday by the Austin American-Statesman.
Tabler, who faces execution for the 2004 slaying of two men in Bell County, was busted last year for having a smuggled phone in his cell. He was charged with retaliation, and his mother and sister were charged with possessing contraband in a state prison. Those cases are pending.
The Web posting, under Tabler's name, states: "So many thoughts are running through my head about these indictments against my family members. Some times I wish that I could really show my hand and ask Senator Whitmire how 'Rebecca's health' is. ... John please understand that just because I'm on death row does not mean that you cannot be gotten to ... or your family."
Whitmire said his ex-wife is named Rebecca.
Prisoners do not have access to computers, and all of Tabler's incoming and outgoing mail is read except for mail pertaining to his court case, Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. The prison system's Office of the Inspector General is investigating whether Tabler was able to get a threatening letter to someone else to post, Lyons said.
The department declined to allow Tabler to be interviewed Friday, and he could not be otherwise reached for comment. A lawyer for Tabler could not be found. A court clerk official declined to release information about Tabler's lawyer over the phone.
Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote Thursday to the chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice and the prison department's executive director to complain about lax security with death row correspondence. He said his committee will conduct a hearing on prison mail policies.
Whitmire, who is often contacted by inmates because of his committee role, told The Associated Press he was troubled by the threatening Web posting.
"Obviously I'm concerned — for her, me, anyone in the state of Texas," Whitmire said. "I know for a fact inmates have contacts on the streets of Texas. Their ability to carry out a threat is real."
He said his aides spotted the May posting recently while doing an online search.
"Pretty unbelievable stuff," Whitmire said. "What does it take to identify the guy as a threat and scrutinize everything he does?"
Whitmire gave Tabler his cell phone number last year after Tabler contacted Whitmire at his office and posed as an old schoolmate, Whitmire said. Tabler later identified himself as a death row inmate, and he and Whitmire held several phone conversations under the supervision of law enforcement, the lawmaker said.
Those conversations led to charges against Tabler, his mother and sister, and to a crackdown within the prison system on illegal cell phone use. Hundreds of contraband phones, chargers and phone components were seized over several months, and security was tightened for those entering and leaving the prisons.
Source
State Sen. John Whitmire said he's convinced Richard Lee Tabler is behind a rambling May 29 posting on a site dedicated to death row inmates and their cases. The posting was first reported Friday by the Austin American-Statesman.
Tabler, who faces execution for the 2004 slaying of two men in Bell County, was busted last year for having a smuggled phone in his cell. He was charged with retaliation, and his mother and sister were charged with possessing contraband in a state prison. Those cases are pending.
The Web posting, under Tabler's name, states: "So many thoughts are running through my head about these indictments against my family members. Some times I wish that I could really show my hand and ask Senator Whitmire how 'Rebecca's health' is. ... John please understand that just because I'm on death row does not mean that you cannot be gotten to ... or your family."
Whitmire said his ex-wife is named Rebecca.
Prisoners do not have access to computers, and all of Tabler's incoming and outgoing mail is read except for mail pertaining to his court case, Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. The prison system's Office of the Inspector General is investigating whether Tabler was able to get a threatening letter to someone else to post, Lyons said.
The department declined to allow Tabler to be interviewed Friday, and he could not be otherwise reached for comment. A lawyer for Tabler could not be found. A court clerk official declined to release information about Tabler's lawyer over the phone.
Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote Thursday to the chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice and the prison department's executive director to complain about lax security with death row correspondence. He said his committee will conduct a hearing on prison mail policies.
Whitmire, who is often contacted by inmates because of his committee role, told The Associated Press he was troubled by the threatening Web posting.
"Obviously I'm concerned — for her, me, anyone in the state of Texas," Whitmire said. "I know for a fact inmates have contacts on the streets of Texas. Their ability to carry out a threat is real."
He said his aides spotted the May posting recently while doing an online search.
"Pretty unbelievable stuff," Whitmire said. "What does it take to identify the guy as a threat and scrutinize everything he does?"
Whitmire gave Tabler his cell phone number last year after Tabler contacted Whitmire at his office and posed as an old schoolmate, Whitmire said. Tabler later identified himself as a death row inmate, and he and Whitmire held several phone conversations under the supervision of law enforcement, the lawmaker said.
Those conversations led to charges against Tabler, his mother and sister, and to a crackdown within the prison system on illegal cell phone use. Hundreds of contraband phones, chargers and phone components were seized over several months, and security was tightened for those entering and leaving the prisons.
Source
Monday, September 7, 2009
Big Spring Man Charged with DWI in Connection to Friend's Death
Big Spring, Texas - A 19-year-old man is now facing charges in connection with an incident last summer that killed his friend.
Jeffrey Ray Pierson has been charged with a misdemeanor DWI.
Last august, 18-year-old Michael Creel was riding in the bed of Pierson’s pickup when he somehow fell out and struck his head.
Creel's body was found hours later and Pierson was charged with intoxication manslaughter.
He was not indicted by a grand jury due to lack of evidence.
County Attorney Joshua Hamby will be handling the case.
According to officials this is his first offense and if convicted Pierson could face 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Source
Jeffrey Ray Pierson has been charged with a misdemeanor DWI.
Last august, 18-year-old Michael Creel was riding in the bed of Pierson’s pickup when he somehow fell out and struck his head.
Creel's body was found hours later and Pierson was charged with intoxication manslaughter.
He was not indicted by a grand jury due to lack of evidence.
County Attorney Joshua Hamby will be handling the case.
According to officials this is his first offense and if convicted Pierson could face 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Source
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