Cherokee County Texas DA running unchallenged for 3rd term, while child molesters get probation

by: Cherokee

Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 00:41 AM CST

Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth tells his less erudite constituents that he has been hard “at work with other prosecutors to pass tougher child molestation laws.” Despite the fact his office in 2006 gave probation to a registered sex offender who molested a 1 year-old baby girl in Rusk, Texas. And during his tenure, gave no jail time to over 3 dozen other registered pedophiles born and raised in Cherokee County, population less than 47,000.

    Running unchallenged, candidate Elmer Beckworth also highlights the 2003 Faye Bell Harris murder which he rode to Austin as a brand new law, sadly coined "the Faye Harris Amendment" or Prop. 4. 2005's Proposition 4 was purported to be the basis of denying bail to "people that violate the terms of their bail." As if bail was never revocable under Texas law in cases of escalating domestic violence. Not until the Texas Constitution was amended for the umpteenth time for the same domestic violence issue, according to Beckworth and co-author/former state senator Todd Staples (R-Palestine). Retroactively undoing the deliberate negligence of the preventable homicide of Faye Harris.

    All for when other violent drug addicts on felony bond continues to harass, trespass and threaten their ex-wives. Instead of getting a continuous flow of court hearings to have his or her bond extended indefinitely, as the Cherokee County Texas district court did for Michael Harris. Those involuntarily committed to drug rehab might actually have their bail revoked if they screw up while out on bond, like the tens of thousands of revocations in legal precedent, Beckworth, et al pretends never existed.

    Lets look closer at the current Cherokee County district attorney's record when it comes to the prosecution of sexual assault on minors within his jurisdiction. We start by looking at those offenders arrested and plea-bargained in the Cherokee County district court records. The fact is Elmer Beckworth and his assistant district attorneys have given slap-on-the-wrists probation time to heinous pedophiles whose victims are as young as 1 year-old infants, and even less for those preying on 5 year-old little girls.

    No state jail time; no fines for these registered deviants. No Community Service; no restitution for the injured parties. Just a good ol' boy wink and nod from the county seat in Rusk, Texas and unsupervised probation for almost all local child molesters. They just register with the State, get their pictures taken at the Sheriff's Department and mosey up to the courthouse every 3 months or so for a Urine Analysis and coffee.

    The DPS Sex Offender Registry shows those child molesters in Cherokee County, Texas arrested, prosecuted and who are still living within the county. Other counties obviously prosecute child predators to the fullest extent of the law. Comparisons on the local DPS offender list shows those defendants who have relocated, paroled after years (and decades) of incarceration. Their supervised portions of their out-of-state and/or out-of-county sentences continue with periodic registration and verification with the Cherokee County Sheriff Department. For the local pedophiles born and raised in Cherokee County however, an indecency with a minor charge results only in monthly visits to the Adult Probation Department.

    In District Attorney Elmer Beckworth's hometown of Rusk, TX , there are 18 registered sex offenders; their female victims ranging from 1 to 14 years-old. Again, nearly all those arrested and prosecuted in Cherokee County, Texas were given minimal supervised probationary sentences by deferment.

Namely: JAMES CHRISTOPHER SCHLATER arrested on October 2002 for indecency and sexual contact with a 6 year-old. Beckworth's office gave Schlater 10 years probation for his offense. The Cherokee County Texas newspapers also failed to report the sordid incident.

More recently and more disgusting, KENNETH DEXTER FOLMAR arrested on November 16, 2006 in Rusk, Texas for Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child; given 8 years probation by the Cherokee County Texas prosecutor. The victim was a 1 year-old baby girl. Again not reported by local news outlets; only to be found in District Court Records and the Sex Offender Regristry.

    In Jacksonville, TX there are 53 registered sexual offenders, with female victims ranging from 5 to 15-years-old. Elmer Beckworth's office has given plea bargains of probation to over 30 HIGH RISK resident offenders. In Alto, TX , J.R. Edwards given 10 years probation; female victim age 11. G.M. Morrison given 10 years probation; female victim age 12. The other registrants within the county show the same pattern of leniency.
And obviously before the probation is levied, the state charges of felony molestation have to be reduced to misdemeanors, to put the onus on the County Attorney.

    So when Cherokee County Texas tells the outside world it is hard at work trying to be tough on child molesters, it really just depends on whom the local perpetrator is related to in the Rusk, Texas courthouse. Cherokee County's incumbents depend on the non-astute voter to accept at face value the words of career politicians who lie as effortlessly as breathing. They aren't in the business of telling the truth about their documented records. And they obviously get a kick out of doing the exact of opposite of what they tell the local media.

    The fact is Cherokee County deliberately reset and reset the bail of Michael Harris, leading up to his eventual murder of his estranged ex-wife, Jacksonville, TX resident Faye Bell Harris. Even though Faye Harris had filed a restraining order and Michael Harris was under supervision at the Rusk State Hospital. Why didn't Beckworth file a motion to have Michael Harris' bond rescinded in 2003?

    On Elmer Beckworth's second re-election claim, as assistant and district attorney in the last 20 years, Beckworth has seen the majority of Cherokee County's convicted child molesters pled negligible adult supervision. Both of these caveats are apparently his political platform as incumbent Cherokee County district attorney. Of course no one in the rural East Texas media would spend 5 minutes doing any actual fact checking. Especially questioning the senseless refusal to revoke the bail of a violent drug addict before a local woman was murdered. Or reporting the rape of an infant by a Rusk, Texas child molester that Cherokee County's Elmer Beckworth pled to 8 years probation.

View the Texas Department of Public Safety’s crime records service to view the public sex offender regristy at: https://records.txdps.state.tx...

The following list of registered Cherokee County Texas (pop. 47,000 residents) sex offenders given probation by Cherokee County district attorney Elmer Beckworth, whose names were released in 2006 by the Jacksonville Daily Progress:

• Frank Birden Guinn, age 82, Alto TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 12-year-old female;
• Michael Morrison, 48, Alto TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old female;
• Gary Mark Hayles, 43, Bullard TX, indecency with a child by contact of an 8-year-old female;
• Wesley Boyd Mohr, 60, Bullard TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 10-year-old female;
• William Barry Travis, 54, Bullard TX, aggravated sexual assault of a child of an 8-year-old female;
• Matthew Isaiah White, 17, Bullard TX, indecency by exposure involving a 15-year-old female;
• Christopher Steven Goleman, 33, Gallatin TX, aggravated sexual assault of a disabled 39 year-old female;
• Tommy Junior Allen, 54, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 11-year-old female;
• William Tracy Arnold, 42, Jacksonville TX, burglary and felony involving a 34-year-old female;
• James Travis Baker, 22, Jacksonville TX, indecency of a child by contact of a 6-year-old female;
• James Isaac Barnett, 18, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child of a 14-year-old-female;
• Brian D. Black, 19, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 10-year-old female;
• Vernon Willis Blackshire, 29, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 14-year-old female;
• Anthony Eugene Boone, 38, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 6-year-old male;
• Cole Joseph Brooks, 22, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old female;
• Christopher Lee Calley, 25, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 3-year-old female;
• Gark Michael Clark, Jacksonville TX, 52, sexual assault of a child of a 16-year-old girl;
• Arturo Allen Cochran, 26, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old female;
• Carlos Jerome Conner, 37, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old female;
• Steven Daille, 58, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• James William Dennis, 64, Jacksonville TX, agg. kidnapping/sex assault of a 38-year-old female;
• Jose Ramon Galan, 53, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 9-year-old female;
• Jonathan Keith Glenn, 23, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of an 8-year-old female;
• James Henry Golden, 52, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 36-year-old female;
• Nathan Wayne Grimes, 61, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a 9-year-old female;
• Ollie Ray Grogan, 62, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a 5-year-old male and 7-year-old female;
• Nickolas Noel Harwell, 31, Jacksonville TX, two counts of aggravated sex assault of a 12-year-old female;
• Kevin Lyn Hawes, 42, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 15-year-old;
• Christopher Michael Hennessy, Jacksonville TX, 25, sexual assault of a 15-year-old female; absconded.
• William Lee Hershiser, 48, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• Roger Hunter, 72, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 14-year-old female;
• Aaron Lee Joslin, 25, Jacksonville TX, two counts of sexual performance of a 7-year-old male;
• Robert Michael Lane, 33, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 10-year-old female;
• Jackie Neal Locke, 46, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 13-year-old female;
• Ben Mallard, 47, Jacksonville TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 11-year-old female;
• James Donald McClain, 56, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 20-year-old female, and 11-year-old female;
• Leroy Edward McCuen, 56, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 9-year-old female;
• Kenneth Ray Messick, 59, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 14-year-old female and 16-year-old female;
• Stacy Bernard Mills, 39, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 11-year-old female;
• Tracey Dewayne Moseley, 33, Jacksonville TX, indecency by exposure, of a 15-year-old female;
• Jamie Lee Newburn, 28, Jacksonville TX, two counts of attempted sexual performance of a 14-year-old female;
• Sammy Carroll Newman, 54, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 12-year-old female;
• Patrick Brian Norsworthy, 43, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of an 8-year-old female;
• Derrick Wendell Owens, 34, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 9-year-old female;
• Kevin Wayne Patton, 36, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 14-year-old female;
• Glenn Durrell Pierce, 49 years of age, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old male;
• Bruce Townsend Powell, 48, Jacksonville TX, attempted sexual assault of a 30-year-old male;
• Jimmy Reed, 47, Jacksonville TX, attempted sexual assault of a 25-year-old female and unknown female;
• Mandell Rhodes Jr., 43, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 52-year-old female;
• Thompson Ward Stricklen, 43, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 11-year-old female;
• Paul Arlen Taylor, 51, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 13-year-old female;
• Terry Lawrence Taylor, 48, Jacksonville TX, indecency by contact of a 12-year-old female;
• James L. Wells, 52, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 5-year-old female and 6-year-old female;
• Johnny Decole Wells, 25, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• Larry Wayne White, 45, Jacksonville TX, aggravated sexual assault of an 8-year-old female;
• Timothy Kevin Zweck, 32, Jacksonville TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• Robby Lee Buffalo, 32, Rusk TX, prohibited sexual assault (incest) of a 11-year-old female;
• Richard Dean Davis, 47, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 14-year-old female;
• Nile James Dean, 39, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 8-year-old female;
• James William Hammons, 45, Rusk TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old female;
• Jason Aaron Husband, 29, Rusk TX, sexual assault of a child of a 15-year-old female;
• Elbert James Patton, 90, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact of an 8-year-old female and 9-year-old female; deceased.
• Delian Brenanard Session, 43, Rusk TX, sexual assault of a 34-year-old female and 11-year-old-female;
• Troy Gibbs Sutherland, 31 years of age, Rusk TX, attempted sexual assault of a 15-year-old female;
• Aubrey Thomas Taylor, 48 years of age, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 10-year-old female;
• Dale Joseph Tylich, 51, Rusk TX, indecency with a child by contact of a female less than 16 years of age;
• Charles Clifton Bruner, 45, Troup TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 6-year-old female;
• Michael Servetus Childs, 31 years of age, Troup TX, sexual assault of a 14-year-old female;
• Tommy Robert Husband, 46 years of age, Troup TX, indecency with a child by contact of a 16-year-old female;
• Michael Sean Lee, 33 years of age, Troup TX, indecency with a child of a 13-year-old female;
• Timmey Martin, 41 years of age, Troup TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 14-year-old female;
• Michael Ryan McMichael, 34 years of age, Troup TX, indecency with a child of a 12-year-old female;
• Martin Otis Pitts, 51 years of age, Troup TX, two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a 7-year-old female;
• Bryan Thomas Toombs, 31 years of age, Troup TX, aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old female.
• Alisha Arriola Corley, 36 years of age, Wells TX, sexual assault of a 15-year-old male.

$150,000 stolen by unindicted city of Rusk, Texas employee; Bailiff gets 10 years in federal prison

by: Cherokee

Wed Jan 16, 2008 at 02:18 PM CST

    Rusk, Texas court employees simultaneously supplement their incomes by serving as anonymous informants by monitoring and manipulating jury pools. They switch judges, state attorneys and charges, as they move freely from one courtroom to the next. A revolving door position for the Jacksonville, TX lawfirm that supplies Cherokee County's state attorneys. This is done to create the most confusing, convoluted scenario as possible for outsiders or as they see them as: interlopers. In other words, out of county travelers who make the mistake of driving through Cherokee County, Texas and get pulled over and cited on trumped up charges. Those out-of-towners who decide to fight the shakedown, face a morass of accusations in the hallways by courthouse personnel paid to perpetuate any lie they are told to repeat. Escorting defense attorneys to the wrong chambers, lying about the district attorney being sick, changing judges at the last minute and so on. Read the appeal of a probation violator from Cherokee County whose 2006 judgment was signed by a district judge who had nothing to do with the case:
http://bulk.resource.org/court...

This premeditation of judicial "errors" is done not for the sake of distracting outsiders from the stench of corruption these people have associated with for decades.  But for the sake of intimidating defense attorneys and their clients into paying up and disappearing. And the bailiff coordinating cases in the past would've been none other than Constable Randall Thompson, federally convicted meth distributer. Thompson was facing his federal drug charges prior to January 2006 after he sold illegal narcotics to an undercover federal agent. However, Constable Thompson was allowed to continue to operate as the 369th District Court bailiff and issue citations in his precinct up until his federal indictment.

    Beloved members of Cherokee County's notorious drug task force, slash narcotics division, slash semi-retired, he's-been-arrested-but-we-don't-know-where-he-is, slash decorated constables and patrolmen have made their way into the federal prison system in 2007. Of course, Cherokee County doesn't arrest their own cousins caught dealing drugs, raping women during traffic stops or stealing from the city coffers. It takes the US Attorney's office to round them up. That is just the standard practice of small town law enforcement and their citizens have to accept it if they choose to live in East Texas. Cherokee County doesn't cover up its corruption; it parades it around for everyone to bask in its glory. They admire it and relish the thought of nailing some more "city folk" and foolin' their lawyers with more lies.
If there is a law or standard practice to be broken, then the Cherokee County Texas district court is always finding a new one.

    Most bizarre is the Cherokee County, TX grand jury system of empanelling piecemeal cohorts from an unknown jury pool, meeting for up to 6 months at a time. Then if a big city attorney has the audacity to challenge the "overwhelmed and underpaid" district attorney during the petit jury selection, Cherokee County, TX will summon every registered voter in the county to appear for voir dire.  
This is designed to accomplish two things:
1. Smear the defendant in front of the entire voting populace for months, where the district attorney can argue his case without rebuttal; and
2. Drag the case out indefinitely so opposing counsel cannot file any motions of discovery or federal lawsuits.

    All the while, officers of the court openly discuss the case with anyone who'll listen. Or as Cherokee County's district attorney Elmer Beckworth calls it "an open policy." Of course everyone in the Rusk, TX courthouse will work as one tight little unit, gleefully obstructing, subverting and deflecting the entire process. Trumping charges up to get misdemeanors into the district court, or citing felony charges in the County Court at Law. Whatever it takes to collectively violate the United States constitution by creating a hodgepodge of allegations, hoping one will fit one Texas legal precedent. If it doesn't, they'll make it up as they go along, claiming "to be the first to discover the flaw in the Texas constitution."

    Cherokee County district judges allow the district attorney's office to try cases based upon 'the preponderance of the evidence,' as if in a civil trial instead of 'beyond a shadow of the doubt.' Therefore the Cherokee County district attorney really does not have to prove anything at trial. Timelines need not be established and hearsay is allowed during most Cherokee County Texas court cases. Trial attorneys are warned in pre-conference not to speak of exculpatory evidence that might make for grounds for dismissal or for an embarrassing appellate ruling. And you can bet the court reporter (married to the sheriff) misses all the relevant details when a deputy lies on the stand. Arbitrary and capricious, you say? No, a deliberate and systemic method of covering up the stench from the bench.

    Court appointed attorneys' meager paychecks depend on pleasing the Cherokee County district court, therefore representation is derelict and deliberately incompetent. They even have appointed alcoholic criminal attorneys who themselves were facing DUI charges and Injury with a Motor Vehicle suits within the county. Sending them to indigent clients for a quick resolution and defending the drunken attorney's behavior until the lawyer literally drinks himself to death.

     And if one of the members in their Cult of Confession gets caught with their hand in the taxpayer cookie jar, they collectively circle the wagons and wait it out.

    This is why a City of Rusk, TX employee decided to embezzle $150,000 in a town of less than 5000 people. They knew they could get away with it. Rusk, Texas is the county seat of Cherokee County.

    Case in point: a total of $150,000 has been stolen from the city of Rusk, TX water department over the last few years. A suspected city employee was terminated in March 2007 and the Texas Rangers called in to audit the city government treasury. Several Cherokee County grand juries have convened behind closed doors in 2007, however no indictment has been levied regarding the theft. Excuses in the local Cherokee County newspapers have been printed that perhaps a conflict of interest was present with the suspect and members of the district attorney's handpicked grand jury. In other words, the City of Rusk, TX employee fired in March has had relatives seated on their behalf for every grand jury sworn in for the year of 2007.

The fact is if the Cherokee County district attorney wanted to indict the suspect, then the Sheriff's Department would have arrested their buddy working at the water department.

    The City of Rusk, TX with a population of 5000 citizens has a tiny operating budget, even less for the city's water department. $150,000 is a lot of money to come up missing for a town that small. But because the terminated employee is related to everybody working in the city hall and courthouse, the case will be drug out forever. Deals have to be made when co-workers are caught stealing and the district attorney is forced to prosecute one of their own. The fact is theft of public funds by elected officials has been going on in Cherokee County, TX for decades.

    Insurance fraud, murder, drug dealing, rape and other horrors by its law enforcement will continue in the center of the East Texas 'Nowhere Land,' as long the Attorney General's office allows Cherokee County to make up its own legal precedents and modus operandi with a total disregard of the Law.
These men and women of the district court, grand jury panels and peace officers took an oath to uphold the institutions of the great state of Texas, not to lie, cheat and steal their way out of the poorhouse.

Cherokee County, Texas' incumbents run unchallenged, again.

by: Cherokee

Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 10:10 PM CST

    The pretext of the 2005 proposition, Prop.4 was to pay homage to slain Jacksonville, TX resident Faye Harris, murdered in 2003 by her estranged ex-husband Michael Harris. Mr. Harris could have had his felony bond revoked with one phone call on the day he forfeited it and months before he eventually murdered Faye Harris. His restraining orders were not enforced by Cherokee County despite efforts after the fact to smokescreen with an insincere measure named after the victim. Has any other county in the state of Texas seen defendants out on felony bond violate restraining orders and get their bail set and reset and reset for each worsening occurrence while their trials are postponed indefinitely? While they are in protective custody and each time threatening to kill their wife?

    Michael Harris was under watch at the Rusk State Hospital for drug treatment and had repeatedly violated the conditions of his bail AND the restraining orders against him. His initial bond for a pending felony arson trial (he allegedly burned down his ex-wife's home) was set and reset and reset multiple times by the non-operational Cherokee County district court. Michael Harris' pattern of increasingly violent terroristic threats and vandalism against his wife was documented up to his indictment and 2006 plea bargain (given to him by candidate Elmer Beckworth). Harris accepted life in prison and Beckworth accepted an honorary 'victim's rights' award bestowed for the preventable death of Faye Harris. Cherokee County's negligence was quickly turned into a publicity stunt by the district court, the sheriff department and the local state representative's office.

    This hoax of denying repeat offenders' bail was voted and approved by amendment in 2006 after several Texas newspapers fell for the talking points. Other media outlets did not accept the legislation's emotional overtones and saw Proposition 4 for what it was: excuse making by a negligent East Texas district court for the murder of woman whose protective orders were not enforced by local law enforcement.  An avoidable malfeasance that did not result in a judicial reprimand, but the actual course of action Elmer Beckworth, et al hold as their political platforms. The amendment was so good in fact, it popped up again in 2007 (as a duplicate proposition written in committee) for another sympathetic vote. Voters got a second chance to vote twice for the same 150 year-old legal precedent, because legislators know most people don't pay attention to the propositions on the ballot. And unknown backwater prosecutors begging for attention get their names in the paper by running a con game.

    The same ruse with the same wording appeared in 2007's list of proposed amendments, namely November 6th's Proposition 13. Proposition 13 was worded as "the constitutional amendment authorizing the denial of bail to a person who violates certain court orders or conditions of release in a felony or family violence case." Elmer Beckworth of Cherokee County told himself and the state legislature he alone had discovered that "flaw in the Texas constitution" and that hole was plugged in 2006. But you can bet the exact legislation will appear again by another 'victim rights' champion down the road, who sees the Bill of Rights and the Texas State Constitution as an obstacle. Just like the same repeat bills trying to ban abortion and drugs or making it illegal to do something illegal.

    This type of legislation is co-opted to give the impression that Cherokee County has been lenient when assessing bail in the past. Proponents (feigning opposition) travel back to when Texas' founding father Sam Houston was imprisoned for inciting a revolution. Poor Sam Houston couldn't petition the Mexican government to set his bail back then, 300 something years ago...The fact is Cherokee County is always facing federal rights class action suits because of the policy of denying bail to defendants in order to extract confessions during incarceration in the county jail. And to stave off future lawsuits for the ongoing civil rights violations of minorities at the hands of Cherokee County law enforcement.

    Elmer Beckworth's logic in advocating stiffer bail requirements falls on deaf ears when in 2007 Cherokee County just watched their decorated Jacksonville, TX police officer Larry Pugh be sentenced to 12+ years in federal prison for multiple rapes and retaliation. After "Elmer's Law" had already passed unanimously. However, Larry Pugh never had to face rigorous bond hearings because Elmer Beckworth did not indict him on state charges until AFTER Pugh was sitting in federal prison. And never investigated Pugh's missing victims scheduled to testify against him, even though a complainant's decomposed naked body was found in the national forest. Officer Larry Pugh's federal bond was revoked after he was caught trying to pull his last rape accuser into a van with a belt around her neck. Pugh's single state charge, levied by district attorney Elmer Beckworth, involved Officer Pugh having "sex with an inmate," not him retaliating and trying to kill a protected federal witness. Or the 30 other official rape victims that came forward in Cherokee County. This surviving female witness filed a successful civil suit against the city of Jacksonville, TX.

    The 369th District Court also had the opportunity to see their bailiff Constable Randall Thompson coordinate trials and provide security at the Rusk, TX courthouse, while simultaneously issuing subpoenas, writing speeding tickets, helping out on drug raids, etc. etc.---ignoring the fact that Thompson was out on federal bond for selling narcotics to an undercover federal agent. In 2006 Constable Thompson was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for intent to distribute meth.  No state charges needed to be levied for Thompson's drug dealing; nor any type of bond hearing or suspension of Thompson's law enforcement duties until the US Department of Justice indicted him. And you can bet the Cherokee County at Law and District Attorney's office continued to prosecute everything Thompson sent to them after his federal arraignment.

    But let's not digress.

   The fact is the Texas Constitution has always REQUIRED a repeat offender to be denied bail. It REQUIRES a district judge to revoke the bond of a repeat offender, hence Cherokee County's dragging of the heels and postponements when it comes to prosecuting the few cases that make it to trial. And besides, Cherokee County, Texas has never had a problem with denying anyone's bail before. Because the 4th Amendment in the Bill of Rights is arbitrary in their eyes.

    Let's face it folks, the Texas Constitution has never been at fault for allowing some dirtbag out on felony bond to murder someone. It is the lack of initiative the Cherokee County district court has in enforcing the protective orders they themselves pretend to crusade. There were never any ancillary conditions of Michael Harris' bond to keep him from killing his wife. In fact, in a county with only 1 or 2 murder trials every term of the district attorney, these homicides are lauded in the local media and reprinted over and over again. To make it appear to outsiders in civilization that the letter of the law is actual upheld, amongst multiple federal convictions of Cherokee County's bailiff, constables, chief of police, patrolmen and correctional officers. To make it appear they are with the times and not immersed in racial tensions brought on by ingrained and outdated prejudices. To make it appear they are players in the State's political arena. But just because they say it, don't make it so.

    Criminal negligence and propaganda might impress the local yokels in the upcoming March primaries, but it should not make an impact on the rest of the state. These hypocrites may go unchallenged in their respective political primaries, but hopefully they will stay in their East Texas rat holes. Until another violent homicide they could have prevented helps them find another "flaw in the Texas Constitution."