David Martinez of Ft. Worth TX severely overestimates his intelligence by taking credit for a bad law that had little to do with him

Here is David Martinez low-key admitting he lacks virtue

David Martinez of Ft. Worth TX reminds me a lot of tRump, taking credit for things in which he has little to no part in its creation. And so Ft. Worth passed a residency restriction law that will surely lead to a costly lawsuit. And here's this literal nobody acting like he did anything of note. (Ft. Worth council was going to pass it with or without this loser.)

Since I couldn't post a message myself, I has the fine folks running the Facebook account for OnceFallen to say the following:

"You're intentionally misleading people in a way to get them arrested and/or you simply can’t read/comprehend the law and cannot admit you have no clue what you are talking about. 

1. The law can't be applied to everyone currently living where they are living. It is called a grandfather clause. If you start harassing a person living at their current residence, then that is harassment and you will get arrested and/or sued into oblivion. 

2. There is no anti-loitering or presence restrictions in the ordinance; it only covers residence and it only covers those who move into the city or move from the current residence after the law will take effect. 

3. You aren't going to "save thousands of children" because the vast majority of sex crimes occur in the home, by someone known to the victim, and by someone with no prior sex offense record. Residency restriction laws have been proven long ago to have ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT on sex offenses. 

4. Oh, there was never a prior 1000 foot restriction."

You see, Ft. Worth had NO residency or presence restrictions in place before the Ft. Worth city counil passed a 2000 ft residency restriction their own city attorney warned would make 98% of the city off-limits to Registered Persons looking to live in Ft. Worth. Hope they get sued!

But there was never a presence or anti-loitering restriction, and Ft. Worth did not pass such a presence or anti-loitering restricion, only a residency restriction. 

But I found quite a few screenshots showing this David Martinez fellow is the worst kind of moron. He's a pseudo-intellectual. He talks as if he is smart but instead he just spews batshit conspracies that pull back the veil on his bigotry and hatred for the disadvantaged:

Here is Davis looking to throw the unhoused out of his community. 

David bullies little old ladies by his own admission and actions

Here is David pushing an insane conspiracy theory

Here is Davis engaging in Predator Panic (tm)

Here he is encouraging vigilante violence

David is a Zionist and regularly accuses others of being anti-semitic. 

David Martinez, in my opinion, is a batshit conspiracy therorist, no different than Alex Jones. Davis is also a clown that only claims minority heritage when he needs a little sympathy. But the reality is he's a bully and a bigot. It is no wonder why his Facebook page says he's still single. 

Hey David, from one man with Indigenous heritage to another, lay off the firewater!

Lubbock PD's finest civilian assaults a Registered Person during the act of registration

 

The registry should be abolished, and this incident is proof that Registered Persons are subject to abuse even at the local registry office.

All Cops Are Bullies (ACAB)

I’ve cussed out a registration pig or two over the years, as well as a scumbag US Marshal who still never got to enter my house without a warrant. Stand up to them, NEVER let them intimidate you.

https://www.krqe.com/news/national/lubbock-pd-employee-accused-of-assaulting-registered-sex-offender-during-check-in/

Lubbock PD employee accused of assaulting registered sex offender during check-in

by: Caitlyn Rooney

Posted: Aug 13, 2025 / 06:28 PM MDT

LUBBOCK, Texas — Daniel Diaz-Gonzalez, 42, a civilian Lubbock Police Department employee, was arrested on Wednesday and accused of assaulting an elderly person, Chief Seth Herman said. Court documents obtained by EverythingLubbock.com revealed some additional details on Wednesday evening.

Diaz-Gonzalez was a civilian sex registration coordinator at LPD. Herman said the assault happened in the lobby of LPD headquarters on July 24. The victim was a registered (person). Herman said (RP) was at LPD for a routine check-in with Diaz-Gonzalez at the time. (RP) filed a complaint that day. Herman said the two were engaged in a verbal altercation that escalated. He also said the incident was captured on video.

Court documents obtained by EverythingLubbock.com stated Diaz-Gonzalez was in the process of completing (RP)'s annual registration when they became involved in a dispute. Court records said Diaz-Gonzalez told (RP) to leave the office, and the dispute escalated. According to court records, Diaz-Gonzalez reacted to a comment made by (RP). The two got closer to each other, court records said, and Diaz-Gonzalez pushed (RP) to the ground.

RP advised he was disabled, court records stated. Court documents said (RP) complained he had bodily injury and bruising.

“Diaz-Gonzalez subjected (RP) to mistreatment during the required annual visit,” court documents stated.

An investigation by Metro Special Crimes began on August 5. Diaz-Gonzalez was placed on leave on August 6, and the case was later presented to the DA’s Office. A warrant was issued for Diaz-Gonzalez arrest on Wednesday. He was taken into custody at LPD headquarters without incident.

Texas State Representatives should not let their third-place "trophy wives" suggest bad legislation

Democratic Texas State Representative Eddie Morales was the primary sponsor of a bad piece of legislation--Texas House Bill 1777, which was meant to add a Mark of the Beast to the State ID/Driver's Licenses of Persons Forced to Register. Thankfully, this bill failed. Marking licenses just to cause more harm is something more befitting of Trumpian Republicans. 

Rep. Morales admits it was his ditzy partner, Hellen Martinez-Morales, that pushed him to introduce this bad piece of legislation. Hellen fancies herself as some kind of trophy wife, but if she's a trophy wife, she'd be for a third-place finish at best, but more of a participation trophy. 

Word of advice, Hellen--stay in your lane and stick to trying to be a "social media influencer," although it is failing, just lie HB 1777 failed. 

Amber Paige Laudermilk of Houston TX loses her funeral license after she thought it was funny to mutilate the corpse of a Registered Person

 

This subhuman scum is Amber Paige Laudermilk, who lost her funeral license for thinking it was cute to mutilate the body of a person forced to register. Good luck trying to find a job with that resting bitch face, Amber!

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-embalmer-charged-mutilating-corpse-registered-sex-offender-rcna195816

A Texas woman has been charged with abusing a corpse, accused of using a scalpel to castrate the body of a registered person last month, officials said.

Amber Paige Laudermilk, 34, was employed as an embalmer at Memorial Mortuary & Crematory in Houston when, authorities allege, she mutilated the body of Charles Roy Rodriguez, 58, in February, Harris County Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen said in a statement Monday.

Rodriguez was a registered person and was charged in 2001. He died of natural causes at a Houston hospital in January, the statement said.

Charging documents identify two employees of Memorial Mortuary & Crematory at the scene who witnessed the crime. Authorities said the first witness saw Laudermilk stab Rodriguez twice in the groin in the cremation room before she cut off his penis and placed it in his mouth.

Laudermilk told the first witness, who is an embalming student, "You didn’t see anything," in a manner that the witness "perceived to be as threatening," the documents said.

The second witness arrived shortly afterward and noticed Rodriguez’s groin area was "disfigured." When the person asked Laudermilk what had happened, she responded that the deceased had “a lot going on with him,” the charging documents allege.

A complaint was filed to police on Feb. 19.

“This case is about two troubled people: the victim who was a registered person and the defendant, who is accused of viciously attacking his dead body,” Rosen said. “No matter what one thinks of his life, the law requires that he be treated with dignity in death.”

A spokesperson with Harris County Precinct One told NBC News that Laudermilk turned herself in Tuesday and is in custody at the Harris County Jail. She has not yet posted her $5,000 bond.

Laudermilk and the owners of the funeral home did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ugly Betty: Gullible self-professed "victim advocate" Mary "Betsy" Dupuis believes insane conspiracy theories on the Internet

This is Mary Dupuis, but she goes by "Betty". She's certainly a piece of work. She made an allegation of assault against a prosecutor, and wrote an unhinged statement claiming she wasn't "MAGA" yet she claims the prosecutor is funded by George Soros (a right-wing conspiracy). She launched a Substack account she calls "Surviving Austin", which she describes as, "Author Betsy Dupuis's personal journey to investigate the challenges of seeking justice and safety in the tech industry, Austin, Texas and Travis County."

For some strange reason, she decided to make a false claim that longtime Texas advocacy group Texas Voices is connected to the controversial NAMBLA group, 

As a general rule, I normally post entire articles on my blog for the sake of preservation, but this instance, I refuse to do so. Why? Many of the statements Dupuis posts are slanderous and downright criminal. She certainly went down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole. 

I will post the link here if you want to see it, but I will not directly link to that page because it is too inflammatory even for this page:

hXXps://survivingaustin.substack.com/p/a-brief-history-of-nambla-and-the

Basically her logic goes like this. Because NAMBLA had republished statements created by anti-registry advocates, anti-registry advocates are therefore NAMBLA. I suppose, then, that because KXAN published Dupuis's statement, she must be on staff at KXAN, right?

There has been a long-time conspiracy created back in 2009 by a defunct vigilante group that NARSOL is just a rebranded NAMBLA. And because Texas Voices is affiliated with NARSOL, which, according to the online conspiracy nuts, is just a rebranded NAMBLA, then Texas Voices must then be NAMBLA, too. 

Among the problems Dupuis has with Texas Voices is that "Molnar gave a talk titled “Residency Restrictions and Child Safe Zones” claiming “Residency and proximity restrictions based on fear and hysteria have no empirical support.” But there is indeed overwhelming evidence that residency restrictions do not work and cause farm more harm than good. 

In reality, Dupuis's beef with Texas Voices is because "Scott Henson also has also collaborated with these organizations in the past both as in his individual capacity with NARSOL and Texas Voices and as director of the Texas Innocence Project National Center for Reason and Justice (NCRJ). Scott Henson is a campaign advisor for José Garza and works with Garza’s office through his position at the Innocence Project of Texas which has received $600k in Justice Department grants to work with the office on exonerations." 

And Dupuis is upset with a prosecutor's office because "She claims a friend of Garza represents the person who sexually assaulted her." 

So Dupuis is upsets because at Texas Voices because a supporter works on the campaign of a county prosecutor (who is funded by "George Soros blood money", and) who is friends with a defense attorney who respresents the person she claimed sexually assaulted her, and because of this, every one of these people are all part of one big conspiracy to deny her "justice," oh, and they're really all connected to NAMBLA or some other secret underground cult. Got all that?

Ugly Betty needs to go to an insane asylum. She's seriously sick in the head. 

Kenny Webster of KPRC 950 in Houston TX chose to promote failed anti-NARSOL protest led by the Proud Boys

Kenny Webster is a small-time right-wing pundit on KPRC 950 talk radio in Houston TX. He has a boring local-shock-jock radio shoew called "Pursiut of Happiness," where he interviews other alt-right losers like Alex Rosen, a "predator hunter" vigilante who decided to harass a doctor on behalf of Joe Rogan. He also considers himself a member of the "New Right" (Alt-Lite), basically the Bud Light of right-wing nuts. 

Kenny Webster tried IN VAIN to derail the NARSOL Conference in June, even heavily implying NARSOL's mission is to make it legal to abuse children, something no anti-registry group supports. 

https://www.facebook.com/KPRCradio/videos/607399840777372/

Here is the script from the two minute video...

"Now that I have your attention, something interesting’s happening at the Marriott South in Houston on June 24th. A friend of mine just sent this to me. Apparently on June 24th at the Marriott…The Proud Boys are having a rally. They’re having a protest. Now, before everybody reacts and goes, oh no, the Proud Boys, that’s an extremist group. Hang on a second. Take a look at what they’re protesting inside the building on June 24th. NARSOL, I guess it stands for National Association of Registered Sex Offenders, don’t like the law or something like that. It’s a group of people that are trying to get rid of the National Sex Offenders registry list. That’s an organization.  That’s a cause. They’re angry because they’ve been accused of having sex with children. Whatever it is they did, flashed an old lady in the park. So on June 24th at the Marriott, a group of probably proven sex criminals will be gathering together to have a meeting about how the laws and the rules for the national sex offenders registry are unfair. Now whatever you think of the Proud Boys that’s up to you. I get it. They get into fights in public with Antifa. Fine. But don’t you think that you know, objectively speaking, a group of p***philes and P**verts trying to decriminalize what it is that they did wrong, is clearly worse. That’s clearly a worse thing. I’m much more concerned about p**verts and p**ophiles than I am about the Proud Boys. A bunch of rowdy whatever you think of them. They drink too much and get into fights with each other. Okay fine, but a little more concerned about the p**ophiles. Anyways, I just thought you all deserve to know. That is a thing that’s happening in this city. Saturday June 24th. Pick your side whoever you want. The Proud Boys. Very controversial. Fine,  over there. And then over here, literal people helping child sex offenders. Pick a side America. Choose your way Western man."

-- I choose the side of truth and civil right. Kenny Webster chose to lie about the nature of the NARSOL conference and defend extreme right-wing hate groups. 

Holly Hansen of The Texan's coverage of the NARSOL conference is full of misinformation

Holly Hensen of The Texan wrote a piss-poor article covering the NARSOL Conference

Holly's Twitter post regarding this article has led to threatening tweets calling for the doxxing of attendees. 

NARSOL already said what I wanted to say about Hansen. So I'm just getting straight into the article.

https://thetexan.news/anti-sex-offender-registry-group-holds-national-conference-in-houston/

Anti-Sex Offender Registry Group Holds National Conference in Houston

Welcome letters from the mayor’s office praised the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws for efforts on behalf of “marginalized citizens.”

HOLLY HANSEN9 HOURS AGO

An organization advocating on behalf of accused sex offenders held its national conference in Houston last weekend to teach attendees how to lobby for criminal justice reforms, including the dismantling of sexual offender registries (SOR).

The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) argues that SORs are overbroad and unconstitutional. Formerly known as “Reform Sex Offender Laws,” the group was co-founded by an LGBT activist who goes by the pseudonym Alex Marbury, but the group changed its name in 2016 and distanced itself from Marbury’s efforts to change “age of consent laws.”

NARSOL held national conferences in Houston in 2019 and 2021, and each year the group touted welcome letters from Mayor Sylvester Turner praising the group for civil rights advocacy and calling Houston a “city that is welcoming and inclusive.”

“The City of Houston applauds your restorative justice efforts on behalf of marginalized citizens, and I extend best wishes for a memorable conference,” wrote Turner.

 A copy of the letter Turner sent NARSOL in 2021.

Turner’s Director of Communications Mary Benton told The Texan that the letters were created by the city’s ceremonial documents team, but that she had not approved them and the mayor had not seen them.

“The staff is directed to show me anything that could be sensitive or controversial,” said Benton. “They did not in 2019.”

Benton said new staff had been brought in who had assumed the language was approved because it had been published in 2019. She added that the team researches unfamiliar organizations and has issued 144 welcome letters to various groups in the last year. Benton did not know if the city had refused any group a welcome letter.

“Mayor Turner believes in diversity and inclusion, so we would not deny any group without thoughtful consideration and review,” said Benton, who did not respond to questions about whether a letter was sent for this year’s conference.

NARSOL suggests that SOR laws are more punitive than preventative and challenges statistics on sexual offenders.

The group’s website points to studies showing low recidivism for new sexual crimes committed by adult sex offenders, including a 2015 U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) analysis indicating a sexual recidivism rate of 5.3 percent during a three-year follow-up period. However, the DOJ report warns that few sexual offenses are reported, making recidivism difficult to measure, and notes that 43 percent were returned to prison within three years for new crimes of any kind or violations of release conditions.

Other studies have found that sexual offense recidivism rates continue to rise beyond the three-year mark, can be reported 20 years or more after the first offense, and are higher among offenders targeting underage boys.

Speakers scheduled for the NARSOL conference included Emily Horowitz, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College who argues in favor of de-stigmatizing sex offenders that have completed their sentences and says SORs have a “cruel and unusual human impact.”

Journalist Steven Yoder, who also advocates for bail reform, told conference attendees that they should refer to SORs as “un-American” “public enemies’ lists,” created by “fear-mongering” leaders as distractions. He also argued that law enforcement funds would be better spent elsewhere.

Under Texas law, those convicted of felony sex crimes — such as continuous sexual abuse of a child, bestiality, or prohibited sexual contact — must register with local law enforcement agencies, and lists are publicized by the state. Those convicted as juveniles must register for 10 years, while adults convicted must register for life.

Offenders are also restricted on where they may live or work depending on the offense, but Andy Kahan, victims advocate for Crime Stoppers of Houston, explained that convicted offenders who have completed their sentences are not usually restricted on where they may live.

At past conference sessions, NARSOL speakers have expressed opposition to aspects of the federal Adam Walsh Act, which creates a three-tiered federal SOR, and police sting operations that lead to the arrest of men soliciting sex from undercover officers posing as minors.

Earlier this month authorities arrested seven people, including the superintendent of the Itasca Independent School District, for solicitation of a minor as part of a sting operation conducted by Harris County Constable Alan Rosen’s office.

NARSOL also advises journalists to avoid the use of the term “pedophile.” The conference schedule uses the term “minor-attracted persons.”

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg called for Judge Jason Luong to recuse himself from a sexual offense case last year, noting Luong’s statements comparing child sex abuse cases to the Salem witch trials. 

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, most sexual assault goes unreported, but studies estimate a child is a victim of sexual assault every nine minutes in the United States. 

Houston has often been cited as a “hub of human trafficking,” often for purposes of sexual exploitation. Kerri Taylor of anti-trafficking organization Unbound Now Houston said in a recent interview that in the city “you can literally dial up and order a child and have them delivered to your hotel room as easily as you can a pizza.”

During the 2019 mayoral campaign, Turner rejected calls to return donations from those associated with sexually oriented businesses, and in the past, the city has been accused of selectively enforcing ordinances governing those businesses.

The recent confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson prompted concerns from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and others regarding Jackson’s alleged history of light sentencing for convicted child pornographers.

In 2017, the Supreme Court overruled a North Carolina law prohibiting registered sex offenders from using social media on First Amendment speech rights and sided with an offender in Pennsylvania who objected to retroactive provisions of that state’s registry. But the nation’s highest court has not revisited the 2003 Smith v Doe decision upholding the constitutionality of SORs.

Pastor Dillon Awes of Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas problaims "all gays are pedophiles" and "should be executed" to protect children

Just in time for "Pride Month," we have another false prophet proclaiming every gay person is a "pedophile" who should be "put to death."

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/texas-pastor-says-gay-people-shot-back-head-shocking-sermon-rcna32748

A Texas baptist church — labeled an "anti-LGBT hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center — has caused outrage after a pastor said gay people should be "lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head."

Pastor Dillon Awes of Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, a suburb of Fort Worth, made the comment and other controversial remarks during a Sunday morning sermon titled "Why We Won’t Shut Up."

"I’m angry this morning because our entire country is celebrating the worse sin in the Bible," Awes said during the sermon referring to Pride Month, which commemorates the LGBTQ+ community every June.

"You know a lot of pastors have this stupid idea where it’s just like, 'oh you know God loves everyone. And God hates the sin but loves the sinner.' But people have taken this to such an extreme where they’re saying celebrate the sin, not just tolerate it, celebrate it," he continued. "Let me show what the Bible says about these people."

Awes read several passages from the Bible and condemned homosexuality as a sin. 

At one point, he told the congregation that gay people "are dangerous to society" and said that "all homosexuals are pedophiles." "I’m not saying that every single homosexual that’s alive right now has committed that act with a child already because it could be they haven’t had the opportunity yet and they will at some point later in their life," he said. "This is why we need to put these people to death through the proper channels of the government. ... These people are not normal. They’re not your average everyday sinners. ... They have no hope of salvation."

At certain times during the sermon people from the crowd could be heard cheering in agreement. Awes told the room that he thinks the "solution for the homosexual in 2022" is the death penalty.

"These people should be put to death. Every single homosexual in our country should be charged with a crime. The abomination of homosexuality that they have, they should be convicted in a lawful trial. They should be sentenced with death. They should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head," he said.

Crooked ex-Albuquerque Police Chief Raymond Schultz found a new scheme, peddling Big Brother traffic cams

Former Albuquerque Police Chief Raymond Schultz left the Albuquerque PD in 2013 under a "cloud of bad morale, a string of scandals and intense scrutiny... by the media and the U.S. Department of Justice." Excessive force and police shootings were a part of Schultz's legacy. There were also investigations into his alliance with Taser International, which included no-bid contracts while Schultz was acting as a consultant while still working for the APD. 

But it didn't take Schultz long to land a new job both as a cop and as a peddler of controversial police technology. If you want to become a crooked cop, just go the Buford T. Justice route and go to Texas, and now Schultz is peddling Orwellian traffic cameras, and in doing so, he admits shows how these cameras can be abused, including investigating a Registered Person just going to church. 

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/houston-area-cities-use-automatic-license-plate-readers/285-0d7e99f5-d1ec-4914-8389-392dc5343f6c

Automatic license plate readers helping to deter crime in Houston-area cities

The Memorial Villages Police Department recovered 25 times as many stolen cars after installing ALPRs.

Author: Matt Dougherty

Published: 10:35 PM CST February 21, 2022

Updated: 10:55 PM CST February 21, 2022

HOUSTON — Some Houston-area cities are fighting crime by installing virtual gates around their communities. Dozens of cameras are taking millions of pictures of driver's license plates each month.

One local police chief said the technology helped catch 25 times as many suspects in wanted vehicles as the year before.

Each time a vehicle passes one of the automatic license plate reading cameras in the Memorial Villages, a picture is taken.

“What we’re doing is we’re scanning license plates as they pass by,” Memorial Villages Police Chief Raymond Schultz said.

It reads, scans the plates, then checks them against law enforcement databases for stolen or wanted vehicles.

If there’s a hit...

“Notice automatically goes to our dispatch center and our officers in the field,” Schultz said.

The Memorial Villages' network of 30 cameras dotting the nine square-mile territory west of Houston proper is a game-changer, Schultz said.

“Not only helping protect the community but also helping solve crimes throughout Houston,” Schultz said.

The automated license plate readers, also known as ALPRs, were put into service across the Memorial Villages last year.

The chief says the technology helped officers to recover 75 stolen vehicles in 2021.

The average before ALPRs was three per year.

“Pretty darn good,” Schultz said.

He says 61% of the “hits” from the ALPRs last year were from vehicles involved in crimes.

“We’ve arrested people from stolen cars to stolen mail, home invasions, people that are identity thieves, people in possession of other stolen property, people in possession of stolen firearms, wanted fugitives, you name it,” Schultz said.

The residents who spoke with KHOU 11 said the addition of ALPRs to their community has been a good thing.

“If we’re going to be part of society, I think we need to have rules and they need to be enforced,” one Memorial Villages resident said. “So if we have the ability to have high technology to help catch the criminals who are driving through I think that’s great.”

The technology doesn't come without its critics.

“They can be appropriate and even beneficial tools to solve serious crimes, but without those safeguards, the tools can raise serious privacy and transparency concerns,” said Nick Hudson with the ACLU of Texas.

“We don’t want the government to be able to have information that allows it to piece together where people go to church, who they’re seeing and what neighborhoods they’re hanging out in,” Hudson said.

Schultz said the cameras take a shot of a vehicle’s rear license plate, nothing else. He said the picture file is stored in the cloud for 30 days, then it's deleted.

Agencies choose which criminal-offense categories trigger a hit.

In addition to stolen vehicles and missing persons, the Memorial Villages Police Department is alerted each time a registered sex offender drives past their cameras.

“For the month of December, I had five sex offenders come through the Villages,” Schultz said.

Because the chief said there are no registered sex offenders living in the villages – he took a closer look.

“I was getting hits, but only on Sundays,” he said. “It was someone coming here to go to church.”

The chief said he doesn’t have a problem with that, but he said if there’s ever an issue at a school or a daycare, the plate numbers collected by the cameras could be useful.

Other neighborhoods using this technology include West University and Bellaire.

Bellaire’s police chief said it made 452 arrests last year because of the technology.

Both cities are buying more ALPRs.

Senator Ted Cruz uses "murders, rapists, and child molesters incarcerated in prison" in effort to stymie stimulus efforts

The unpopular Ted Cruz, still wishing he was in Mexico, decided what better way to try to win us back over was to try to mix "undocumented immigration" with "murders, rapists, and child molesters incarcerated in prison" to scare the masses. Cruz, of course, was called out on it. 

Just before Cruz introduced an amendment to the Stimulus Bill, the Senate struck down an amendment which would have banned incarcerated persons from receiving stimulus checks. Of course, he had two chances when Republicans were calling the shots to bring this up and did not. But he used this vote to segway into his anti-immigrant bill. Ted seems to have forgotten the stimulus check part of the bill is the SAME bill that has existed the last two times and undocumented immigrants were ineligible too. 

He was rightly called out for pandering. But since he decided to use Predator Panic to try to stymie the stimulus bill, Ted Cruz deserves a nomination. 

https://ktxs.com/news/local/both-texas-senators-voted-against-mislabeled-covid-relief-bill

(See the embedded video in the link above)

"Mr. President, moments ago in this chamber, the Democrats just voted to send $1400 stimulus checks to murderers, to rapists, and child molesters incarcerated in prison.... should $1400 go to illegal alien in America?"

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2021-03-23/html/CREC-2021-03-23-pt1-PgS1697.htm

"Mr. President, let's try one more time. The Democrats have objected to not sending checks to criminals in prison. The Democrats have objected to not sending checks to murderers in prison. The Democrats  have objected to not sending checks to rapists in prison. Let's try a group that I think may be the lowest of the low, which is child molesters. I spent a lot of years in law enforcement, and I think there is no more horrific offense than those who commit crimes of violence and sexual assault against kids. When I was solicitor general of Texas, the cases where people sexually abused kids I thought should be in Dante's Ninth Circle of Hell. So here is a chance for some bipartisan agreement. Can't we all agree that the Federal Government shouldn't send $1,400 checks to the child molesters in prison right now for molesting kids? And before the Senator from Oregon says, ``Who knows who the child molesters are,'' well, the Department of Justice and every State department of justice knows who the child molesters are in their prisons. Let's take the money that the Democrats want to send to child molesters, and let's take it from the child molesters and give it to the victims of crimes, the kids who have been molested. This is as simple a legislative choice as I can imagine. Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent  that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 931, introduced earlier today. I further ask that the bill be considered  read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be  considered made and laid upon the table...

The Democrats decided, when they took control, they didn't want to do that. You want to know just how far out of touch and how radical today's Democratic Party is? We have seen the Democrats now say we will send taxpayer stimulus checks to millions of illegal immigrants. We have seen Democrats say we will send the taxpayer stimulus to criminals in prison. We have seen the Democrats say we will send the taxpayer stimulus checks to murderers in prison. We have seen them say we will send the checks to rapists in prison. And we now just saw them say we will send the checks to child molesters in prison. It should be the essence of common sense to say don't give this money to violent criminals; give it to victims of crime instead. In a sane world, that would be a hundred-to-nothing proposition. I challenge any one of you in the brightest of blue States: Go home and explain to your constituents that you refused to take the money from child molesters and give it to the victims of that crime. That is  the position of every Democrat in this Chamber because every single Democratic Senator was the deciding vote rejecting the amendment on the floor. It is unfortunate just how extreme the hard left is right now, but it is far out of touch with the American people, and it has long abandoned any semblance of common sense."

Right now, Ron Book is looking at Cecilia Celeste Fulbright and thinking, "Why didn't I use that excuse?"

This has to be the dumbest excuse for drunken driving I've ever seen, even dumber than Ron Book's excuse. I bet Ron took notes on this for the nest time he rear ends a guy in a Lambo. 

https://wacotrib.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/affidavit-drunk-driver-who-rammed-car-claimed-to-be-chasing-pedophile/article_5989fa98-49fb-5db1-a5f2-2cef7a42e009.html

Affidavit: Drunk driver who rammed car claimed to be chasing pedophile

Kristin Hoppa Aug 13, 2020 

Waco police arrested a 30-year-old woman Wednesday morning on driving while intoxicated and aggravated assault charges after she chased at least two cars and intentionally crashed into one, later telling police she thought she was chasing a pedophile who had kidnapped a girl, arrest affidavits state.

Officers arrested Cecilia Celeste Fulbright, of Waco, at about 10 a.m., after she crashed into a barrier near the gas pumps at H-E-B on North 19th Street, police reported.

A driver called police at about 9:20 a.m. to report a small red car had chased them on North 19th Street but that they were able to get away, according to the affidavit.

About 20 minutes later, another driver reported the red car was chasing her and that the driver, Fulbright, was yelling at her and rammed her car multiple times before the caller pulled into the H-E-B parking lot on 19th Street, the affidavit states.

"Ms. Fulbright pursued (the driver) through the parking lot striking her again and an uninvolved Dodge Durango before Ms. Fulbright crashed into a cement pylon at the gas pumps," police reported.

The other driver was uninjured.

When officers arrived, Fulbright was in her car "crying hysterically" and yelling that the other driver "was a pedophile and had kidnapped a girl for human trafficking." She said she rammed the other car "because she believed she was saving a child" from a pedophile she followed from Speegleville, but her account "did not match the timeline or any facts or evidence," the affidavit states.

She appeared to be "delusional" and under the influence of drugs, and a breath test showed her blood alcohol content was between 0.21% and 0.217%, more than double the legal limit of 0.08%, according to the affidavit. Officers reported they found "multiple cans of spray paint" in Fulbright's car. She said she had at least one beer but denied using other drugs, according to the affidavit.

After medical clearance, she was taken to McLennan County Jail on a second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a Class A misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated. She was released by Thursday on $11,000 bond.

Woolley Bully: Johnson Co TX Commissioner Larry Woolley is shocked people actually oppose the registry

Well, Commissioner Woolley, there is opposition to residency restriction laws because they DO NOT WORK. That should be simple enough to understand. 

https://www.cleburnetimesreview.com/news/county-budget-presentations-wrap-up-officials-discuss-sex-offender-problem/article_94fb9a10-d72e-11ea-ae72-93dab79625cf.html

Opposition to granting counties the authority to make such rules comes from property owners who benefit by renting homes to such offenders, commissioners said.

“We’ve pushed for it before and it fell on deaf ears outside of our local representatives,” Commissioner Larry Woolley said. “But we have to keep pushing because counties have to have the right to put these rules in place just like cities do. It blows my mind that we don’t because it’s only right. Unfortunately, the state’s not a big fan of giving local control to counties or cities right now so this probably isn’t the best time to be pushing for it, but we have to keep pushing on all the same.”

Woolley said it also blows his mind that some actually oppose such legislation.

“But, when I said that before, I received phone calls and emails in opposition, and not from Johnson County people,” Woolley said.

Frankly, I'm SHOCKED this case was overturned. Pun was intended.

Someone should make this judge wear a shock belt and light it up every time this douche violates the US Constituition.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/07/barbarism-texas-judge-ordered-electric-shocks-to-man-during-trial-conviction-thrown-out/?utm_term=.a205d14dbd6c

‘Barbarism’: Texas judge ordered electric shocks to silence man on trial. Conviction thrown out.
By Meagan Flynn March 7

In Tarrant County, Tex., defendants are sometimes strapped with a stun belt around their legs. The devices are used to deliver a shock in the event the person gets violent or attempts to escape.

But in the case of Terry Lee Morris, the device was used as punishment for refusing to answer a judge’s questions properly during his 2016 trial on charges of soliciting sexual performance from a 15-year-old girl, according to an appeals court. In fact, the judge shocked Morris three times, sending thousands of volts coursing through his body. It scared him so much that Morris never returned for the remainder of his trial and almost all of his sentencing hearing.

The action stunned the Texas Eighth Court of Appeals in El Paso, too. It has now thrown out Morris’s conviction on the grounds that the shocks ordered by State District Judge George Gallagher, and Morris’s subsequent removal from the courtroom, violated his constitutional rights. Since he was too scared to come back to the courtroom, the court held that the shocks effectively barred him from attending his own trial, in violation of the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment, which guarantees a defendant’s right to be present and confront witnesses during a trial.

The ruling, handed down Feb. 28, was reported Tuesday in the Texas Lawyer.

Judges are not allowed to shock defendants in their courtrooms just because they won’t answer questions, the court said, or because they fail to follow the court’s rules of decorum.

“While the trial court’s frustration with an obstreperous defendant is understandable, the judge’s disproportionate response is not. We do not believe that trial judges can use stun belts to enforce decorum,” Justice Yvonne T. Rodriguez said of Gallagher’s actions in the court’s opinion. “A stun belt is a device meant to ensure physical safety; it is not an operant conditioning collar meant to punish a defendant until he obeys a judge’s whim. This Court cannot sit idly by and say nothing when a judge turns a court of law into a Skinner Box, electrocuting a defendant until he provides the judge with behavior he likes.”

The stun belt works in some ways like a shock collar used to train dogs. Activated by a button on a remote control, the stun belt delivers an eight-second, 50,000-volt shock to the person wearing it, which immobilizes him so that bailiffs can swiftly neutralize any security threats. When activated, the stun belt can cause the person to seize, suffer heart irregularities, urinate or defecate and suffer possibly crippling anxiety as a result of fear of the shocks.

The stun belt can also be very painful. When Montgomery County, Md., purchased three of the devices in 1998, a sheriff’s sergeant who was jolted as part of his training described the feeling to The Washington Post like this: “If you had nine-inch nails and you tried to rip my sides out and then you put a heat lamp on me.”

Most courts have found that the stun belts are constitutional as long as they are used on defendants posing legitimate security threats — but the Texas justices said there was no evidence of that here.

The discord between Morris and Gallagher arose after Gallagher asked Morris how he would plead: guilty or not guilty?

“Sir, before I say that, I have the right to make a defense,” Morris responded.

He had recently filed a federal lawsuit against his defense attorney and against Gallagher, whom he wanted recused from the case. As Morris continued talking, Gallagher warned him to stop making “outbursts.”

“Mr. Morris, I am giving you one warning,” Gallagher said outside the presence of the jury, according to the appeals court. “You will not make any additional outbursts like that, because two things will happen. No. 1, I will either remove you from the courtroom or I will use the shock belt on you.”

“All right, sir,” Morris said.

The judge continued: “Now, are you going to follow the rules?”

“Sir, I’ve asked you to recuse yourself,” said Morris.

Gallagher asked again: “Are you going to follow the rules?”

“I have a lawsuit pending against you,” responded Morris.

“Hit him,” Gallagher said to the bailiff.

The bailiff pressed the button that shocks Morris, and then Gallagher asked him again whether he is going to behave. Morris told Gallagher he had a history of mental illness.

“Hit him again,” the judge ordered.

Morris protested that he was being “tortured” just for seeking the recusal.

Gallagher asked the bailiff, “Would you hit him again?”

Morris’s trial defense attorney, Bill Ray, told Texas Lawyer he didn’t object to use of stun belt during trial because his client was acting “like a loaded cannon ready to go off.” He also claimed he did not believe Morris was really being shocked.

As the Texas justices note, case law on the use of stun belts on defendants in court is slim, if only because outrageous uses of stun belts in courts are rare.

In the several cases cited in the ruling, the stun belts’ damaging effects on a person as well as their controversial history are well recognized. The stun belts were introduced in the early 1990s as a way to “control” prisoners. According to testimony in a stun belt case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the devices “acted more as a deterrent rather than a means of actual punishment because of the tremendous amount of anxiety that results from wearing a belt that packs a 50,000-volt to 70,000-volt punch.”

“Never before have we seen any behavior like this, nor do we hope to ever see such behavior again,” Rodriguez wrote of Gallagher’s actions. “As the circumstances of this case perfectly illustrate, the potential for abuse in the absence of an explicit prohibition on nonsecurity use of stun belts exists and must be deterred. We must speak out against it, lest we allow practices like these to affront the very dignity of the proceedings we seek to protect and lead our courts to drift from justice into barbarism.”

The judge, contacted by The Post, declined to comment, citing judicial ethics.

TexASS HB 821 will prevent inmates convicted of sex offenses from seeking prison penpals

I can't imagine why this law is even necessary, other than to win a Shiitake Award for Texas.

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/No-pen-pals-Texas-seeks-to-restrict-letters-to-10847341.php

Texas legislator aims to block sex offenders from getting pen pals
Brett Barrouquere Published 12:05 pm, Tuesday, January 10, 2017

It's a common refrain online: An inmate posts a want ad seeking a pen pal while describing themselves in the most flattering terms someone behind bars can come up with. The inmates often described the loneliness of being incarcerated. But, few, if any, ever disclose why they are behind bars on sites like WriteAPrisoner.com or Prisoninmatepenpal.com. Someone choosing to correspond with them could end up writing to a person convicted of most any crime.

But, that may be a bit more limited under House Bill 821 as lawmakers return to Austin on Tuesday to begin the next legislative session. The measure, sponsored by state Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, would require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to impose rules barring anyone required to register as a sex offender from advertising for a pen pal. The legislation doesn't impose a penalty on any inmate who violates the proposed rule. It appears that would be left up to the prison system. So, the lonely existence of an imprisoned sex offender may soon become even more solitary.

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/Search/DocViewer.aspx?ID=85RHB008211B&QueryText=%22821%22&DocType=B

By: Shaheen H.B. 821

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT relating to the solicitation of pen pals by certain inmates of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1.  Chapter 500, Government Code, is amended by adding Section 500.009 to read as follows:
     
Sec. 500.009.  PEN PAL SOLICITATION PROHIBITED. (a) This section applies only to an inmate confined in a facility operated by or under contract with the department who is serving a sentence for an offense for which registration as a sex offender is required under Chapter 62, Code of Criminal Procedure.
(b)  The department shall adopt a policy that prohibits an inmate described by Subsection (a) from placing an advertisement soliciting a pen pal on an Internet website operated for that purpose, regardless of whether another person submits or pays for the advertisement for the inmate.

SECTION 2.  Not later than December 1, 2017, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shall adopt the policy required by Section 500.009, Government Code, as added by this Act.

SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.

If civil commitment is not prison, then why were the voting ballots of Littlefield TX "patients" thrown away?

Interestingly, same article, same author, different headline. Lets face it, most of us understand "civil commitment" is just a euphemism for indefinite detention Abu Ghraib style.

Houston Chronicle | Dec. 6, 2016
Officials leave sex offenders' election ballots uncounted
Sex offenders at treatment center sue for alleged rights violations

Now, the San Antonio Express News's headline:

Prisoners’ ballots tossed out
By Mike Ward, Austin Bureau December 8, 2016

http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Prisoners-ballots-tossed-out-10784382.php

Prisoners’ ballots tossed out
By Mike Ward, Austin Bureau, December 8, 2016


AUSTIN - Like millions of Americans who wanted to have their say, more than 100 men inside a West Texas treatment center for sexually violent predators registered to vote in last month's presidential election.

Local election officials, however, refused to count their ballots, a decision that attorneys say likely violates federal and state laws.

The tossed-out votes now are the subject of a growing legal fight in the small town that once begged to get the treatment center for the jobs and the multimillion-dollar payroll that it brought, but now appears to be having second thoughts about the more than 200 convicted sex offenders that came with it.

"They didn't want us going out into their community, so they made us vote by mail, and now they're denying us the right to vote at all," said Clarence Brown, 54, one of the men in the Billy Clayton Center whose ballots were rejected. "This place isn't supposed to be a prison, but this run-down, bigoted little town is trying to make it one so we can't exercise our constitutional right to vote. Even if they don't like us, what they have done is not legal."

Brown said he and 65 other men at the center have filed a challenge to the decision to reject their ballots by Early Voting Ballot Board Judge Steve Busby. They said they plan to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the case as a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which makes it a federal crime to prevent a qualified voter from casting a ballot.

Officials with the Texas Civil Commitment Office that operates the sex offender program and top elections officials at the Texas Secretary of State Office acknowledged the problem but said there is little they can do.

Lamb County elections officials contend it was not their decision and referred questions to Busby. He did not return repeated phone calls.

Documents obtained by the Chronicle show the state laws that Busby cited in rejecting the ballots were the same ones state officials used to allow the men to vote by mail: They were disabled, they were confined and could not get to a polling place to vote and that they had fully discharged their prison sentences.

"It sounds like a pretty clear violation," said Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer and expert on Texas elections law. "If they completed their sentences, they should have been allowed to vote."

'There was grumbling'

Under Texas law, felons who have completed their prison sentences are entitled to vote.

State files show the fight began earlier this year when Brown and as many as a dozen other men at the Clayton Center registered to vote in the March primaries. County officials advised them to vote by mail, records show, but none were counted.

"There was grumbling, and I asked the county how they could vote, to resolve this in the future," said Marsha McLane, executive director of the Texas Civil Commitment Office. "There were three options: They could either go a polling place on Election Day or they could bring a polling place to the center to let them vote there or they could do it by absentee ballot."

Officials confirmed that before all the men in the state's civil-commitment program were moved to Littlefield in September 2015, many had voted in Houston, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and other locations where they were housed in jails and halfway houses.

Because many of the men at the Littlefield facility did not have proper identification cards to cast ballots in person, the civil commitment agency transported the prospective voters - about 50 of them - to a Texas Department of Public Safety office in Lubbock to get state-approved ID cards. Each man paid the $21 cost for the cards, McLane said.

Internal state emails show Lamb County officials in May nixed in-person voting as an option and again urged absentee ballots to avoid problems with local residents, including the possibility of violence.

"I will assure you that if the ballot by mail does not work, I will not intentionally violate anyone's constitutional right to vote," County Judge Mike DeLoach wrote in a May 24 email to McLane. "I am gravely concerned if you bring your residents into town to vote, it is going to cause problems - in fact, it is not a 'maybe' or a possibility' - it is going to My concern is not only for the public and their safety, but also for your facility/staff and your residents' safety; neither the county nor the city maintain resources to provide security at polling places."

DeLoach also noted that while 30 men wanted to vote at the time, up to 300 eventually may want to vote in the future, a number that could impact local election races.

As of Monday, the center housed about 240 men.

DeLoach did not return calls requesting comment.

'Disabled' option OK'd
By late May, DeLoach said he had asked County Attorney Scott Say to request a legal ruling from Attorney General Ken Paxton on whether the men could vote absentee by claiming the "disabled" exemption. The Secretary of State's Office soon signed off on the mail ballots for the men.

"It can reasonably be argued that a person who has been clinically assessed ... to the point where the individual civilly committed and is unable to leave the commitment facility without being accompanied is disabled for purposes of voting by mail," Caroline Geppert, a staff attorney in the Elections Division, wrote in a May 31 email to the civil commitment agency. "Such an individual may credibly claim to have a sickness or condition that prevents the person from voting in person without the need for personal assistance."

Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Carlos Cascos, confirmed that election officials had approved mail ballots for the men. In a message to the agency, DeLoach said that was good enough to resolve the issue for county officials.

Then, Nov. 17, Brown and 65 other men received notice that the ballot each had mailed was rejected by the Early Voting Ballot Board and was not counted.

Three state laws were listed: Those covering disability, confinement in jail and the qualifications to be a voter.

Defining coercion
Privately, several local and state officials said they disagree with the decision, noting that Early Ballot Voting Boards in most counties only compare signatures on mail ballots to validate their authenticity, as well as other record-keeping details, and do not disqualify ballots for other reasons.

The state handbook for those boards confirms that.

Ten days after the election and a day after Busby officially rejected the ballots, Say, who serves as both the district and county attorney in the community of 6,300 residents, asked the attorney general to determine whether the men who voted can claim a "disability," a ruling that could block future voting if that option is nixed.

If that happens, McLane said she plans to transport eligible voters from the center to a local polling place despite the objection of local officials. "The law appears to be clear. I don't want to get sued," she said.

While advocates insist Texas law makes it a misdemeanor for anyone who "influences or attempts to influence a voter not to vote or to vote in a particular manner," state election officials said they do not believe that law covers the Littlefield situation.

"It seems to be applicable to bribery or coercing someone to vote or not to vote, not specifically relayed to counting the vote," Pierce said.

Wood disagreed.

"Taking a person's ballot and throwing it out is coercion," he said.

Bill Marshall, a Houston attorney who represents Brown and other men at the treatment center, said the case appears to be a clear denial of voting rights, especially since some of the men's ballots were counted and others were not.

"The feds should go after this," he said.

Nakia Cooper's idea of lip service is talking out her other end

Nakia Cooper advertises herself as giving "news with a little attitude," but her latest article is devoid of a little common sense.

So, what do 21 Registered Citizens have to do with a story about child abandonment, anyways? Nothing, other that they live in the same shitty community.

Nakia Cooper apparently doesn't know the difference between lip service and talking out of your ass.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/hpd-mom-leaves-2-kids-alone-in-apartment-in-area-where-many-sex-offender-live/31870786

HPD: 2 kids found alone in apartment in area where many sex offenders live
Author: Nakia Cooper, Sr. Web Editor
Published On: Mar 18 2015 03:06:04 PM CDT   Updated On: Mar 18 2015 03:18:46 PM CDT

HOUSTON -
A mother is accused of leaving her two small children alone in an apartment located in an area where nearly two dozen sex offenders live.

Teara Anderson, 20, is charged with abandoning a child.

According to Houston police, Anderson left her two children, ages 2 years old and 2 months old, alone in an apartment on Jan. 3.

Neighbors heard the children crying and saw the toddler standing at the front door, which was open.

The neighbors suspected the children were alone and called police to investigate.  Police arrived to find the children alone in the apartment.

Anderson and the children's father returned about 20 minutes after officers arrived.

Police said Anderson told them she left the children alone while she went to the grocery store.  The mom said the children were sleeping and the door was locked when she left, but thought the 2-year-old must have unlocked it.

Anderson said her car broke down as she was returning from the store and she had to call the children's father for help. 

The father told police he was not with Anderson when she left the children alone and did not live with them.  Charges were filed only against the mother.  She was jailed and her bond was set at $2,000.

Police checked the Texas Department of Public Safety Sex Offenders Registry and found that 21 registered sex offenders reside within a mile of Anderson's apartment.

Texas District Judge Michael Seiler abused his position for years, and only now is he "coming under fire"

How this judge remains on the bench is beyond me. He's obviously biased and has been reprimanded numerous times. Yet, this judge is still allowed to sit on the bench.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Judge-in-controversial-sex-offender-program-under-5986273.php

Judge in controversial sex offender program under fire

Critics say Montgomery County jurist's version of Texas justice crosses the line

By Anita Hassan and Mike WardDecember 30, 2014 Updated: December 31, 2014 6:43pm

CONROE - Sixteen times in the past four months, defense attorneys have petitioned to have him removed from hearing cases because of perceived bias. Eight times he has gotten the boot. Seven times in six years, appeals courts have found he abused his discretion in rulings.

But state District Judge Michael Seiler, who campaigned as "a prosecutor to judge the predators," remains the chief enforcer in Texas' troubled civil-commitment program, a treatment program designed to keep dangerous sex predators off the streets and from which no one has ever graduated.

Now, the jurist who has publicly described the offenders who face him in court as "psychopaths" and once suggested treating sex offenders with castration from the neck up, has become a flashpoint for criticism over whether his version of Texas justice has crossed the line.

Some attorneys and legislative leaders are suggesting that Seiler should be stripped of his role as sole arbiter of the sex-offender cases and are calling for sweeping reforms that could redefine the entire program.

"The statute needs to be changed so that all the cases do not happen in Montgomery County," said Barbara Corley, who retired last month from the State Counsel for Offenders, the state-funded office that represents convicts in court, where she once supervised civil-commitment hearings. "Everything shouldn't be concentrated in one judge."

Seiler refused repeated requests to explain his position. A court aide said he would not discuss his courtroom business.

For a program already facing state audits and investigations over contract irregularities and operational mistakes, the controversy over how Seiler dispenses justice in his Montgomery County courtroom has become the newest legal challenge amid numerous pending federal lawsuits that are questioning its constitutionality.

Key issues include why is it officially deemed an "outpatient" program, when all of the offenders in it are confined in jails and halfway houses, and whether officials have systematically sent offenders back to prison for minor violations of rules as a way to ensure that no one ever graduates...

Program started in 1999

Texas' civil-commitment program was created in 1999 as a way to keep sexually violent predators in state custody and was part of a national movement designed to prevent new victims.

In order to be committed, an offender must have committed at least two violent offenses and be deemed to have a "behavioral abnormality."

But because the offenders had already served their prison sentences and paid their debt to society, civil-commitment programs nationally have faced continuing legal challenges over whether states can deny those offenders their freedom.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the programs are constitutional because they serve as treatment programs.

Since he was appointed to the court in 2008 by Gov. Rick Perry, Seiler, a former Montgomery County assistant district attorney, has signed more than 200 civil-commitment orders and holds about 50 new trials a year, records show. Under a state law approved in 2007, Seiler's is essentially the only court in Texas designated to officiate over the civil-commitment cases.

In all, more than 360 men are currently in the program, more than half of them in prison or jail for violating the treatment-program rules.

In addition to signing the original commitment orders, Seiler also ultimately decides who gets out of the program. In addition he presides over trials that determine who goes back to prison for violating program rules.

Texas is the only state in the nation to make those violations - which range from yelling, to being late for appointments and not taking medication - a felony crime.

Facing the jury

In a mid-November trial, Andre Vittroni Johnson, who was nearing the end of his 24-year sentence in prison for raping four women in Houston, sat in Seiler's Conroe courtroom as a jury considered whether he should be placed in the civil-commitment program.

He had already spent more than half of his life behind bars.

State prosecutors argued that he posed a continuing danger to society, and was likely to re-offend. As in all civil-commitment cases, Johnson, 40, had been brought to court by the state's Special Prosecutions Unit that handles prison crimes after he was screened for inclusion into the program by a so-called MDT - short for Multi-Disciplinary Team - made up of prison officials, state police and treatment professionals, among others.

Johnson's attorneys disputed their determination, offering the testimony of an expert witness who insisted he posed no continuing threat.

As that testimony began, Seiler leaned back in his large, leather chair and swiveled 180 degrees to the left, facing the jury with his eyes closed. Johnson's sister, Nicoya Waits of Houston, watched the crucial testimony that would determine whether her brother would ever see freedom again.

By the end of the day, the jury had decided that Johnson was a sexually violent predator. Seiler ordered him into civil commitment.

While higher courts have repeatedly upheld the legality of civil commitments, defense attorneys complain that Seiler's actions in and out of court are improper. And they have made that clear by filing in increasing numbers to have him removed from hearing those cases.

Chief among the complaints against Seiler is that his court has a predisposition against convicted sex offenders.

"Judge Seiler makes apparent that he views his position as prosecutorial rather than impartial," attorney Zachary Lee, with the State Counsel for Offenders, wrote in a motion for Seiler's recusal in the case of convicted sex-offender Troy Plaisance. "Judge Seiler's labeling of all sex offenders before him as 'predators,' before they are adjudicated as such connotes a bias."

That motion, and five others for recusal, were granted on Dec. 11.

Since September, attorneys have filed at least 16 motions calling for Seiler to be recused. Eight have been granted so far, by three different judges.

Those motions cite Seiler's 2008 election campaign slogan that claimed he was a "prosecutor to judge the predators," as well as a March 2013 speech to a Woodlands tea party organization in which he referred to offenders in the civil commitment program as "psychopaths."

In that same speech, a video of which was posted on YouTube, he suggested juries take a long time deliberating cases in his court because "they just want to make it look official."

The video was removed from YouTube in November, after several recusal petitions were filed.

Attorneys also referenced a news article about an appearance Seiler made to a Montgomery County Republican Women meeting in 2011 where, in response to a question about whether castration is successful in stopping predators, Seiler said it would be ineffective because sexual offending is a mental illness.

"The castration would have to kind of occur at neck level," he was quoted as saying.

Slippery slope for attorneys

Nancy Bunin, a Houston attorney who successfully had Seiler removed from hearing the cases of two of her clients, said filing for a removal is a slippery slope for attorneys, because if they lose, they may still have to try cases before that same judge. But she felt she had to take the step because "I just didn't feel he could be fair," she said

Of the 16 who filed recusals, eight were denied by two judges, with one of them saying during a hearing he felt Seiler's campaign slogan was not showing bias, but was merely referencing his résumé as a prosecutor.

An attempt in 2013 to remove Seiler from a civil commitment case was denied on appeal by judges on 9th Court of Appeals in Beaumont, who nevertheless found that Seiler's campaign slogan and reported comments "may raise a serious question about his fairness as a judicial officer."

Seiler's courtroom demeanor and decisions also have drawn scrutiny.

At Johnson's trial, for instance, Seiler repeatedly overruled his attorneys' objections, sometimes before they had even stated the grounds of the objection. Seiler also berated Johnson's attorney when he objected in the middle of a prosecutor's closing argument.

"He didn't treat the prosecution that way," said Nicoya Waits, Johnson's sister. "It all seemed really unfair."

During a 2012 hearing on housing options for about 40 men in the program, Seiler blocked the offenders from speaking and told Barbara Corley, their attorney, to "be quiet" when she tried to object and threatened to "throw her out of the courtroom," according to a transcript.

"He effectively denied me the right to represent my clients," Corley said.

Seiler has also come under fire by attorneys for his casual conversations with prospective jurors, particularly about his love for his 10-year-old daughter, Rachael, who suffers from Rett syndrome, an incurable genetic neurological disorder that causes difficulty with speech and muscle control.

Curtis Barton, an attorney with the Harris County Public Defender's Office who formerly tried civil-commitment cases in Seiler's court, said although the judge's conversations with jurors appear casual, he finds them troubling, because many of the defendants have been convicted of sex crimes involving children.

"When he gets up there and just starts pontificating to the jury about his daughter who has a disability, it might make them feel even more bad about something the person might have done in the past, and could influence their decision, " Barton said. "It's just an improper conversation to be having with people who could be on the jury."

A series of problems

The questions about Seiler's court represent just the latest in a series of issues that surfaced during a Chronicle investigation into contract and operational irregularities in the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management, the tiny agency that supervises offenders in civil commitment.

Those issues range from a botched attempt to secretly place offenders in residential neighborhoods in Houston and Austin, to a lack of treatment programs for mentally ill and disabled offenders.

Two separate investigations and a state audit are currently underway. Most of the top officials at the agency have resigned under fire.

Marsha McLane, a veteran parole and prison official who took over as executive director of the troubled agency in May, has initiated a series of policy changes to correct many of the problems.

When she introduced herself to Seiler for the first time in July, the meeting did not occur, as she expected, at his office, but in the courtroom - with him sitting on the bench and a court reporter making an official transcript of the proceedings.

According to the transcript obtained by the Chronicle, when McLane asked if Seiler would consider requiring some offenders to spend at least some time in a state hospital, where their needs might be better met, he declined, saying their mental health could be determined at a criminal trial after they violated program rules.

"Once they hit the criminal part of it, then they can be - have a mental competency evaluation and be sent off to the state hospital, where they are then kept there with the charge pending," Seiler said.

Attorney Barbara Corley said this was tantamount to criminalizing disability.

Decisions reversed

In at least seven cases, appellate courts have sided with defense attorneys, reversed Seiler's decisions in civil commitment cases and ordered new trials. Almost all civil-commitment cases are sent for appeal.

In four of those reversed cases, court records show, Seiler granted prosecutors' motions to exclude testimony of the defense's expert witness, who are the only witnesses in those trials who could dispute prosecutors' claims.

In a 2012 appellate opinion reversing Seiler's judgment in the civil commitment of Lester Winkle, Justice Charles Kreger wrote that by excluding the defense's expert testimony, Seiler blocked the only evidence the defendant had favoring a finding that he would not, beyond a reasonable doubt, likely re-offend. But in a dissenting opinion, now-retired Justice David Gaultney stated that the expert's opinion lacked sufficient evidence and his testimony would not have changed the trial's outcome.

In addition, jurors are often not advised what civil commitment is, attorneys said.

They also contend Seiler routinely does not allow the words "civil commitment" to be used in the courtroom. When that has happened, he has excused the jury from the room and reprimanded whoever used the phrase.

That is what happened to Carolyn Esparza, a 73-year-old social worker, when she testified during Johnson's trial and made a reference to his civil-commitment petition. Seiler's actions left her confused and angry, she said.

"Doesn't the jury have a right to know what the consequences of what they are doing?" she said later. "They should know that they are sending someone into a treatment program that no one has been released from in 15 years. That's 100 percent failure."

Echoing the opinion of other legal experts, Melissa Hamilton, a visiting criminal-law scholar at the University of Houston Law Center who specializes in the civil commitments, said an explanation of the program is not specifically prohibited and could be allowed by a judge.

Not doing so, she said, could be "about crafting a message."