Troubles mount for San Jacinto officials

3 in county are arrested, could face more charges
By CINDY HORSWELL
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

The district attorney, county commissioner and constable in San Jacinto County were arrested on multiple indictments Wednesday stemming from a variety of allegations such as pornography being found on a county computer to racial bias.

District Attorney Mark Price and Precinct 4 Commissioner Joe Johnson, who began serving their first term in January 2003, and Precinct 4 Constable Lou Rogers, who has served for eight years, were all released on personal recognizance bonds.


"This is just the beginning. The grand jury is still meeting and has more things to investigate. We anticipate there will be more indictments," said special prosecutor David Ryan of Houston.


Ryan also said he had received two death threats from anonymous callers since beginning his probe in June.


"One caller said there are lots of county roads where you would never find a body," said Ryan, who carries a .40-caliber pistol wherever he goes.



Charges cited
Charges against the elected officials include official oppression, retaliation, tampering with a government record, abuse of official capacity and criminal mischief. The three men will remain in office unless they are convicted of any of the felony and misdemeanor charges.



"We're not going to try this case in the press, but in the court of law," said Price's attorney, John Tunnell. "And we have every confidence that we will prevail."


Laura "Sissy" Prigmore, who represented Rogers and Johnson at the bail hearing, said: "The state is going to be pretty hard-pressed to win their cases. People are pretty mystified by the charges and scratching their heads."


Price is charged with retaliation and official oppression for his alleged treatment of a courthouse clerk, Jenny Vaughn.


Vaughn, who recently won a $10,000 "whistle-blower" lawsuit, reported finding pornography on San Jacinto County Judge Bill Law's office computer last year.


Texas Department of Public Safety investigators later confiscated evidence of sexually explicit chat room conversations and nude male photographs from the judge's computer.


Price retaliated against Vaughn by filing a racketeering lawsuit against her and others, Ryan said.


The lawsuit alleges the conspirators planted the pornography to drive the judge from office.


Ryan also accused the district attorney of attempting to fire Vaughn or see that she was put on leave without pay.


"The district attorney later dropped the racketeering lawsuit and admitted that he had no evidence that she had any part in a conspiracy," Ryan said.


Though Price declined to comment about specifics of the allegations, he said in an interview last week that he believes the racketeering allegations are true.


He said he only quit pursuing the case because of the cost and time.


He also said the accused are predominantly newcomers who are under siege by the "old guard" who fear losing control.


Price also was indicted on allegations that he tampered with government records to conceal that he improperly spent money from a special prosecutorial fund.


Price has denied any wrongdoing.


Rogers is charged with abuse of official capacity on allegations that he used his office letterhead to illegally collect money for a gun safety course that he was teaching, the special prosecutor said.



11 indictments
The constable also faces charges of abuse of official capacity and criminal mischief that included racial bias in the alleged destruction of a woman's mobile home, according to one of the 11 indictments handed down Wednesday.



Johnson faces abuse of official capacity, criminal mischief and official oppression charges involving the handling of the same mobile home, Ryan said.


Johnson said that on June 4 he and Rogers "were trying to deal with a trailer that was in the middle of the road and a traffic hazard."


"It was abandoned on a gravel road (Ryan's Ferry Road) that is a school bus route and it was raining and fixing to be dark," Johnson said. "My job is to keep the roads passable."


The mobile home's owner, 20-year-old Harrietta Lynn, who is black, said the hauler left the trailer there after it had a flat tire and told her to call the sheriff's department for help.


Johnson and Rogers, who are both white, said Lynn had no money to pay someone to move it, and two wrecker services declined to do the job.


Ryan said one wrecker driver only declined because the commissioner had already hooked up equipment to the mobile home to pull it off the road.


Johnson said he used a front-end loader and other equipment to move it to the side of the road.


Photos show the trailer's walls were scraped, ripped and torn open during the move.


"It's horrible the way she is treated," said Charles Portz, Lynn's attorney, who said a fund has been started to help her obtain a new home.


Lynn said she initially bought the trailer for $150 and then paid $1,900 to renovate it.


"Now it's completely totaled," she said Wednesday. Lynn added that all her possessions inside are missing.



Racial accusations
Ryan said that Lynn, who is pregnant and has two other children, ages 6 and 3, is nearly destitute.



"Black people and white people in this county get different consideration," said Ryan, who is white.


Prigmore criticized the prosecutor for raising the issue of race.


"It's a disaster to say a politician is racially prejudiced." she said.


Law, also represented by Prigmore, has been suspended with pay until he is tried on a charge of breach of computer security. He is accused of storing pornography on a government computer.


"All I can tell you is that I did not put it there," Law said last week. He also noted that one grand jury has "no billed" him on a different charge involving pornography and a court dismissed a second one before the third charge was filed.


The indictments, handed down in Coldspring, come in a county with a troubled history.


Former Sheriff James C. "Humpy" Parker was convicted in 1983 of violating prisoners' civil rights through water torture. He was given a 10-year sentence.