About Ty Clevenger

An anonymous letter circulating in Anderson suggests Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell used inmate labor on his personal property, but Sheriff Sowell says the inmates were clearing a tree that had fallen over a public roadway.

The letter includes an undated photograph of inmates working near a fence line, and you can read the letter and view the photo by clicking here. I asked the sheriff about the letter and the photograph, and here’s a copy of his emailed response:

From what I was told by my jailer, Glen Love, that supervises the outside inmate work crew on details around the county, the tree “on” my property had blown over and many limbs were on W. Buffington St. and the unnamed city road that divides my property and the property of Tom Johanson. He said that he moved it because it was blocking the two roadways. He said they had to cross the barbed wire fence to use the chainsaw to cut at different angles and that was the only time they were on my property inside the fence. He said they loaded up and took the limbs to the burn pile that is located on the Law Enforcement Center property adjacent to firing range. That’s about all I can say about this as I said earlier, I didn’t know about this until you brought it to my attention.

Judging from the photograph, however, it appears that the tree was blown away from the roadway and into the pasture rather than toward the roadway. Why does it matter? As the letter notes, a public official commits a crime if he or she “misuses government property, services, personnel, or any other thing of value belonging to the government that has come into the public servant’s custody or possession by virtue of the public servant’s office or employment.” See Texas Penal Code §39.02.

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A special investigation of two federal judges in Texas is nearing completion, but one of those judges recently violated the law again by concealing his attorney-client relationship with a lawyer who regularly appears in his courtroom. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appears to be stonewalling my complaint against U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle (more on that below, plus the latest news about the Booger County Mafia).

On Saturday, I supplemented my judicial complaint against U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith, Jr. of Waco after learning that Judge Smith had an undisclosed attorney-client relationship with local attorney Greg White. Ironically, Judge Smith hired Mr. White to represent him in the judicial misconduct proceedings that resulted from my original complaint, a fact that both of them concealed from the attorneys and parties who were appearing opposite from Mr. White in Judge Smith’s court.

As reported on this blog and at DirtyRottenJudges.com, my original complaint arose from a female deputy clerk’s testimony that Judge Smith sexually harassed and groped her while he was drunk in the federal courthouse. According to that former clerk, she reported the misconduct through her chain of command, but then-Chief District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth covered up the incident. I filed complaints against Judge Hudspeth as well as Judge Smith, and the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals appointed a special committee to investigate both of them.

I recently heard rumors that a report was targeted for release in mid-November, and a letter dated October 20, 2015 seems to confirm that timeline. In the letter, a deputy clerk informed me that the committee’s report for “Case No. 05-14-90120” had been submitted to the judicial council. That’s the case number assigned to Judge Smith (Case No. 05-14-90121 was assigned to Judge Hudspeth).

In addition to the supplemental grievance against Judge Smith, I filed a bar grievance against Mr. White, who also serves as an adjunct professor at Baylor Law School. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled 35 years ago that judges should disqualify themselves from cases when they have an attorney-client relationship with one of the attorneys in a case, and state bar rules prohibit a lawyer from assisting a judge in violating the rules against judicial misconduct. Purely as a matter of common sense, Judge Smith and Mr. White should have known better. Would you want your case tried by a judge who was secretly being represented by your opponent’s lawyer? … Read more

In a federal lawsuit filed yesterday, Kilgore College’s former maintenance director alleged that he was fired for reporting the school’s mishandling of asbestos on campus.

Dalton Smith publicly disclosed the illegal asbestos disposal — as well as secret audio recordings of his conversations with college administrators — in the Longview News-Journal on April 6, 2014.  Seventeen months later, the college terminated Mr. Smith and outsourced the entire maintenance department.

According to the lawsuit, prior to Mr. Smith’s termination he was stripped of his supervisory role on the main campus, placed on a satellate campus by himself, and told not to drive onto the main campus without first notifying the campus police.  The lawsuit further alleges that other employees were directed not to speak with him or assist him.

None of this should come as a surprise. As I reported back on July 27, 2015, the college’s attorney tried to bully a couple of my clients because they dared to ask inconvenient questions about the corruption and incompetence at Kilgore College, and I warned the college then that lawsuits were coming.

KC President Bill Holda thought he was headed toward a quiet retirement in the Northeast, but the next few years of his life likely will be consumed by litigation, particularly since he is named as an individual defendant in Mr. Smith’s lawsuit. And you can bet other lawsuits are on the way, particularly now that some of the school’s former employees are showing symptoms of asbestos exposure. … Read more

Sometime today the Collin County grand jury should receive a letter requesting the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the purchase and sale of the Collin Central Appraisal District headquarters site, a deal that netted six or seven figures for District Attorney Greg Willis, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and their business partners. Let’s hope that shady transaction finally gets the attention that it deserves.

I originally blogged about the CCAD site on March 23, 2015. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the Lone Star Project later sent a letter to the grand jury on May 12, 2015 after it uncovered new details about the transaction. The letter was sent in care of Assistant DA Gail Falco Leyko. On June 25, 2015, after I learned about the Lone Start Project letter, I sent an email to Ms. Leyko asking whether the letter had been delivered. On the same day, Judge Chris Oldner signed an order sealing the names of grand jurors.

I later learned that Ms. Leyko had not delivered the letter to grand jurors, and as I explained in my July 13, 2015 and July 14, 2015 posts, it appeared that the DA’s office was trying to block access to the grand jury by getting Judge Oldner and Judge John Roach, Jr. to seal the names of grand jurors. In other words, it appeared that Ms. Leyko was trying to protect her boss from a grand jury investigation, and for good reason.

You will recall that I started writing letters to grand jurors back in March when it became obvious that Mr. Willis and/or his staff were trying to block any investigation of Mr. Paxton, who was not only Mr. Willis’s business partner but a personal friend since college. The grand jury ultimately went rogue, forcing Mr. Willis to step aside and ultimately leading to the indictment of Mr. Paxton on securities charges. … Read more

Some time after yesterday’s post about “the sleaziest little newspaper in Texas,” someone deleted Robertson County News publisher and editor Dennis Phillips’s “Booger County Mafia debunked” screed from the newspaper’s Facebook page. I’m wondering if that had anything to do with an email that I sent to Jim Moser, president of the company that owns the News.

Late night’s email to Mr. Moser was copied to other journalists and community leaders and included the following message:

Mr. Moser,

Below is a blog post concerning Dennis Phillips and the Robertson County News. Prior to law school, I worked as a reporter for the Longview News-Journal and The Washington Times, and I also worked as a stringer for the Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle.

In all my years in journalism, law enforcement, and law practice, I have never met a journalist as unethical and incompetent as Dennis Phillips. I hope your organization has been unaware of his shenanigans, because I cannot image any media organization tolerating his misconduct and ineptitude.

In his September 21, 2015 post on the newspaper’s Facebook page, Dennis mentioned the newspaper’s relationship with KAGS. By copy of this letter to KAGS personnel, I encourage the station to terminate its relationship with the Robertson County News, at least until Dennis Phillips is replaced with a competent and ethical journalist.

Thank you for your consideration.

Ty Clevenger

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If public conniption fits are any indication, I must be getting way under the skin of the Booger County Mafia and its flunkies. As I told The Bryan-College Station Eagle last week, witnesses saw Hearne City Manager Pee Wee waiving a printed copy of one of my blog posts at city hall and saying, “This sh@# needs to stop!” (I assume he was talking about my blogging and not his own role in misappropriating taxpayer funds).

At the same time, Hearne City Attorney Bryan F. “Rusty” Russ, Jr.’s wife and sister (not the same person) have been doing his dirty work on Facebook, with his wife implying that I am gay and mentally ill. The latter is particularly ironic, because I suffer from exactly the same mental illness that she does: clinical depression. And while I appreciate the Mafia’s ongoing interest in my sexual preference, I must report – to John Paschall’s apparent disappointment – that I am straight.

Then there’s Dennis Phillips, the publisher and editor of the Robertson County News, who accepted $30,000 worth of hush money from the city in exchange for ignoring most of the crimes at city hall.  On Monday, he published “Booger County Mafia debunked” in an effort to set me straight, but he ended up admitting that he did exactly what I accused him of doing. [UPDATE 9/24/2015: The post has been deleted, but I saved a copy and you can find the link by clicking here.] More on that below, but I am always amused when my blogging is critiqued by a purported journalist who struggles with sixth-grade grammar and spelling.

I view all of this conniptionality (yes, I made that word up) as a positive sign. Crooks always get bent out of shape when they are being exposed. And since we’re on the topic, let’s expose them a little more. … Read more

Organized crime charges against three men who were arrested in July at a Grimes County car auction appear to be unraveling. According to an audio recording that I obtained last week, witness Richard Masto said he was pressured by a lieutenant in the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office to sign a handwritten statement accusing one of the men of selling cars without authorization.

Lt. Joseph Sclider, who serves as the commander of the Montgomery County Auto Theft Task Force, organized the June 24, 2015 raid in tiny Anderson, Texas, then arrested my client, Les Shipman, his associate, Jerry Williams, and the auctioneer, Israel Curtis. The task force also seized 54 cars, all with television news cameras rolling. From the news coverage, you would have thought the three men were running a stolen car ring.

In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Mr. Shipman owns the car repair business where the raid was conducted, and Lt. Sclider seems to have a grudge. Between 2013 and the time of the raid, Lt. Sclider and/or his task force officers inspected Mr. Shipman’s premises four times without finding any violations. Mr. Shipman was planning to auction off all of the cars on his property on June 27, 2015 so he could ultimately sell the business and move out of state.

Around 11 minutes into the interview of Mr. Masto, you can hear the following exchange between Mr. Masto and a private investigator hired by Mr. Shipman’s criminal defense attorney, John Quinn of Bryan:

Investigator: Apparently you talked to [Lt. Sclider] and he wrote this statement out for you. Have you seen that?

Masto: Yeah, I signed it.

Investigator: My understanding is, that he kind of explained to you that if you didn’t write this statement – tell me if I’m full of sh@# – but if you didn’t write this statement he was taking your ass to jail.

Masto: Pretty much.

In fairness, Mr. Masto seems to equivocate later in the interview, and unfortunately he died soon afterward. Even so, the state’s case against Mr. Shipman, et al. is full of holes. … Read more

This afternoon I sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting an investigation into the financial crimes and corruption at Hearne City Hall, because city officials are pulling out the big guns to thwart a local investigation. As KBTX reported on Wednesday, Robertson County District Judge Robert Stem blocked District Attorney Coty Siegert from listening to audiotapes of the Hearne City Council’s executive sessions. Mr. Siegert had obtained the recordings with a search warrant as part of his ongoing investigation of financial irregularities at city hall as well as violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Now everyone can see why Hearne Mayor Ruben Gomez and the other crooks at city hall wanted to bring back Bryan F. “Rusty” Russ, Jr. as city attorney: Mr. Russ and Judge Stem are both kingpins in the Booger County Mafia, and Mr. Siegert will have a hard time conducting a criminal investigation if Judge Stem is running interference at Mr. Russ’s behest. And rest assured, Judge Stem will be running interference wherever he can. In fact, I would not be surprised if Judge Stem started quashing grand jury subpoenas related to Mr. Siegert’s investigation.

If you’ve read BoogerCountyMafia.com, you’re familiar with the corrupt relationship between Mr. Russ and Judge Stem, e.g., Mr. Russ provided free legal services to Judge Stem, and the two of them hid that relationship from all of the attorneys and parties who appeared opposite Mr. Russ in Judge Stem’s court. Around the same time, Judge Stem aided and abetted Mr. Russ and his law partner, Jimmie McCullough, in the theft of more than $1 million in mineral interests. Anywhere else that might be called bribery, but in Booger County the ruling class gets to make up its own rules. … Read more

Yesterday evening, my former clients on the Hearne City Council voted to rehire Bryan F. “Rusty” Russ, Jr. as the city attorney and ratify the pay of a city supervisor who has been sitting behind bars since January. This should eliminate any doubt about whether Hazel Embra, Joyce Rattler, and LaShunda White have joined the Booger County Mafia.

I suppose I could view that as a sign of racial progress in Booger County insofar as Mrs. Embra, Mrs. Rattler, and Mrs. White are the first black members of the Mafia, but I am more inclined to think of the words of the apostle in II Peter 2:22: “It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and, ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.'”

My former clients ran on a platform of cleaning up the corruption at city hall, which historically treated its black residents as second-class citizens, but instead they decided to sell out and become part of the problem.  And no one personifies that corruption more than Mr. Russ, who had been the sworn enemy of the three blind mice up until the time that they decided to join the Mafia.  This afternoon I sent a letter to District Attorney Coty Siegert requesting an investigation of the three blind mice for criminally violating the Texas Open Meetings Act.

As explained in the letter, the evidence indicates that the decision to rehire Mr. Russ was made well in advance of the meeting. I warned them that it was illegal and they did it anyway, so criminal charges are perhaps the only deterrent at this point.  The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports that the council also voted to ratify the city manager’s decision to keep paying Natividad Rodriguez, Jr., the city streets supervisor who was arrested in January for violating his felony probation. … Read more

If you think Hearne’s streets have too many potholes, add this to the list of reasons: the supervisor of the city’s street department was arrested on felony charges in January, and the city is still paying his annual salary of more than $37,000 per year while he sits behind bars.

Natividad Alex Rodriguez, Jr. was indicted on a felony charge of driving while intoxicated in 2012 and he was later placed on probation, but he was arrested again in January after his probation was revoked. According to the 2012 indictment, Rodriguez was convicted of misdemeanor DWIs in 1993 and 1996, then convicted of a felony DWI in 1999.

According to other Brazos County records, Rodriguez was also sentenced in 1999 to seven years in prison for second-degree felony possession of a controlled substance. His criminal record in Brazos County dates back to 1988, when he was arrested for assault and reckless conduct (he was later convicted on both charges).

My sources tell me that prior to Rodriguez’s latest arrest, other city employees were upset that Rodriguez was allowed to drive city vehicles on the job while his license was suspended. So how does Rodriguez get away with things that would get anyone else fired? He’s a FORG, i.e., a “friend of Ruben Gomez,” the mayor.

I have not yet obtained payroll records for Rodriguez, but my sources have confirmed that he is still drawing his full salary. Expect that subject to be discussed at the city council meeting on Tuesday. [UPDATE 8/30/15: The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports that the meeting has been cancelled.] … Read more