Public records — or the absence of public records — seem to suggest that Sherry Cook, the executive director of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, received unearned credit from a special VIP police academy run by her husband. I suspect that’s only the tip of the iceberg, and this afternoon I sent a letter to the Travis County DA, Brazoria County DA, and Texas Commission on Law Enforcement requesting an investigation of Mrs. Cook and her husband, Maurice Cook, the former chief of the Texas Ranger Division and the current Republican nominee for Bastrop County Sheriff.
According to Mr. Cook’s resume, he was the director of law enforcement training at Alvin Community College from August of 2000 until August of 2013. Mrs. Cook’s official training records at the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement show that she received 40 hours for “Crime Scene Investigation (Intermediate)” at ACC during the week of August 26, 2013 through August 30, 2013. According to an April 30, 2015 email from ACC President Christal Albrecht, the class was offered in Room N-111 at the ACC campus, and I’ve found nothing to indicate that it was available online or by teleconference. Yet TABC has no records indicating that Mrs. Cook actually attended the class in Alvin.
You would expect to find mileage reports, gas receipts, meal receipts, or hotel bills — something reflecting a five-day round trip from Austin to Alvin — but TABC claims there are no such records. In fact, TABC claims it has no record of any emails that Mrs. Cook sent or received during the week of August 26, 2013. I requested all of her emails from that week, thinking one of them might give a clue about her location. In an August 19, 2015 telephone conversation, TABC public information coordinator Matthew Cherry told me there were no emails whatsoever for that week. On September 21, 2015, he wrote as follows: “Please be informed that the TABC does not have any responsive records pertaining to emails, travel, and expense records for Executive Director Sherry Cook from August 26, 2013 through August 30, 2013.” … Read more