The 4 W's and the Octopus Arms

The Who, What, When, Why's have been talked about throughout my blog by now, but I'd like to give you some specifics along with some of the letters and formal complaints I lodged.  I think we all know the Why's on the part of my false accusers, it can all be summed up in one word ....GREED.  As to the prosecutors it's all about convictions, convictions and more convictions.  In both situations it is about WINNING at all costs.  If prosecutors were ever put on death row for the characters they assassinated with their false, spell bound words we'd have to build an enormous new prison and perhaps then, the few remaining would think twice about seeking truth as they deal out "justice" in their court room dramas.

The What is: I was falsely charged with Theft - greater than $200,000....that translates to Embezzlement of $3,775,000. 

That leaves us with two W's.  The specifics as  to When are easy to get out of the way.  I was indicted in March 2004 in Dallas County.  As a result of the indictment I was arrested in April.  I lived in New Mexico at the time.  So I was taken to the Santa Fe Corrections facility, where I stayed for seven days while a $20,000 bond was worked out in Dallas, I was not required to be transported back to Dallas.  Following those seven days,  I was allowed to continue living in New Mexico and traveled into Dallas for monthly hearings.  Even then my attendance was waived for some of those hearings.  I was not considered a flight risk, yet it was rumored in the Collin County Business Journal that I had fled Texas.  I believe the term for that is yellow journalism.  After the first year on the $20,000 bond I was given a PR (personal recognizance) bond for the remaining time prior to my trial.  None of the bonds were ever violated.

Following the indictment we had years of continuances and pre-trial hearings.  My jury trial commenced on September 10, 2007 in Dallas County.  I was convicted on September 12th, not allowed to return home but remanded to jail straight out of the courtroom.  September 13th I was sentenced to eight years and my case was immediately put into appeal by my husband.  The Judge decided I was a flight risk (after three and a half years on bond!!!) and required a half million dollar appeals bond....more than some alleged murderers.  Eventually we were able to get the appeals bond down to $100,000 but even that was too much for my family who by then was depleted from helping me.  It's noteworthy to mention that while my sentence was eight years, the jury decided NO restitution, NO legal fees and NO court costs, which is all but unheard of coming out of Dallas.

That leaves us with Whosville...some days this feels like a crazy Dr. Seuss book....almost unreal had it not been for those 3 years of incarceration.  The pain of not being with my family quite often  felt unbearable....that was very real.  The first person I spoke to was Detective Steven Zuczek of DPD and as far as I know he is the only detective on my case.  I started with a defense attorney Tom Lockry.  He was not at all qualified to handle my trial or really even my case.  The initial Judge was Faith Johnson.  The second attorney I had was Mark Perez.  After about 4 months he asked for an additional $50,000.  We did not have it so I had to go to what's called Indigent status, and was appointed an attorney by the court.  Clark Birdsall was my court appointed attorney.  First he was a self employed defense attorney taking court appointments, then he became a public defender, employed by the State.  He remained with me through the trial.

The prosecutor through all the pretrial hearings was ADA Mike Moss.  He was replaced just before the trial by ADA Stephanie Martin.  I believe she is DA Craig Watkins's golden girl.  He recently used her with the Dallas County Commissioners as he fought to keep them from cutting his budget.  Her presentation to the County Commissioners was noted in The Dallas Morning News last fall. 

When Craig Watkins was ushered into the DA's office by the voters in January 2007, I also had a change in judges.  Tracy Holmes won the 2006 election and took over Faith Johnson's position in the 363rd District Court, where my case resided.  I thought the take over by the Democrats might fare well for me, thinking the old  boy network had been broken, but I was sadly mistaken.  It seemed they had a need to prove that they were tough on crime...or alleged crime, and were just putting everybody away as fast as they could....building a near 100% conviction rate.

Through out all of this I had  a lot of frustration.  I had exculpatory evidence withheld, forensics were a battle and what was recovered was kept out of my defense. I had constant struggles with my own attorney, Birdsall, to even get him to listen to me...and for the most part he was unavailable.  I gave up trying to meet with him and sent him tons of information via emails....at least then it was documented.  I tried, but you can't make somebody do what they don't want to do and he had made it clear he did not want my case.

I also tried to get Birdsall off my case, writing both the Judge and the head of Public Defenders, Brad Lollar.  Following is the letter to the Judge (Lollar's was almost identical):

I received no response whatsoever from the Judge regarding this request.  My husband (my witness to all of this) and I had a meeting with Lollar where he informed us that my case was not a priority and that I can't just up and change attorneys whenever I feel like it.  He told us that the fraternizing with the opposition complaint was absurd....and then walked us out of his office.  

The next major letter I wrote was to DA Craig Watkins, upon his taking over the DA's Office and had it delivered by courier:







Of course, no response but I did not give up, I kept thinking he was really concerned about wrongful convictions...I didn't realize he had replaced Moss with one of his top prosecutors...although I would soon learn.  Here is the second letter to DA Craig Watkins:

I also sent formal complaints on the Judges to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.  Below is the attachment to the complaint for Judge Faith Johnson:

Nothing came of these complaints prior to the trial.  I have since learned they are more interested in discrimination type misconduct.  I tried everything I could to bring attention to the irregularities in my case but could get no action.  All I ever wanted was a fair trial.  It just did not happen.  Those were the players.  Very real and very dangerous folks.