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David Tuthill
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01/11/07 Do the
crime, don't worry about the time.
Let's see -- Dr. H hires a high dollar law firm to do
an investigation that should have been done by the FBI (see
DISD To Pay Law Firm $1 Million Over Credit Card
Investigation
www.Dallas.org).
DA Craig Watkins considers issuing passes to druggers caught with controlled
substance, as long as they show up to find out if their stuff tests out as real.
County Commissioners want to solve overcrowding in county jails by not jailing
law breakers.
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The DISD saga
continues. If at first you don't succeed, try harder to fail
worse. The present situation on Ross Avenue would be laughable if
you weren't reduced to tears thinking about how your own property taxes
have been and are being squandered by the present administration and
school board. There seems to be no light at the end of the train
tunnel. |
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10 may be charged in DISD credit card case;
Spokesman says misuse could lead to discipline for 600 employees
January 9, 2007
By KENT FISCHER / The
Dallas Morning News
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At least 10 Dallas school employees could face criminal charges for misusing district credit cards, and about 600 more may face discipline by the district, a school system spokesman said Tuesday.
That would mean about half of the roughly 1,200 employees who were issued a DISD MasterCard between 2004 and 2006 are suspected of breaking the district's rules on how they were to be used.
Independent investigators examining the district's credit card use have compiled cases against 20 employees whose misuse was determined to be among the most egregious or unlawful,
... Last month, Dr. Hinojosa told representatives of a teachers' union that the district's dragnet would land "some pretty high" administrators.
... On Thursday, the school board will review a proposal to authorize an additional $500,000 for the investigation, which is being carried out by the law firm of Fish & Richardson. If trustees approve the request later this month, it will bring the cost of the independent investigation to $1 million.
Madeline Johnson, a Fish & Richardson lawyer and former assistant U.S. attorney who is helping to lead the investigation, said her team has not completed its work and declined to comment on where it might lead.
... Paul Coggins, the former U.S. attorney who heads the local office of Fish & Richardson, said his team needed four more months to finish its work.
... Agents with the Dallas FBI office also are investigating credit card use as part of a larger district corruption inquiry.
... "I'm not looking so much at what it costs," trustee Jerome Garza said Tuesday. "I'm looking at the principle involved and cleaning it up. The confidence of our stakeholders [taxpayers] is too important. We have to get that back."
... The district investigation came shortly after a report by The Dallas Morning News in July detailed problems with the district's credit card program.
... The News found that many employees had bought personal items at taxpayers' expense, such as a principal's subscription to an online dating service, numerous iPods purchased by teachers and an estimated $800,000 in retail gift cards.
... At least seven employees, including the secretary, have been placed on leave in connection with the investigation. ...
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Is it just me, or do you find
it interesting that Madeline Johnson is identified as "former assistant U.S.
attorney", rather than "former City Attorney" for Dallas? It chaps my
rear that Belo's reporters do not give Allen Gwinn (www.Dallas.org)
credit as the source for their July exposé on DISD credit card abuse by
employees. Allen compiled the original data. What harm would it do
to the mighty Dallas Managed News
and WFAA to recognize Allen's contribution? Allen makes a very important point
on www.Dallas.org:
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Another question raised over the course of the investigation: why
hasn't the entire matter been referred to the FBI for investigation
(as opposed to hiring a private firm to investigate)? |
Why did we have to hire
independent lawyers Paul Coggins and Madeline Johnson to do this investigation
with a million dollar tab?
Why didn't Dr. H turn the entire matter over to the FBI?
There's a simple answer to that question. It goes back to Dr. H's career
as a bureaucrat climbing up the bureaucratic ladder. To succeed as a
government bureaucrat, you must never see taxpayer dollars as real money to be
spent carefully and prudently. If you can waste taxpayer dollars, you are
having a good bureaucrat day. If you can waste taxpayer dollars and funnel
it to former government bureaucrats like Coggins and Johnson, you are having a
great bureaucrat day.
It's a different issue over at the county, but the dynamics are the same.
Waste taxpayer dollars so you can get a bigger budget next year. Our
criminal-loving DA Watkins is mulling over the most ridiculous idea to come down
the bureaucratic pike in a long time.
If a drug dealer gets busted (big time or small time) under current rules, he
stays in County jail without bond until the results of testing come back on his
confiscated drugs. Under the proposed plan, the dealer gets to bond out so
long as he "promises" to show back up for a hearing when his tests are back.
Is this stupid, or what? The drug dealer knows whether his stuff is
illegal and what it is -- with or without a county drug test. Why would he
show up for a hearing when he knows the test results will be positive and he
will go to jail?
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DA mulls drug testing;
Wait time for results contributes to crowding at Dallas County jails
Saturday, January 6, 2007
By KEVIN KRAUSE /
The Dallas Morning News
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Newly elected District Attorney Craig Watkins said Friday he's willing to review a policy on drug-evidence testing that has contributed to inmate-crowding problems at the Dallas County jails.
Since 2002, the district attorney's office has had a policy – enacted by former District Attorney Bill Hill after the fake-drug scandal – in which drug offenders are not indicted until drug evidence is tested at a lab to make sure it's real.
... However, it also has contributed to the jail-crowding problem because many defendants who can't bond out are left waiting in jail for their test results before their cases can move through the system.
The turnaround time for drug testing initially was lengthy because of staff shortages at the county's crime lab. It now averages 25 days, officials say.
... One option is for his office not to accept any drug cases from police departments until the drugs are tested.
... Fort Worth police Lt. Gene Jones said people who are arrested on drug charges are kept in a holding cell at the department until the drug test results are back.
... Mr. Watkins said he's committed to reducing overcrowding in Dallas County's jails.
... Reducing the jail population must be balanced with protecting the public, he said.
... At the end of 2003, 755 defendants were waiting in the Dallas County jails for drug analysis results, according to the county budget office.
That number was down to 265 at the end of last year.
Dallas County's jail population exceeded 7,000 inmates last year. The county has the seventh-largest jail system in the nation and the highest incarceration rate among Texas' five largest counties.
... Ron Stretcher, Dallas County's director of criminal justice who has been studying jail-crowding solutions, said another option is to have arresting agencies release defendants with a notice to appear once the drug test results are available. ...
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This sounds like another
bureaucratic scheme to me. Delay county jail time by costing City of
Dallas taxpayers more money. If 265 people are in the county jail waiting
for drug analysis and they get moved to city jail to wait for drug analysis, how
is that a savings to taxpayers, at least City of Dallas taxpayers?
Our police officers are already frustrated with the repeat arrests of hoodlums
who bond out for ridiculously low bond rates set by judges. If JWP and DA
Watkins have their way, there won't be much incentive for a cop to arrest any
crook.
We all better get our personal license to carry and start
packing.
Sarah Dodd has another good interview with Commissioner John Wiley Price over
Sheriff Valdez's jail problems and the related overtime.
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(CBS 11 News) DALLAS CBS 11 News has learned the Dallas County commissioners are asking the sheriff for answers about what some are calling "runaway" overtime.
The department is already almost $10 million over budget for overtime.
The commissioners are demanding answers from Sheriff Lupe Valdez by next week. They want to know if she has a policy on policing overtime, and if so, what it is.
They're concerned partly because some employees are making more than their annual salary- just in overtime.
... "We've got runaway overtime," said Commissioner John Wiley Price, "and we've got to get it under control."
There are more than 1,000 employees working for Valdez, and about 400 of them collected more than $10,000 last year in overtime pay.
... Price said, "We know there are people who make overtime that's more than their base pay."
... The overtime was a huge point of contention at this week's commissioner's court meeting, but the focus was on the jail. A closer look at the audit finds that Valdez has employees who are collecting substantial overtime in almost every department, including warrant executions and patrol. At the same time, her department is down by about 97 employees.
We tried several times today to contact Sheriff Valdez, but she did not return our calls.
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On air, Sarah said Sheriff
Valdez did finally return her call just before air time. We have a Sheriff
who's missing in action. Jim Schutze says on UnFairPark:
Pardon, but
Sheriff Valdez did what??!!
She returned Sarah Dodd’s calls? The Ghost Sheriff? The
sheriff who is rumored to move about the land only when
the moon is full?
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We have a DA who wants to run a
rehab camp, rather than act as the victim's avenger.
We have a School Superintendent who doesn't want to supervise his employees.
We have a hell of a mess.
The only folks who can be happy with our dilemma have to be the crooks, at least
the ones who occasionally read a newspaper or watch the news. The new rule
in Dallas County will be -- don't worry about the "time, just do the crime".
sb
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