Feb 9, 2006 2:25 pm US/Central
Rep. Terri Hodge Helped Inmates Win Parole
Over the past several years, Dallas State Rep. Terri
Hodge has solicited and accepted campaign contributions from the families of
violent Texas prison inmates, then applied the influence of her state office
to obtain sentence-shaving results and other coveted benefits from the
prison and parole bureaucracies, a CBS 11 News investigation has found.
A two-month news investigation revealed that Hodge has for years used her
legislative influence within the prison and parole systems while developing
a paying political constituency from a closed-knit community of inmate
families desperate to help their loved ones inside
For several contributing family members that CBS 11 News was able to
identify, Hodge:
- Directly arranged highly coveted face-to-face
meetings between inmates and parole board members who wield the power to
approve their releases. Most inmates never have an opportunity to meet
with parole board members.
- Obtained the dismissals of disciplinary
infractions that obstruct parole by bringing to bear the influence of her
office with letters and phone calls to prison officials.
- Invoked an obscure legislative privilege to obtain
confidential disciplinary files sought by family members. It would be a
crime for a legislator to share such information with an unauthorized
person, and Hodge insists she has never done so.
- Had inmates transferred to facilities closer to their families.
At least two inmates whose families donated to
Hodge?s campaign ? and whose sons won parole with her intervention ? were
accused of committing new crimes after they were set free. But mysteriously,
top parole division officials intervened in their favor when the two inmates
were re-arrested on parole violations; their one-way trips back to prison
were halted, and both were allowed to go free yet again.
Few if any of the inmates or families that Hodge has helped live in her
southern Dallas District 100. Records show an assembly line of some 500
inmates have gone through her Dallas offices over the past three years, but
even she concedes that the total figure is much higher.
Hodge has run for election with no serious opposition for all four of her
terms. Yet immediately before and after Hodge imparted these favors, some
families identified by CBS 11 news gave Hodge hundreds of dollars in
campaign contributions, some of which have never been reported as required
by Texas Ethics Commission rules.
In one case, the parents of an inmate Hodge helped supplemented their
relatively meager contributions with a campaign fundraising effort on her
behalf aimed at other families.
In another case, an affluent West Plano couple who gave Hodge more than
$1,200 before, during and after her help gaining parole for their son also
treated Hodge to dinner at Bob?s Steak and Chop House, where an average meal
runs $75.
As a legislator, Hodge served on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and
frequently sat in on hearings held before the Corrections Committee, which
oversees the Texas prison system. In her role, Hodge had power over budgets
and prison jobs. According to several prison officials, when she called
employees and officials in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice they had
to listen ? and act - for fear of incurring her wrath.
Burt Reyna, a former board of pardons and paroles member whom Hodge often
called, explained: ?When lawmakers call obviously they control the
legislative process. They control whether your job continues or not, so in
that respect I got the impression that a lot of members were basically very
responsive when a legislator calls.?
In a 55-minute interview, Hodge portrayed herself as a tireless defender of
inmate rights and rare legislative watchdog over a deeply flawed prison
system that gets little outside scrutiny. She said she has never demanded
contributions in exchange for her extensive advocacy work. Like any other
politician, she said, she has always accepted contributions by grateful
constituents who appreciate her dedication to prison reform.
?There is not one person that can ever say Terri Hodge charged me a dime to
help my son or my wife or my daughter,? Hodge said. ?Have I charged anybody
any money to do anything? I have not, sir, and I will not, sir.?
Two families said they gave donations to Hodge, which CBS 11 News confirmed
were not reported on Hodge?s campaign finance reports.
Last fall, the FBI opened an investigation into Hodge after CBS 11 News
reported that she had accepted free rent and utilities from a Dallas
affordable housing developer at the center of a Dallas City Hall corruption
probe. Hodge has never offered a public explanation for why she accepted or
reported more than $33,000 worth of rent over more three years from
developer Brian Potashnik, whose projects she used her legislative position
to support.
Presented with CBS 11?s new findings about her work for inmates and
acceptance of campaign contributions, Walker County District Attorney David
Weeks said the intertwining pattern of campaign fundraising with Hodge?s
prison interventions creates a perception of ethical wrongdoing and may
warrant criminal investigation.
?It?s clearly an ethical problem, and it certainly bears scrutiny from the
criminal side,? Weeks said. ?Because, when you have that pattern where
contributions are made, actions are taken and more contributions are made,
the connection there is a trail that just raises the idea that this needs to
be looked at.?
He continued: ?It subverts the system, and not only that, think about the
victims that are left out of the loop here.?
CBS 11?s findings angered victims? rights groups that have often demanded
input in decisions regarding parole for violent offenders.
William Hubbarth, a spokesman for the victims-rights group Justice for All,
said that if it is true that Hodge has made a habit of helping inmates win
parole while accepting money from their families ?It is an abhorrent abuse
of public office? deserving of investigation.
?Yes, everyone respects the title of an elected state representative,?
Hubbarth said. ?But if she is abusing that title as described, for the sake
of trying to promote parole for inmates, at the expense of the victims, then
I would only ask that this matter be referred to (Travis County District
Attorney) Ronnie Earle for a zealous prosecution.?
A MATTER OF SOLICITATION
Sometime after becoming a state legislator in 1997, Rep. Hodge began heavily
courting the inmate advocacy group Texas Inmate Family Association, or TIFA,
whose members often join after experiencing frustration helping criminal
loved ones on their own. She has regularly spoken at TIFA gatherings across
the state, leaving contact information, and has called on members at times
to speak out in favor of some of her bills. Hodge has also been a guest on a
prison radio show during which her contact information was provided.
Hodge acknowledges that she has often contacted parole board members and
written support letters about specific inmate cases. But she vehemently
insists that she has never solicited campaign money from TIFA members in
exchange for bringing to bear her powerful legislative countenance on these
officials.
?They aren?t contributing to me as pay,? Hodge said. ?But any elected
official, if you are doing the things that people like, that help their
issues?they try their best to get you reelected.?
But several TIFA sources who requested anonymity say Hodge, during at least
one Dallas-area TIFA speaking engagement in February 2002, did solicit
campaign funds in exchange for contacting parole board members and helping
inmates make parole. According to several attendees among roughly 40 TIFA
members who met at an Irving church that February, Hodge openly boasted that
she had just returned from a trip where she had successfully persuaded
parole board members to parole eight of nine inmates she had targeted.
Attendees of that meeting told CBS 11 News that Rep. Hodge, who at the time
was facing an unopposed primary race set for the following month, then told
the TIFA group that she could do the same for their loved ones in exchange
for campaign contributions.
?It was, ?you want your loved ones moved, helped or paroled, give me
donations. I?ll walk your dog if you walk my cat. I got eight out,?? said
one attendee who requested anonymity citing fear that Hodge would retaliate
against an inmate the attendee helps.
Some people opened checkbooks on the spot, the attendees said. News of
Hodge?s reported quid-pro-quo promise spread like wildfire across the
statewide TIFA community, generating hot demand for her reputed special
services and buzz of questions, among them, ?How much will it cost me to get
Hodge???
Another attendee explained how much value TIFA members saw in Hodge?s
interventions when she demonstrated how easily she could cut through the
prison system?s bureaucracy and get things done they could not.
?This lady has major stroke. We have seen it work. You have no clue what
this woman can do and what that means to these desperate, pain-filled
people,? another 2002 TIFA meeting attendee said.
Hodge?s work to return lost good time to Anita Rodriguez?s imprisoned son so
impressed Rodriguez that she begged Hodge to let her clean Hodge?s offices
and windows for free on a regular basis. Rodriguez, who once ran a
home-cleaning service, said Hodge turned her offer down.
Not everyone sees nefarious intent in Hodge?s extensive prison advocacy
work. Many TIFA members and two former parole board members had high praise
for what they described as Hodge?s solo crusade to help a powerless and
forgotten class of citizenry that, regardless of any crimes committed,
maintains rights under the law. Several families Hodge helped told CBS-11
they gave her no money, and that she asked for none.
?She is a very, very active advocate for her constituents. I see her
righting a lot of wrongs,? said former parole board member Lynn Brown, who
recalls that Hodge very often discovered gross inaccuracies and case
mishandlings throughout the prison system. ?The hierarchy of the TDCJ just
shivers when she calls because by golly they?d better have it right, and if
it?s not right they?d better fix it.?
Others who admire Hodge say they gave legitimate campaign contributions
merely to show their political support for her prison legislative work. Some
of these families, however, personally benefited, not from the legislation
Hodge has sponsored but from her specific intervention in their loved ones?
cases.
Later, these families were placed on invitation lists for Hodge?s campaign
fundraisers.
For instance, Hodge was able to get Roger Secrest?s son, who is serving a
27-year sentence for manslaughter, transferred to a facility closer to
family, making visits to him easier and more frequent. She didn?t ask for
money then, Secrest said.
?She is probably the one representative that looks at inmates not as animals
but as human beings,? Secrest said.
But the Secrests and other TIFA families Hodge helped later received mailed
invitations to Hodge?s campaign fundraisers. Secrest said he gave $100 at a
Fair Park fundraiser for Hodge.
?One woman got up and really busted everybody?s arm to give,? Secrest said.
The $100 Secrest said he contributed is not listed on any of Hodge?s
campaign finance reports on file with the Texas Ethics Commission. Maggie
Brooks, the mother of another inmate that Hodge helped, said she gave money
orders to Hodge?s campaign. Those also are not reported on campaign finance
reports.
Walker County District Attorney Weeks said the post-help invitations to
Hodge fundraisers and the lack of reporting on some of the contributions are
troubling.
?Those are very disturbing, and I think it calls for a lot more?harder look,
shall we say,? Weeks said.
Hodge acknowledges that some TIFA members she helped gave campaign
contributions ?not for what I did for them but for their appreciation of my
work? on legislative committees.
?If my job involves me, based on my committees, to help the people in the
criminal justice system, you guys write what you choose because I?m going to
continue it.?
THE ALBRECHT CASE
In 1998, Billy Albrecht, a high school drop-out from an upscale West Plano
neighborhood, pleaded guilty to participating in the brutal beating of a man
at a residential party. He was sentenced to eight years for aggravated
assault with a deadly weapon and for threatening to retaliate against
witnesses. He was first eligible for parole in March 2002, his father said.
Albrecht?s father, William Albrecht, a retired business executive, told CBS
11 that he heard about Hodge after joining TIFA and sought her help in 2000
after his son lost family visitation privileges for a disturbance involving
a prison guard. William Albrecht said he also feared the discipline would
adversely affect his son?s chances for parole, and he was having trouble
getting it reviewed.
After bringing his problem to Hodge, William Albrecht said Hodge
successfully got his son transferred to a closer facility. He said a
facility evaluation committee narrowly approved the son as a medium-security
inmate, a stamp that came with more liberal visitation privileges.
After this accomplishment, William Albrecht said he felt indebted to Hodge
and wanted to remain in her good graces should any other problems with his
son arise. He went to Austin, for instance, when Hodge called on TIFA
members to support one of her bills.
?She helped me. I helped her.?
It wasn?t long before Billy Albrecht was in trouble again. In May 2001, he
was caught with contraband tobacco, another disciplinary case that could
have torpedoed his chances for the March 2002 parole less than a year away.
?We went to Terri Hodge,? William Albrecht said. ?I asked her to get the
case dropped.?
CBS 11 News has learned other disciplinary problems soon followed. Billy
Albrecht was cited for being in an unauthorized place in the prison on June
20, 2001, and he got into a fight with another inmate on July 11, 2001.
Two weeks later, on July 26, records show Albrecht?s father contributed $100
to Hodge?s campaign. On February 19, 2002, the file of Billy Albrecht was
pulled for review by the parole board. But the originally scheduled parole
vote never took place.
On March 29, 2002, a grievance official at the Hughes Prison Unit issued
orders to delete disciplinary reports and punishment records that would
significantly impair a parole, CBS 11 News has learned.
Less than a month later, on April 25, 2002, Albrecht?s father gave Hodge a
$500 campaign contribution.
Three months later, on July 17, Hodge called the parole board and requested
that Billy Albrecht - and his parents - be given rare face-to-face
interviews with a voting parole board member, according to a message slip
obtained by CBS 11 News.
On Aug. 14 and 15, board members Juanita Gonzalez, Burt Reyna and Lynn Brown
voted to release Billy Albrecht on parole.
On August 28, Billy Albrecht?s father gave Hodge another $500 campaign
contribution, ethics commission records show.
Parole officials involved in the case, including board member Gonzalez, have
declined interviews. A Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman said
the system would have no comment on CBS 11?s investigation.
William Albrecht, Sr. said he does not know what behind-the-scenes
machinations went into the dismissals of his son?s disciplinary problems and
the successful parole. He said he doesn?t remember a lot of the details but
that it was his understanding Hodge provided mainly ?administrative help.?
Parole board positions are paid political jobs appointed by the governor.
Reyna, who is no longer on the board, said Hodge often called regarding
inmates and acknowledged that a call from her would help a case get special
attention. But Reyna said he never let Hodge influence a parole decision.
?I voted my conscience, and at no time did I ever feel, or did I ever vote a
case in a particular way, simply because I felt pressure or I felt that was
what someone else wanted me to do,? he said.
In her interview with CBS 11 News, Hodge initially said ?Have I ever been
paid a dime by Mr. William Albrecht about his son? Absolutely not!?
When told she had accepted more than $1,000 from William Albrecht before and
after his son?s disciplinary cases were dismissed and he was paroled, she
indicated that she had no control over whether someone she helped gave
contributions.
?Why don?t you ask Mr. Albrecht why did he give me a campaign contribution.
Why don?t you ask Mr. Albrecht, did I ever say to him, ?if you give me a
contribution?I will do some wonderful things???
In fact, William Albrecht, Sr. told CBS 11 News that Hodge initially tried
to turn down his contributions. He said, however, that he wanted her to keep
the contributions to increase all odds that his son would make parole. He
also said she accepted a meal with him and his wife at Bob?s Steak and Chop
House.
?She helped. She contacted people who wouldn?t give me the time of day. She
cut through the red tape,? he said. ?She had lots of contacts inside the
system. She knows how the system works.?
When asked about the appearance of impropriety in accepting such meal from
the family of an inmate she helped win parole, Hodge replied: ?I don?t
imagine that night when they were celebrating or deciding to take me to
dinner they probably didn?t want to eat at McDonalds. So since they didn?t
want to eat at McDonalds, Bob?s Steak and Chop House may be a place that
they frequented, so they invited me to go there.?
Billy Albrecht?s good luck in the prison system did not end with his parole.
In November 2003, he was arrested again for allegedly sexually harassing the
female leasing agents of an apartment complex, and for failing to pay for
car repairs. His parole would have been revoked and he?d have been sent back
to prison.
But the parole division?s warrant to revoke Albrecht?s parole was withdrawn
for undisclosed reasons, and Billy Albrecht was released after about one
week in jail. A Department of Criminal Justice spokesman told CBS 11 News
that the parole division?s North Texas regional director, Vicki Hallman,
ordered the warrant withdrawn. Hallman declined several interview requests,
and officials would not say why she pulled the warrant.
Billy Albrecht?s father said he was the one who called Hallman and lobbied
her not to send his son back to prison. He said to his knowledge Hodge had
no direct involvement.
Billy Albrecht remains on parole and is living with his parents in Plano.
THE CATON CASE
In 1994, Michael Allen Caton pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery with a
deadly weapon in Tarrant County. A judge sentenced him to 15 years in
prison.
Caton?s parents, John and Carolyn Caton of Euless, became active in TIFA
after their son was sent to prison. Caton would become eligible for parole
in February 2002.
On June 25, 2001, Hodge sent a letter to Troy Fox, the parole board?s
director of review and release processing, supporting the release of Caton.
?I have worked with Carolyn and John Caton for over a year,? Hodge wrote.
?They are fine parents. In my opinion, upon Michael?s release to parole, he
will go home to a kind and loving family. They will assist and nurture him,
as he makes his adjustments to live under the rules and guidelines of
community supervision.?
On July 9, 2001, the Catons gave Hodge a $100 campaign contribution. They
gave another $50 in September and $50 more in December 2001.
According to a message slip obtained by CBS 11 News, on Jan. 15, 2002, Hodge
called the parole board on behalf of the Catons to make sure their son had
been scheduled for an interview with board members. On Feb. 15, Bert Reyna
and Juanita Gonzalez voted to parole Caton, parole minute sheets show.
Two days later, Hodge spoke at the Irving TIFA meeting where she boasted of
having just helped obtain the paroles of eight inmates. The Catons were
present. On that day, they gave Hodge another $50 campaign contribution,
Texas Ethics Commission records show.
By this time, the Catons? total contributions to Hodge amounted to $350. But
the Catons were not finished.
The week after Hodge reportedly boasted at the Irving TIFA meeting of her
successes in helping obtain eight paroles, the Catons mounted a fundraising
campaign for Hodge. In online postings to a TIFA message board, John Caton
urged fellow members to give to Hodge.
?Terri Hodge does not have an opponent this year, but she needs help,? Caton
wrote in a Feb. 23, 2002 message. ?TIFA can?t do anything officially, but us
members sure can. We can heed her call for political involvement, and
individual TIFA members can send her some stamps or a couple of dollars or
more (whatever you can afford) so she doesn?t have to do all our work out of
her own pocket??
On April 16, 2002, Michael Caton was released on parole. On December 8,
2002, the Catons gave Hodge another $100.
Caton would run into trouble again ? and again catch a break. In March,
2003, Caton?s parole was up for revocation when he was arrested for family
violence. Board members Reyna and Lynn Brown voted not to revoke his parole.
Two months later, he committed another assault in Tarrant County. He spent
37 days behind bars and was released. In April 2004, he was arrested for
burglarizing a commercial building. He remains in prison.
John and Carolyn Caton did not respond to telephone messages left at their
home.
A request to interview Michael Caton in prison prompted a letter from Fort
Worth attorney Randy W. Bowers.
?Please be advised that as Mr. Caton?s attorney, I am advising him to NOT
partake in any type of interview with anyone at anytime, unless I am present
or made aware of the interview beforehand.?
Bowers could not be reached for comment this week.
A QUESTION OF ?LEGISLATIVE PURPOSE? AND REPORTING
Grady Earl Shaw was serving a long prison sentence for aggravated robbery
when his mother, Maggie Brooks of Dallas, said she called Hodge for help
sometime in the spring of 2004. She said her son had gotten in trouble on an
undisclosed disciplinary case.
Brooks said she called Hodge to ask her to ?find out some information for
me? about the disciplinary case.
?I just wanted to know generally what she could find out. I could not
contact the warden. He would never respond to me the way he supposed to, or
anything, so I asked her if she would just look into something for me, and
she did.?
What Brooks did not offer was the fact that Shaw had just been passed over
for parole because of the discipline case. Shaw had come up for a monthly
review by the parole board on May 22, 2004. What Hodge did next raises legal
and ethical questions.
On July 6, 2004, Hodge wrote a letter to Warden Curtis McKnight requesting
Shaw?s disciplinary file. In doing so, Hodge invoked a rarely-used, obscure
legislative privilege that allows only lawmakers to gain access to such
files.
Within the prison system, disciplinary files are so confidential that they
often aren?t available either to the public or even an inmate?s own lawyers.
But state legislators can get them under the privilege, often by citing
?legislative purposes? as grounds.
Records show that in requesting the Shaw file, Hodge cited ?legislative
purposes.? The law allowing legislators to request such files is clear:
there must be a good public interest reason related to pending bills.
Section 552.352 of the Texas statutes makes it a crime for a government
representative to share confidential prison files or ?use the confidential
information for a purpose other than the purpose for which the information
was received, or for a purpose unrelated to the law that permitted the
officer or employee to obtain access to the information, including
solicitation of political contributions or solicitation of clients.?
Asked point blank whether Hodge had shared the information from the file
with her, Brooks said she never saw the records or learned what was in the
file the Hodge requested.
?No legislator would give records to a little ol? citizen like me,? Brooks
said. ?I wouldn?t suspect a legislator or anyone else would do that.?
Hodge is almost alone among lawmakers in so often invoking the privilege to
obtain prison records. She has cited ?legislative purposes? as grounds to
request such files in at least 65 instances over the past few years. Hodge
strongly denied ever sharing the contents of the files she?s received with
unauthorized people.
Brooks, who described herself as hardly a wealthy person, said she gave
contributions to Hodge, two money orders totaling $75.
?We are working for the same cause,? Brooks said. ?She?s a politician. Do
you know any politician who does not accept campaign funds if they give it
to you? She has never, ever, never, mentioned ? nothing, nothing ? about
money, ever. I?ve never known her to be anything but honest, with high
integrity.?
Hodge acknowledges accepting money orders from Brooks. But a check of
Hodge?s campaign finance reports going back to 1999 does not list any of
Brooks? money order contributions.
Hodge, when asked why money order contributions were not listed on her
reports, replied: ?I don?t know what in the hell I would do with a money
order made out to the Terri Hodge campaign fund? I don?t look at all of
them.?
Victims? rights advocate William Hubbarth said he thinks Hodge?s development
of a political constituency from the families of inmates should be examined
because it is fraught with the potential for real or perceived abuses.
?Inmates don?t vote? however families of inmates may constitute a portion of
her voting base,? he said. ?I don?t think it?s so much for representation as
it is a financial incentive.?
To comment on this story, email
Todd Bensman and
Robert Riggs
To contact a reporter about this story, call 214-563-0482
(? MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
