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01/13/04 Fake Drug Scandal
When we
finished reading Ruben Navarette?s latest column (see below), we had a ?huh??
moment. We live in a democratic society, where soldiers have fought and died
for our freedoms, including the public's right to know what government is doing
with our tax dollars.
First, the City of Dallas,
and now District Attorney Bill Hill are keeping documents from the public under
the guise of ?FBI investigation.? Well, Spinzone knows (and
you know) where the FBI investigation got us in the
fake drug scandal.
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Why
is District Attorney Bill Hill trying to keep these lab reports and other
pertinent documents secret? |
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Did
he have direct involvement in innocent people being prosecuted
after it was learned that the drugs
were fake? |
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If
he did not have direct involvement, did some of his prosecutors proceed with
indictment and prosecution of innocent victims even
after learning that the drugs
involved were fake? |
We may never know until these documents are released.
The public has a right to know and
a right to expect
that any official paid with taxpayer dollars will not
be protected under any guise.
Those of us who work in the private sector know you
most likely lose your job if you do something grossly wrong. If DA Hill or any
of his prosecutors have done something grossly wrong,
then they should equally be held to the same standard. If there was wrongdoing
on the part of DA Hill or his prosecutors and nothing is done to rectify this, then
any one of us or our children, brother, sister,
mother, father, could become an innocent victim at the hands of either
incompetent or unscrupulous prosecutors.
We live in a democratic society. We have a right to know what public servants
are doing with our tax dollars. Please contact
District Attorney Bill Hill and Attorney General Greg Abbott and let them
know that we want to know. Tell them to release
the lab reports in the fake drug scandal. Open the doors wide to this stinking
mess so that it can be cleaned up once and for all.
The contact info for these individuals is below. Please take a few moments to
send them a message. If we don't speak, who is ultimately to blame?
Is it the public servants who engage in
possible wrongdoing and cover-up, or
is it us, the taxpayers, who sit in apathy and let
these injustices happen?
We hope many of you will respond to this call to action.
Spinzone
Email & Physical Addresses:
214/653-3600
Ofc 214/653-5774 Fax
Greg Abbott (greg.abbott@oaq.state.tx.us)
Email
Office of the Texas State Attorney General
300 W. 15th St; Austin, TX 78701
1-800/252-8011
Toll Free Ofc 1-512/476-2653
Long Distance Fax Ofc
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Secrecy in Government;
Public's right to know should count for
something
12:01 AM CST on Friday, January 9, 2004
By RUBEN NAVARRETTE / The Dallas Morning News |
There is nothing new about secrecy in
government. And yet, it does feel as though more and more of those paid to
serve us hold in particularly low regard the public's right to know what
they do in our name and on our nickel.
The latest example comes from right
here in Dallas County, where District Attorney Bill Hill's office continues
to go to extreme lengths not to release material related to the fake-drugs
scandal, where dozens of Mexican immigrants were saddled with drug evidence
that turned out to be bogus.
... You see the problem. Here you have a public
official being deposed about his conduct while on the public payroll, with
the deposition occurring in a public building ? the DA's office ? and on
public time, and yet authorities try to keep it all hidden from the public.
... No more games. We have to put to rest
the idea that poor, innocent prosecutors were snookered by big, bad
policemen. In this system, it is prosecutors who have the discretion; if
they doubt evidence, they can dismiss cases or reduce charges. The
prosecutors went along in these cases. They got their convictions and their
accolades. And if they did anything wrong, it's time they got their lumps.
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