A former district attorney in the Panhandle who had hounded drug offenders into jail while barely hiding his own methamphetamine habit pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and was sentenced to 18 years in state prison. The defendant, Richard J. Roach, 57, was already serving a five-year federal sentence on another conviction involving weapons possession. The terms will run concurrently.See prior Grits coverage here, here, and here. And thanks to Wretched of the Earth for pointing to the original, extensive New York Times story on Roach which is still online.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Rick Roach sentenced: What comes around goes around
From the Delicious Irony section of the New York Times ("Ex-prosecutor in Texas draws long prison term," June 27):
Hello. My name is Keith Hammond and I have been a victim of “texas justice”.
ReplyDeleteI am now a “convicted felon” in that I was “convicted” of stealing from a federally licensed radio station that I own as a sole proprietor. This was due to a personal vendetta that has been carried out by a district attorney who has since confessed to and been convicted of using and selling drugs through his courthouse office. I helped in having this happen and, unfortunately for me, texas “law” makes absolutely NO provision for “DA’s who seek revenge during their last days in office”.
Our web sites are located at http://www.shamrocktx.us and at http://www.kbkh.com .
About a month ago, someone posted a link to the story of the Shamrock Texas radio station being repeatedly burglarized while local authorities refuse to investigate or to even admit that something is going on. Well, it's happened again and this time the owner caught the burglars and interviewed the on camera as they crawled from the hole in the wall from which they had just yanked an air conditioner. They admit to having been hired to steal equipment from the tower site and that they were told it would be ok because the city wants that equipment to disappear anyway. They are admitting on camera to participating in a conspiracy with the director of Shamrock Economic Development, the district attorney and others. It's fascinating to watch because they seem to not care to hold back on the information. I have watched this story unfold for almost six years and I have seen the radio station owner accused of some really weird things (such as stealing from his own accounts) but, if I had any doubt at all, it is now gone for sure! But, not too surprisingly, local officials still claim that no burglary has occurred even after I've watched the recording for myself. The station owner gave up on filing police reports that never seem to get any results and simply uploaded the video straight to youtube. Here is a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch...
I just thought that those who have followed this story might be interested in seeing that there is a huge cover-up going on, here. People need to be asking some serious questions of the director of Shamrock Economic Development as well as the district attorney for the 31st judicial district.
My hopes are to organize enough victims of this local crime-ring (led by Roach) to start a FEDERAL investigation that would NOT involve anything to do with the state of “texas”.
Please, if you would be interested in participating in any way at all, contact me.
Keith Hammond
MonsterFM.com / Broadcast Technical Services
866-726-9209 (Toll-Free)
ShamrockTX.us - Simply unbelievable!