Backstory on Pam Freeman indictment, ouster of parole board member who tried to hold her accountable

Parole attorney Kevin Stouwie offered up a detailed explication of "The Pamela Freeman debacle as I understand it" from the perspective of the person whose complaint sparked the investigation that led to her indictment earlier this month. (I'd have seen this sooner if I read Grits comments more faithfully; it's a little more than a week old.) The item is particularly notable as the only new detail we've received on the topic since the single round of MSM attention Oct. 3.

Stouwie had this to say about recent parole board appointee Roman Chavez's recent ouster, which has yet to be covered in the MSM:

There is presently a vacancy in one Board Member slot; the slot recently vacated by the Board Member in Huntsville, Roman Chavez.  Board Member Chavez  was constructively discharged (my interpretation) by Board Chair Rissie Owens the day before the indictment of Pamela Freeman.  The official version is that Ms. Owens merely made a decision to transfer Mr. Chavez to the Austin Board Office.  Another way to view the situation is that Ms. Owens knew Mr. Chavez would not uproot his family and move to Austin.  Although this management decision by Ms. Owens is certainly worth further scrutiny, it must be clarified that Mr. Chavez is NOT, and has never been suspected of doing the things for which Ms. Freeman is indicted, and neither is Ms. Owens for that matter.

In fact, Mr. Chavez seems to have done whatever he could to try to hold Ms. Freeman accountable once he concluded that Ms. Freeman had engaged in unethical and illegal acts while she was supposed to be carrying out her job responsibilities on April 30.

According to Stouwie, Chavez was one of the people to whom Freeman allegedly lied about five inmates' reasons for missing their 20-year parole interviews and in fact reported Freeman's alleged misconduct himself. After Stouwie brought his allegations to Sen. John Whitmire and the Office of Inspector General, he wrote, "I also later learned that Mr. Chavez had, at some point, brought the Freeman debacle to the attention of OIG officials.  I do not know when, or how Mr. Chavez classified the Pamela Freeman actions of April 30, but I assume he will be one of the witnesses called by the attorneys at trial, in the event she is crazy enough to take her case to trial."

Following a detailed account of the episode that spawned Freeman's indictment, Stouwie concluded with this tidbit: "It’s my understanding that Ms. Freeman was finally suspended after she was indicted. However, she is still collecting a paycheck.  Lord only knows how that is possible, especially given a pile of other complaints that were made by many different people in recent years. One thing that deeply troubles me is that Ms. Freeman may have falsely claimed that other inmates refused to be interviewed on other occasions."

Go read the whole thing. Stouwie's post substantially fills out the picture compared to the indictment and initial MSM coverage, after which this story inexplicably seems to have fallen off the map.