More on Pam Freeman indictments

The Houston Press followed up on the Pam Freeman indictment story.

Five new indictments for former parole commissioner Pamela Freeman

A reader emails to point out that former parole commissioner Pamela Freeman, who was indicted for record tampering in 2014 has five new felony charges out of Walker County, as evidenced by this screenshot:

Freeman was indicted based on allegations that she falsely claimed five inmates who were up for parole had declined to be interviewed regarding their possible release and all were denied. See prior Grits coverage.

Under the penal code, tampering with records is a Class A misdemeanor unless "the actor's intent is to defraud or harm another, in which event the offense is a state jail felony," which is the offense with which Freeman was charged in these latest cases.

The original case, for which attorney and former Congressman Craig Washington is her retained counsel, has been repeatedly reset, having last been scheduled to go to trial in January. As of this writing, Washington is not listed as the attorney of record in the new cases, indictments for which were handed down in February, even though his bar license should have been reinstated by now.

Paging my reporter friends: Somebody ought to get on this story.

Ex-parole commissioner rejects probation on document tampering charges; trial late this year or next

A friend of the blog spoke to the prosecutor in the document tampering case against former parole commissioner Pam Freeman and informs Grits that, "Freeman turned down probation, so at this point, she wants her day in court. Trial will not be until late this year or early next year."

So there you have it. I wanted to update this recent post mentioning her scheduled day in court. More delay is the bottom line.

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.

Habern: On plea bargains, parole, and the consequences of untested evidence

Long-time Texas parole attorney Bill Habern, whose comments on the Pamela Freeman case Grits appended to this post, followed up with an email pointing out an aspect of the parole process that deserves readers' attention:

One of the big problems with the Board is that 97% of everyone in TDCJ is there by plea bargain. Usually the deal is cut out in the hall just before the plea is entered in many cases. There is no pre-trial hearings relative to the contents of the police report or other allegations as to what the state says are the facts of the case. As a result of that matter way too many parole cases determined  (many years later) on those old police reports which every trial lawyer who ever defended a criminal case knows always contain errors. However, too frequently in plea deals the errors are never even raised or tested under the rules of evidence. Sometimes these are serious errors. Pre-sentence reports do not correct this issue, and in state court too few lawyers fight to correct those errors once the court receives a PSI [ed. note: presumably a pre-sentence investigation file]. After all, the client has entered a guilty plea, he said he did it, lawyers just do not seem to understand how important it is that a plea is based on correct facts.

Fixing those factual problems years later is one of the things that parole lawyers do. The parole board relies on these police reports when voting a case for parole. Thus the factual issues are not really faced until the defendant faces the parole board and learns what substantial errors are found in the police reports. Most of these errors are errors which will make no difference to the innocence or guilt of the offender, but damn sure make a difference to the parole board.

This whole parole system needs to be re-examined. In all the other states I have done parole work in, none of them operate like the Texas system. THIS PROBLEM IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE PAROLE BOARD--IT IS THE FAULT OF THE LEGE. [Emphasis in original.]

Parole commissioner indictment points to swamped system

More detail has emerged regarding the indictment of parole commissioner Pamela Freeman reported by Grits yesterday. A story in the Houston Chronicle (Oct. 3) opened:

A state parole commissioner in Huntsville has been taken off the job after being indicted for tampering with an official document, accused of falsifying state records to incorrectly show that inmates refused to go to their parole interviews.

The alleged omission by Pamela D. Freeman may have adversely affected the annual parole process for five Texas inmates, prosecutors said Friday.

Freeman was tasked with interviewing inmates who were up for release and writing "parole memorandums" to help the board make a decision.

"We've only indicted her for one count, but there are five inmates that we know of," said Stephanie Stroud, First Assistant of the Walker County District Attorney's Office. "You can see how if a person writes, 'they refused to interview' that could negatively affect how the parole board votes."

Freeman denies the charges and has hired Houston attorney and former state senator Craig Washington to represent her. The Texas Tribune added this additional detail:

The case began last June when San Antonio lawyer Kevin Stouwie complained to state Sen. John Whitmire, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, and Texas Department of Criminal Justice Inspector General Bruce Toney. ...

A copy of Stouwie's complaint, obtained by The Texas Tribune, stated that on April 30, at least five inmates on the Wynne Unit in Huntsville were called into an area to be interviewed by Freeman.

The inmates and other prison workers saw Freeman at the prison that day, but said she did not interview any of the five. The men's files included Freeman's remarks that they had refused to be interviewed by her. All five were denied parole.

Contacted late Friday, Stouwie said he found out about the incident from the inmates' attorneys and is considering representing them in a civil action against the parole board.

"It's not clear to me whether they are going to reconsider those cases," said Kevin Stouwie. "They may and if they do, that could have a bearing of what happens."

Also:

This investigation is not the first time attorneys have complained about Freeman's actions, according to Bill Habern, a lawyer in Huntsville who handles parole cases and who filed a grievance against her with the board a year ago.

"She's had a long and troubled history with lawyers who do parole work," he said. "Most board members I deal with, including those on the current board, seem to be sincere, dedicated people who try to do the right thing."

Freeman was charged with interviewing inmates who who had served at least 20 years of their sentences and had never been interviewed by a parole commissioner. She was one of two commissioners based in Huntsville and has been in that post since 2004.

The Trib linked to a copy of the indictment.

Board chair Rissie Owens said the episode is not indicative of her department overall - and what else could she say? - but the truth is even on the best of days parole commissioners and board members devote precious little time per decision anyway before making a judgment to grant or deny release. If Freeman committed this offense, it likely wasn't from malice toward the individuals but from prioritizing bureaucratic convenience over the men whose fates she was deciding. To me, the episode is as much evidence of a broken system as one person's individual failings. They can't handle the volume and when corners are cut it's a function of being too swamped to focus more than a few minutes on the details of any given case.

MORE FALLOUT: I'm just tracking rumors,  I haven't confirmed this. But after I'd first seen it mentioned by a Grits commenter, another source has declared that Romulo Chavez, a retired Houston police officer and the appointed Parole Board Member in the Huntsville Office, has tendered his resignation in lieu of being fired transferred out of the Huntsville office. The anonymous Grits commenter lamented that Chavez was "the one person who had the courage to try to hold Freemen accountable for her wrongful acts."

A post on the PrisonTalk message board confirmed that Chavez is gone, elaborating that "Fred Rangel, currently a Parole Commissioner in Angleton, will be filling in at the Huntsville Panel. Board Directives have been updated to reflect he will be voting in both Huntsville and Angleton for the time being. My guess is that he will be moved to Huntsville once the position is officially vacated...Rangel owns a home in the area and bought a second home in Angleton when he was hired for that office."

This is an incredibly fluid situation, made more tenuous because it's happening less than a month before a gubernatorial election. So who knows what politics-driven decisions made in crisis-control mode might end up driving what happens in the near term?

Beyond fallout in the next few weeks, one would expect, or certainly hope, that legislative oversight would commence this fall, before the session begins, to learn the backstory behind Freeman's alleged misconduct and Chavez's untimely ouster (his term didn't end until 2019). Sen. John Whtimire and Rep. Tan Parker, chairmen of the Senate Criminal Justice and House Corrections Committees, respectively, are the two men primarily responsible for making that happen. Once they get their committees involved - and Whitmire helped initiate the complaint, so one would think he's poised to strike while the iron's hot - who knows where this rabbit hole leads?

AND MORE (Oct. 5): Parole attorney Bill Habern sent me the following discussion of the issues surrounding Freeman, Chavez and Rissie Owens via email. It was too long to include in the comments so find his full commentary below the jump.

Crime lab misconduct, sex-offender residency, parole successses, and other stories

Hope you enjoyed a Happy Independence Day, Grits readers. Here are several items that didn't make it into independent posts last week but merit your attention:

Houston crime lab misconduct not caught by internal procedures
The Houston Chronicle reported (June 25) that Peter Lentz, the Houston crime lab tech accused of lying, improper procedure and tampering with an official record, was not identified by internal protocols but because, in February, he admitted the wrongdoing to two coworkers over drinks in a bar. MORE: From Paul Kennedy.

Texas civil commitment program melting down
The state's civil commitment program for sex offenders is imploding. The state plans to begin housing sex offenders in secure lockups because a halfway-house vendor is dropping its contract, citing public stigma and inadequate compensation. An attorney at the Harris County public defender told the Houston Chronicle that housing civil-commitment offenders in secure lockups is "clearly illegal." After all, they've already served their criminal sentences and are legally supposed to be undergoing outpatient treatment. Look for significant action on this topic next session, probably led by Sen. John Whitmire and Rep. Sylvester Turner.

'Getting Life': Michael Morton Memoir
Michael Morton has just published a memoir about his false conviction and imprisonment for the murder of his wife and the dramatic events surrounding his nationally publicized exoneration. See the Statesman's coverage.

Higher parole rate, fewer revocations account for leveling of Texas' prison pop
Insiders know that, despite the attention paid to Texas' 2007 probation reforms, the parole side has been the main reason Texas' prison population has leveled off and even modestly declined in recent years. Why? Via YourHouston News, Texas parole commissioner Lynn Ruzicka said new programming has facilitated higher parole rates for eligible inmates and lower revocation rates for parolees. For example, "Out of the inmates up for parole, 27-28 percent were released in 2001 while the current release rate hovers around 35 percent ... A 2 percent increase in approvals translates into approximately 1,500 additional parole releases per year and an annual savings of almost $26 million, a 2010 report by the Center for Effective Justice showed." Ruzicka specifically said, “The release rate is going up because of the programs we have.” Further, "parole revocation rates for parolees with active cases fell from 12.2 percent in 2001 to 8.2 percent in 2010, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice."

A lawyerly protest: Handing out cards
You don't see this every day:

More than a dozen of the city's best criminal defense lawyers converged Friday on the 11th floor of Houston's criminal courthouse to meet defendants and hand out bright yellow 3-by-5 cards explaining their constitutional rights.

It was part of a protest by the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association against the way Michael Fields, a misdemeanor judge, handles initial appearances in his court.

"What he's doing is unethical, it's unconstitutional and it's illegal," HCCLA president Carmen Roe said after passing out several fliers. "When he starts trampling on the rights of defendants, that's when we get involved." ...

"We believe he's coercing defendants to either waive their right to a lawyer or enter a plea of guilty without their lawyer being present," said JoAnne Musick, a past president of HCCLA who was handing out fliers. "We've had complaints from people who asked for a lawyer and instead he handed them plea papers and had them enter a plea of guilty."

The judge, who denied any improprieties, said he changed his arraignment procedure earlier this year, a move that has generated the controversy. The Republican jurist has held the bench since being elected in 1998.

Paul Kennedy has called Judge Fields a "bully in a robe." Scott Greenfield provides more suitably outraged commentary.

Are compromised Van Zandt locks in other jails?
The Tyler Morning Telegraph posed the same question Grits asked in the wake of news about inmates compromising the locks at the Van Zandt County Jail: "Are the faulty locks in the Van Zandt County Jail in other jails?" For now, claims the paper, the surprising answer appears to be "no." "Executive Director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards Brandon Wood said that as of now, the manufacturer does not seem to have that lock model in any other Texas jails, but they are still taking more time to confirm that, and see about locks in other states."

Wood said there are about three main manufacturers that make lock systems for jails in the state, but the company that made the flawed locks was not one of them.

“The type of lock that was installed, although it is comparable according to the manufacturers specifications to locks that are typically seen in Texas county jails, this was the first time we’d seen this manufacturer in the state,” Wood said.

Wood said even though the company was new, the locks it made met state standards.

For security reasons, Ray requested not to reveal the lock manufacturer’s name. Keeping that information away from inmates could stop them from trying to manipulate similar locks.

However, the locks with the faulty pieces seem to only be in one batch of one specific model. It doesn’t look like the manufacturer has locks from that bad batch anywhere else.

“We do not believe that any of those locks are in any other county jails, however we have issued a technical assistance memorandum and notification to the sheriffs to conduct a walkthrough of their own facilities and determine if they have any of those locks,” Wood said.

As every jail in Texas investigates its own locking system, the manufacturer in question is looking into any locks it has installed in other states.

They ought to publish the manufacturer's name. It's going to eventually come out, anyway.

Alleged civil service cheats indicted in Cameron County
Reported AP, "Eleven former and potential South Texas sheriff's deputies have been indicted in a civil service exam cheating scandal involving a cellphone image of the test."

Private prison focus: Immigration
The blog Texas Prison Bidness highlights documented troubles at five "criminal alien requirement" prisons in Texas covered in an ACLU report released earlier this month:

• Reeves County Detention Center
• Eden Detention Center
• Willacy County Correctional Center
• Big Spring Correctional Center
• Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility

Forensics a 'decades-long experiment' sans scientific method
At Slate, Mark Joseph Stern picks up the meme that much forensic science isn't actually science, an uncomfortable fact made irrefutable by the 2009 National Academy of Sciences report calling for the application of the scientific method in forensic fields. He argues that, "Far from an infallible science, forensics is a decades-long experiment in which undertrained lab workers jettison the scientific method in favor of speedy results that fit prosecutors’ hunches."