Another police charity scamming money raised for officers' widows

Earlier this year, Grits had written about a scam charity raising money supposedly to give to families of two Dallas police officers killed in the line of duty, but which in reality gave only a small fraction of funds raised to officers' families.

Now, Naomi Martin at the Dallas News has the story of another scam charity doing the same thing, this time operated by a Dallas police sergeant. Go read the whole thing, she did a great job.

This blog has criticized these phony law enforcement scams for years, but the Attorney General's office seems incapable of reining them in and, otherwise, only the toothless Better Business Bureau even tries.

Many of our statewide politicians spend a great deal of time telling us how much they respect and admire law enforcement. So how is it that in 2018, 15 years after Republicans took control of Texas state government, these bogus charities are still allowed to raise money in the name of police widows but pocket most of the cash themselves or share it with their friends via lucrative fundraising contracts? There has to be a way to limit this sort of cash-grubbing chicanery.

Scam soliciting money for fallen officers in wake of Dallas shootings

Grits just got a scam robocall from something called the National Police and Troopers Association, which apparently has an affiliation with the national AFL-CIO' International Union of Police Officers, trying to collect donations in the wake of the shootings of two Dallas police officers, one of whom has now died. But there's almost no way any of that money would never end up in the hands of dead officers' families. A blogger who checked the group out a few years back found that:

for the year ending March 31, 2012, the union and its outside fundraisers collected $8.2 million and kept $7.7 million for fundraising fees and expenses, leaving about $500,000 for other purposes. That’s a fundraising efficiency of 6%–less than one-tenth the 65% threshold that charity watchdogs consider the bare minimum for a legitimate operation. 

But it’s really stinks even more. According to the tax return, out of that last $500,000, the union handed out charitable grants–scholarships, and a death benefit for one officer in Indiana–totaling just $35,000. That rounds to just 1/2 of 1% of the money raised.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't see the group on the the Texas Attorney General's list of registered organizations licensed to do this sort of law-enforcement themed fundraising. Correction: They're listed as an AFL-CIO affiliate, and spend 77% of their earnings on fundraising, according to the AG.

Grits has railed against these law enforcement themed charity scams for years, but this is a new low. Sleazebags.

For the record, if you want to give a donation which will actually go to the Dallas officers' families instead of a bunch of scam artists, this is the link to use, via the Dallas Morning News.

Roundup: Naming the new Travis DA's office, and other stories

Here are a few odds and ends that didn't make it into independent posts this week but deserve Grits readers' attention:

Troopers association litigation fails
A judge dismissed the civil suit against the state from the Texas State Troopers Association, which faces penalties and the removal of boardmembers over an illegal telemarketing scheme. Reported the Austin Statesman, "In its lawsuit, the troopers association accused the attorney general’s office of trying to bully the group into signing an agreement that called for fines and the resignation of executive director Claude Hart and board members Lee Johnson, Anne Johnson and Herschel Henderson. Those leaders would also be banned from working for or volunteering with any Texas group that purports to benefit public safety, the document states." Further, "According to the organization’s 2012 tax forms, the group raised more than $3.2 million and paid $2.5 million of it to a telemarketing firm. The association’s largest expense, $311,000, was for salaries. Other costs included $76,000 for lobbying and $35,000 in benefits to members." For long-time readers, this is a different group from the Texas Highway Patrol Association, though the economics of their telemarketing program operated on the same model.

Audit draft criticizes Dallas probation on technical violations
Reported the Dallas Morning News, a leaked TDCJ-CJAD audit of the Dallas County probation department found that "officers did not follow court or department policies more than two out of three times when handling 'technical violations' by probationers, according to a preliminary draft of an audit" obtained by the paper. But "Michael Noyes, the head of Dallas County adult probation, said he doesn’t believe the numbers in the state’s draft report are accurate. He said auditors from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice may have confused strict policies that apply to probationers only in certain court programs and applied them to all probationers."

CCA: New punishment hearing because prosecutor failed to turn over snitch jacket
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this week ordered a new punishment hearing in a capital  murder case because the prosecution did not reveal that a confidential informant planted a shank in the defendant's cell that was used to argue his "future dangerousness." Remarkably, "Following the evidentiary hearing, the trial court found that the State did not fail to produce exculpatory evidence or knowingly present false testimony. However, the trial court also found that [the informant] fashioned and planted the shank as described. Therefore the evidence that applicant possessed the shank was false. The trial court also found that this evidence was central to the State’s future dangerousness case and to the jury’s decision at punishment." The court deferred to those findings, including the declaration prosecution "did not fail to produce exculpatory evidence," even though the exculpatory evidence they failed to produce was the basis for a new punishment hearing.

Out of control: A substantive claim
Note to prosecutors: Before accusing someone of committing fraud to obtain a controlled substance, first make sure the substances you're after are, you know, controlled. In another CCA habeas writ granted this week, the "Applicant was convicted of attempting to obtain a controlled substance by prescription fraud and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment." Her prevailing habeas claim: "there is no evidence that Naproxen is a controlled substance." The trial court agreed, the CCA agreed, bada bing, bada boom, relief granted. This sounds like another episode where lengthy crime lab wait times may have ended up coercing a plea from someone for a crime they didn't commit.

All in the family bank robbing
From the "only in Texas" file, and Texas Monthly's Skip Hollandsworth.

Dumb: Life in prison for pot brownies?
With a possible first-degree felony sentence for drug possession of 5-99 years, it's possible, if unlikely, for a 19-year old defendant to spend the rest of their life in prison on a weight-based drug charge, a possibility touted in KEYE-TV's report on a Williamson County case. But how ridiculous is it for authorities to include the brownies in calculating the weight of the controlled substance (hashish) being used to bump that charge up to first-degree felony levels? Really?

If the feds can do it ...
Now that DOJ has told the FBI, DEA, and other federal investigators to begin recording custodial interrogations, shouldn't the Texas Legislature follow suit and require it for law enforcement agencies here? The Lege considered such legislation in 2013 and, next spring will have an opportunity to polish off this last, unimplemented recommendation from the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions.

The era of mass incarceration in America is not over
Regular readers know we're seeing declining incarceration rates in Texas, like many other large states, but most American states have seen incarceration increase over the last decade, judging from these data.

Naming the new Travis DA's office
Travis County is trying to decide an eponym for a new building that will house the District Attorney's office. Some are saying "Ronnie Earle," but I think it should be named after Richard Danziger. Or perhaps, in light of the current DA's recent history, the "Happy Hour Tower." Offer up your own suggestions in the comments.

Assets from scam trooper charity placed in receivership

The Texas Highway Patrol Association - a scam charity bilking donors by supposedly raising funds for the families of state troopers who died in the line of duty - has been basically wiped off the face of the planet in the wake of a settlement with the Texas Attorney General, we learn from a report at Texas Watchdog. Their assets have been placed in receivership and, according to the AG: "Under the settlement, donations that the defendants falsely solicited for the benefit of fallen troopers’ survivors will be distributed to the victims’ families."

I'd like to imagine that this blog played a small role in drawing attention to this scandal. Regular readers may recall that, just more than a year ago, Grits published a post titled "Of buzzards, road kill, charity scams and the Texas Highway Patrol Association," reacting to a solicitation call where the THPA misrepresented themselves as raising money for the "Texas Highway Patrol." That post received quite a bit of attention and led to an excellent investigative feature by the San Antonio Express-News, shining a lot more light on the subject. Then, in December of last year, the Attorney General "charged the defendants with illegally soliciting charitable donations, falsely claiming that donations to the organizations would benefit the survivors of fallen state troopers, and breaching their fiduciary duties as trustees of a charitable organization." (See the final judgment.) According to the AG:

The State’s enforcement action named the THPM, the Texas Highway Patrol Association (THPA), THPA Services, Inc. and several senior officials as defendants. Court documents filed by the State show that the defendants claimed to provide death benefits to slain law officers’ families and fund scholarships for state troopers’ family members. However, state investigators found that few survivors actually received any financial assistance, and many of the purported scholarship funds were awarded to children of THPM’s board members.

After the State filed its enforcement action, the court approved a receiver to take possession of the defendants’ assets and real property. Under the agreement, the defendants’ property will be liquidated and the proceeds will be allocated to surviving family members who never received the $10,000 benefit they were promised. Remaining proceeds will be donated to the Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation and the Department of Public Safety Historical Museum and Research Foundation, which will use these funds to fulfill donors’ original intent. The settlement also imposes civil penalties of more than $2 million.

The settlement also prohibits the individual defendants – Kenneth Lane Denton, Timothy Tierney and Steven Jenkins – from any future involvement with non-profit or for-profit organizations related to law enforcement. Defendant Ruben Villalva Jr. and other former board members were also ordered to comply with similar restrictions.

I'm glad to see this, but there are quite a few other organizations engaged in similar fundraising schemes, though perhaps not all as brazenly as THPA. A common denominator among the groups, though, are phone solicitation programs where the majority of money raised goes into fundraising instead of program-related work. We know that because they're required to register and report their fundraising to the Texas Attorney General.

For instance, a Florida-based group called the American Association of State Troopers (with the dba name of "Texas Trooper Members") raised $3,849,403, spending $3,244,673 on phone solicitation in FY 2010, according to their required filing with the AG. Their phone solicitor is a company called Xentel, Inc...

Similarly, according to group's FY 2010 filing (pdf) with the AG, the Texas State Troopers Association that year raised $3,453,785, spending $2.7 million of that on paying an Irving-based phone solicitor called "Statewide Appeal."

The Texas State Lodge, Fraternal Order of Police in 2010 raised $421,264, spending $328,924 on phone solicitations, according to their 2011 filing, using phone solicitors Southwest Public Relations and a group out of Utah ironically named "Corporation for Character."

In 2009, the Texas Police Chiefs Association raised $399,580 in contributions, paying $290,249 to phone solicitor Xentel and another based in Houston called "Public Safety Services," according to their filing for that year (2010 data isn't available online).

Also in 2009, a group called the "Coalition of Police and Sheriffs" (COPS) based in Katy Texas (see their filing) raised $170,000 in contributions and spent $136,000 on phone solicitors at South-West Public Relations and PJR, Inc..

Each of these strike Grits as spending far too much of their public contributions on fundraising to qualify as legitimate charities. On First Amendment grounds, I doubt it's legally feasible for the Legislature to ban such solicitations. But I find the practice creepy and gross, and I'm glad the AG at least cracked down on THPA, which was perhaps the most flagrant of the lot. As Grits wrote last year, THPA's efforts were "as much about helping troopers as buzzards are about helping roadkill," and they're not the only ones profiteering off the public's understandable sympathy and support for law enforcement.

More good coverage on law-enforcement charity scams

At the Austin Statesman, Tony Plohetski has a story on law-enforcement themed charities including the Texas Highway Patrol Association that claim to raise money for officer death benefits then spend the overwhelming majority of funds on telemarketing and feathering their nests. Particularly interesting is his account of mostly unsuccessful legislative efforts in the '90s to rein in the practice.

See related Grits posts:

• Texas AG sues highway patrol charity scam
• Sleazy charity scams should be shut down by the IRS or regulated by Texas Lege
• Millions in fundraising for so-called charity pays paltry death benefits to dead troopers' families
• Of buzzards, road kill, charity scams and the Texas Highway Patrol Association
• Houston police union rolling in cash, but six-figure thefts went unnoticed for years
• Sleazy telemarketers capitalize on public sympathy for fallen police

Texas AG sues highway patrol charity scam

The Texas Attorney General has (finally) filed suit against the Texas Highway Patrol Museum and its related entities, which Grits readers will recall operate a telemarketing scheme picking the bones of dead state troopers by raising millions via telemarketing while giving less than a penny on the dollar to the supposed beneficiaries. Reports the SA Express-News ("State sues Texas Highway Patrol Museum in SA," Dec. 20):

Attorney General Greg Abbott has sued organizations tied to the Texas Highway Patrol Museum in San Antonio and accused them of illegally soliciting donations from the public and wasting money on trips, liquor and “exorbitant” pet care for a cat.

Contrary to its official-sounding name, the highway patrol museum at South Alamo and St. Mary's streets is not affiliated with the Texas Department of Public Safety. It is actually a telemarketing organization that raises millions of dollars in the name of helping DPS troopers.

But Abbott's lawsuit, filed in Travis County last week, alleged that few benefits were actually paid to troopers. Instead, funds were spent for personal use. One corporate credit card was used to buy cigars, liquor, and meals, the lawsuit alleges. The expenses were not reimbursed.

The lawsuit says museum funds were spent on “exorbitant vet bills” for an “office cat” that was kept at an Austin office. Tim Tierney, executive vice president of the organizations tied to the museum, said the expenses were justified because the cat kept employees happy, according to the lawsuit.

The museum's assets have been frozen and a temporary receiver has been appointed to oversee it.

Good! It's way past time. They should take a similarly close look at the two dozen or so other entities in Texas doing the same thing - most of them are scams, too.

MORE: From the Austin Statesman. See the AG's lawsuit (pdf) and past Grits coverage:

• Sleazy charity scams should be shut down by the IRS or regulated by Texas Lege
• Millions in fundraising for so-called charity pays paltry death benefits to dead troopers' families
• Of buzzards, road kill, charity scams and the Texas Highway Patrol Association
• Houston police union rolling in cash, but six-figure thefts went unnoticed for years
• Sleazy telemarketers capitalize on public sympathy for fallen police

Sleazy charity scams should be shut down by IRS or regulated by Texas Lege

The SA Express-News' full story is now online about the Texas Highway Patrol Association - a so-called charity that rakes in millions in donations but gives just a small fraction for the purpose it claims, which is raising money for the families of dead state troopers. The story opens:

From the outside, the Texas Highway Patrol Museum doesn’t look like a multimillion-dollar telemarketing operation.

Based near downtown in a single-story brick building at South Alamo and St. Mary’s streets, the small museum offers exhibits that honor Texas Department of Public Safety troopers.

But it draws few visitors, and people who work nearby have wondered how it stays in business.

“I have yet to see one person inside that place,” said Scott Cates, a waiter and lounge singer at La Focaccia Italian Grill next door. “Matter of fact, I was wondering why it’s even there. What’s the point?”

Records show the museum actually is a telemarketing operation that employs hundreds of workers across the state who generated nearly $12 million in revenue from 2004 to 2009.

The museum is one of 25 organizations registered in Texas that raise funds in the name of supporting law enforcement. Helping police officers and their families is the kind of cause that makes donors open their pocketbooks — especially when an officer dies in the line of duty.

But state officials warn that many organizations, including the highway patrol museum in San Antonio, spend most of the donations on fundraising costs and overhead. The museum collects donations in the name of honoring and helping DPS troopers — even as DPS, the state agency that employs those troopers, warns donors to avoid giving the museum money.

Reported Express-News writer John Tedesco, "for every dollar that was donated to the museum, less then a penny was actually spent on troopers and their families." By contrast, those running the "charity" are doing quite well for themselves: "In 2009, the museum and a related company that publishes Texas Highway Patrol Magazine spent $400,000 on salaries for two executives: Villalva and Tim Tierney. In previous years, the museum has listed assets that included a Land Rover, a Lexus and a Mercedes."

Another damning tidbit: "A museum brochure describes how it partnered with the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving to produce an “award winning program” for students. The MADD chapter in San Antonio says it’s unaware of any partnership with the museum."

Your correspondent was quoted in the story after Grits blogged about receiving a solicitation from the group in August. “I don’t want to see families of troopers who die in the line of duty used as props in a scam,” Henson said. “No one does. It’s just grotesque.” 

It's not just THPA, either. Grits readers may recall that the Houston Police Officers Union runs the same kind of telemarketing operation and had one of its board members siphon off $400,000 to pay for his gambling habit.

I'd like to see the Texas Legislature in 2013 put into law that charities raising money in the name of law enforcement must comply with Better Business Bureau standards on fundraising, which dictate that at least 65% of funds raised should go to the purpose for which donors gave the money. In the meantime, somebody out there - the Texas Attorney General, a US Attorney's Office, the IRS, somebody - needs to shut down the THPA once and for all and then thoroughly investigate the two dozen other entities out there doing the same thing.

See related Grits posts:

• Millions in fundraising for so-called charity pays paltry death benefits to dead troopers' families
• Of buzzards, road kill, charity scams and the Texas Highway Patrol Association
• Houston police union rolling in cash, but six-figure thefts went unnoticed for years
• Sleazy telemarketers capitalize on public sympathy for fallen police

Millions in fundraising from so-called charity pays paltry "death benefits" for state trooper families

Following up on a story Grits covered in August, the SA Express-News today delves into the finances of the Texas Highway Patrol Association, a so-called "charity" that spends barely any of the millions of dollars it raises for its stated purpose - helping families of state troopers slain in the line of duty - and instead spends most of its money on fundraising costs and executive pay. When I received a call from them, the telemarketer said he was calling from the "Texas Highway Patrol," but the group is unaffiliated with the Department of Public Safety, which has publicly disavowed them.

The full article is being embargoed for several days (your correspondent was interviewed for the story), but they did post a set of charts giving details of the group's finances. Here are the organization's revenues for recent years (amounts in dollars):

And here's how much they actually spent on "death benefits" for families of dead troopers over the same period:

Assholes. How is it that the IRS, the Department of Justice or the Texas Attorney General hasn't pulled the plug on this scam and others like it long ago? As, Grits wrote in August, "This group is about as much about helping troopers as buzzards are about helping roadkill."

Houston police union rolling in cash, but six-figure thefts went unnoticed for years

In August, Grits criticized a phony-baloney charity called the Texas Highway Patrol Association for misrepresenting themselves in phone solicitations they claimed would raise money for the families of dead troopers, but which mostly go toward fundraising costs and into charity organizers' pockets. Now we get word that a Houston police officer was convicted last week of stealing $656,000 from the Houston Police Officers Union, including $400,000 from a phone solicitation arrangement similar to the THPA and another quarter million from the union's PAC. Reported the Houston Chronicle:

Testimony showed [Matthew] Calley stole more than $400,000 from an account dedicated to helping officers in dire financial straits and providing scholarships. It was funded by telephone solicitations of citizens and businesses.

The rest of the money Calley took was from the group's political action committee's account. Speaking to Calley, state District Judge Michael McSpadden said the 20-year sentence was because of the amount taken and "the betrayal of trust."

Calley faced punishment ranging from probation to life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree felony theft in excess of $200,000 and misapplication of fiduciary funds.

Remarkably, this isn't the only such recent case involving Houston police union officials, reported the Chron:

Former Houston police officer Ronald L. Martin, 55, was sentenced to 10 years probation and restitution of $40,000 after pleading guilty in February to theft by a public servant.

Martin and his former son-in-law Jeffrey Larson, 43, both union officials, were indicted in 2008 on felony charges of misapplication of fiduciary property, accused of allowing between $100,000 and $200,000 to be stolen from the union.

Larson's case is pending trial.

Amazingly, union officials downplayed the impact of so much money being stolen:

Gary Blankinship, the union's president, said emergency union funds were not affected because the money was stolen gradually and not in one large amount.

"We've always had money in that account,'' Blankinship said. "Realize this went on for years and years to reach that amount. ... We were always able to meet obligations."

Blankinship said the thefts could have affected the number of scholarships awarded to children of police officers, but added they stayed "fairly consistent" over the years the theft occurred.

For union offiicials not to have noticed so much money missing from their charity and PAC tells this writer two things: 1) The union is rolling in cash, and 2) there's no meaningful oversight of how union funds are spent.

Of buzzards, road kill, charity scams and the Texas Highway Patrol Association

This morning Grits received a solicitation phone call from a telemarketer who said he was from the "Texas Highway Patrol," calling because "we've lost two troopers recently" and they wanted to "raise money for their families."

"So you're from the Department of Public Safety?," I asked. He evaded, repeating that he was calling from the highway patrol. "So you're calling from the Department of Public Safety," I repeated, "because the highway patrol is part of DPS?" At first he said "yes," he was from DPS, then backtracked and equivocated. I pressed and he told me he was paid by a museum in San Antonio. "So you told me you're from the highway patrol raising money for families of dead troopers but really you're from a museum in San Antonio?" He said "No, that's why I said at the beginning I'm calling from the Texas Highway Patrol Association." He had in fact never said the word "association" before that moment. At that point I told him I wouldn't be giving him any money and he should tell his supervisor to expect a complaint to the Attorney General. I'm certainly not giving a dime to somebody on the phone who I've caught in a bold-faced lie.

Afterward, I got online to discover that the Better Business Bureau in the past has recommended against giving money to this organization. A 2008 report from KSAT-TV in San Antonio declared that:

The Texas Highway Patrol Museum, located at 812 South Alamo St., isn't a large San Antonio attraction, but the museum and its parent office raise large sums of donations, according to a KSAT Defenders investigation.

During one donation drive, telemarketers working on behalf of the Texas Highway Patrol Association raised $1.8 million with the story of Trooper Todd Holmes, who was killed in a traffic collision while on duty.The organization donated $12,500 to Holmes' family, according to state records.

Because of the organization's expenses, including a salary of $182,872 for its executive vice president, four luxury vehicles and salaries totaling $1.1 million, the Better Business Bureau of Houston advises potential givers to not donate to the Texas Highway Patrol Association.

According to the THPA Web site, the organization is not affiliated with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the umbrella agency that oversees the Texas Highway Patrol.

I checked the Texas Attorney General's website where groups raising money for law enforcement are required to register and found this form (pdf) from FY 2009 documenting their finances. The group raised $2,142,914 in that year and roughly 90% - $1,925,835 - was spent on fundraising costs. (Another page on the AG's site says fundraising costs that year were only 32%, but that doesn't jibe with the documentation filed by THPA.) A nonprofit spending 90% of contributions on fundraising isn't a legitimate charity, IMO it's a straight-up hustle.

What a sleazy business model, picking the bones of dead troopers! Maybe it's legal, but if so the law is doing little to protect the public from manipulative solicitations on behalf of law enforcement. The THPA telemarketer flat-out misrepresented who he was to me, and by all accounts only the tiniest fraction of donations goes for the purpose they say: supporting families of dead DPS officers. This group is about as much about helping troopers as buzzards are about helping roadkill.

Sleazy telemarketers capitalize on public sympathy for fallen police

I agree with Charley Wilkison on this one:

Nonprofit groups with ties to law enforcement have your number and they're dialing it this Christmas.

A review by The Dallas Morning News found that several charities have spent up to 89 percent of the money they collect on telemarketers, cutting deeply into what they can spend on programs.

Some say the figures show that a Texas law regulating telephone solicitation by law-enforcement-related groups isn't working.

"When your spending is upside down like that, you would have to ask yourself as a consumer, 'Are they a telemarketing organization or are they legitimately representing the concerns of law-enforcement officers?' " said Charley Wilkison, spokesman for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas. ...

Wilkison, the CLEAT spokesman, called phone solicitation an "illegitimate funding stream," but he didn't single out any group for criticism.

"Texans have big hearts. They hear that an officer is killed in the line of duty and it touches them. They think they are giving it to a widow and an orphan, and the fact is they are not," he said.

I got one of these calls at home the other day and turned them down, more offended by it than inspired to generosity. Looking at the data at the end of the Dallas News story, this bizarre niche has turned into a lucrative industry of telemarketers profiteering off public sympathy for fallen police. Pretty sleazy and manipulative, if you ask me.