Woman Arrested By Mesquite Texas Police For Posting Undercover Police Officer’s Picture On Facebook And Identifying Him – The Dumbass Already Had A Facebook Profile

DALLAS, TEXAS – A North Texas woman has been charged with retaliation for allegedly posting an undercover police officer’s photo on Facebook and identifying him by his job.

Mesquite police arrested Melissa Walthall, 30, for allegedly posting the photo of the officer, who authorities say recently testified in a drug case against her friend. Her Facebook post identified the person as an undercover officer, according to a federal affidavit.

After a caller tipped off Mesquite police to Walthall’s Facebook post about a week ago, an investigator found that it posed a “viable threat to that officer’s safety,” the affidavit said.

The Dallas Morning News reports (http://dallasne.ws/X3x5IS ) that her friend, George Pickens, 34, was upset about the officer’s testimony and found his photograph on Facebook while researching him online.

Pickens’ brother, Bobby Stedham, used the photo to make fliers, and the two men planned to display them like garage sale signs, according to the affidavit. Police reported finding them while searching Pickens’ Dallas-area house.

Stedham, 26, has been charged with retaliation, and Pickens faces federal drug and weapons charges, based on items police reported finding during the search of his house.

Mitch Landry, deputy executive director of the Texas Municipal Police Association in Austin, said his organization has discussed with its members the perils of social media — particularly for those involved in undercover work.

“Our best advice is — if you don’t want that information out there, don’t have those accounts,” Landry told the newspaper. “There’s no way to be truly anonymous if you have a Facebook page.”

Many police departments have not yet developed social media policies and guidelines for their officers. The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, for example, has an electronic etiquette policy that prohibits such things as vulgar language or sending obscene messages. It does not address the use of social media.

Lt. Bill Hedgpeth, Mesquite police’s spokesman, said his department does not have a set policy but periodically reminds officers to check their social media privacy settings so they allow only friends to view personal information on Facebook.

“The Internet can be a dangerous place,” said Hedgpeth, who added that he got rid of his Facebook account.

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Savage Brown Beast Who Beat And Glued Her Daughter To Wall Sentenced To Just 99 Years In Texas Prison

DALLAS, TEXAS – The North Texas mom who pled guilty to gluing her toddler daughter’s hands to a wall, kicking her in the stomach and beating her over “potty training” issues has been sentenced to 99 years in prison.

It was up to State District Judge Larry Mitchell to decide how long Elizabeth Escalona would spend behind bars. For days the judge heard from medical experts, police, family members and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office showed dozens of pictures of little Jocelynn Cedillo. The photos, taken at the hospital, showed bruises from the child’s head down to her feet. The injuries included hair torn from her scalp, bruising on her forehead, nose and cheek and what appeared to be bite marks on her body.

In handing down the stiff sentence, Mitchell told Escalona that in spite of the ‘heartbreaking’ and ‘compelling’ evidence presented on both sides, “to me, it comes down to a single, salient fact: you savagely beat your child to the edge of death… for this you must be punished.”

Pleading for leniency Escalona took to the stand Thursday where she admitted that she’d behaved “like a monster” but also said she deserved to be given “a second chance.”

While on the stand Escalona explained how on September 7, 2011, one day after a major fight with her then boyfriend, she broke down and attacked her 2-year-old daughter, Jocelynn. “I hit her, I kicked her constantly,” Escalona said through tears.

Escalona pled guilty to first-degree Injury to a Child back in July.

When asked about gluing the little girl’s hands to a wall Escalona offered no explanation. “I don’t really recall what happened afterwards,” she said. “Everything happened so fast.”

Previous testimony from Dallas doctors detailed how in addition to having pieces of skin torn from her hands from the wall gluing, Escalona’s daughter’s eyes had also been glued shut. Though severely beaten and even falling into a coma for two days, Jocelynn Cedillo miraculously recovered from her injuries.

Escalona’s defense attorney had tried to detail how her client had faced emotionally psychological bondage all her life.

Testimony during the week-long sentencing hearing often focused on Escalona’s hard life– one that the defense attorney called a ‘train wreck’ in closing arguments.

According to court testimony, Escalona was repeatedly molested by her father, was abusing drugs before she was a teenager, had her first child at 14 and couldn’t seem to stay away from men who beat her. But, it appeared that Escalona’s punishment would not be mitigated by that troubled past.

Elizabeth Escalona’s mother, Ofelia, pleaded that her daughter be sentenced to probation, saying that Elizabeth made “a mistake” and “needed help.”

Prosecutors had offered a 45-year-sentence as part of a plea deal. But, during closing arguments Asst. District Attorney Eren Price asked the judge for a life sentence– saying Escalona refuses to accept responsibility for the abuse that left her child in a coma. Price called the 99-year-sentence “absolutely the right thing to do,” saying Escalona’s five children will be better off without her.
“They have a chance for the rest of their lives, not to look over their shoulder,” said Price. “Because of what Judge Mitchell did, they have a chance to live a productive and happy life.”

Escalona showed no reaction to the verdict and was led away in handcuffs. Family members in the packed courtroom buried their faces in their hands and sobbed. Defense attorney Angie N’Duka says she was “shocked” at the sentence and plans to appeal.

N’Duka insists that she was not asking for “pass”, but for the judge to consider that Escalona was herself, a victim. “In my closing, you heard me say: ‘this was inexcusable’– all I’m saying, take her circumstance into consideration, that’s all I was asking for, not max her out,” said N’Duka, “and that’s what the judge did– he maxed her out.”

According to Price, Escalona’s 99 year prison sentence means she will spend a minimum of 30 years behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.

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Texas Parks And Wildlife Department Has Nothing Better To Do Than Investigate Man Who Cooked And Ate Dove That Died In His Yard – Say He Should Have Turned It Over To A Game Warden

DALLAS, TEXAS – A Texas man is in hot water with the law after cooking and eating a dove that had flown against the side of his home, broke its neck and died.

Being dove hunting season in Texas, Ryan Adams thought it was a stroke of luck when he discovered the Texas white-winged dove right next to his home in Pflugerville.

“This is the same bird that hunter’s pay just buckets of money to go out and shoot,” he said. “They take their time… and I just got one for free?”

Adams decided to do what he thought any aficionado of wild game would do in his shoes — cook the dove for dinner.

“I have never had such fresh meat before. I had meat that had come to me that was fairly fresh that had slaughtered the week before but never like that day,” Adams recalled.

But according to Texas Parks and Wildlife spokesman Steven Lightfoot, that was the wrong thing to do.

“It is illegal to possess any wildlife resource that has not been taken legally,” Lightfoot explained. “By legal I mean there are certain means and methods… you have to have a hunting license and you have to have the appropriate weapon and ammunition.”

Lightfoot says Adams would have had the right to eat the bird if he had legally hunted it and since those weren’t the circumstances he should have turned it over to a game warden.

The state agency is now investigating Adams. While the evidence in the case has been eaten, Adams made the ‘mistake’ of posting step-by-step pictures of his “epicurean dove cook-out” on his blog.

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Dumbass Cops Conduct Live Fire “Active Shooter” Training At Irving Texas College Campus – Without Notifying Anyone

IRVING, TEXAS — Dozens of students at North Lake College in Irving feared for their lives on Friday. They heard gunfire and saw police inside the nursing building.

While their panic was real, the situation was anything but — and now school leaders are reviewing what happened.

Erin Culton is studying to be a nurse at North Lake College. Her biggest concern on Friday was passing a big test.

“It was a really hard test, and most of the people failed,” she said.

But minutes after she finished the exam, her relief turned to fear.

“We heard two gunshots and women screaming loudly,” Culton said.

The sound of gunfire just feet outside her classroom sent students scrambling.

“I pulled a chair over me and was grabbing bags and building a fort over it,” she said. “One student checked and said there was a shooter in the hall … there was a woman around me crying.”

Culton started texting her boyfriend, a state trooper: “Shots at school. Call police.”

What Culton didn’t know was that the gunfire was all part of a planned drill.

“Police said it was an ‘active shooter class’ — meaning they were practicing for scenarios like a shooter on campus,” Culton said.

But Culton said not even the North Lake faculty had been made aware of the drill.

North Lake College told News 8 it sent out two warning e-mails, but is now reviewing its procedure and looking at making public address announcements to alert students and faculty to future exercises — especially after a rash of complaints from panicked students.

“The only thing going through my mind? Try to hide and protect yourself,” Culton said, adding she’s thankful for a classmate who went to the hall to find a way out.

“After seeing the the Aurora [Colorado] shooting in the movie theater, he didn’t want us to be sitting ducks,” Culton said.

The Dallas County Community College District said college administrators call the drills “necessary,” but they will continue to review the process and make changes as they are needed.

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San Antonio Texas School District Punishing Students Who Won’t Wear Microchip ID Cards That Are Used To Track Their Every Move In School

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – A school district in Texas came under fire earlier this year when it announced that it would require students to wear microchip-embedded ID cards at all times. Now students who refuse to be monitored say they are feeling the repercussions.

Since October 1, students at John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School in San Antonia, Texas have been asked to attend class clasping onto photo ID cards equipped with radio-frequency identification chips to keep track of each and every pupil’s personal location. Educators insist that the endeavor is being rolled out in Texas to relax the rampant truancy rates devastating the state’s school and the subsequent funding they are failing to receive as a result, and pending the program’s success the RFID chips could soon come to 112 schools in all and affect nearly 100,000 students.

Some pupils say they are already seeing the impact, though, and it’s not one they are very anxious to experience. Students who refuse to walk the schoolhouse halls with a location-sensitive sensor in their pocket or around their neck are being tormented by instructors and being barred from participating in certain school-wide functions, with some saying they are even being turned away from common areas like cafeterias and libraries.

Andrea Hernandez, a sophomore at John Jay, says educators have ignored her pleas to have her privacy respected and have told her she can’t participate in school elections if she doesn’t submit to the tracking program.

To Salon, Hernandez says subjecting herself to constant monitoring by way of wearing a RFID chip is comparable to clothing herself in the “mark of the beast.” When she reached out to WND.com to reveal the school’s response, though, she told them that she was threatened with exclusion from picking a homecoming king and queen for not adhering to the rules.

“I had a teacher tell me I would not be allowed to vote because I did not have the proper voter ID,” Hernandez told WND. “I had my old student ID card which they originally told us would be good for the entire four years we were in school. He said I needed the new ID with the chip in order to vote.”

Even after Hernandez politely refused to wear an RFID chip, Deputy Superintendent Ray Galindo offered a statement that suggests that both the student’s religious and civil liberty-anchored arguments will only allow her some leeway for so long.

“We are simply asking your daughter to wear an ID badge as every other student and adult on the Jay campus is asked to do,” Galindo wrote to the girl’s parents, WND reports. If she is allowed to forego the tracking now, he continued, it could only be a matter of time before the school signs off on making location-monitoring mandatory and the repercussions will be more than just revoking voting rights for homecoming contests.

“I urge you to accept this solution so that your child’s instructional program will not be affected. As we discussed, there will be consequences for refusal to wear an ID card as we begin to move forward with full implementation,” Galindo continued.

The girl’s father, Steve Hernandez, tells WND that the school has been somewhat willing to work with the daughter’s demands, but insists that her family “would have to agree to stop criticizing the program” and start publically supporting it.

“I told him that was unacceptable because it would imply an endorsement of the district’s policy and my daughter and I should not have to give up our constitutional rights to speak out against a program that we feel is wrong,” Mr. Hernandez responded.

By reversing the poor attendance figures, the Northside Independent School District is expected to collect upwards of $2 million in state funding, with the program itself costing around one-quarter of that to roll out and another $136,005 annually to keep it up and running. The savings the school stands to make in the long run won’t necessarily negate the other damages that could arise: Heather Fazio, of Texans for Accountable Government tells WND that for $30 she filed a Freedom of Information Act request and received the names and addresses of every student in the school district.

“Using this information along with an RFID reader means a predator could use this information to determine if the student is at home and then track them wherever they go. These chips are always broadcasting so anyone with a reader can track them anywhere,” she says.

Kirsten Bokenkamp of the ACLU told the San Antonio Express-News earlier this year that her organization was expecting to challenge the board’s decision this to roll out the tracking system, but the school has since gone ahead anyway. Steve Hernandez tells WND that he approached the ACLU for possible representation in his daughter’s case, but Rebecca Robertson of a local branch of the organization said, “the ACLU of Texas will not be able to represent you or your daughter in this matter,” saying his daughter’s case in particular fails to meet the criteria they use to pick and choose civil liberties cases to take on.

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Savage Brown Beast Found Guilty In Dallas County Texas After Beating Her 2 Year Old Daughter And Gluing Her To A Wall While “Potty Training”

DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS – A Texas mother of five is expected to be sentenced Tuesday after admitting to gluing her 2-year-old daughter to a wall and beating her over potty training.

Elizabeth Escalona, 23, was in a Dallas County, Texas, court Monday as witnesses — including her mother and the pediatrician who cared for the toddler — testified in the first day of her sentencing hearing, while prosecutors showed pictures of the little girl’s hands and bruised body and forehead.

“The entire picture was very shocking,” said Dr. Amy Barton, then a child abuse pediatrician at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, choking back tears on the stand. “I see a lot of children, and this was one of the most shocking cases that I have seen.”

Jocelyn Cedillo was less than two months shy of her third birthday in September 2011 when Escalona, her mother, used a powerful adhesive to glue her hands to a wall and beat her.

Three other children of Escalona, who was pregnant at the time, witnessed the abuse, according to Dallas County district attorney’s office spokeswoman Debbie Denmon.

Former Houston Texas Police Officer Abraham Joseph Sentenced To Double Life In Prison After Raping On-Duty Rapes Of Illegal Immigrants

HOUSTON, TEXAS – Abraham Joseph struggled to find anything to say before a judge on Monday affirmed the verdict of two life sentences.

Braced stoicism melted from his face as he started to talk then stopped. The former Houston Police Department officer looked down, shaking his head and began to cry.

He was taken into custody without another chance to hold his 1-year-old daughter, who was often seen offering high fives to strangers outside the courtroom.

Joseph, 28, was convicted Thursday of two counts of aggravated sexual assault for raping a cantina waitress while on duty in January 2011. He’ll be eligible for parole after 30 years.

The waitress, 37, testified that Joseph detained her at 3 a.m. outside the cantina where she worked, put her in his patrol car, took her to a dark park and raped her while she was handcuffed. She alleges that Joseph assaulted her on the trunk of his police cruiser.

Friends and family, who had hoped for leniency, were disappointed by the decision. Joseph told the judge he plans to appeal.

Both the prosecution and the defense say the tipping point for the jury likely was testimony from four other women who say Joseph attacked them over a four-month period in late 2010 and early 2011.

All worked at nightclubs in the southwest Houston neighborhood Joseph patrolled, and all live in the U.S. illegally, making them part of what the prosecution called “the perfect pool of victims.”

Defense attorney Nicole DeBorde, who had asked the jury to consider community supervision, said she was disappointed with the decision.

“I’m not surprised with sentence given the accusations made in the punishment phase,” DeBorde said.

She insisted from the beginning that Joseph’s sexual encounter with his accuser was consensual.

Prosecutor Heyward Carter said the evidence gathered by HPD’s sex crimes unit left Joseph with few options for defense.

“There was only one thing he could say because they were so proactive,” Carter said.

Carter and fellow prosecutor Eric Bily said the city owed thanks to the victim who had the courage to come forward and move ahead with a trial that had her on the stand for three days.

“Without her, who would know the extent of the damage to this city?” Carter said.

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9/11 Hysteria And Gross Stupidity Had A Baby: Houston Texas City Council Member Andrew Burks Wants To Ban Food Trucks – Potential “Terrorist Weapons”

HOUSTON, TEXAS – In case anyone thought that Council Member Andrew Burks’s statements on food trucks and terrorists at a City Council public hearing on Tuesday, September 18, were misrepresented or exaggerated, a new video puts those ideas to rest.

The video was created by local community activist Kyle Nielsen, whom the Houston Press named the Best Breaking News/Bloodhound Twitterer in our 2011 Houston Web Awards. In the video, Burks — who occupies the At-Large Position 2 seat on City Council — can be seen at two separate public hearings insisting that propane tanks on food trucks could potentially be used as terrorist weapons.

Yes, there are dozens of propane tanks stacked in front of grocery stores throughout the city, as well as propane tanks currently on downtown restaurant patios (and restaurant patios all over Houston).

When speaker Sarah Troxell attempts to question whether the points raised by Burks are relevant — “I’m not sure how that relates to food trucks…” — he shuts her down, continuing to warn of the worldwide threat against U.S. embassies.

“What I’m saying to you is this,” Burks tells Troxell. “We live in a different world now than what used to be. Used to be that you could go into an embassy and feel safe. Everyone said — you know — you see on TV…people are running to one place to the next trying to get to the embassy where they can feel safe. Now, American embassies are under attack all across this world just about.”

So there you have it, Houston. American embassies are under attack, and food trucks may be a possible vehicle (no pun intended) for those terrorist activities, even though Houston itself doesn’t, y’know, have any American embassies since we’re already in America.

But if Burks is even the least bit curious about what it takes to blow up one of those propane tanks — in front of an embassy or not — here’s some real knowledge on the subject, courtesy of Mythbusters: It’s nearly impossible to blow up a propane tank with something as basic as a rifle or even as intimidating as an automatic weapon. What does it take? Incendiary rounds:

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US Begins To FLY Wetbacks Home To Mexico – Illegal Immigrants Previously Bussed To Mexican Border Towns, Now Thousands – Many Of Them Criminals, Will Be Flown In Luxury To Mexico City At US Taxpayer Expense

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. government began flying Mexican deportees home on Tuesday in a two-month experiment aimed at relieving Mexican border cities overwhelmed by large numbers of people ordered to leave the United States, some who fall prey to criminal gangs.

The flights will run twice a week from El Paso, Texas, to Mexico City until Nov. 29, at which time both governments will evaluate the results and decide whether to continue. The first flight left Tuesday with 131 Mexicans aboard.

The flights are not voluntary, unlike a previous effort from 2004 to 2011 to deport Mexicans arrested by the Border Patrol during Arizona’s deadly summer heat. The U.S. government will pay for the flights, and the Mexican government will pay to return people from Mexico City to their hometowns.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretary said late Tuesday that more than 2,400 passengers will be flown to Mexico City during the next two months. Mexicans from the country’s northern border states are not eligible.

The experiment comes as Mexican cities along the U.S. border are grappling with large numbers of deportees who have no roots, few job prospects and sometimes limited Spanish. Many are deported to cities that are among the hardest hit by organized crime in Mexico, particularly across the border from Texas in the state of Tamaulipas.

“The newly repatriated, often with no means to return home, are susceptible to becoming part of criminal organizations as a means of survival,” Gustavo Mohar, Mexico’s interior undersecretary for population, migration and religious affairs, said in a statement released by ICE.

ICE Director John Morton said the flights “will better ensure that individuals repatriated to Mexico are removed in circumstances that are safe and controlled.”

ICE, which is managing the flights, said passengers will include Mexicans with criminal convictions in the United States and those who don’t have any. They will be taken from throughout the United States to a processing center in Chaparral, N.M., before being put on flights at El Paso International Airport.

President Barack Obama’s administration has made migrants with criminal convictions a top priority among the roughly 400,000 people of all nationalities who are deported each year. The Department of Homeland Security said nearly half of the 293,966 Mexicans deported in its last fiscal year had criminal convictions in the United States.

The policy has fueled concern in Mexican cities along the U.S. border that deportees are being victimized, turn to petty crime or are recruited by criminal gangs. In February, Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Mexican Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire announced plans for a pilot program, which was to begin April 1, but negotiations delayed the start until Tuesday. Homeland Security officials said the time was needed considering the complexities and logistics of the effort.

The Border Patrol will not participate in the flights, which is called the Interior Repatriation Initiative, said ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas.

Under a previous effort, some Mexicans who were arrested by the Border Patrol in Arizona’s stifling summer heat were offered a free flight to Mexico City, but they could refuse. The Mexican Interior Repatriation Program flights carried 125,164 passengers at a cost of $90.6 million from 2004 to 2011, or an average of $724 for each passenger, according to ICE.

The flights became a key piece of Border Patrol enforcement in Arizona as the agency moved to end its decades-old, revolving-door policy of taking migrants to the nearest border crossing to try again hours later.

Doris Meissner, who headed the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in the 1990s, said the pilot program was an encouraging sign that that two governments are working together to address the large number of deportees in Mexico’s northern border cities.

“It makes it less likely these people will try to renter the U.S. … and it creates some chance that they are in an environment where they actually have some ties,” she said.

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Yeah Right: Texas Judge William Adams Seeks Reinstatement After Viral Video Showed Him Brutally Beating His Teen Daughter For Using Internet

TEXAS – A judge suspended after an online video showed him beating his teenage daughter is asking the Texas Supreme Court to reinstate him.

Judge William Adams’ former wife, however, opposes his return to the bench.

Adams was suspended last year after the 2004 video went public. It showed him beating his then-16-year-old daughter because she downloaded online music and games.

He signed off on a public warning Wednesday issued by the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct, waiving his right to appeal its sanction. The signature clears the way for the Supreme Court to rule on a motion to have his suspension lifted, which the commission supports.

It was not immediately clear when the court would rule on the matter.

His former wife, Hallie Adams, filed a grievance with the commission in August. In a letter to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, she asked that the justices not to lift his suspension until her complaint has been fully investigated.

“I have not been able to get anyone to protect me and now I am trying to protect the public from being judged by a person that I feel does not have the capacity to act fairly and effectively as a judge as evidence of how he has treated his own family over the years,” Hallie Adams said Wednesday.

As a judge, William Adams handles misdemeanor cases, including family-related and juvenile court issues.

Hillary Adams unleashed a firestorm in November when she posted a seven-year-old video of her father beating her when she was 16.

Aransas County Attorney Richard Bianchi said at the time that his office was overwhelmed with calls and e-mails, including some from overseas, after the video went viral on the Internet.

The 2004 beating occurred when her father was punishing her for using the Internet “to acquire music and games that were unavailable for legal purchase at the time,” Adams wrote on the Internet posting. She said she released the video after being harassed by her father.

“It was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she said in November. “It wasn’t any huge happening or anything.” She said she told her father she had the video, “and he didn’t seem to think anything of it, and basically dared me to post it.”

The video posting said, “Judge William Adams is not fit to be anywhere near the law system if he can’t even exercise fit judgment as a parent himself. Do not allow this man to ever be re-elected again. His ‘judgment’ is a giant farce. Signed, Hillary Adams, his daughter.”

The 7 1/2-minute video is punctuated by cracks of the man’s belt and the girl’s screams and cries.

At one point, the man says to his near-hysterical daughter, “What happened to you, Hillary? Once you were an obedient, nice little girl. Now you lie, cheat and steal.”

At another point, he yells at her, “You want to put some more computer games on? You want some more?”

William Adams has acknowledged that the man in the video is him.

Hillary Adams “has had ataxic cerebral palsy from birth that led her to a passion for technology, which was strictly forbidden by her father’s backwards views,” according to the posting on the YouTube video.

Ataxic cerebral palsy is a rare form of the condition and affects balance.

Since going up in November, a Facebook page called “Don’t Re-Elect Judge William Adams” has attracted more than 32,500 “likes.” A Spanish-language version has collected more than 300 more.

“This man is a terrible excuse for a human being! Shame on you!” said one post on the page. “He is nothing but a bully and deserves adult punishment! God bless his daughter!”

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Suspended Dumbass Houston Texas Police Officer Sgt. Stacey Suro May Now Be Thinking That Posting A Bunch On Nude Photos Of Herself In The Internet Wasn’t The Best Career Move

HOUSTON, TEXAS – A sergeant with the Houston Police Department has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of an investigation into some risqué photos she plastered on Model-Mayhem.com.

The investigation into Sgt. Stacey Suro’s online activity started last Wednesday. Sources said that’s when the higher ups at HPD learned Suro had posted nearly 100 pictures — some of them nude — on the modeling site.

KSAT’s sister station, KPRC in Houston, obtained some photos that depict Suro in fetish, bondage and other compromising positions.

Suro has since taken the link down. But before she did, KPRC found her bio where she called herself “Tessoro.” She clearly stated she was a model and was charging photographers for work. Sources told KPRC that many of her subordinates have seen these photos.

The department’s policy on conduct states: “Employees shall exhibit professional conduct at all times and shall not engage in any activity, including unlawful activity that would degrade or bring disrespect upon the employee or the department.”

Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland released a statement saying that the department is aware of the allegations but he could not comment until the investigation is completed.

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Army’s Prosecution Of Fort Hood Killer Stalled Over His Beard – Time And Money Wasted As Army Insists The Filthy Muslim Shave Before Court Appearances

TEXAS – The beard that has stalled the court-martial of accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan will be discussed at a hearing next week, military officials said.

The October 11 hearing at the Army Court of Criminal Appeals was called to address his continued refusal to shave before court appearances, the Army said.

The military psychiatrist is accused of opening fire three years ago at the Texas Army post’s processing center, where soldiers were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. The attack left 13 dead and 32 people wounded. Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down after police exchanged fire with him.

His court-martial tied to the shooting had been scheduled to start in August. But the Army Court of Criminal Appeals had delayed its start indefinitely to determine whether the suspect’s beard can be forcibly shaved during trial.

Army regulations prevent soldiers from wearing facial hair while in uniform. Hasan, who is still considered a soldier, is a practicing Muslim and maintains he has the right to wear the beard under U.S. laws protecting religious freedoms.

At an earlier hearing, Hasan spoke about his beard.

“Your honor, in the name of almighty Allah, I am a Muslim. I believe that my religion requires me to wear a beard,” he told a judge in August.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

A U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, he was a licensed psychiatrist who joined the Army in 1997. He had been scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan before the killings in November 2009, but had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military.

Hasan had told his family he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Investigations tied to the Fort Hood shootings found he had been communicating via e-mail with Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent radical Yemeni-American cleric killed by a U.S. drone attack in 2011.

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Socorro Texas Police Officer Israel Delgado Arrested For Violation Of Protective Order

SOCORRO, TEXAS — A Socorro police officer found himself on the other side of the law this weekend.

Sheriff’s deputies said they stopped Israel Delgado, 27, for a traffic violation.

They then discovered the passenger in a vehicle had filed a protective order against Delgado.

He was arrested and later released after posting $5,000 bond.

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Harris County Texas Woman Shoots Her Husband In Argument Over A Cat…

HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS – Investigators in Harris County, Texas, are trying to figure out what prompted a woman to shoot her husband in an argument over their cat. The woman, 42-year-old Audrey Deen Miller, is accused of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Investigators with Harris County Precinct 4 say the couple had an argument over the family cat, though there are several cats on the property so it isn’t clear yet which cat sparked the argument. Investigators say when Miller’s husband threatened to hurt the cat, Miller shot her husband in the stomach.

The husband was taken to Ben Taub Hospital where he had surgery for his wounds and was listed in stable condition. The incident occurred around 7:15 in the morning in a backyard of a quiet suburb northwest of Houston. The cat was not hurt.

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Trigger-Happy Houston Texas Police Officer Matthew Jacob Marin Shot And Killed Wheelchair-Bound Double Amputee Who Had A Pen

HOUSTON, TEXAS – A Houston police officer shot and killed a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair Saturday inside a group home after police say the double amputee threatened the officer and aggressively waved a metal object that turned out to be a pen.

Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man cornered the officer in his wheelchair and was making threats while trying to stab the officer with the pen. At the time, the officer did not know what the metal object was that the man was waving, Silva said.

She said the man came “within inches to a foot” of the officer and did not follow instructions to calm down and remain still.

“Fearing for his partner’s safety and his own safety, he discharged his weapon,” Silva told The Associated Press.

Police did not immediately release the name of the man who was killed. They had been called to the home after a caretaker there called and reported that the man in wheelchair was causing a disturbance.

The owner of the group home, John Garcia, told the Houston Chronicle that the man had a history of mental illness and had been living at the house about 18 months. Garcia said the man had told him that he lost a leg above the knee and all of one arm when he was hit by a train.

“He sometimes would go off a bit, but you just ignore it,” Garcia told the newspaper.

Silva identified the officer as Matthew Jacob Marin, a five-year veteran of the department. He was immediately placed on three-day administrative leave, which is standard in all shootings involving officers.

Houston police records indicate that Marin also fatally shot a suspect in 2009. Investigators at the time said Marin came upon a man stabbing his neighbor to death at an apartment complex and opened fired when the suspect refused to drop the knife.

On Saturday, Marin and his partner arrived at the group home around 2:30 a.m. Silva said there were several people at the house at the time. The caretaker who called police waited on the porch while the officers went inside, she said.

“It was close quarters in the area of the house,” Silva said. “The officer was forced into an area where he had no way to get out.”

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US Secret Service Pissing Away Taxpayer Funds Investigating Empty Chairs Hung In Trees In Texas And Virginia

WASHINGTON, DC – At least two recent incidents in which empty chairs were hung from trees by rope have critics decrying what they say are racially offensive displays meant to symbolize the “lynching” of President Barack Obama.

In Austin, Texas, a homeowner hung an empty folding chair from a tree branch in front of his house and later attached an American flag to it. He reportedly told a Democratic political blogger who said she had concerns, “You can take it and go straight to hell and take Obama with you.”

In Centreville, Va., an empty chair with a sign reading “Nobama” was strung from a tree in or near a park. “In short, this appears to be a crude metaphor for the lynching of President Obama,” wrote the blogger who posted the photo.

The image of an empty chair has been associated with Obama ever since Clint Eastwood’s headline-grabbing, non-conformist speech at the Republican National Convention three weeks ago in Tampa, Fla. The 82-year-old actor-director talked to an empty chair as if the Democratic president were sitting in it, criticizing and mocking the “invisible Obama” for 12 minutes.

“When somebody doesn’t do the job, you’ve got to let them go,” Eastwood said before making a throat-slashing gesture.

Hollywood star Clint Eastwood speaks at the RNC in Tampa, Fla.

In Austin, Katherine Haenschen, editor of Burnt Orange Report, a Texas liberal-leaning political blog, said someone forwarded her a photo this week of an empty folding chair hanging from a tree in front of a home in the city’s northwest. A few days later the homeowner apparently added a small American flag to the display, according to a picture taken by a neighbor and forwarded to Haenschen on Thursday. [Picture above].

Haenschen said she called the man who she said lives in the home with his wife on Wednesday night to express her concerns about the display. Here’s what she said he told her:

“He replied, and I quote, “I don’t really give a damn whether it disturbs you or not. You can take [your concerns] and go straight to hell and take Obama with you. I don’t give a [expletive]. If you don’t like it, don’t come down my street.”

NBC News tried reaching out to the man for comment, but a telephone message left Thursday morning was not returned.

Haenschen said the display has apparently caused “great consternation” in the neighborhood.

“There are other neighbors up there who are Republicans who find this as offensive as anybody else does,” Haenschen told NBC News.

“Someone always wants to say, ‘you’re making a big deal out of it, it’s just a chair.’ But I don’t see how you can dismiss the racial message of lynching a symbol of the first African-American president. It’s really tough for me to see how folks might, after the Eastwood speech, not view this as a racially charged message and a symbol of a threat to the president’s life.”

Rosemary Edwards, chairwoman of the Travis County Republican Party in Austin, said she was not aware of the display. She said if anything racial is suggested by the display, it would be “deplorable.”

In Virginia, a photo posted on Tuesday on Blue Virginia, a Democratic-leaning political blog, shows an empty chair with a handmade “Nobama” sign strung from a tree by a rope.

Courtesy of Blue Virginia

A chair with an anti-Obama slogan hangs from a tree in Centreville, Va.

The blogger, who goes by the username “lowkell,” said photos of the display were taken with a cellphone by someone who was leaving the KORUS festival, an annual gathering organized by a local Korean-American association, at Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville over the weekend.

“Obviously, it’s beyond grotesque (it also boggles my mind that this was allowed to be put up, let alone to stay up, at a festival presumably visited by thousands of people – wtf?),” lowkell wrote.

Lowkell told NBC News the photo was forwarded to him by a source who “wants to remain anonymous.”

The display was on private property neighboring the park, a park official told the Centreville Patch. The park is about eight miles from Centreville High School, where Obama appeared at a campaign rally in July. It was not known who put up the display.

The Secret Service said it was looking into the empty chair incidents. “The Secret Service is aware of this and will conduct appropriate followup,” spokesman Brian Leary told NBC News.

Lynching, the killing of people, usually by hanging or shooting, by mobs who take the law into their own hands, occurred most frequently in the U.S. from the late 1800s through the 1950s. Most of the lynchings took place in the South, and most of the victims were black.

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Lawsuit Charges Dumbass La Porte Texas Police With Bogus Arrest After Woman Let Children Play Outside And Trouble-Maker Neighbor Complained

LA PORTE, TEXAS – Allowing your kids to play on scooters outside the house on a quiet street seems innocent–and common–enough. But a Texas mom was arrested and spent the night in jail after a neighbor complained that the children were unsupervised.

The parent, Tammy Cooper, disputes the “humiliating” charge, saying she was watching the kids, ages 6 and 9, the whole time from a lawn chair.

But police took the neighbor at her word, and a few hours after the call, arrested Cooper for child endangerment. Cooper told KPRC that the arresting officer told her, “We’re here for you.”

The accused parent spent the night behind bars. “Orange jump suit, in a cell, slammed the door, for 18 hours,” she said.

Cooper is suing the La Porte Police Department, the officer, and the neighbor who made the call. In a statement, the police department said it was “confident of the known actions of the officers on the scene that evening.” The neighbor had no comment.

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Grandmother Was Unknowing Participant In Drug Deal, Yet Has Been Jailed For Life Without Parole After Prosecution By US Government Attorney Kenneth Magidson

TEXAS – The federal government didn’t offer a reward for the capture of Houston grandmother Elisa Castillo, nor did it accuse her of touching drugs, ordering killings or getting rich off crime.

But three years after a jury convicted her in a conspiracy to smuggle at least a ton of cocaine on tour buses from Mexico to Houston, the 56-year-old first-time offender is locked up for life, without the possibility of parole.

Three years ago, Elisa Castillo entered into an unusual business arrangement at the urging of her boyfriend: a Mexican businessman agreed to partner with her to purchase three tour buses that would travel between Mexico and Houston. He fronted the money for the buses, but they were kept in her name. Castillo claims she was unaware the buses were also fitted with secret compartments enabling them to smuggle cocaine across the border, but she was convicted nonetheless.

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Victims Recant After Four Women Spend 15+ Years In Texas Prisons For Crimes That Never Happened

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – Sitting in the prison where she’s spent nearly half of her life, Elizabeth Ramirez is stunned by the words that could help exonerate her and three friends of the sexual assault of her two nieces, a crime she said she couldn’t fathom let alone commit.

It never happened, one niece now says of the debauched, orgy-like nightmare that she and her older sister described to San Antonio police in 1994 when they were 7 and 9.

“I want my aunt and her friends out of prison,” Stephanie, 25, said by phone last week. “Whatever it takes to get them out I’m going to do. I can’t live my life knowing that four women are sleeping in a cage because of me.”

Sixteen years into a 37½-year sentence, Ramirez prayed for such a turn of events.

While Stephanie’s recantation may not ultimately lead to the legal exoneration the women are fighting to win, it’s closer to vindication.

Like Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh, Anna Vasquez and Cassandra Rivera know they face a long court battle to clear their names. By the time it’s over, the three may have already fulfilled their 15-year sentences, due to end in three years.

Not so for Ramirez. Labeled the ringleader by her nieces and slapped with a prison term more than double that of her friends, who were tried separately, she has the most to gain from an exoneration in that it would free her from a sentence that doesn’t end until 2034. By then, she’ll be 60.

University Of Texas Officals Sat On Bomb Threat Information For Over An Hour Before Evacuating Campus, Giving 50,000 Students Less Than 30 Minutes To “Get As Far Away As Possible”

AUSTIN, TEXAS – University of Texas officials were defending their decision to wait more than an hour before evacuating due to a bomb threat, one of three such incidents reported at U.S. college campuses in a span of just a few hours.

Tens of thousands urgently heeded evacuation warnings Friday amid the threats at the University of Texas at Austin, University of North Dakota in Fargo and much-smaller Hiram College in northeast Ohio.

The Texas school received the first threat around 8:35 a.m. from a man claiming to belong to al-Qaida, officials said. The caller claimed bombs placed throughout campus would go off in 90 minutes, but administrators waited more than an hour before blaring sirens on the campus of 50,000 students and telling them to immediately “get as far away as possible” in emergency text messages.

Authorities said they started searching buildings for explosives before the alert was issued.

“It’s easy to make a phone call … the first thing we needed to do was evaluate,” UT President Bill Powers said. “If the threat had been for something to go off in five minutes, then you don’t have the time to evaluate, you just have to pull the switch.”

Not everyone agreed.

“What took so long?” student Ricardo Nunez said. “It should have been more immediate.”

Recent violent protests outside U.S. embassies in the Middle East also stirred nervous tension among some students, and Texas officials acknowledged global events were taken into account.

Sirens wailed on the Austin campus and cellphones pinged with text messages when the initial alert when out. Students described more confusion than panic as they exited the sprawling campus, where police blocked off all roads heading in as lines of cars sat in gridlock trying to get out.

Tania Lara, a graduate student at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, said she was at work inside a central campus academic building when she got a text message to get as far away was possible.

“It was calm but nobody knew what was going on,” she said, describing a crush of students heading for the exits. “No one was yelling `get out of here’ or anything like that.”

North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani said about 20,000 people left the Fargo school’s campuses as part of an evacuation “that largely took place in a matter of minutes.” FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said NDSU received a call about 9:45 a.m. that included a “threat of an explosive device.”

Police and school officials said the evacuation was as organized as could be expected, with one campus employee describing people as “being North Dakota nice” while driving away.

“Nobody was panicked and nobody was trying to speed or run over anybody,” said Juleen Berg, who works at the NDSU heating plant. “Everybody was waiting their turn.”

Graduate student Lee Kiedrowski of Dickinson, N.D., said he was walking on the NDSU campus when he got a text message telling him to evacuate within 15 minutes.

“The panic button wasn’t triggered quite immediately,” Kiedrowski said. “But there was definitely the thought that we live in a different world now, and with everything that’s going on with the riots at the U.S. embassies in the Middle East, your brain just starts moving. You never really know what’s going on.”

Hiram College received an emailed bomb threat about 4 p.m. and ordered everyone on campus to evacuate. Hiram spokesman Tom Ford said safety teams with bomb-sniffing dogs checked “room by room, building by building” on campus, which is about 35 miles southeast of Cleveland where about 1,300 students are enrolled.

The campus was deemed safe and reopened about six hours later. Ford said the college was fortunate the threat came in late evening, when many students were getting ready for the weekend.

“A lot of kids just piled into their friends’ cars and were out of here,” he said.

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Pedophile Savage Black Beast Kidnapped And Killed Texas Victim Who Was To Testify Against Him In Upcoming Child Rape Trial

CARROLLTON, TEXAS – A Texas man has been charged with murder in the death of a 16-year-old girl who police said they believe was killed to keep her from testifying at the man’s upcoming sexual assault trial.

Police in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton say Franklin B. Davis, 30, of Irving was charged with capital murder Sunday after confessing to the death of Shania Gray. Gray was last seen alive Thursday afternoon at Hebron High School in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton. Her body was found Saturday in a secluded area near the Trinity River.

Carrollton police spokesman Jon Stovall told The Associated Press in an email that police believe Davis killed Gray because she was about to testify against him.

A spokeswoman for Gray’s family, Sherry Ramsey, told The Dallas Morning News that Gray met Davis when she babysat his two children. Ramsey said that later, after the teen declined many requests to babysit, Gray told her grandmother that Davis had raped her.

The crime was reported to Mesquite police, and Davis was charged with four counts of sexual assault of a child.

Ramsey said Davis had warned Gray he would kill her if she told anyone about the assault.

According to an arrest warrant, Davis contacted Gray through social media and pretended to be someone else in an attempt to get information about the sexual assault case. Davis then used a pre-paid cellphone to set up a meeting with Gray at her high school on Thursday.

Davis told WFAA-TV in a jailhouse interview that he tracked Gray down because he wanted to prove his innocence in the sexual assault case.

“I needed to get some kind of evidence, some kind of proof myself to show I did not have sex with her and that she’s lying,” Davis told the television station.

Davis told authorities that Gray was surprised to see him but got into his car when he told her he wanted to talk to her about the sexual assault case.

He said he then drove her to the remote area. He told authorities she partially fell into the river after he shot her twice and asked “Why Wish?” — a nickname that Davis used. Davis then stepped on her neck till she stopped breathing, according to the arrest warrant.

“It’s our understanding that Shania was killed within the hour when she was picked up from school,” Stovall said.

Davis was being held Monday morning in the Dallas County jail on $2 million bond. Attorneys listed for him did not return messages left Monday by The Associated Press.

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Bogus “Al-Qaida” Bomb Threat Closes Entire University Of Texas Campus – Caller With Middle Eastern Accent Says He Placed Bombs “All Over Campus”

AUSTIN, TEXAS – The University of Texas is evacuating all of its buildings due to threats on campus after a caller claiming to be with al-Qaida said he placed bombs all over campus that would go off around 10 a.m. — which has since passed.

“Immediately evacuate ALL buildings and get as far away as possible,” read a message posted at 9:53 a.m. on the campus’ emergency alert website. “More information to come.”

UT Director of Communications Rhonda Weldon said the university got a call around 8:35 a.m. from a male with a Middle Eastern accent claiming to have placed bombs all over campus.

He said he was with al-Qaida and that these bombs would go off in 90 minutes.

President Williams Powers has been notified, and officials are now evacuating all of the buildings out of an abundance of caution.

KXAN News is getting reports that North Dakota State University has also received a bomb threat prompting an evacuation Friday morning. The university released the following alert at 9:49 a.m.

“NDSU is requiring all employees and students to leave campus by 10:15 a.m. This includes residence hall students, who, if necessary, should walk to locations off campus. This also includes the downtown buildings and agricultural facilities.”

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Garland Texas Police Officer Patrick Tuter Rammed Truck, Shot And Killed Unarmed Driver – Fired At Truck 41 Times – Mesquite Police Stole Bystander’s Cellphone And Deleted Video Of Incident – Police Claim They Are Being Transparent With Respect To Shooting

GARLAND, TEXAS – Investigators are trying to piece together what happened after a 30-minute high-speed chase in Texas ended with a police officer allegedly shooting at a possibly unarmed suspect 41 times.

The Dallas Morning News reports that officer Patrick Tuter of the Garland Police Department is currently on restricted duty following the late August incident, in which he allegedly rammed his car into Michael Vincent Allen’s truck before pulling out a semiautomatic weapon and firing off 41 rounds.

Allen was killed, but his girlfriend — who is said to have been in the truck at the time — came out unharmed. Allen was reportedly being sought by police for having eluded arrest three days earlier.

According to the Associated Press, earlier reports stated Allen rammed his truck into Tuter’s cruiser, but police officials are now backing away from that account since dash-cam footage shows otherwise.

Tuter’s lawyer confirmed to the Dallas Morning News that his client did to stop and reload his weapon during the shooting. Tuter allegedly feared for his life and believed that Allen was armed.

A witness told the news outlet he was awakened by the shots and took pictures and video of what unfolded on his cell phone. However, the man claims the Mesquite police took his phone and deleted the footage before returning the device four days later.

The Associated Press reports investigators did obtain a court order to confiscate a memory chip from a cell phone with footage of the incident.

According to NBC 5 News, Joe Harn, a spokesman for the police department, said the department is being transparent regarding to the details about the shooting.

“First of all, we hope and we want the public to know that we’re going to do our thing,” Harn told the station. “We’re going to do our investigation correctly. We could sit on this and try to hide it, but we’re not — we’re going to do a good and complete, thorough investigation.”

There are currently two ongoing investigations surrounding the incident: The Mesquite Police Department is handling a criminal investigation, while the Internal Affairs Division of the Garland Police is looking into whether Tuter violated department policy.

Still, Allen’s parents told a local CBS affiliate they didn’t understand how so many shots could have been fired.

“I don’t understand what kind of rage he had or hate he had. But to me, it seems like he had to, there was something else there that me and you don’t know,” Randy Allen, the father of the suspect, told CBS.

Although their son had previous run-ins with the law for drug possession and evading the police, Allen’s parents told CBS he was a well-liked person and a father of a 4-year-old girl. The family also said they have not received an apology from the police.

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Halliburton “Lost” Dangerous Radioactive Rod Somewhere In Texas On 9/11 – Device And Lock Goes Missing – National Guard May Be Called Out To Search

TEXAS – Texas may call out the National Guard in the hunt for a seven-inch radioactive rod used in drilling natural-gas wells, lost this week by Halliburton Co. (HAL) somewhere in a 130-mile swath of the state’s western oil fields.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said yesterday it sought help from an Austin-based National Guard unit that has equipment to locate the radioactive item, which can pose a health risk if touched or held for several days.

Halliburton lost the unit on Sept. 11, according to a report yesterday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Pickup trucks with detection gear retraced the route of a vehicle that carried the radioactive rod before it was lost. The trucks drove at 10 miles an hour between Pecos, where the device was used on a well, and Odessa without finding the unit, the report said.

“It’s not something that produces radiation in an extremely dangerous form,” Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the health department, said in an interview. “But it’s best for people to stay back, 20 or 25 feet.”

Oil-field service companies lower the radioactive units into wells to let workers identify places to break apart rock for a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which frees trapped oil and natural gas. While the loss of such a probe occurs from time to time, it has been years since a device with americium-241/beryllium, the material in Halliburton’s device, was misplaced in Texas, Van Deusen said.

Keene Texas Police Officer Sgt. Gene Geheb Attacked 77 Year Old Woman Who Wouldn’t Show ID – Trip Home After Playing Piano At Church Turns Into Hell For Old Lady

KEENE, TEXAS – A local Texas police department is standing by an officer who dragged a 77-year-old grandmother out of her car for speeding after she repeatedly refused to provide her driver’s license.

The entire arrest was caught on video by the Keene Police Department.

The woman, Lynn Bedford, of nearby Cleburne, was stopped on Aug. 19 for driving 66 mph in a 50-mph zone.

Bedford told Sgt. Gene Geheb that she had a bladder infection and had to go to the bathroom, but the situation quickly escalated when the officer asked several times for her identification and she refused.

“Just hurry up; I have to go to the bathroom,” she said.

“Let me see your driver’s license and insurance, please,” the officer asked.

She declined several times.

“No, I want to see your driver’s license and insurance, please, and then I’ll listen to you,” the officer said.

“I’ll give it to you in a minute,” she replied.

“No, you give it to me now, or I’m going to take you to jail,” he said.

“Well, go ahead,” she said.

The officer then pulled her out of her car and handcuffed her.

Bedford’s attorney, Clay Graham, of Fort Worth, said the officer overreacted.

“The officer is not very interested in listening to what she has to say,” Graham said. “She gets a little frustrated. And then he just overwhelms her. That’s what I see. And then it goes from routine stop to ridiculous stop.”

Graham said Bedford was injured during the arrest.

He said Bedford is not interested in filing a lawsuit right now but isn’t ruling it out in the future.

The lawyer said the woman was returning home from playing the piano at church when the incident occurred.

In a statement, Keene Police Chief Rocky Alberti stood by the officer’s actions.

“This incident has been reviewed thoroughly by the Keene Police Department and the City of Keene Administration,” Alberti said in a written statement. “All parties have concluded that Sgt. Geheb did not violate any state laws or department policies, and in fact was following department policy in regards to violators not providing identification.”
Do you think the officer acted appropriately in this situation?

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$15 Million Texas Highway Project Delayed Indefinitely Due To Eyeless Spider The Size Of A Dime

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — An endangered eyeless spider is holding up a $15 million Texas highway project.

Construction of the highway underpass project on Texas 151 was indefinitely delayed after a biologist consultant with the Texas Department of Transportation discovered the Braken Bat Cave meshweaver, according to San Antonio Express-News.

The Express-News reports the spider, which is about the size of a dime, was added to the endangered species list 12 years ago.

Dr Jean Krejca of Zara Environmental told the paper the finding of this spider is like ”stumbling on a new Galapagos Island.”

Department spokesperson Josh Donat says it’s just now a wait-and-see plan on what to do.

“We have to wait until the Fish and Wildlife Service gives us the thumbs up for plan B or plan C or whatever plan we end up going with,” he told KSAT-TV.

Donat added that the finding was a “huge surprise.”

“It’s phenomenal. Those who are really into spiders geek out about it,” Donat told KSAT. “This is really cool.”

Construction for the $15 million highway project started in April.

This is the second time this type of spider has been found in the world, both times being in Bexar County, Texas.

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Savage Black Beast Stabs Dallas Texas Girlfriend To Death After She Tells Him She Has HIV, Leaves Body For Her 7 And 8 Year Old Chidren To Find

DALLAS, TEXAS – Police say 36-year-old Larry Dunn Jr. confessed to them he stabbed his girlfriend to death after she told him she was HIV positive, according to a police arrest affidavit.

Cicely Bolden, a 28-year-old mother of two, was found dead inside her apartment. Police say she suffered “multiple stab wounds to her neck area and was undressed from the waist down,” according to court documents.

About two hours after the murder, Bolden’s two young children, ages 7 & 8, reportedly found her body, KDFW reported.

Latoya Arnett, a neighbor, told KDFW Bolden’s children came out of the house screaming, “Something’s wrong with mama!”

Dunn told authorities he went to Bolden’s apartment to have sex with her, according to the affidavit. After they allegedly had sex, Dunn told police Bolden told him she had HIV but said “it is not that bad,” court documents say.

Allegedly upset that Bolden didn’t tell him she was HIV positive, Dunn told police he got up out of the bed and walked to the kitchen to get a knife, according to the affidavit.

He then walked back to the bedroom where Bolden was laying on the bed and “started stabbing her,” Dunn told police, according to court documents.

After the stabbing, Dunn told investigators he left the crime scene to get rid of the knife and to burn his clothes, police said in the affidavit.

Dunn told authorities he threw the knife in a trash dumpster at the Waffle House restaurant in Irving. A knife matching the one described by Dunn was later recovered from the dumpster, police said in court documents.

“She killed me so I killed her,” Dunn told police in an interview, the affidavit states.

Dunn was subsequently charged with murder, and is currently behind bars at the Dallas County Jail.

“I just remembered a lot of blood,” Dunn told KDAF from behind bars. “I just went crazy.”

“She killed me and that is hard to feel sorry,” Dunn said in the interview with KDAF.

HLN reached out to Larry Dunn Jr. and his attorney for a comment, but calls were not returned.

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Veteran Dallas Texas Police Officer Sgt. Paul Figeroa Arrested, Suspended, And Charged With Family Violence

DALLAS, TEXAS – A Dallas police sergeant was arrested Saturday on a charge of family violence.

The Dallas Police Department has confirmed that Sgt. Paul Figeroa was arrested in the City Of Murphy.

Figueroa, an 18-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, has been placed on administrative leave while an investigation is conducted.

The Dallas Police Department’s website lists Figueroa as a supervisor for the deployment team, which uses covert surveillance, fugitive apprehension and intelligence gather to combat crime.

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Arlington Texas Police Officer Attacks Petite 15 Year Old Girl – Body Slams Unresisting Child

ARLINGTON, TEXAS – An Arlington, Texas police officer responding to a call about brawling teens at a dance hall was caught on video body-slamming a 15-year-old girl to the ground.

Arlington police are investigating the incident, which took place on Wednesday night outside the 1010 Collins banquet hall.

According to CBS, the trouble started inside the hall when some teenagers began brawling. “At that point, our staff did follow protocol,” Edna Tijerina, the hall’s manager, said. “What we did was stop the party and told everyone to go home.”

But the fighting continued outside in the parking lot. Police arrived and attempted to “de-escalate the crowds and the fights.”

In a video shot on a cell phone camera, one officer lifts an unnamed 15-year-old girl off her feet and violently slams her to the pavement while witnesses look on in shock. The girl was reportedly arrested for fighting in public before being released to her parents.

The Arlington Police Department urged the public not to “rush to judgment” over the apparent police brutality show in the video. The department said an investigation is underway.

“What we look at: Was there force used? Was it reasonable, based on the resistance that was being encountered? We can’t see in the video what happened before. We know what the officer said happened, but that’s under investigation,” Sgt. Chris Cook told CBS.

Pending the outcome of the investigation, the officer who body-slammed the girl has been reassigned to traffic duty.

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US Border Patrol Agent Shoots Across Border And Kills Mexican Citizen

LAREDO, TEXAS – Mexico’s foreign ministry has accused a U.S. Border Patrol agent of fatally shooting a Mexican citizen along the border.

The shooting occurred Monday after agents in the area of Laredo, Texas, “were subjected to rocks being thrown at them from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River,” the patrol’s Laredo sector said Thursday.

“A weapon was discharged by Border Patrol. All appropriate authorities were notified and the shooting is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the statement said.

The U.S. statement did not specify whether a death occurred.
Exclusive tour of U.S. border operations

Mexico’s foreign ministry said a Mexican national died after being shot by a U.S. agent between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. The ministry did not release details about the circumstances surrounding the Monday violence.

“The Mexican government has repeatedly expressed that the disproportionate use of lethal force in the exercising of immigration control functions is unacceptable under any circumstance,” the foreign ministry said Wednesday, calling for a thorough investigation.

The Mexican foreign ministry released a similar statement in July, after it said that a U.S. Border Patrol agent had killed a Mexican citizen near the bridge between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas.

At the time, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said two agents fired shots during “dangerous encounters” along the border.

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Houston Texas TSA Thug Stopped Woman From Flying, Not Because She Was A Security Threat, But As Punishment For A Bad Attitude

HOUSTON, TEXAS – A TSA screener admitted to a woman traveling through Houston Airport that she was prevented from boarding her flight for retaliatory reasons as punishment for a bad attitude rather than any genuine security threat, after the woman refused to allow TSA agents to test her drink for explosives.

The audio and video in the clip above is scratchy, but the woman is heard saying, “Let me get this straight, this is retaliatory for my attitude, this is not making the airways safer it’s retaliatory.”

“It pretty much definitely is,” the TSA screener responds.

The incident began when the woman refused to allow TSA agents to carry out a controversial policy where they test drinks for explosives that are purchased by passengers after they have already passed through security.

“This was inside the terminal at the Houston airport,” the woman writes on her You Tube channel. “I was not allowed to board a plane (even though I had already been through airport security) because I drank my water instead of letting the TSA “test” it. The TSA agent finally admitted that it wasn’t because they thought I was a security risk – it was because they were mad at me!”

The new policy, which as we highlighted is completely pointless and unnecessary, was back in the headlines earlier this week after the Drudge Report posted an Infowars story featuring a video which showed TSA screeners testing drinks in the departure lounge at Columbus Ohio Airport.

After the story went viral, the TSA responded on its official Twitter feed by re-posting a TSA blog response from July which claimed the procedure was “business as usual.” As we documented, the response was a glib attempt to brush aside the story and completely failed to justify the reasoning behind the policy.

The fact that the TSA screener admits the woman is being punished for her attitude confirms the premise that many of the TSA’s security procedures actually have nothing to do with safety and are more a form of obedience training for the general public.

Another example can be cited in the context of reports that travelers are being punished with more invasive pat downs if they refuse to pass through radiation-firing body scanners.

As Consumer Traveler’s Charlie Leocha reported last month, “When meeting with privacy officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and TSA later that month, I was told unofficially that there were two standards of pat-downs. One for the normal situation where passengers are going through metal detectors and a different pat-down for those who refuse to go through the whole-body scanners.”

“With this latest announcement, TSA admits that it has been clandestinely punishing passengers for refusing to go through the invasive whole-body scans with an even more intrusive aggressive pat-down and that soon those more invasive pat-down will creep from airport to airport,” adds Leocha.

A third example of obedience training that has nothing to do with genuine security is the TSA’s policy of ordering travelers to “freeze” on command when they are lined up at the security checkpoint.

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Judge Orders Army Psychiatrist Charged With Ft. Hood Shootings Forcibly Shaved For Hearings

TEXAS – A judge ordered Thursday that Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in a 2009 deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, must be forcibly shaved for further hearings, the Killeen Daily Herald reported.

Judge Col. Gregory Gross had said he would deliver a definitive order this week on whether Hasan would be allowed to keep his beard, which he started growing while in jail earlier this summer. Gross barred him from appearing in military court, citing the Army’s strict regulations regarding grooming standards.

Hasan’s attorney, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, said his client grew the beard as a “deeply sincere” expression of his Islamic faith and because he believed he would die soon.

He will not be shaved Thursday, the Killeen Daily Herald reported.

Gross also ruled that no further hearings for Hasan would take place until all appeals conclude.

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Prior to his court appearances this summer, Hasan, an American-born Muslm, was clean-shaven in all other court proceedings since the 2009 attack. Gross had initially warned Hasan earlier in the trial that his refusal to shave was in violation of Army policy, and since then, he has found Hasan in contempt of court at the past six pretrial hearings. In those instances, Hasan was ordered to watch the proceedings outside of the courtroom on a closed-circuit television.

Hasan had previously appealed after Gross said he would force Hasan to shave before the trial was slated to begin on August 15. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled last week that his appeal was premature because Gross had not yet issued an order. The court, however, said Hasan would be able to appeal the decision to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals if Gross did order him to shave.

Gross was expected to rule Thursday that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which is aimed at preventing laws that substantially burden a person’s free exercise of their religion, does not take precedence over Army regulations designed to maintain order and discipline. However, if he does rule in favor of the act and doesn’t order Hasan to shave, Fort Hood officials say Hasan would enter his pleas and a trial date would be set.

Hasan, 41, faces the death penalty if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder for the November 2009 attack. It is the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military base. Hasan is paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by police the day of the rampage.

The Army has specific guidelines on forced shaving, the Associated Press reported. If Gross orders an obligatory shave, Hasan would be restrained by five military police officers “with the reasonable force necessary,” and a medical professional would be on hand in case of any injuries. The shaving must be done with electric clippers and must be recorded on camera, according to Army rules.

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Austin Texas Police Admit They Infiltrated Local Occupy Wall Street Movement – Police Officers Entrapped Participants By Purchasing Materials To Be Used In Commission Of Felony Acts

AUSTIN, TEXAS – When the local offshoot of Occupy Wall Street began a five-month encampment in Austin, Texas last fall, the Austin police assigned at least three undercover officers to infiltrate the group and gather information on potentially illegal actions.

According to the Austin Statesman, court documents and interviews show that the infiltrators “camped with other participants in the movement, marched in rallies and attended strategy meetings.”

They may also have gone further, acting as provocateurs to encourage the use of lockboxes or “sleeping dragons” — lengths of PVC pipe into which protestors insert their arms to make it harder for police to remove them during a demonstration.

Seven protestors who used the devices while blocking a port entrance in Houston last December 12 have been charged with a felony and face jail terms of from two to ten years under what the Statesman calls “an obscure statute that prohibits using a device that is manufactured or adapted for the purpose of participating in a crime.”

The question of the lockboxes came up during a district court hearing in Harris County this week at which one of those seven, Ronnie Garza, sought to have the charge against him dropped. It was disclosed at the hearing that Austin Police Detective Shannon Dowell — known to Occupiers as “Butch” — had purchased the necessary pipe and other materials using funds supplied by Occupy Austin, constructed the devices himself, and provided them to demonstrators.

According to Occupy Austin supporter Kit OConnell, the occupiers figured out “Butch’s” true identity after their encampment was evicted last winter. Affadavits from Occupy Austin members have pointed to Dowell as the person who pushed for the use of the lockboxes and allege that he would regularly pull participants aside “in order to express his frustration with debate and eagerness for more aggressive and provocative actions.”

Garza’s attorney, Greg Gladden of the National Lawyer’s Guild, has accused the police of entrapment and possible misconduct. Judge Joan Campbell, who had initially dismissed the case until prosecutors obtained indictments from a grand jury, says she will decide next week whether to allow the proceeding to go forward.

At the hearing, Dowell told the judge that he had could not produce subpoenaed documents because emails he had sent about the operation from his work computer had been deleted and he had lost a thumb drive containing photos when it dropped out of his pocket and fell in the gutter.

The Statesman reports that Judge Campbell expressed frustration with Dowell, while Garza’s attorney remarked, “I think he decided it was time the dog ate his homework.”

Judge Campbell has threatened to dismiss the case unless the required documents and the real names of the two other undercover officers, “Dirk” and “Rick,” are presented at the next hearing on September 5.

Police officials declined to comment on the question of it was Dowell who first proposed using the lockboxes, but they did confirm that their department had ordered the infiltration.

Austin Police Chief Sean Mannix said that his department had begun receiving reports from confidential informants that the occupiers might be planning illegal protests. “We obviously had an interest in ensuring people didn’t step it up to criminal activity,” he said. “There is obviously a vested public interest to make sure that we didn’t allow civil unrest, violent actions to occur.”

Mannix does not believe any laws or departmental policies were violated, but he confirmed that the infiltration effort is the subject of a high-level internal review which is “absolutely looking into all aspects of what their undercover work was.”

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US Secret Service Pisses Away Tax Dollars Investigating Victoria Texas “Pray For Obama” Sign

VICTORIA, TEXAS – The Secret Service is looking into a sign posted in Victoria, Texas.

The sign says “Pray for Obama”, but it’s the scripture quoted below those words that is raising eyebrows: Psalms 109:8.

Psalms 109:8 reads, “Let his days be few, and let another take his office.”

Milton Neitsch Jr., who has lived in Victoria since 1961, says he didn’t intend for people to pick up on the hateful wishes of death and pain surrounding the tiny verse.

But some people say it is hateful and inappropriate. They say it misuses the holy scripture and it must come down.

Neitsch recently received an email from a friend and decided to post it on his advertising billboard along North Navarro Street. He had no idea the firestorm of controversy it would create.

“Pray for the president. He needs it,” said Neitsch.

When asked what the sign means, Neitsch responded, “Exactly what it says. Hope he’s gone soon and somebody different takes his place.”

Reverend Amy Danchik started a petition demanding Neitsch take down the sign. They’ve since met and Neitsch and agreed to replace the billboard.

“He shared with me a little about some of the threats that have come at his family, which is incredibly inappropriate, and in no way helpful and in no way how we’re called to react when we disagree with somebody,” said Danchik. “So I hope that those stop. I hope that people will react with the graciousness that he has reacted with and leave his family alone.”

Neitsch says he is also getting plenty of support. He said he might replace the sign with something like, “Vote for the American”, a sign that would no doubt stir emotion, while leaving the word of God to the experts.

Code enforcement in the City of Victoria says they don’t review the content of signs. They said they would only get involved if the sign affected traffic.

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Curry County Texas Jail Deputy Arrested, Charged Larceny After With Stealing $500 From Inmate’s Wallet

CLOVIS, TEXAS – A former Curry County Jail Deputy is arrested for allegedly stealing cash from an inmate.

According to court documents, Stuart Dietz took the cash from an inmate’s wallet while the man was being booked into the curry county detention center earlier this month.

Jail officials say the suspect came into the jail with $1,500 and at some point $500 of that money disappeared.

Several other guards listed in the court documents say Dietz was the only person with sole access to the money.

He’s charged with larceny.

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Man Faces Second Bogus Charge After Again Filming Austin Texas Police In Public

AUSTIN, TEXAS – A man arrested New Year’s Day after filming a traffic stop was taken into custody a second time early Sunday while he was videotaping officers detaining an intoxicated man downtown, his attorney told reporters outside the Travis County Jail.

Antonio Buehler, 35, organizer of the Peaceful Streets Project, is facing a charge of interference with public duty, his attorney Joe James Sawyer said Sunday afternoon. The lawyer said his client was detained at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday on Sixth Street.

Austin police officials confirmed that officers had arrested Buehler but did not release further information, saying they were reviewing the facts of the case. An arrest warrant affidavit had not been released as of late Sunday.

Sawyer called Buehler’s arrest a “deliberate action and part of a calculated effort to protect the officer who arrested him New Year’s Day.”

Buehler, an Army veteran, was arrested at about 1:15 a.m. Jan. 1 and charged with harassment of a public servant after he stopped to take photographs of a drunken driving arrest at a Central Austin gas station, according to court records. Austin police said Buehler interfered with the arrest of a woman involved in a traffic stop. The arrest affidavit said Buehler became aggressive and spat in the face of one officer, which Buehler denies.

He filed a complaint against the arresting officers, who were cleared by an internal affairs investigation in July. Buehler said that charges filed against him in that incident are still pending and accused police of stretching out the case.

After that arrest, he founded the Peaceful Streets Project, which focuses on police accountability, including filming police encounters and posting them online. He was awarded the Activist of the Year award Saturday night by Texans for Accountable Government.

About a dozen activists, including some with Buehler’s organization, waited for him Sunday outside of the Travis County Jail. They cheered and clapped when he walked out of the complex Sunday afternoon.

Buehler told the crowd he was arrested on “fabricated facts” while out filming arrests on Sixth Street and that his video camera was confiscated. A video of Buehler’s arrest posted Sunday by a fellow activist shows a police officer asking Buehler to step back several times. Buehler refused to do so, and he calmly allowed himself to be arrested.

Wayne Vincent, president of the Austin Police Association, said the watchdog group “has created a very dangerous situation.”

“In our opinion, it was just inevitable that he was going to be arrested,” Vincent said of Buehler. “This group is not about filming police officers. It is a group that has shown that it actually wants to provoke officers and interject themselves into the scene where officers are working.”

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San Juan Texas Police Officer Ignacio Pinales Arrested, Suspended, And Charged With Drunk Driving

McALLEN, TEXAS  — A San Juan police officer is on unpaid suspension following an arrest early Saturday morn-ing in McAllen on suspicion of drunken driving.

McAllen police arrested patrol Officer Ignacio Pinales and held him at the city jail until his arraignment hearing Saturday afternoon, where a judge formally charged him with driving while intoxicated.

Pinales was transferred to the Hidalgo County Jail and was later released after posting a $1,000 bond.

Details of his arrest were not readily available.

Pinales has served as a patrol officer with the San Juan Police Department for 2½ years, said Chief Juan Gonzalez.

“I take this matter very seriously, and if he is found guilty he will be terminated as a San Juan Police Department officer,” Gonzalez said.

Preliminary court information indicates this is Pinales’ first DWI arrest in the state. In Texas, an initial DWI offense is designated a Class B misdemeanor and is punishable upon conviction with a jail term of up to 180 days and a fine of up to $2,000.

Police officers in Texas must be certified by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Stan-dards and Education. A licensed officer convicted of a crime more serious than a Class B misdemeanor is no longer eligible to serve as a peace officer in the state.

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Free For All: Disgraced US Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department Talks Federal Appeals Court Into Striking Down Texas Voter ID Law – Holder Happy Now That Minorities And Others Can Use Any Name To Vote

WASHINGTON, DC – – A federal appeals court in Washington Thursday struck down the Texas voter ID law requiring photos for voters at the polls, calling it racially discriminatory.

The decision is a major victory for the Obama administration and its Democratic allies, which had challenged the law.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott promptly announced the state will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed the voter ID measure into law last year, but it had yet not gone into effect because the federal Voting Rights Act requires changes in Texas voting laws to be pre-cleared by the U.S. Justice Department.

Attorney General Eric Holder denied the pre-clearance of the measure in March, concluding that Texas failed to show the law will not have “the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race.”

The three-judge panel agreed.

Although the law provides for approved voter registration certificates with no photo as acceptable for voting in certain circumstances, the court said the law imposes “strict unforgiving burdens on the poor.” The court noted the requirements will fall heavily on African-Americans and Hispanics, who make up a disproportionate percentage of the poor in Texas.

The panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia also said it was ruling only on the Texas law, and not issuing a statement about other state voting laws. It noted the Justice Department had approved a Georgia voter ID law in which the state promised to provide free photo ID cards to citizens who request them.

Eric Holder defends opposition to proposed Texas voter ID law

Holder praised the court’s decision Thursday.

“Under the proposed law, many of those without the required voter identification would be forced to travel great distances to get one — and some would have to pay for the documents they might need to do so,” said a statement from the attorney general.

Holder also repeated his assertion that the law would discriminate against minorities.

Abbott, meanwhile, said Texas will immediately take the case to the nation’s highest court, where “we are confident we will prevail.” He said the Supreme Court had already approved similar ballot integrity safeguards passed in Georgia and Indiana.

The ruling comes as another three-judge panel in Washington is hearing arguments this week on a similar law passed in South Carolina. Republican-dominated legislatures say such laws are designed to eliminate voter fraud. Democrats claim there is no voter fraud issue, and that the laws are designed to reduce voting by poor minorities.

“Chalk up another victory for fraud,” said Gov. Perry, in a statement on his website. “Federal judges subverted the will of the people of Texas and undermined our effort to ensure fair and accurate elections. The Obama administration’s claim that it’s a burden to present a photo ID to vote simply defies common sense. I will continue to work with Attorney General Abbott to fight for the same right that other states already have to protect their elections.”

The Texas law said those who are 65 or older, disabled or expect to be absent on Election Day may vote by mail without presenting identification.

Earlier this month, a state court in Pennsylvania approved a voter ID law requiring photo identification at the polls.

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OnE In Pack Of 20 Savage Black Beasts Who Repeatedly Raped 11 Year Old Girl Escapes From Liberty County Texas Courthouse During His Trial – Blacks In Black Neighborhood Think Arrests Were Racially Motivated – At Least One Of The Rapes Was Recorded On A Cellphone

LIBERTY COUNTY, TEXAS – One of more than a dozen men and boys accused in the repeated sexual assault of an 11-year-old Texas girl escaped from the courthouse during a break in his trial after the child tearfully testified and jurors watched a video showing one of the alleged assaults.

Eric McGowen, 20, is the first of 14 adults to face trial, accused of sexually assaulting the girl during three months in 2010. Six juveniles also are charged in the attacks in Cleveland, a small town about 45 miles northeast of Houston.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys huddled briefly with Judge Mark Morefield after McGowen failed to return to the courtroom in nearby Liberty following an afternoon break Wednesday.

Morefield said a bench warrant had been issued and that the trial would go on without McGowen. Bail was increased from $35,000 to $250,000.

Defense attorney Matthew Poston and prosecutors did not comment on McGowen’s disappearance because of a gag order. The Liberty County Sheriff’s Office had no update early Thursday on whether the suspect had been found.

McGowen is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child and faces up to life in prison if convicted.

The girl, testifying using a pseudonym, told jurors about two incidents, one in October 2010 and one the following month, in which she said McGowen and several other men and boys took turns sexually assaulting her while recording the encounters on video.

The girl briefly broke down in tears as jurors were shown a few minutes of video of an alleged October 2010 sexual assault in a house in Cleveland where she and the defendants lived.

The girl, who was 11 at the time, said she was brought into what she described as the “baby room,” and that McGowen and others took turns sexually assaulting her. She said the video, which several jurors turned away from, was of her being assaulted by another man charged in the case.

“Did the guys just take turns with you?” prosecutor Joe Warren asked.

“Yes, sir,” the girl said.

The girl seemed calm for most of the roughly 1½ hours she testified. She mostly gave short answers, often pausing to stare at the floor or ceiling of the courtroom before responding.

She described another alleged sexual assault that November that started in a different Cleveland home and continued at a nearby abandoned trailer.

Asked by Warren if more than 20 males might have assaulted her that day, the girl responded, “Probably.”

She also told jurors that McGowen assaulted her with a beer bottle during that incident.

Jurors were shown police photos of used condoms and condom wrappers found inside and outside the house after the alleged November incident.

Poston questioned the girl for about six minutes, asking whether she twice had told police early in the investigation that McGowen had never sexually assaulted her. The girl said she didn’t remember saying that.

Prosecutors say the girl was assaulted on at least five occasions from mid-September through early December of 2010.

Eight of the 20 defendants accused in the case have pleaded guilty, including all six juveniles.

Authorities began investigating that December, after one of the girl’s friends told a teacher he had seen a cellphone video of her being attacked in an abandoned trailer.

Three people who have pleaded guilty — two adults and a juvenile who has since turned 18 — also testified Wednesday.

 Isaiah Ross, 22, told jurors he saw McGowen sexually assault the girl with a beer bottle. The other adult, Marcus Porchia, 28, and the teen testified they saw others assault the girl but not McGowen.

Ross and Porchia each received 15-year prison terms. The six juveniles who pleaded guilty each received suspended seven-year prison terms.

The case sparked outrage in the roughly 9,000-strong community of Cleveland. Early in the investigation, some residents suggested the girl was partly responsible because they say she wore makeup, looked older than her age and wasn’t properly supervised by her parents, drawing widespread condemnation.

The case also has been complicated by a belief among many in the predominantly black neighborhood where several of the suspects live that the arrests were racially motivated. All of the suspects are black, while the girl is Hispanic.

Warren later showed jurors a video and read a written confession in which McGowen admitted to receiving oral sex from the girl.

“What took place to this girl was nothing better than a pack of animals attacking,” Warren said.

On Tuesday, Poston tried but failed to get the confessions thrown out, arguing that police had improperly questioned McGowen.

During his opening statement, Poston told jurors that the video evidence in the case doesn’t show McGowen sexually assaulting the girl.

“The truth in this case is not always what it seems,” he said.

Most of the adult defendants in the case face charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, while four face a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

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Texans Flood 911 With Calls After Being Bitten By Mosquitos

TEXAS – With hundreds of human cases of the West Nile Virus being reported across Texas and more than a dozen related deaths in North Texas it seems some people are overreacting and calling 911 when they’re bitten by a mosquito.

In short, health officials say a mosquito is not a health emergency.

“We understand peoples concerns regarding the West Nile Virus, but in the absence of any symptoms of West Nile then a simple mosquito bite is really not a reason for someone to call 911,” said Matt Zavadsky, public affairs director for MedStar Emergency Medical Services.

One woman called Fort Worth 911 requesting assistance because her young nephew had a bump on his arm.

While Fort Worth 911 has a nurse triage program during the day, at night the options are different for emergency workers.

“So our only option at that point is to send an ambulance to that call which takes that emergency resource out of the system — to respond to the motor vehicle accidents, the heart attacks — while we assess that mosquito bite on scene and then have the patient sign some paperwork for us, to allow us to leave,” Zavadsky explained.

Health officials say even if the West Nile Virus is transmitted by a mosquito bite the person would have no symptoms while the virus incubates. An individual wouldn’t begin to feel ill until the virus manifested itself several days later.

If a person is worried that they’ve contracted West Nile health officials say they should contact their personal physician or go to a health clinic. Residents can also get health information by calling 311 in Dallas and 211 in Fort Worth.

When it comes to staying safe Zavadsky said the battle must be a personal one.

“The best protection against catching West Nile Virus is a defensive position — wear long sleeve clothes, wear long pants, look into your neighborhood and look into your backyard to make sure that you don’t have a breeding ground for those mosquitos,” he urged. “Just be proactive about it and prevent the mosquito bite and you can sleep better at night.”

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Texas Billboard: The Seals Removed One Threat To America, Remove The Other In November.”

GAINESVILLE, TEXAS – A billboard that sparked a protest in Indiana because of its reference to the Navy Seals, and removing the President from office, has appeared along I-35 in North Texas.

The ad in Gainesville depicts two men in camouflage holding weapons. The text next to the picture, in a military style font, says “The Seals removed one threat to America,” a reference to the killing of Osama bin Laden. It continues, “Remove the other in November.”

The bottom of the sign says it’s a political ad, paid for by TJ Schad, and has a Gainesville address.

At his home Monday, Tom Schad said he’s not acting for any political party, committee or candidate. He simply saw a similar picture in an email, with an accompanying note that said it should be on every billboard across the country.

“It just started out as something fun to do,” he said. “Let’s see if I could do it. I didn’t have a clue how to do it.”

Schad said he knew the owner of TerryCo., the company who leased him the billboard space through the November election. He had an artist at an advertising agency design the ad and it was up within a week.

“I think we were just trying to make a statement,” he said. “We felt we needed to change direction in the country, and that’s what we did.”

A similar ad in Elkhart, Indiana prompted a small protest last week. The ad specifically referenced voters removing the president.

Some demonstrators said though that comparing military action to take out a terrorist, with removing a president from office, was too far. Schad said he didn’t see how people could take the ad that way.

“Other than the fact it’s got some seals in there with a gun,” he said. “But I think it’s pretty obvious what they did and what the statement is.”

TerryCo said it only received a few curious phone calls about the board, and Schad said he hasn’t received a single complaint.

Rather people keep forwarding him a picture that he took of the board, that has made its way onto internet blogs. The retired Air Force mechanic said his only previous entry into the political world was a spot on the town airport and appraisal boards. He said he wasn’t looking for publicity, but realized over the last couple weeks he was starting to get it.

“If you’re going to I guess you may as well jump in with both feet,” he said.

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Video Catches Arlington Texas Police Officer’s Violent Attack On Tiny 15 Year Old Girl

ARLINGTON, TEXAS – A startling video captures the moment a police officer apparently body slammed a 15-year-old girl to the ground during a street fight.

Police in Arlington, Texas are now investigating whether the force used by the unnamed officer was too extreme.

The incident was caught on a mobile phone camera after a venue kicked out teenagers for fighting, and their brawl escalated in the street.

‘They got in a couple of fights. At that point, our staff did follow protocol. What we did was stop the party and told everybody to go home.’

The fights then spread to the parking lot outside of the hall, where police arrived to ‘de-escalate the crowds and the fights’.

Amid the ruckus, a police officer apparently forcibly grabbed the teen girl as she ran away, raised her off the ground and slammed her to the floor.

As the crowd shouted obscenities at him, he pinned her to the ground and handcuffed her, as other police officers gathered on the scene.

The girl was arrested for fighting in public along with four others. She was taken into custody but later released to her parents, CBS reported.

In a statement on their Facebook page, the Arlington Police Department said they would be investigating the officer’s actions.

‘Several fights began to break out after a promoter ended the party close to midnight,’ it read. ‘Officers attempted to de-escalate… the fights.

‘Anytime an APD Officer uses force on a person, there is a multi-layer, impartial administrative review that occurs to review the force used.

‘This review will be conducted to determine if the level of force was reasonable as compared to the level of resistance.’

Police asked the public not to make a snap judgment about the video and appealed for any other footage to help them in their investigation.

‘What we look at: Was there force used? Was it reasonable, based upon the resistance that was being encountered?’ Sgt. Chris Cook said.

‘We can’t see in the video what happened before. We know what the officer said happened, but that’s under investigation.’

The officer has now been assigned to traffic duty while the investigation is ongoing, police said.

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Dallas Texas Police Sergeant Punished With Graveyard Shift After His Purchase Of Chick-Fil-A Sandwich Pissed Off Two Lesbian Officers

DALLAS, TEXAS – The controversy over Chick-Fil-A may now have impacted the Dallas Police Department.

CBS 11 has learned a Dallas Police Sergeant brought a sandwich from the embattled restaurant chain to work with him last Wednesday, August 1, a day known around the country as Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day.

When the Sergeant arrived at his post at the Southeast patrol, words were exchanged between himself and two female officers.

And while it is unclear who started the argument, police have launched an investigation into the matter.

A department spokesperson says the issue is not whether the sergeant brought the sandwich into the substation, but whether inappropriate comments were exchanged between him and the two female officers while on duty.

The Dallas Police Association, who represents all three of the officers, say they are getting two versions of the story, and while they are neutral on the issue, the association is frustrated by a move made by the department before the investigation was complete.

The DPA points out the two female officers happen to be homosexuals. They also point out that the sergeant was responsible for reading the evening bulletins to all officers in the Southeast patrol that evening, including information on possible crowd control issues at Chick-Fil-A’s in the area.

Chick-Fil-A recently came under fire for the company CEO’s stance on traditional marriage roles.

The association says what concerns them most is that before the internal investigation into the matter was resolved the sergeant was moved to a midnight shift at the Lew Sterret Justice Center, which the association views as punishment.

The association also views the move as the department taking a stance on the issue before the full internal investigation was complete.

The Dallas Police Association says it is pushing for mediation in the incident between all three officers, but as of this point, that has not occurred.

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Texas Executed A Retard Today – Court Overruled Neuropsychologist’s Findings

TEXAS – A Texas man convicted in the shooting death of a 21-year-old man in 1992 was executed Tuesday in Huntsville, officials said.

Marvin Wilson was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m. (7:27 p.m. ET), the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

Wilson’s IQ had been measured at 61, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which opposed the execution.

In an online posting, the ACLU said Wilson, 54, had been declared “intellectually disabled” by a court-appointed neuropsychologist.

“Despite all the signs of Mr. Wilson’s intellectual disabilities and the diagnosis of the court-appointed neuropsychologist, the District Court of Jefferson County (Texas) concluded that Mr. Wilson is not mentally retarded,” the ACLU posting said, with “not” italicized for emphasis.

Before he was put to death by lethal injuection, Wilson made a final statement in which he said, “Ya’ll do understand that I came here a sinner and leaving a saint. Take me home, Jesus, take me home, Lord.”

Wilson was convicted in the shooting death of Jerry Robert Williams in Beaumont, Texas. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Williams was abducted and shot after a “physical confrontation” between the two men.

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Veteran Harris County Texas Deputy Constable Fired After Arrest For Sex With A 6 Year Old Child In San Antonio – Forced Her To Touch Him And Preform Oral Sex

HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS – A Harris County deputy constable has been fired amid accusations he sexually assaulted a young girl 10 years ago in San Antonio, authorities said Wednesday.

Gerardo Hernandez, 41, was taken into custody Tuesday, charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child in an incident that allegedly took place in 2002, Precinct 4 Constable’s Office authorities said.

The girl, about 6 at the time of the alleged incident, did not report it until Dec. 27, 2011, San Antonio Police Department authorities said.

On that day, officers responded to a report of lewd conduct at a home in San Antonio, where they were told by an unidentified person that the girl, now a teenager, was seen sneaking out of the house by a neighbor, authorities said.

When confronted about sneaking out, the girl made an outcry about an incident that she said occurred nearly a decade earlier, authorities said.

“Her baby sitter’s husband, the suspect (Hernandez), was taking care of her while the babysitter went to the store,” said officer Matthew Porter, an SAPD spokesman. “During that time, he took her to a bedroom, pulled out his penis and told her to touch it. Then he forced her to give him oral sex.”

Precinct 4 Constable’s Office authorities learned of the charges against Hernandez, who has been with the agency since 2008, on Tuesday after receiving a phone call from San Antonio police. Hernandez was fired and taken into custody shortly before starting his shift.

Hernandez, who’s been with the agency since 2008, was aware of the investigation and had been interviewed by investigators, authorities said. Precinct 4 Constable Ron Hickman said Hernandez was indicted July 20.

Deputy Chief Jim Sumner said Hernandez received only one disciplinary action, the nature of which was not released, in the past three years.

He also received two or three commendations, one for helping find a missing elderly person and the other for helping out with shoplifters at a Target, Sumner said.

Before becoming a deputy constable, Hernandez worked as a Harris County jailer. He also was employed as a deputy and jailer by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office from December 2003 to May 2008, when he resigned, authorities said.

Hickman and Sumner said their officers handled Hernandez as if he were any other defendant.

“It’s not something you look forward to doing,” Sumner said of the arrest. “But you have to police your own just as you would police others.”

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Fired Veteran Hidalgo County Texas Deputy Sheriff Blas Garcia Arrested For Tampering With Evidence And Government Record – Got The Boot Due To Relationship With Confidential Informant And Niece Of State District Court Judge

EDINBURG, TEXAS — A former Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy faces felony allegations after he was fired for a purported romantic relationship with a confidential informant and niece of a state district court judge arrested on drug charges.

Blas Garcia, 38, faces charges of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, improper influence and tampering with a governmental record.

An Hidalgo County assistant district attorney told sheriff’s investigators he received a note from the 13-year veteran deputy where he “was pleading” and “almost begging” to drop marijuana possession charges against Lorena Partida, who had been arrested on state jail felony marijuana possession charges, a criminal complaint states.

Alejandro Benavides, the prosecutor assigned to the case, told investigators he found it “highly suspicious” that Garcia, who arrested Partida, would be asking for the District Attorney’s Office to drop the felony drug case, the complaint states.

Investigators later determined that Garcia was involved in a “social and romantic relationship” with Partida following her initial arrest on the drug charges, the complaint states.

Court records show the marijuana case against Partida was dismissed in the 389th state District Court on June 6.

Partida is the niece of 275th state District Judge Juan Partida, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño.

Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra said prosecutors threw out Partida’s case due to insufficient evidence, after prosecutors learned deputies did not have a search warrant when they discovered the drugs inside a house.

Benavides, who now works in private practice, was reached Thursday afternoon and declined to comment.

“I would hate to jeopardize any pending cases the District Attorney’s Office may have,” he said.

Evidence tampering is a third-degree felony charge; the others are each class A misdemeanors.

Treviño said in a news release Thursday that Garcia broke several department rules, including interfering with criminal cases, abusing his position, fraternizing with jail inmates, dereliction of duty, improper use of informants and “unbecoming conduct.”

“I have little tolerance when deputies violate policy and no tolerance when they break the law,” Treviño said. “I hold narcotics officers to a much higher standard because of the trust we place in them.”

Garcia was formally charged after he surrendered to sheriff’s deputies Wednesday. He was fired from the Sheriff’s Office on June 25. He had worked there since 1999.

Hidalgo County Justice of the Peace Homer Jasso formally charged Garcia and set bail at $45,000, the news release states. That amount later was reduced to a personal recognizance bond and Garcia was released from the Hidalgo County Jail.

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Google To Texas Attorney General Demanding Documents Protected By Attorney-Client Privilege – Not Yours!

TEXAS – So much for Google’s promise to cooperate with the Texas attorney general’s investigation of its business practices. With that pledge now two years in the past and gathering dust, the company is taking a decidedly different approach to Texas AG Greg Abbott’s repeated requests for documents it has allegedly been withholding from his office. Having first requested more time to produce the documents demanded of it, Google is now simply refusing to turn them over.

In a legal filing Tuesday, Google answered the suit Abbott filed against it in June demanding some 14,500 internal documents it has been witholding from his office, citing attorney-client privilege by once again arguing that they are protected communications. The email discussions Abbot has requested are indeed privileged, and Google is justified in keeping them under wraps, the company said in its filing.

Abbott’s office will undoubtedly take issue with Google’s response, and for the same reasons it sued the company in June: Many of the documents Google claims as attorney-client privileged aren’t protected because they either A) were never sent to an actual attorney, or B) were not accompanied by a request for legal review. As Abbott argued in his suit, “Google has not met its burden of demonstrating that the privilege is applicable to many of the documents withheld.”

Reached for comment, Google reiterated the statement it made in June: “We have shared hundreds of thousands of documents with the Texas Attorney General, and we are happy to answer any questions that regulators have about our business.”

News of the company’s filing was first reported by Mlex.

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BROKE: 16 States Now Rationing Prescription Drugs For Medicaid Patients

WASHINGTON, DC – Sixteen states have set a limit on the number of prescription drugs they will cover for Medicaid patients, according to Kaiser Health News.

Seven of those states, according to Kaiser Health News, have enacted or tightened those limits in just the last two years.

Medicaid is a federal program that is carried out in partnership with state governments. It forms an important element of President Barack Obama’s health-care plan because under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act–AKA Obamcare–a larger number of people will be covered by Medicaid, as the income cap is raised for the program.

With both the expanded Medicaid program and the federal subsidy for health-care premiums that will be available to people earning up to 400 percent of the poverty level, a larger percentage of the population will be wholly or partially dependent on the government for their health care under Obamacare than are now.

In Alabama, Medicaid patients are now limited to one brand-name drug, and HIV and psychiatric drugs are excluded.

Illinois has limited Medicaid patients to just four prescription drugs as a cost-cutting move, and patients who need more than four must get permission from the state.

Speaking on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Monday, Phil Galewitz, staff writer for Kaiser Health News, said the move “only hurts a limited number of patients.”

“Drugs make up a fair amount of costs for Medicaid. A lot of states have said a lot of drugs are available in generics where they cost less, so they see this sort of another move to push patients to take generics instead of brand,” Galewitz said.

“It only hurts a limited number of patients, ‘cause obviously it hurts patients who are taking multiple brand name drugs in the case of Alabama, Illinois. Some of the states are putting the limits on all drugs. It’s another place to cut. It doesn’t hurt everybody, but it could hurt some,” he added.

Galewitz said the move also puts doctors and patients in a “difficult position.”

“Some doctors I talked to would work with patients with asthma and diabetes, and sometimes it’s tricky to get the right drugs and the right dosage to figure out how to control some of this disease, and just when they get it right, now the state is telling them that, ‘Hey, you’re not going to get all this coverage. You may have to switch to a generic or find another way,’” he said.

Arkansas, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia have all placed caps on the number of prescription drugs Medicaid patients can get.

“Some people say it’s a matter of you know states are throwing things up against the wall to see what might work, so states have tried, they’ve also tried formularies where they’ll pick certain brand name drugs over other drugs. So states try a whole lot of different things. They’re trying different ways of paying providers to try to maybe slow the costs down,” Galewitz said.

“So it seems like Medicaid’s sort of been one big experiment over the last number of years for states to try to control costs, and it’s an ongoing battle, and I think drugs is just now one of the … latest issues. And it’s a relatively recent thing, only in the last 10 years have we really seen states put these limits on monthly drugs,” he added.

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Car Runs Into Desoto Texas Home And Savage Black Beast Jumps Out And Attacked Woman Occupant With A Knife

DESOTO, TEXAS – DeSoto police arrested a 39-year-old man and charged him with an unusual assault in a quiet neighborhood.

Cpl. Melissa Franks says Sautuwaira Thomas drove his SUV into the front window of a home in the 100 block of Faircrest about 5 a.m. Tuesday.

No one was hurt in the collision, but Franks said Thomas then jumped out of the vehicle and attacked the woman who lived there with a knife.

She was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

“It’s a family-related issue,” said Franks, but police would not elaborate on the relationship between Thomas and the victim.

The investigation is still continuing, police said.

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Moron Veteran Bexar County Texas Deputy Sheriff Steve Benoy Suspended After Killing 2 Police Dogs By Leaving Them Locked In Hot Patrol Car All Night

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — The Bexar County Sheriff’s Department says two of its K-9s have died after they were left inside a hot patrol vehicle overnight.

According to a statement from the Sheriff’s Office, the dogs were found dead Thursday morning from apparent heat exposure after being “inadvertently” left inside the vehicle overnight.

The deputy responsible, identified as Deputy Steve Benoy, has been placed on administrative leave as the Animal Care Services and the BCSO investigate the incident. He was described as a 23-year veteran who has been assigned to the K-9 unit for 13 years of his career with the BCSO.

According to the statement, Benoy is “completely devastated by the tragic accident.”

Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz said in the statement, “Deputy Benoy has been a dedicated officer during his career; he has never received any discipline during his tenure with the Sheriff’s Office. It is my belief that this is a tragic accident however; the Sheriff’s Office is following standard procedures in conducting a thorough investigation.”

The Sheriff’s Office is withholding any other comments until preliminary reports are obtained from the investigation, according to the released.

This is not the first time a Bexar County K-9 has died inside a vehicle.

In June 2010, a K-9 was left inside a cruiser that was parked outside the sheriff’s training academy. The dog died while being rushed to the veterinarian’s office.

Deputies later determined the 5-year-old dog died from preexisting medical issues.

Texas lawmakers had proposed a bill that would require heat alarms to be installed in all K-9 vehicles by 2011. However, the bill was never assigned to a committee.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office had told KENS 5 in 2010, shortly after the first accidental K-9 death, that they would be installing the alarms in all five of their K-9 vehicles.

The sheriff’s office would not confirm on Thursday whether or not the heat alarms were ever installed.

Don Barnes, of Voices for Animals in San Antonio, said the most recent accident is unacceptable.

“I’m pretty upset by that kind of irresponsibility and hope that changes can be made in the very near future,” he said.

Nobody is perhaps more upset than Benoy, the deputy being held responsible for the dogs’ deaths. In a 2010 interview with KENS 5, Benoy explained what it would be like to lose his K-9 companions.

“This would be just like losing a member of your family,” he said. “I’m sure when a canine officer loses his companion, we all mourn.”

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