MAKIN BACON

1/16/2025  COLDSPRING

NEW SHERIFF IN HOT WATER, DEFLECTS BLAME

The below excerpt of an article located in full HERE tells most of the tale of Sam Houston's corrupt ways.  When The Sentinel busted him for illegally putting campaign signs on Forest Lands, he blamed the warden, Melissa for giving him permisssion.  When we busted him for illegal signs on TxDOT property, he blamed a TxDot employee. Both denied ever speaking with Sam Houston about the sign placement.  They both have excellent credibility.  Sam, not so much.  Looks like Sam's chief deputy will be the fall guy on this caper.  It looks like 26 computers are missing.    The remainder of the story lines out the illegal material purchase FORMER commissioner Laddy McAnally made.  Glad that corrupt sucker is GONE.

    The story the clip below is from explains some issues The Sentinel is having trying to get arest reports from the S.O. under Sam Houston.  For the first week, according to sheriff secretary, Lisa Jolly, wife of chief deputy, Stan Jolley, there were no email addresses to give out for records requests and she shared that the S.O. had just hired an IT company to get it all lined out and assign email addresses.  

A $13,000 payment to Quantum Communications also caused concern as County Judge Fritz Faulkner said it was part of a $122,000 contract that was signed “illegally by the chief deputy.”

County Sheriff Sam Houston said he was aware of the issue and is looking into it; Faulkner said that the contract is for services on 77 computers, but Houston only could account for 51.

Following a discussion in executive session, the court voted to pay all bills except for Quantum Communications bill, and said Dillon will resolve the situation.

NACADOCHES COUNTY SHERIFF DEPUTY IS A PIG

TRINITY TEXAS CORRUPTION MAKES NEWS

NOT GUILTY was the verdict handed to The Honorable Tom Brown, Polk County Court At Law Judge by the jury  in the case of State Vs Amberly Lambert.   The first day saw the completion of the voir dire process and a few of the witnesses testifying.    The second day saw completion of the trial, jury charged and sent out to deliberate.  That process took about 4 hours before the jury returned the 'Not Guilty' verdict based on the evidence presented.  

    The State did use the junior ADA, Jim Spencer on these misdemeanor charges but the most experienced ADA Ferguson was there giving advice and counsel to ADA Spencer as the trial progressed.  Both of the prosecutors demonstrated a good knowledge of the law and Ferguson was seen to prompt the younger ADA to "object"  a few times and lean over and give him counsel.  Still, ADA Spencer handled the trial from beginning to end including his closing statement.  ADA Spencer's experience has been mostly as a defense attorney but you could see he had worked on the case and was well prepared for the most part. What he wasn't prepared for was the lack of integrity of his star witness, OPD officer, Tammy Heeth.  

    Defense Attorney, Seth Evans of the father / son 'Evans Law Firm' was not only prepared for Tammy Heeth, his line of questioning forced her to expose that lack of integrity right in front of the Jury.  

    When The Sentinel was first made aware of this case, we wondered how a mother sitting in the car rider line at an elementary school to drop off her kids could end up facing first degree felony charges and twenty plus years in prison.

   Tammy Heeth answered that question under oath when asked why she went for such an extreme charge when so many lesser ticketable offenses might have been persued instead.  

    "It was the policy of the former DA (ie: Lee Hon) that we pass on the lower charges and only go for the most serious charges we possibly can." Heeth testified throwing Hon under the bus.  What The Sentinel investigation revealed but was not allowed to be fully disclosed in court was that Tammy Heeth had it in for Ms. Lambert.  Her verbal complaint against Heeth was testified to by the Assistant Principal, Larissa Grubbs but the confrontation in Brookshire Bros was off limits per Judge Brown's instructions.  The Jury did not hear the story of how Heeth had run her buggy into Ms. Lambert's buggy in the store days after Ms. Lambert made her complaint to the school administrator.  

   The day Heeth chose to escalate the situation was April Fools day.  According to Lambert, days prior, Heeth, as traffic control let the car infront of Lambert take the short route, forced Lambert to turn and take the long route that caused her kids to be tardy, then let the car behind Lambert take the short route also.  

   On April 1st, Lambert came in on 356 and Heeth got in the middle of her lane and stopped her with palm raised but then made a circling motion intended to convey, "turn around" but Lambert took as come on through.  There is no statute, ordinance or even an official ruling about coming in on 356 but only a school preference.  

   Both Heeth and Lambert testified that she was only moving 3 mph having taken her foot off the brake but not accelerated or swerved at all.  Both testified that Heeth got infront of her car and struck the front quarter panel.  Lambert saw it as an expression of anger and Heeth testified she struck the fender to "get leverage" enabling her to "roll step".  Both testified that Heeth jumped up on the running board and was reaching into the vehicle ordering and then trying to force Lambert out of the truck.  Heeth denies pulling Lambert's hair.  Lambert was adamant that Heeth did pull her hair.  Lambert was belted in according to both of the women.  

   It was at about this time that Onalaska JP, Honorable Sarah Rasberry arrived on the scene dropping off a friend's child.    She called 911 but it was testified to that Ms. Lambert had also just called 911 requesting another officer on the scene.  

     Judge Rasberry testified that she did see Heeth on the running board but did not see Lambert's vehicle strike Heeth.  

   One thing that had to have influenced the jury's decision was that despite several officers on the scene, no exculpatory video evidence was available despite Lambert demanding all of the video on the scene, later and then through her attorney.  The only video that made it into state's evidence was video showing Heeth wearing a high visibility vest with 'police' written on it, Lambert walking to the transport cruiser in cuffs and video in the police station of Lambert being processed.  Ms. Lambert's 911 call made it to states evidence but despite the fact the two calls were within a minute of  each other, Judge Rasberry's 911 call recording failed  to be available.   

    The most damning evidence presented was when Seth Evans elicited testimony from Heeth that she had no serious bodily injury resulting from the incident.  Her only concern was to make sure that her breast implant, "wasn't leaking".  Then Attorney Evans submitted Heeth's sworn statement from nearly a month after the incident charging Lambert with the felony and swearing that she suffered, "serious bodily injury" in order to justify the Hon preferred felony charges.  Not only did that prove Heeth willing to lie on a sworn statement, it has the effect of clouding any sworn statement or even arrest report Heeth has ever made or ever will make.  She has lost all credibility as a proven liar.

    The great thing for the community of Onalaska is that their elected JP Rasberry, despite being raised with Heeth's children and knowing Heeth most of her life, JP Rasberry did not falsify her testimony to benefit Heeth.  She was matter of fact with no hesitation in her answers.  JP Rasberry openly stated that she had used some 'colorful' language toward Ms. Lambert when she intially arrived on the scene but all that did was bolster her credibility.   By aknowledging and admitting that her language was an error in judgement along with the transparency her office has always demonstrated goes a long way with this reporter.  

    I can't say enough about the quality of representation Seth Evans gave his client even as a court appointed attorney.  He was very well prepared and had evidence he didn't even use.  What I appreciate about Mr. Evans effort was that he used what he needed to destroy Heeth's credibility in this matter but did not over do it to the point that her stink would have smeared onto the rest of our law enforcement in Polk County.  

    This trial was my first opportunity to watch The Honorable Judge Tom Brown in action.  I understand now why people speak so highly of him and his ability and why The Sentinel has never gotten the first complaint on him.  His clerk has always been transparent and helpful when we had a question.

   Judge Brown proved to be quite appreciative of and protective over the jury panel.  They were shown every respect and courtesy and every effort made to not waste their time.   Judge Brown would not allow any nefariousness of either counsel negate their time with errors that would trip up this trial.  

   Judge Brown was fair and even handed to both sides in his rulings and held both attorneys to the highest standard.  Some of the most interesting parts were when Judge Brown would remove the jury from the courtroom and let the two attorneys hash out their differences of opinion.  Both attorneys were knowledgeable, respectful to each other and did make their best arguments.  

    ADA Spencer made a good closing arguement because The jury asked for all the evidence shortly after entering deliberations.  Some comments waiting in the break room  were, "I know she is innocent but Polk County does back their law enforcement"   Even with Tammy Heeth being dismantled on the stand, the jury still took 4 hours to reach a verdict.  Usually a relatively quick decision does not go in favor of the accused but this one did.  Seth Evans did one thing that defense attorneys are often reluctant to do and that is he put his client on the stand.   That leaves her subject to an often brutal cross examination by the prosecutor.  Spencer was aggressive in his questioning and garnered several objections by Evans.  Ms. Lambert came across as what she is.  A responsible parent, business owner and honest.  She was offered several plea deals all the way down to a ticket for disorderly conduct but stedfastly refused, determined to prove her innocence.   Her and her attorney did just that.  With all that 'burden of proof thingy on the State, Poor ADA had to show up with a big bunch of nothing.  

Justice was served all the way around in Polk County today.

LIVINGSTON 8/21/2023

'RESISTING ARREST' CHARGES MOVE FORWARD

What started as a mother filing a verbal complaint with the school against the Onalaska ISD resource officer for her conduct in the car rider line was greatly escalated by OPD officer, Tammy Heeth.  She got the corrupt Hon to file, "Assault with a Deadly Weapon" charges on Heeth's claim the mother used her car as a deadly weapon.  All of that felony BS was dropped when Hon was ousted and offers to drop it all for a guilty plea to disorderly conduct were made.  The mother stedfastly refused the offer and has a jury of her peers today.  

   It is the defendants position that she was strapped in by seatbelt, and had steel plates andbolts in her ankle and leg from a recent surgery.   She testified her two elementary age children were in the back seat and Heeth tried to drag her though her car window by the hair of the head.

 Heeth has a list of complaints and even one written warning from the child advocate, rosemary Covalt that Heeth, "is a liability because of her anger issues" based on prior incidents Ms. Covalt witnessed.  Funny how none of those complaints were in Heeth's file when we requested it even though we have copies of the originals from Ms. Covalt.

    We will follow up on this story when the trial is over.