Complaint Review: Senator John Whitmire Texas Assocation of Drug Court Professionals Harris County Drug Court Foundation

A CASE STUDY ON DRUG COURTS IN TEXAS
This Makes the Movie Traffic Look Like a Disney Movie

Five years ago, the heroin addicted daughter, Lindsay Mcallister, of the man who ran the rehab, Teen and Family Services, at Chapelwood Drug Church in Houston, TX, which runs a mass for 800 drug addicts associated with the Harris County Drug Court founded by an ex-drug addict, went on a year-long crime spree.  The defendants father ran the rehab at the church while a drug addict.  The defendants sister introduced her to her dealer and was also an addict.  The parents wouldnt let her live in their house, which was getting foreclosed on because the fathers money was being spent on drugs.

After finding out she was living with her dealer, and being prostituted at a strip club, my FEMALE roommate and I decided to take her in.  We fed her. We clothed her.  We reported her dealers to police, threatened them, and paid for her rehab.  I personally have no criminal record, have never been sued, and have 3 degrees.  My roommate also has a clear record.  We have dozens of witnesses in our condo. 

At her criminal trial, for stealing my car and driving it through the parking gate of my condo, another victim of hers was thrown out of the courtroom by the preacher of the drug church in the case that is the preacher who was an ex drug addict and thief that found God, by the way, in case you werent following this closely.  The head of the largest drug court in our State, the STAR Drug Court in Houston, entered the courtroom to seek special favors for the girl.  This women, Ms. Covington, is none other than the President upcoming of the Texas Association of Drug Court Professionals,
the chief lobbying organization for drug courts in Texas.  To learn more about Ms. Covington and drug courts in Texas, please listen to the audio below.

A deal was struck at the arraignment hearing, avoiding any testimony that could expose the church or court or its relationship.  The defendant was put in a rehab her family and the church operators know the managers of.  Her last probation officer knew her father.  Oddly, in the case, a strange probation order was put against me someone who doesnt drink, has 3 degrees, has never been arrested, has never been sued, and has dozen of witnesses to all the activities of the day in his condo, calling me quote of bad character and ill repute.  I was also spoken to poorly by the probation officer and judge as a VICTIM.  The judge is later on the tape apologizing.  No order was put in place against communication with any drug addict or criminal members of the church, including a member who shot her up and drove my car through the gate of my condo but who was never prosecuted.  Over 100 people in my condo and friends signed a petition demanding the case be prosecuted to no avail.  Harris Countys own lawyers can even be heard apologizing me to here it is not every day a court general counsel and Judge apologize to a victim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVAgDhiHihE.  This is ethics, Harris County and Texas Drug Court Style (and Johnny Whitmire style).

A civil case against the girl was in front of, none other than another judge from Chapelwood, Houstons drug church.  The offender couldnt be bothered to show up  her lawyer couldnt find her.  While on probation, Ms. McAllister was convicted of another crime, driving without a license and insurance, but for some reason, was released early on her probation, just 3 months after this conviction for good behavior (I guess if the probation officer knows your drug church, all is well).  At the time of her release, Ms. Mcallisters myspace status indicated she was f**king a million dollar b***h without even takin her Nikes off.  Ms. McAllister was arrested a 5th time for driving without a license and insurance in Austin in 3Q 2011, a case her lawyers dragged out for 16 months trying to get her off of.  Her driving record includes an impressive 3 pages of arrests and sanctions and suspensions and fines (I think the number is around 30).  We will be asking a lot of questions if she ever gets behind the wheel and kills someone. 

Oddly, many other crimes of her year long crime spree remain unprosecuted.  No victim has been paid a dollar of restitution, including me, my condo HOA, or other victims. 

Harris County conducted an investigating in these events admitting wrongdoing, and that the head of the drug court went into the courtroom to seek special favors for the girl.  STILL, NOT A SINGLE VICTIM HAS BEEN PAID A PENNY, BUT HARRIS COUNTY OPERATES THE ONLY DRUG CHURCH IN A DRUG COURT IN OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY.  Apparently, our legislatures subscribes to the idea that drug churches should be telling our drug addicts they are forgiven by God, while not a single victim has been shown either a) an ounce of remorse or b) paid a dollar of restitution.  They also believe drug church ethics belong in our courtroom.  They also cant potentially see that hardcore drug addicts, who are in and out of rehabs regularly, probably know the rehab counselors and AA facility
operators and tranitional living facility operators that also work with their court systems, creating MASSIVE conflicts of interest.

Other prizewinners associated with the drug church at Chapelwood include:

- Matt Russell, who influenced the trial and threw a crime victim out of the courtroom is the ex-drug addict (and self-admitted thief) founder of Mercy Street Church at Chapelwood.  He now teaches at Goth Church in England.  Hopefully, he stays there.

  Jim Jackson is the ex-alcoholic head preacher at Chapelwood.  He sent me an email telling me if I said anything else about his drug church, he would have me prosecuted.  That sounds a little like official oppression
and retaliation.

 Bill Henderson the prizewinning attorney for County Judge Ed Emmett, encharged with looking into this for Judge Emmett.  Hendersons resume includes a story online for trying to illegally retrieve his car from an impound yard hitting a worker while leaving and a bankruptcy fraud conviction (I would expected nothing less from a Chapelwood member).

 Bill Burke an ex-alcoholic member of the church, who was named the new drug court judge 1 month after Harris County told us it was taking action against Chapelwood Church and reassessing the entire drug court model.  STAR is the largest druggie court in the state of Texas.  We are still waiting on the reassessment.

 Judge Ridgway The good judge is also a Chapelwood member.  Apparently, despite this, he felt it OK to hear the civil case. 


Facts regarding druggie courts in the State of
TX:

  Your legislature, led by Senator Whitmire, passed a law resulting in the COERCED introduction of drug courts in TX largest counties in 2003.  If the counties did not comply with this COERCISION, they would lose federal funding directed through the Governors office for monies intended to fight drug crime.

  In the 5 years since the introduction of drug courts, drug arrests increased almost 50% in TX.  This jump was led by, no surprise, counties which introduced drug courts.  Counties which introduced drug court performed significantly worse than those that did not in the 3 years following introduction in TX.  This is a little issue called net widening mentioned in Judge Morris Hoffmans article The Drug Court Scandal.  Google it!!

  While the national drug court lobby has not produced a meta-analysis of record in 7 years showing drug courts are cost negative, the Brookings Institute, the Scottish government, and the UK government, all conducted statistical studies of many drug courts showing they are cost positive.  The Brookings Institute is widely considered the most prestigious, non-partisan political think tank in the country.  Brookings found there is an 86% chance any one drug court, picked at random, costs more to operate than it saves.  The National Association of Drug Court Professionals newest meta analysis, referenced on its website, is from 2006.  A little dated, no??

  The GOA office, Dr. Erickson in The Drug Court Fraud, and many other researchers have found significant evidence invalidating most studies which show drug courts save money and reduce recidivism.  According to a recent Scottish Justice Ministry report: The evidence [on drug courts] derives almost entirely from the US. It also features few and sometimes flawed randomized trials.  According to the Government Accountability Office: Of the 117 drug court evaluations that had been completed by 2005, in part with federal dollars, the GAO found that only 27 were methodologically
sound. And even within this sampling, evidence about the effectiveness of drug court programs in reducing participants substance abuse was limited and mixed.

  Why are these studies flawed.  For starters, these studies look at relapse rates AFTER graduation from drug court, and compare them to standard dockets, BUT, do not count people than fail out of drug court and are moved to regular dockets. 

 Other issues with drug courts
o   Conflicts of interest when drug addicts, who know rehab counselors in the area (or are daughters of one of the best known in the state) go to court
o  Drug court offenders working in schools and other jobs requiring clean individuals because their records are being cleared
o  Separate and not equal treatment for two offenders who commit the same crime say theft when one is a drug addict who gets rehab and a potential cleared record and the other get jail. 

Senator Whitmire, the so-called hard hitting head of your criminal justice committee, called drug courts sensible, not soft justice.  To me John, its looking soft, not sensible.  And a little corrupt as well.  Mr. Whitmire also made a statement in an October 2012 article that no one can say anything negative about drug courts.  Apparently, no one includes researchers from: Harvard, Yale, UPenn, the Head of Criminal Justice as Washington law school, the Brookings Institute, the Ohio Law Journal, the Fordham Law Journal, the Scottish Justice Ministry, the UK Justice Ministry, and on, and on, and on. 

We were curious as to whether Senator Whitmire would be attending the next Harris County Drug Court Foundation annual event, supported by the churches Harris Countys own lawyers told us it was taking action against, while he repeatedly 3x ignored requests to speak to the victims in our case.  Apparently, he only likes to fight corruption if it involves programs he does not support.  For example, if he gets a threat call from an inmate in prison, then every state cell block in Texas has to be searched at a cost of thousands to taxpayers for contraband cell phones.    To hell with the victims and ethics.  Senator Whitmire is too busy supporting rehabs and transitional living facilities benefitting to the tune of tens of millions in payments from our court systems to worry about those pesky victims  They are usually out in full force lobbying in county commissioner courts and state legislatures.