Complaint Review: Isiah Carey D'Artagnan Bebel - Houston Texas

For the past year plus, as a crime victim in Harris County, I have asked Isiah Carey and D’Artagnan Bebel, FoxTV news reporter and Executive Manager respectively, to consider a story on corruption involving the Harris County drug court and one of its associated drug recovery churches.  A drug recovery church is a church run by, and composed of, current and ex drug addicts and alcoholics.  Both support Houston’s drug court, a new model which allows offenders who are drug addicts arrested for theft, prostitution, credit card fraud, check fraud, possession, and range of other charges, to receive an intensely supervised probation including rehab services, AA, etc., versus jail.  Others who commit the same crime, and are not addicts, receive jail for the very same crimes.  Isiah emiceed last year’s fundraiser for the drug court foundation, which raises money for drug court, and D'Artagnan sits on their board.

While studies show that drug crime victims receive, on average, 6-17% remuneration rates, Carey and Bebel haven’t raised, publically, a penny for drug crime victims, but seem preoccupied with raising funding for the drug court, where much of this money goes to pay for items such as glasses and braces for offenders.

In my particular case, as a victim, I tried to help – by taking in, paying for her rehab, threatening her drug dealers – a young women with an addiction.  Her father ran a rehab at a drug addict church, Chapelwood/Mercy Street, WHILE AN ADDICT AT THE VERY SAME TIME.  Going to the father seemed fruitless.    Chapelwood/Mercy Street has an association with the drug court, drug court judges routinely attend events at the church, and many offenders attend the church.  One victim in our case, a working professional, claimed he was threatened, and thrown out of the courtroom by the founder of the drug church, himself a self-admitted ex-addict and thief.   That victim was made the unknowing getaway car in one of our offender’s thefts.  Another victim, who took her in, had thousands also stolen from him, we later discovered.  An internal affairs investigation into the case ordered by the then administrative court judge, Stricklin, revealed that Mary Covington, head of Houston’s drug court, went into the courtroom inappropriately (and illegally) to ask the judge for special favors for the offender in our case – Covington continues to run drug court, while not a single victim of our offender has been paid a penny of tens of thousands in damage, despite the fact that TX statute’s clearly make it illegal to attempt to influence a judge.  The offender stole over ten thousand dollars of my items, and stole my car and drove it through the parking gate of my condo.  Neither I, my condo, nor my insurance were ordered a dollar of restitution.   

Oddly, less than a month after an internal affairs investigation which promised action against Chapelwood/Mercy Street and a reassessment of the entire drug court model, both the lawyer who conducted the investigation and the lawyer who ordered it resigned/retired, and a new drug court judge was named from where else, but Chapelwood/Mercy Street – the judge was an ex-alcoholic.  The civil case against the offender was also in front of a judge from Chapelwood, who did not recuse himself. 

Less than a month after I wrote the Governor’s office and every member of the Senate and House Criminal Justice Committees, the judge on my case, Campbell, announced her “retirement” citing “cases that did not work out” to the Chron.   Rick “Good Hair” Perry promptly replaced her with Katherine Cabaniss, a member of the Harris County Drug Court Foundation (which Bebel also sits on the board of).   Perhaps Rick, a huge drug court supporter who recently won the 1^st National Association of Drug Court Professionals Award, couldn’t have Campbell standing up to Covington, drug court (his favored new model), and God forbid, a Protestant Christian Church.  As a sidenote, my case was originally filed as a hate crime, yet for some reason, after all this, Chapelwood Protestant is still associated with the courtroom.

As a final sidenote, the offender in my case worked – prostituted herself – at two strip clubs run by the former head of the NJ mafia, who the feds decided to give 5 years in jail, and relocate to Houston for several murders and attempted murders in exchange for ratting out members of the NJ mafia.  Don’t know how much juicer my story can get, and why Mr. Carey and Mr. Bebel would avoid it, other than it doesn’t make their favored drug court and their judicial friends look good.  And Fox News can’t possibly shed a church in a negative light.

Petition of my Condo Neighbors:

petitionspot.com/petitions/STARDrugChapelwood/

Harris County’s Lawyers Apologizing to Me:

youtube.com/watch?v=xVAgDhiHihE

Some other facts to consider about drug courts in general.

• Drug arrests dropped each of the 5 years before the introduction of drug court in Harris County.  Drug arrests increased in each of the 5 years after, by over 60%.

• Drug arrests dropped each of the 5 years before the introduction of drug courts in Texas largest counties in 2003, representing most of the state’s population.  Drug arrests increased in each of the 5 years after, by 49.5%.

• According to leading authorities, including the Brooking Institute, drug courts cost more to operate than traditional dockets – on average, $5,000 per offender according to Brookings, the leading public policy think tank in the country.   The Scottish and UK Justice Ministries made similar findings regarding cost.

• Much of the infrastructure drug courts (coordinators, employees, wrap around service providers, rehabs, AA services) are run by ex, sometimes recent ex, addicts.  This presents tremendous issues for conflicts of interest, as in my case, where preexisting relationships exists when surrounding providers may be friends with, or have been in treatment, with offenders.  It also results in corruption.  There are over two dozen drug court personnel related arrests in the last 3 years.  Following are a few of my favorites. 

  • A drug court judge in Tennessee admitted to buying drugs from, and having sex in his chambers, with a drug court defendant.

  • A drug court judge in Illinois overdosed while using with a fellow judge.  He purchased his drugs from a drug court probation officer.  He also released one of his drug dealers.

  • A drug court judge in Florida was removed from her courtroom not once, but twice, by her staff for being drunk on the stand.  Given a third chance, she crashed her car while drunk, leaving the victim comatosed.

  • A drug court coordinator in Oklahoma was arrested for rape of a drug court defendant under her care.

  • A DUI/DWI court judge in Colorado was arrested for driving her car, drunk, through a fence.

  • A drug court employee in Texas was arrested on child porn charges. 

  • In Oklahoma, the drug court coordinator is arrested on embezzling funds, and revoking the probation of a drug court client who went to authorities to report wrongdoing.

  • In George, a drug court judge sentences an offender to a total of 1.5 years in jail and 5.5 year probation for check fraud totaling $60.  ISIAH CAREY’S BLOG POST, AS A DRUG COURT AND HOUSTON DRUG COURT SUPPORTER, SHOWS LESS CONCERN FOR THE GIRL OR THE VICTIMS, THAN THE NEGATIVE AFFECT THIS CASE COULD HAVE ON OTHER DRUG COURTS ACROSS THE COUNTY, SUCH AS HIS FRIENDS IN HOUSTON.  SEE HERE: isiahfactor.com/2011/03/28/will-judge-amanda-williams-destroy-the-progress-of-drug-courts-in-america/

As an additional sidenote, defense attorneys are the primary donors to the Houston drug court foundation.  This creates massive conflicts of interests, as attorneys who donate more may either 1) receive preference for placement of their clients into drug court or 2) receive better treatment for their clients in drug court.  Unlike political donations, these donations are being conveniently channeled through a foundation, where the names of the donors do not have to be disclosed.