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Photo by Kevin M. Cox
Historical district closer to national list
Representative from the Texas Historical Commission visit the 1867 Settlement Historic District in Texas City
on Friday. The delegation unanimously voted Saturday to accept the district’s nomination into the National Register
of Historic Places.
Published September 20, 2009
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District aims to make historic places list
Harold Cash recites the black cowboy prayer in the 1867 Settlement Historic District in Texas City on Friday
afternoon. A delegation from the Texas Historical Commission visited will decide on adding it to the National Register of
Historic Places.
Published September 19, 2009 |
Photo by Kevin M. Cox |
 Photo by Kevin M. Cox
District aims to make historic places list
Architectural historian Helen Mooty gives a tour of the 1867 Settlement Historic District. A delegation from
the Texas Historical Commission visited will decide on adding it to the National Register of Historic Places.
Published September 19, 2009
LMISD
chief probe involves Auto Crimes Task Force
By T.J. Aulds
The Daily
News
Published September
17, 2009
LA MARQUE — The criminal investigation that led to the indefinite suspension of La Marque school district’s
police chief involves a task force that investigates stolen vehicle cases, The Daily News confirmed Wednesday.
On Monday, Russell Washington was put on administrative leave from the school district because of the investigation
by Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk.
While Sistrunk cited the ongoing investigation as the reason for not releasing details, the head of the Galveston
County Auto Crimes Task Force, Lt. Tommy Hansen, confirmed his department
is a part of the investigation. He referred all other comments to Sistrunk’s office.
Sistrunk did not comment on the investigation. Washington
also declined to comment.
La Marque school Superintendent Ecomet Burley said he put Washington
on paid administrative leave Monday as a precaution after learning Friday he was the focus of an investigation. Burley said
the investigation does not involve the district or its police department.
Washington, who has been with the district for 18 years, has been investigated and placed on administrative
leave before.
In September 2007, a La Marque High School
freshman filed a complaint with school district officials claiming Washington
had choked him. A grand jury declined to press charges.
In May 2008, Burley placed Washington on administrative leave and recommended
that he be fired after a janitor recorded Washington saying
school board members took payments from contractors involved in a 2002 bond issue. School board members voted in August 2008
to allow Washington to keep his job.
Man's death after cop scuffle ruled a homicide
Published September 2, 2009
LA MARQUE — When grand jury members meet today to hear the case
of a man who died after struggling with three La Marque police officers and was shocked with a Taser, they will be told the
Galveston County medical examiner ruled the man’s death a homicide.
At issue for the grand jury is whether the three officers acted properly
or broke the law during the arrest.
Jamaal Valentine’s death certificate shows the 27-year-old’s
death was caused by high levels of phencyclidine (PCP) and cocaine in his system that exacerbated a manic state known as excited
delirium, as well “blunt head trauma during police restraint.”
Other factors in Valentine’s death included an enlarged heart
as well as a lifelong heart defect, the medical examiner wrote on the death certificate.
The head injury was determined to be a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which
is bleeding in the area between the brain and the thin tissues that cover the brain.
A ruling that the manner of death was homicide does not in itself
mean that a crime was committed.
The Daily News obtained the death certificate from Chad Pinkerton,
an attorney representing Valentine’s relatives, who were given the certificate from the medical examiner.
The Galveston County District Attorney’s Office, which is spearheading
the investigation into Valentine’s May 17 death, has blocked the release of the medical examiner’s autopsy, citing
the investigation.
The death certificate was among dozens of pages of documents the family’s
attorney released on the eve of the grand jury presentation.
Pinkerton accused District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk’s office of
running the investigation “to ensure a no bill” and of “trying to sweep this case under the rug.”
Sistrunk declined to comment on Pinkerton’s statements until
after the case is resolved. Likewise, La Marque City Manager Eric Gage said he would withhold comment until the case was over.
Pinkerton said that, despite an agreement with the district attorney
to allow experts hired by his firm to review the evidence and make their own reports for the grand jury, Sistrunk’s
office “withheld at least 10 vital items, including the witness statements.”
Because of that, Pinkerton argued his forensic and police procedures
experts could not form their own opinions about what happened and were unable to prepare reports for today’s grand jury
proceedings.
“This is very unfortunate, and I believe that the grand jury
will now hear less than full disclosure, raising the likelihood of a no bill,” Pinkerton wrote in a letter faxed to
Sistrunk on Monday. A no bill results in no charges being filed.
Among the statements Pinkerton fears the grand jury will not hear
are witness statements claiming that, despite Valentine being handcuffed and restrained, the three La Marque officers continued
to strike Valentine with their flashlights while he was on the ground.
Written witness accounts provided by Pinkerton also dispute police
reports that Valentine was shocked just once with a Taser. Several witnesses said Valentine was shocked repeatedly, mostly
while he already was in handcuffs.
Valentine died after he wrestled with three La Marque police officers
as they attempted to arrest him. Motorists called police, saying they saw Valentine walking down Main Street in La Marque
and acting erratically. One witness told investigators and The Daily News that Valentine approached his car and asked for
help because he thought he was having a heart attack.
Valentine, of Texas City, died a few hours later.
Barber’s suspicious death ruled a homicide
By Chris Paschenko The Daily News
Published August 25, 2009 LA MARQUE — A beloved barber’s
death, which police initially deemed suspicious, was ruled a homicide, authorities said Monday.
Relatives of James
“Jody” Little, 62, gathered Monday, grieving about what Rayphield Wright Jr., his neighbor and friend of 50 years,
called a senseless slaying.
Investigators have no suspects in the killing and have asked anyone with a tip to call
La Marque Crime Stoppers, 409-938-8477, which offers rewards up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest, La Marque
interim Police Chief Kirk Jackson said.
“I want to find out who killed my brother,” Barbara Ann McCoy said,
wiping tears from her face after holding hands in prayer with relatives. “They stole Jody. They took him from us.”
Stephen
Batts found his father-in-law dead on the floor near the doorway of his house Friday morning in the 300 block of Lake Road.
Before Batts walked inside, he saw two people sitting on Little’s couch outside. They apparently didn’t know Little
was dead.
“I slapped him on the leg, and he didn’t move,” Batts said. “His bed was turned upside
down.”
Little, who cut hair at his house, knew no strangers, McCoy said. Neighbors, who said Little barbecued
almost every day, are feeding and watering his dog.
“My brother, in some ways, he was ordinary, but in other
ways he was extraordinary,” McCoy said. “If you needed food or a bath, he would open his doors.”
Relatives
urged Little to lock his doors, McCoy said.
“Someone he trusted, they came in and killed him,” McCoy said.
“He was the only brother I had. I can’t eat, and I don’t want to until they find out who killed him.”
Crime
scene tape surrounded Little’s house Monday, and plywood covered his front door and a side window.
Little suffered
significant trauma to his head and body, Jackson said. There were no signs of forced entry, Jackson said.
“We
don’t know what caused the trauma, whether it was a personal weapon or a weapon of opportunity, just something lying
around,” Jackson said.
Police have not established a motive in the killing, and no one has come forward with
tips, Jackson said.
The Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Little’s death a homicide, following
an autopsy performed Saturday.
Little’s house was where people in the neighborhood congregated, Wright said.
“Everybody
liked Jody,” Wright said. “He wasn’t a bad fellow. He was a good friend. I hate that it happened. It seems
senseless.”
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