Lost evidence leads to cases being dismissed; detective resigns, ex-clerk indicted

Criminal cases are being dismissed, a police detective has resigned and a former clerk has been indicted as police departments in two Houston-area communities deal with the disappearance of evidence, including drugs.

In the Brazoria County town of West Columbia, a detective quit the force after he couldn't comply with the chief's request that he produce cocaine that was held in evidence.

In Galveston, a grand jury has indicted a former clerk on a charge of stealing evidence from the Galveston police property room, causing the dismissal of 18 criminal cases.

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As violence associated with narcotrafficking and Mexico's warring drug cartels escalates in Mexico, we must cooperatively work with our southern neighbor to prevent it from spilling over the border and into the U.S.

Many Americans are unaware of the violent street war that brazen drug lords are waging against Mexican authorities -- mere yards away from El Paso in Ciudad Juarez, and across Mexico. These cartels battle one another for turf and drug smuggling routes. President Felipe Calderon is taking unprecedented steps to rout his country of these criminal organizations. Yet now, in a concerted effort to destabilize the government, the drug cartels are actively targeting and assassinating law enforcement officials, terrorizing community residents, and bringing a new level of barbarism to their tactics.

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We've heard it many times: There must be cooperation between the United States and Mexico in the fight against drug violence along the border.

It was mentioned again last week at a border security conference by Al PeA1a, Mexico attache for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

PeA1a, noting that violence in Mexico could put the United States at risk, said, "It is imperative that together our governments confront them with the full force of the law."

"Them," of course, refers to the drug cartels that are generating the incredible violence in JuA!rez and other parts of Mexico. There's increasing concern that this violence will spill over the border and, of course, the first victims of spreading violence would be people in border areas such as El Paso.

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As violence associated with narcotrafficking and Mexico's warring drug cartels escalates in Mexico, we must cooperatively work with our southern neighbor to prevent it from spilling over the border and into the United States.

Many Americans are unaware of the violent street war that brazen drug lords are waging against Mexican authorities -- mere yards away from El Paso in Ciudad Juarez, and across Mexico. These cartels battle one another for turf and drug smuggling routes. President Felipe Calderon is taking unprecedented steps to rout his country of these criminal organizations. Yet now, in a concerted effort to destabilize the government, the drug cartels are actively targeting and assassinating law enforcement officials, terrorizing community residents, and bringing a new level of barbarism to their tactics.

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Re: "Standing Up to Cartels - Killing emphasizes need for action in Mexico," Thursday Editorials.

Mexico today is Chicago in the 1920s. A violent, ruthless black market, a huge and expensive law enforcement effort, official corruption and easy access by children are constants of prohibition.

We could regulate the few drugs that are now distributed by drug trafficking organizations as we have alcohol and thousands of other drugs. Drugs would be sold by clerks who check for ID and sell pharmaceutically pure products, not by teenagers on street corners. The number of Americans imprisoned would return to about 1 in 700 instead of 1 in 100. Federal police would spend their resources catching murderers, rapists, child molesters and robbers, not raiding medical marijuana gardens. The sick could choose to use marijuana for any of the myriad of conditions it is thought to successfully treat.

By doing what we're doing, the message to the cartels is unmistakable: Carry on.

Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas

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MONTGOMERY -- Hemcrete could be the building material of the future -- or the past, depending on how you look at it.

"It's ironic how for a long time we were told that concrete is the best material for building walkways, and now its turned back to paving stones," said Gail Moran, owner of Old World Exteriors, a building company.

"We're cycling back to that traditional look and feel because it works better in some cases than the newer technology."

Hemcrete, a building product made of hemp fiber and a lime binding agent, is another example of this irony.

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Today, they're sixth-graders, wrapping up their final year at Fain Elementary School.

Friends, family, school and the approaching start of junior high are just a few of the things on their minds.

Flash forward a few years, and you might find some of these students at the front of their own classrooms as the teachers. Maybe one will be your doctor. One might be putting out fires and helping people during emergencies. You might find one of them topping the music charts, and you could see some of them in the pages of the magazines you read.

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Friday's killing of Mexico's acting federal police chief could not have sent a clearer message: This is war. Drug cartels are feeling pinched by President Felipe Calderon's military offensive against their operations, and Edgar Millan Gomez's assassination is an unmistakable warning for the president to back off.

Previous Mexican presidents have heeded such warnings and maintained a respectful distance from the cartels. They learned from their counterparts in Colombia that anyone who seriously disrupts this multibillion-dollar illicit industry risks being squashed.

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One Man's Painful Journey Through South Texas' Addiction to Asset Forfeiture.

On October 20, 2005, Javier Gonzalez, sporting baggy shorts, T-shirt, and a shaved head, took off from Austin toward Brownsville in a used Mazda. At the time, he worked for an Austin auto dealer performing minor body-shop repairs and the occasional car sale for the owner, who had loaned him the Mazda. Along with changes of clothes Javier carried $10,032, most of it in $100 bills, in a black gym bag that he made no effort to conceal.

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Panhandle Needs - And Will Get - Critical Addition

We are concerned, after reading a recent article, editorial and letters to the editor, that there are some misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding recent legislation providing for the funding of drug courts and regarding the ongoing efforts in our region to seek funding for the implementation of such a court or courts.

The 2007 Legislature has recognized a growing drug problem in Texas. Our region is no exception.

For example, in Potter County alone, there were approximately 597 new drug possession cases filed in 2007 - fewer actually than in 2006, when approximately 613 new cases were filed. These numbers do not include those cases filed for possession with intent to deliver. Although a multitude of factors would have to be applied to know how many of these defendants would qualify for drug court; these numbers do illustrate the drug problem in our area.

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Amid the incense aromas and reggae beats, several hundred Austinites rallied at the Capitol on Saturday for the legalization of marijuana for personal and medical use.

The Texas branch of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and Outgrow Big Bro, a cannabis-user advocacy organization, hosted Sunday's Texas Cannabis Crusade.

Josh Schimberg, director of Texas NORML, said the Texas Cannabis Crusade was part of the 2008 Global Marijuana March. More than 200 cities worldwide registered for rallies at the Global Marijuana March Web site.

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The Dallas County district attorney who has built a national reputation on freeing the wrongfully convicted says prosecutors who intentionally withhold evidence should themselves face harsh sanctions possibly even jail time.

"Something should be done," said Craig Watkins, whose jurisdiction leads the nation in the number of DNA exonerations. "If the harm is a great harm, yes, it should be criminalized."

Wrongful convictions, nearly half of them involving prosecutorial misconduct, have cost Texas taxpayers $8.6 million in compensation since 2001, according to state comptroller records obtained by The Dallas Morning News. Dallas County accounts for about one-third of that.

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For seven years, Democrats have rightfully complained that President Bush has gratuitously antagonized the world, exasperating our allies and eroding America's standing and influence.

But now the Democrats are doing the same thing on trade. In Latin America, it is Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who are seen as the go-it-alone cowboys, by opposing the United States' free-trade agreement with Colombia. Some Democrats claim they are against the pact because Colombia has abused human rights. Those concerns are legitimate - but they shouldn't be used to punish people like Norma Reynosa, a 35-year-old woman who just may snip the flowers that go into the Mother's Day bouquet that you buy.

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During his stop in Dallas on Tuesday, Mexican President Felipe Calderon insisted that he had not come with hat in hand to beg for U.S. favors. He wants the United States to be a responsible partner and ante up in the effort to halt cross-border drug trafficking.

On that note, he's absolutely right. As the hemisphere's chief consumer of illegal drugs, the United States provides the financial engine that drives the multibillion-dollar trafficking industry. It's time for the United States to be a responsible partner, which is why Congress should pass the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative to support efforts by Mexico and Central America to defang the cartels and gangs putting drugs on our streets.

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Mauricio Barragan, whose parents brought him here from Bolivia when he was 1 year old, had a bad year when he was 17.

He got a girl pregnant.

And he was convicted and received deferred adjudication for possessing a small amount of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor. Earlier he had a juvenile drug conviction at age 15.

During the next eight years, Barragan, now 26, completed his marijuana probation successfully. He graduated in the top quarter of his Katy High School class.

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COMAL COUNTY -- Thirty-four out of 1,618 Driving While Intoxicated/Driving Under the Influence misdemeanor violators had their probation revoked during the past 12 months.

A total of 42 out of 1,035 of those convicted of misdemeanor possession of marijuana or controlled substance had their probations revoked during the same time period.

Although those 76 probationers who were revoked were headed to state jail or would face some other punishment, there is hope that a hefty percentage of the other 2,653 violators would become eligible for a misdemeanor drug/DWI court in Guadalupe County.

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Bloodshed is bad for the tourism industry.

Mexico is heading for its third straight year of more than 2,000 drug-related deaths -- casualty figures usually associated with war.

Then again, both sides -- the drug cartels and the law enforcement officials -- would say this is war, and the proof is on the streets of border towns such as Ciudad Juarez, where federal troops have been deployed to battle the narco traffickers.

The violence has led the U.S. State Department to issue a travel alert for Mexico, with emphasis on Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros.

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Re: The Opinion page article "Does criminalization of drugs hurt society more than the drugs?" by Arnold H. Loewy, professor of criminal law at the Texas Tech School of Law.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Texas Tech Law School professor about making drugs legal (A-J, Feb. 28). I don't believe there is anyone out there who hasn't had drugs affect their lives. So why don't we all rise up and make the government decriminalize them? It would save a lot of lives, broken homes and abused children.

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Most of the drugs on our streets and in our schools come from or through Mexico and Central America. Dallas-Fort Worth is a primary entry and distribution point for drug cartels; more than 540 tons of marijuana, 28,000 pounds of cocaine and hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine and heroin were seized in Texas in 2007.

The challenge of confronting the drug trade is enormous, and we share the responsibility. I am convinced, for the health and security of Americans who live and work near the border, that it is critical that the United States support the renewed counter-narcotics efforts of our partners in Mexico and Central America. The key to increased U.S. support in 2008 is congressional approval of the Merida Initiative.

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When it comes to political and law-enforcement teamwork, having an open border with Mexico is a good thing.

Last week, two important U.S.-Mexico alliances were announced, each dealing with a drug problem wreaking international problems.

El Paso and Juarez leaders have launched the "Crystal Darkness" campaign to educate citizens on the growing dangers of methamphetamine. As El Paso Mayor John Cook put it, "I call this the Kryptonite of the human race, because once people try it, they're more than likely going to be hooked forever."

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