"County Judge William Law gets
caught with kiddie porn on his laptop.
This is not disputed.
And now the district attorney,
who is Law's friend,
puts on a great defense
by crying conspiracy," said Cagle.
"If you believe that, aliens could have put it there."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2056935
Aug. 19, 2003, 10:21PM
Intrigue in a tiny Texas town
Officials swap charges of child pornography
By CINDY HORSWELL
San Jacinto County District Attorney Mark Price
today will try to prove several elected officials
were involved in an intricate conspiracy to plant
child pornography on the laptop computer of
County Judge William Law to drive him from
office and seize power.
The story unfolding in a district courtroom north
of Houston has all the intrigue of a spy novel that
has left the tiny county seat of Coldspring both
shaken and stirred.
The plot went so far as to involve clandestine
meetings between the co-conspirators.
The meetings were arranged through cryptic
notes left in a candy jar in the San Jacinto
County district clerk's office, Price states in his petition.
The petition, which will be heard by
specially appointed Judge P.K. Reiter
in the 284th District courtroom in Conroe,
asks the court to continue suspending
Precinct 2 Constable Jerry Everitt from
elected office for being one of those
conspirators until a full hearing on the merits.
Everitt was temporarily suspended with pay on
Aug. 7, but now the district attorney must prove
that he will prevail at the full hearing, officials said.
In addition to Everitt, the petition names
the county judge's secretary, Jenny Vaughn;
wrecker driver Donnie Marrs and six unnamed
co-conspirators as being participants in the alleged plot.
However, Everitt's attorney,
Greg Cagle, scoffs at the allegations.
All nine have denied wrongdoing, Cagle said.
"County Judge William Law gets
caught with kiddie porn on his laptop.
This is not disputed.
And now the district attorney,
who is Law's friend,
puts on a great defense
by crying conspiracy," said Cagle.
"If you believe that, aliens could have put it there."
Law, who was the county's auditor before
being elected judge, could not be reached
for comment.
But he has publicly stated that he was
vacationing on June 3 when certain porn
was alleged to have been posted on his computer.
On July 25, San Jacinto grand jurors reviewed
investigative reports including a photo of a nude
teenage boy found on Law's computer but declined
to indict him.
Although a gag order bars most San Jacinto
County officials from talking about the case,
allegations of the conspiracy are detailed in
the petition filed by the district attorney.
In Price's petition, he alleges that two other
computers could have accessed the county
judge's laptop to plant the porn.
One is used by Vaughn, and another sits in
a waiting room where any member of the
public could have used it, the petition states.
Further, Price notes that two deputy constables
from Everitt's office were seen using the computer
in the waiting room.
A message file on the secretary's computer,
which might have contained critical evidence,
was also erased on July 10 after the investigation
was started while the county judge was still vacationing,
the petition states.
But Cagle, Everitt's attorney, said the secretary's
veracity is being attacked only because she
accidentally uncovered the porn on her boss' computer.
"She was looking sad one day
and Everitt asked what was wrong.
So she showed him what she had found," Cagle said.
The porn discovery was reported to a
district judge and then Arnie Briscoe,
a Texas Ranger with special crimes,
was called into investigate.
Briscoe declined to comment on the pending case, but he has been subpoenaed
as a witness for the constable.
"Why would anybody plant porn and then wait several months to expose it?
That makes no sense," said Cagle.
He said it looked suspicious that when investigators got warrants to check
the computers at the judge's home the "files had been wiped out."
However, in the petition, Price paints a vivid picture of the
co-conspirators plotting to ruin the judge's reputation.
The petition accuses Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Randy Ellisor with
retrieving from a candy jar messages that requested meetings with the county
judge's secretary.
But Ellisor, who has since been jokingly nicknamed "the candyman" by local
residents, said he was only bantering with the secretary about who was
responsible for keeping the jar filled with candy. The secretary had
quipped, "I work for the same people you do and you know I don't have the
money," Cagle said.
Ellisor could not be reached for comment.
According to the petition, the conspiracy began because the constable and
others were angry with the county judge for removing Precinct 2 County
Commissioner Bruce Wayne Thomas from office. Thomas, who resigned form
office July 17, was accused of the "the misuse and misappropriation of
county property," according to the petition.
Further, the petition contends Everitt conspired with Thomas to use funds,
legally restricted for bridge repairs, to pay for a secretary. Cagle said
Everitt did not know the money was for restricted use and the secretary
shares her duties with Everitt, Thomas and another county official.
Thomas could not be reached for comment.
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