Falkenberg4.pdf
Content
Disturbing peek behind grand jury curtain
LISA FALKENBERG
Commentary
But the prosecutor, Dan
Rizzo, didn’t believe her. And
neither did the Harris County
grand jury listening to her
testimony.
They seemed convinced that
Ericka Jean Dockery’s boyfriend
of six months, Alfred Dewayne
Brown, had murdered veteran
Houston police officer Charles
R. Clark during a three-man
burglary of a check-cashing
place, and they didn’t seem to be
willing to believe Dockery’s testimony that he was at her house
“Sir, I don’t know anything
else,” the young mother of three
told a Harris County prosecutor
on an April morning in 2003.
porting Brown’s contention that
he called Dockery that morning from her apartment phone
had mysteriously turned up in
a homicide detective’s garage,
more than seven years after he
was convicted and sentenced
to death. The Harris County
District Attorney’s Office maintained Rizzo, now retired, must
have inadvertently lost the record, and agreed to a new trial.
The Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals inexplicably has sat on
the case for more than a year.
Initially, Dockery’s story
meshed with Brown’s. She told
grand jurors he was indeed
asleep on her couch at the early
morning hour when prosecutors believed he was scouting
venues. Dockery also confirmed
the land-line call to her workplace — made at the same time
prosecutors placed Brown at
an apartment complex with
suspects, changing clothes and
watching TV news coverage of
the crime.
CITY | STATE
INSIDE
Fired Kyle Field
construction worker
claims he sabotaged
the stadium.
Page B4
Houston Chronicle
the morning of the murder.
“If we find out that you’re not
telling the truth, we’re coming
after you,” one grand juror tells
Dockery.
“You won’t be able to get a job
flipping burgers,” says another.
Dockery tells the group that
if she believed Brown actually
killed people, she’d turn him in
herself: “If he did it, he deserves
to get whatever is coming to
him. Truly,” she says.
In May, I reported that a
land-line phone record sup-
Falkenberg continues on B4
EDITORIAL
Affirmative action
suit against UT still
ill-considered and
poorly timed.
Page B8
Houston Chronicle | Thursday, July 17, 2014 | HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com
@HoustonChron
Section B xxx
CDC closure may affect work at UTMB biohazard lab
As agency enhances safety protocol,
Galveston facility could have to curb
research on lethal pathogens
By Harvey Rice
GALVESTON — The
closure of a U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention
laboratory
because of a potentially
life-threatening release
of anthrax could disrupt
operations at the Galveston National Laboratory,
which researches some of
the world’s deadliest diseases.
The National Laboratory
on the campus of the Uni-
versity of Texas Medical
Branch works closely with
the CDC on several projects, including the study of
the Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, lab director
James LeDuc said. Those efforts and other projects are
likely to be jeopardized the
longer the delay in reopening the Bioterrorism Rapid
Response and Advanced
Technology Laboratory on
the CDC Roybal Campus in
Atlanta, he said.
“If it goes on for any
COURTS
Where
does
HCC
trustee
reside?
length of time, it will impact
that,” LeDuc said about the
Crimean Congo study.
The closure also could
interfere with the National
Lab’s attempt to land a
contract for evaluating anthrax treatments because
the CDC would be doing
some of the work, LeDuc
said. The Galveston laboratory is at the forefront of
research on the most contagious and lethal pathogens
on the planet.
A CDC spokesman said
in an email Wednesday that
its Roybal laboratory would
reopen as soon as a safety
review was completed but
Researchers
work in a
Level 4 lab at
the Galveston
National
Laboratory
at the
University
of Texas
Medical
Branch. The
lab works
on some of
the world’s
mostly
deadly
diseases.
University of Texas
Medical Branch
Lab continues on B7
PORTER
Workman’s leg amputated
after dead oak collapses
By Benjamin Wermund
Houston Community
College Trustee Dave
Wilson, whose name has
become a staple on local
election ballots, has made
a habit of claiming one
residence after another to
qualify for his numerous
runs for office, a Harris
County attorney argued in
court Wednesday.
Wilson also has claimed
tax exemptions at a home
on Lake Lane, which is in
the Lone Star College System district. Lake Lane is
where his wife lives and
where he raised his children, spends his weekends
and has his family gatherings, Douglas Ray, an assistant county attorney,
told a jury in his opening
argument in a case to determine where exactly Wilson
lives.
Wilson lives exactly
where he says he lives: in
a “fully furnished” apartment in a warehouse on W.
34th Street, in District II of
the HCC system, defense
attorney Keith Gross told
the jury. Just because his
wife lives on Lake Lane
does not mean it has to be
his residence, Gross argued.
If Wilson, accused of
claiming a false residence
in his run for his HCC
seat, in fact lived outside
CAMPAIGN 2014
Battle for
cash in
No. 2 race
is even —
for now
By David Saleh Rauf
and Peggy Fikac
Marie D. De Jesús / Houston Chronicle
Mary Beleele, 83, of Porter feels upset about the accident that took place in the backyard of her home
when a man hired by her daughter to cut a tree on her property got pinned by a branch.
By Mihir Zaveri
“I’d never
have had him out
if I knew he’d
get hurt.”
Mary Beleele,
owner of the old
dead oak that
Ray Leyva was
cutting down
when it collapsed,
pinning his leg
HCC continues on B2
Mary Beleele’s wooded neighborhood in Porter is quiet at noon on
Wednesday, as a dog walks lazily
by and a neighbor smiles and waves
from across the street.
But a pile of sawed-off branches
and a ladder lying askew at the base
of a dead oak tree in Beleele’s yard betray the tragic and bizarre sequence
of events that happened the day before, when a man she hired to cut the
tree lost his leg after part of the tree
collapsed on him.
“I’d never have had him out if I
knew he’d get hurt,” Beleele said.
Ray Leyva, 42, was high up in the
tree cutting it when it collapsed, said
Steve Solis, who occasionally worked
with Leyva and was helping him
Tuesday. Part of the tree pinned his
leg near a fork in the tree and dangled
Leyva backward, Solis said. He said
Leyva may have been cutting the tree
at a point that was too low, causing it
to collapse.
Solis said Leyva was bleeding profusely. Beleele said Leyva was yelling
and screaming in pain.
“He knew it was hurting, and it
Amputation continues on B4
AUSTIN — Democratic
lieutenant governor nominee Leticia Van de Putte
posted an impressive haul
this week — cash raked in
since the beginning of the
year via a nearly nonstop
fundraising blitz.
But the roughly $2 million raised by the San Antonio state senator may
quickly be swamped by
her opponent, Republican
Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, who this election season already has shown the
ability to summon the big
GOP money guns.
The latest campaign finance reports showcase
perhaps the key factor determining whether Van de
Putte will be able to compete with Patrick deep into
the homestretch: her ability to raise cash.
According to new reports, Van de Putte has
outpaced Patrick since
the last week of May, raising $1.2 million to Patrick’s
roughly $1 million. That
haul included $100,000 in
contributions from Houston trial lawyer Amber
Mostyn and Houston investor Lillie Robertson.
“She has the right vision for Texas and wants
to change the direction it’s
going in,” said South Texas
Big continues on B3
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B4 | Thursday, July 17, 2014 | Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com x x
CITY | STATE
Fired Kyle Field worker claims sabotage
By Kolten Parker
SAN ANTONIO — A
construction worker who
was fired this week for
hanging a University of Alabama flag on Texas A&M
University’s Kyle Field suggested in several Facebook
posts that he sabotaged the
stadium.
“This stadium will never
be ready for this season, I’m
putting iron in backwards
and wrong holing everything!!” Bobby Livingston
posted on Facebook on
Feb. 28, along with a photo
of himself in a University of
Alabama shirt.
Livingston, an ironworker who posted several
pictures working on site,
was part of a crew making
major renovations to Kyle
Field in College Station.
In an April post, Livingston, 44, said: “If you
ever attend a Texas A&M
football game, don’t sit at
the Northeast End Zone,
it was raining today and I
made 2 very “questionable”
welds!!”
Inspector: It’s safe
Paul Hawryluk, director
of facility services for Raba
Kistner Engineering, the
inspector for the Kyle Field
renovation, told KBTX that
the construction is safe.
“All steel fabrication has
been observed and critical welds tested/verified
at the plants by the third
party firm, Raba Kistner
Engineering. Once delivered to the site, field welds,
moment connections, and
bolt torquing are tested/
verified in accordance to
building code and engineering specification by
the third party inspectors.
Structural engineers of re-
tions to Raba Kistner Engineering.
Alabama and A&M
are division rivals in the
Southeastern Conference.
Last year, the Aggies lost to
the Crimson Tide 49-42 in
College Station.
“Its only taken 43 years,
but I think I’ve finally
grown up!!” Livingston
posted March 20.
cord review the inspection
reports as well as conduct
site observation/review of
the in place steel,” Hawryluk said in a statement to
KBTX.
No A&M comment
Steve Moore, vice chancellor for marketing and
communication for the
Texas A&M University
System, declined to comment and deferred ques-
[email protected]
Amputation was performed at the scene
Amputation from page B1
was broke, and he was saying ‘Help, help I know I got
a broken leg,’ ” Solis said.
Leyva is in critical condition at Memorial Hermann
Texas Trauma Institute,
said Alex Loessin, a hospital spokeswoman.
Help from across street
Solis said Leyva called
him on Wednesday, and
while Leyva did not remember parts of the day
before, he sounded coherent and was worrying
about his dog.
Solis and Leyva had arrived about 4 p.m. to cut the
oak in Beleele’s yard, which
she said had been dead for
about a year. Beleele, who
has lived in that house at
the corner of Summer Hills
Boulevard and Butterfly
Lane for 20 years, said she
worried that a hurricane or
storm would bring the tree
down onto her house.
She said she did not
know Solis or Leyva, but
found them through her
daughter.
Eric Brocken, who was
arriving at his former inlaws’ place nearby that
afternoon, heard the loud
crack and ran across the
street to help after telling
his ex-father-in-law to dial
911.
He leaped over Beleele’s
fence, grabbed a ladder
and climbed into the tree.
He and Solis then held the
man up to make sure he
wouldn’t slip out, fall and
break his neck.
“It seemed like an eternity,” Brocken, 40, said. “I
couldn’t let the man fall.”
Half-ton of wood
Brett Audilet, captain
of the Porter Fire Department, said Leyva was
pinned by more than 1,000
pounds of wood and it took
five firefighters about half
an hour to free him.
“The fire department
went up there and cut limb
by limb,” Solis said.
Brocken and Solis said
emergency responders
amputated Leyva’s leg at
the scene. It was unclear if
the amputation occurred
in the tree or after Leyva
was moved.
Fire officials and a
spokeswoman from the
Montgomery County Hospital District declined to
provide details on the amputation, citing medical
privacy.
Solis said Leyva had
worked on trees and fences
his entire life.
Audilet said that, though
the fire department had responded to many incidents
where people are stuck in
trees, he had never seen
anything like this.
“This is probably a oncein-a-career call,” he said.
[email protected]
Montgomery County Police Reporter
The Porter Fire Department transports Ray Leyva,
whose leg was amputated as a result of a treetrimming accident in Porter. Emergency responders
amputated Leyva’s leg at the scene.
Falkenberg: Finally, she gave in
Falkenberg from page B1
Neither the prosecutor
nor the grand jury would
take Dockery’s “truth” for
an answer.
The young woman, a
home health aide who
made Subway sandwiches by night, had no
attorney. No experience
dealing with authorities.
No criminal history aside
from traffic tickets.
She caved. At Brown’s
capital murder trial in
October 2005, Dockery
was a key prosecution
witness, helping seal her
boyfriend’s death sentence
by telling the court that
when she asked him if he
did it, he had confessed,
saying, “‘I was there. I was
there.’”
How she got from one
point to another would
be hard to imagine. But
thanks to a formerly
confidential document
in Brown’s court file, we
don’t have to imagine.
Part of public record
In a rare, disturbing
glimpse into the shrouded
world of the Texas grand
jury system, we can read
with our own eyes the
beginnings of the young
woman’s tortured evolution.
Appellate attorneys
were so outraged by a 146page transcript of Dockery’s testimony before
the 208th Harris County
grand jury on April 21,
2003, that they entered it
into the public record for
judges to review.
In it, grand jurors don’t
just inquire. They interrogate. They intimidate.
They appear to abandon
their duty to serve as a
check on overzealous government prosecution and
instead join the team.
“Unbelievable,”
veteran criminal defense
attorney Pat McCann said
after I asked him to read
the document. “When she
went in there, Mr. Brown
had an alibi. When they
were finished browbeating her with her children,
he didn’t. That’s the single
biggest misuse and abuse
of the grand jury system I
have ever seen.”
Rizzo and Lynn Hardaway with the DA’s office
declined comment, citing a
state law that keeps grand
jury proceedings secret.
At first, the fact that
Dockery seemed to be “a
good, nice, hard-working
lady,” in the words of one
grand juror, gave her credibility with the group. But
jurors soon seized on her
vulnerabilities and fear.
“Hey, Dan,” the foreman calls to the prosecutor. “What are the punishments for perjury and
aggravated perjury?”
“It’s up to 10 years,”
Rizzo responds.
“In prison. OK,” the
foreman says.
“Oh no,” says another
grand juror as if on cue,
echoing other commentary that reads at times
like a Greek chorus.
Every word challenged
“I’m just trying to
answer all your questions
to the best of my ability,”
Dockery says.
A bit later, a female
juror asks pointedly:
“What are you protecting
him from?”
“I’m not protecting
him from anything. No
ma’am. I wouldn’t dare do
that,” Dockery eventually
responds. As Rizzo and
the grand jurors parse
Dockery’s every word and
challenge each statement,
she complains they’re
confusing her.
“No, we’re not confusing you,” a grand juror
says. “We just want to find
out the truth.”
Although Dockery says
repeatedly that she knew
it was Brown on her couch
that morning, the foreman
tries to get her to subscribe to an implausible
theory that it was somebody else on her couch.
She doesn’t budge. The
group takes a break — one
of several.
When the grand jury
returns, the foreman
says the members are not
convinced by Dockery’s
story and “wanted to
express our concern” for
her children if she doesn’t
come clean.
“That’s why we’re really
pulling this testimony,”
the foreman tells her.
The foreman adds that
if the evidence shows she’s
perjuring herself “then
you know the kids are
going to be taken by Child
Protective Services, and
you’re going to the penitentiary and you won’t see
your kids for a long time.”
‘Think about your kids’
Rizzo goes on to accuse
Dockery of misleading the
grand jury. Then, after being told again and again to
think about her children,
Dockery changes her story a bit. She says Brown
was not at the house when
she left for work.
“No, no, no,” she finally
blurts out.
“One minute, Ericka,”
a grand juror says a bit
later, apparently sensing an opportunity. “He
wasn’t in the house when
you put your kids on the
bus either, was (he)?”
“I’m trying to remember,” she says.
“Think about your
kids, darling,” a grand
juror says.
“I’m trying to remember,” Dockery says.
“That’s what we’re concerned about here, is your
kids,” the foreman says.
“He was not at the
house,” a grand juror
urges.
“We’re as much concerned about your kids
as you are,” the foreman
says. “So, tell the truth.”
“He was not in the
house when you put your
kids on the bus, was he?”
a grand juror says.
“Tell the truth, girl.”
“Yes,” Dockery says
finally. “He was there.”
A bit later, Dockery
acquiesces on that point,
saying that Brown was
not in her house earlier
that morning, either.
Pivotal phone call
There’s a long break.
Whatever happened during that time must have
been profound. Dockery
comes back in and tells
yet another, completely
different, story — that she
left her house far earlier
than she’d said previously,
to rekindle a relationship
with an old lover, and
therefore doesn’t know
what time Brown left.
Rizzo, his patience
seemingly wearing thin,
suggests again he doesn’t
believe her story. “I think
that you’re up to your
neck involved in this
deal,” he says.
He is intent on getting Dockery to admit
she made a call to one of
the suspects, as he says
records show.
“I never called. I never
called,” she says.
“Girl, you just made
a big mistake,” a grand
juror says.
One of them advises
her to get an attorney.
“We’re done,” Rizzo
announces.
And although Dockery
had never been implicated in the crime, a grand
juror closes out Dockery’s
testimony by leveling the
harshest, most intimidating allegation yet.
“I think she was with
him at the check cashing
place.”
Months later, Dockery found herself in jail
charged with perjury for
allegedly lying about what
time she last saw Brown
the day of the murder
and whether she called
another suspect. She faced
bail she couldn’t pay and,
apparently, one cruel
choice — stay locked up
away from her children,
or tell them what they
wanted to hear.
(Coming next, part II
of Dockery’s story)
[email protected]
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Knee Surgery Alternative Is
Affordable and Effective
BY ROBERT ELLSWORTH
For millions of Americans with
severe knee pain, whether due to injury or chronic conditions like osteoarthritis, surgery may seem like the
only chance to live pain free. After
all, most people turn to surgery after other treatments – like physical
therapy and pain medications – have
failed to reduce pain.
Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that surgery is going to resolve
the problem; many people must have
follow-up procedures, or “revisions,”
after the initial procedure, and they
still have pain. This adds risk and
points to one of the biggest problems
with the invasive procedure: there is
no guarantee when it comes to knee
surgery.
Enter the world of high-tech
medical devices. Decades ago, the
thought of strapping a small device
to your body to relieve pain and
swelling while healing damaged tissue was a thing of science fiction.
Then the medical community had a
breakthrough in pain relief science
that changed everything: “low level
lasers” were invented, reducing pain
without surgery. Doctors began offering laser treatments in-office, helping people avoid surgery and reduce
their intake of harmful drugs. While
effective, those treatments were – and
still are – expensive.
As with most technologies, pain
lasers began to get smaller, less expensive and more effective. Now to
the present, where we see devices like
the Willow Curve changing the way
people think about pain management,
especially when it comes to elective
knee surgery. Dr. Ronald Shapiro, one
of the Curve’s inventors, explains it
this way: “We set out to develop an
affordable, non-prescription device
that delivers a high level of pain relief, so people in severe pain have an
alternative to drugs and surgery.”
By all accounts, that is what the
Willow Curve has accomplished. Af-
ter years of clinical trials and testing
in hospitals, the Curve received FDAapproval to quickly relieve joint pain
and inflammation without a prescription. The Curve also increases circulation to the pain site and promotes
healing – without drugs or surgery.
This has caused many, including
the Navy SEALS and professional
athletes, to use the Curve to relieve
pain from injuries, arthritis and other
joint pain, including shoulder, elbow
and knee pain. Even football Hall of
Famer Charlie Sanders (former Detroit Lions tight end) swears by the
Curve, which all but eliminated his
knee pain and convinced him to quit
taking medication and cancel his own
knee surgery.
“If you told me I would cancel
knee surgery for any reason, I would
have said you were crazy,” Sanders
says. “But when I tried the Willow
and 30 years of pain disappeared, I
knew the Curve was going to change
a lot of lives.”
Before undertaking such a drastic, expensive and potentially dangerous step like knee surgery, you owe it
to yourself to seek safer, less-invasive
options. The Willow Curve has proven to be one of the best alternatives
available. You can try the Curve riskfree for 90-days. If you are not completely satisfied, you can return it for
a full refund. Order today by calling
toll-free 1-800-826-8034 or visiting
www.TheWillowCurve.com.
INSIDE
New records show gas
flaring in the oil patch
continues to grow in
the Eagle Ford Shale.
Page B3
Houston Chronicle
@HoustonChron
CITY | STATE
EDITORIAL
Texas lawmakers can
address the income
gap that divides us by
funding education.
Page B13
Houston Chronicle | Sunday, December 21, 2014 | HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com
Section B xx
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Evidence mounts that wrong man could be retried in cop killing
LISA FALKENBERG
Commentary
decides whether to retry Alfred
Dewayne Brown for the slaying
of a Houston police officer.
She’s got a dead cop on her
hands, Charles R. Clark, a 20year veteran, beloved husband
and brother, who was gunned
down as he tried to stop a threeman robbery of an ACE checkcashing place in April 2003.
Somebody must pay.
I’m sure Anderson would
prefer that a guilty person pay.
But in the absence of another
suspect, the district attorney
COMMENTARY
may feel pressure — from the
public, from law enforcement,
from the victim’s family, from
political advisers — to go after
Brown a second time, even
though the state’s case against
him has unraveled to mere
shreds.
Last month, an appellate
court threw out Brown’s conviction and death sentence because
the DA’s office withheld key
evidence at trial that supports
Brown’s contention that he was
home the morning of the rob-
bery. No physical evidence ever
tied Brown to the crime. Nearly
every witness who fingered him
has recanted.
But what if there were
another suspect, a legitimate
suspect that mounting evidence
suggested could have committed the crime instead of Brown?
Wouldn’t we expect the district
attorney to take a hard look
before pursuing another weak
case against Brown?
Of course. And records show
there is such a suspect. His
name is Jero Dorty. And the district attorney’s office has been
aware of his potential role in
Clark’s death for at least seven
years.
In 2007, Brown’s writ attorneys with the firm K&L Gates
named Dorty as a “critical suspect” and spent nearly 10 pages
of an appeal laying out the
reasons why. In 2008, Brown’s
attorneys filed an emergency
motion to test Dorty’s DNA. But
prosecutors dragged their feet.
Disturbing peek behind grand
jury curtain
Let’s face it. Potential innocence isn’t the only thing Harris
County District Attorney Devon
Anderson is considering as she
Falkenberg continues on B10
By Lisa Falkenberg
Family
“Sir, I don’t know anything else, “ the young mother of three told a Harris County
tiesprosecutor
raise on an
April morning in 2003.
But the prosecutor, Dan Rizzo, didn’t believe her. And neither did the Harrisred
County
grand jury
flags
listening to her testimony.
no-bid
They seemed convinced that Ericka Jean Dockery’s boyfriend of six months, on
Alfred
Dewayne
Brown, had murdered veteran Houston police officer Charles R. Clark during a three-man burglary of
contracts
a check-cashing place, and they didn’t seem to be willing to believe Dockery’s testimony that he was at
KATY
Political watchdogs,
her house the morning of the murder.
lawmakers note links
“If we find out that you’re not telling the truth, we’re coming after you, “ one in
grand
juror tells Dock21CT controversy
ery.
By Brian M. Rosenthal
“You won’t be able to get a job flipping burgers, “ says another.
AUSTIN — When then-Texas
health official Jack Stick sugDockery tells the group that if she believed Brown actually killed people, she’d
turn
inthatherself:
gested
earlierhim
this year
a
company he had helped land $20
million
in
no-bid
state
contracts
“If he did it, he deserves to get whatever is coming to him. Truly, “ she says.
might get another one through a
sister department,
was refer- DockIn May, I reported that a land-line phone record supporting Brown’s contention
that hehe called
ring the firm to a familiar face:
Frianita
Wilson,
wife
of Doug
ery that morning from her apartment phone had mysteriously turned up in a homicide
detective’s
gaWilson, who as Stick’s boss was
overseeing
the
first
project.
From
right,
Tremel
Cooper,
11,
Bryan
Worthy,
9,
Katelyn
Washington,
16,
and
Byron
Worthy,
9,
play
street
basketball
near
rage, more
than
seven
years
after
he
was
convicted
and
sentenced
to
death.
The
Harris
County
District
Of course, Stick — then the
their homes on the corner of Roberts and Danover in Katy. Some residents call the area around Roberts Road “the ghetto.”
at the stateand
healthagreed
Attorney’s Office maintained Rizzo, now retired, must have inadvertently
lost top
thelawyer
record,
might qualify for Houston
commission — could also have
As suburban market skyrockets,
Habitat for Humanity’s first
turned for help to his own wife,
to a new trial. The Texas Court of
Criminal
Appeals
sat on the Erica
case
for more than a
low-cost
options
struggle inexplicably
to survive home has
Stick, who served as chief
in the Katy area. But
rising land prices have put
of staff at the mega-agency, which
year.
By Leah Binkovitz
runs all health and human serplanned communities. The that project on hold.
soon-to-come, 2,000-home
As the Katy area grows
vices and has a $33 billion annual
Initially, Dockery’s story meshed
with
Brown’s.
She
told
grand
jurors
he
was
indeed asleep on her
budget.
Families moving to Cane Island touts a trained and prospers, affordable
And that wasn’t his only famthe flourishing Katy area golden Retriever that will housing seems increasingcouch at the early morning hourcanwhen
scouting
Dockery
also
scan realprosecutors
estate list- pose for believed
photographs andhe
ly was
out of reach,
sometimes venues.
ily connection
at a state agenings, walk through model offer its business card to by design and sometimes
cy. His brother, Jeremy Stick,
confirmed the land-line call to her
workplace
at the same
time ofprosecutors
placed
Brown at an
homes
or visit open hous-- made
potential buyers.
as a reflection
a broader
worked
at the same department
es. They’ll see a $1.2 million
Meanwhile, in a small problem in many commuas Frianita Wilson.
apartment complex with suspects,
changing
watching
TV
the
strip mall and
storefront
in nities ringing
five-bedroom
on Brightonclothes
thenews
Houston coverage
The web ofof
family
ties crime.
at the
Sky Lane, a four-bedroom downtown Katy, families area. Katy’s city governTexas Health and Human Serattend atake
differentDockery’s
kind of ment lacks
Crystal Meadow
any sort of housvices
Commission is raising new
Neither the prosecutor nor theongrand
juryPlace
would
“truth”
for an
answer.
listed for $363,000, or open house, reviewing ing program, the county’s
questions in a growing contract
documentsSubway
to see if they sandwiches
model homes
from masterHousing continues onby
B5 night,
controversy
roiling
the Capitol.
The young woman, a home health
aide
who made
had
no
attorney. No
State continues on B2
experience dealing with authorities. No criminal history aside from traffic tickets.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY JUDGE
She caved.
At Brown’s capital murder trial in October 2005, Dockery was a key prosecution witness,
Rockets
host party for Goodfellows children
Sadler
legacy
ofsentence
helping seal herleaves
boyfriend’s
death
by telling the court that when she asked him if he did it, he
By Michelle Iracheta
to stop her children, espefiscal care
amid
had confessed,
saying,
“ ‘I growth
was there. I was there.’ “
cially Memo, from enjoying
By Cindy Horswell
Memo Archundia had the game.
gomery County’s governHow she got from one
point
to
another
would
be
hard
to
imagine.
But
thanks
to
confidenment. The county native
never been to a basketball a “Iformerly
have confidence
in
Montgomery County concluded at the end of the
game before Saturday, but myself that I can play any
tial document
in Brown’s
court
file,
Judge Alan Sadler,
who is two-year
study that
with we don’t have to imagine.
the 8-year-old said he has sport,” said her son. “MayMarie D. De Jesús / Houston Chronicle
Boom puts
homes for
working
class out
of reach
stepping down after nearly
always been interested in
his finance degree from the
be basketball for the Rock-
ets.”
quarter of a century in University of Texas and 18
sports.
Part ofaoffice,
public
record
never dreamed
of a years’ work experience, he
“His podiatrist
On
Saturday
could run a tighter ship by
always said he’d
night, they were in
career in politics.
In a rare,
glimpse
into the shrouded world of the Texas
grand
jury system,
wesuite
can
the job himself.
a private
at read
Whendisturbing
Sadler married doing
make
a great basketToyota Center that
his wife, Mimi, 34 years
“So naively, I jumped
ball player because
with ourago,own
beginnings
was joyfully chahe waseyes
workingthe
in in
and ran, and damn of
if I the young woman’s tortured evolution.
he’s so tall,” said his
otic. Children were
banking and real estate didn’t win,” recalled Sadler
mother, Sonia Arctheir pack-the
and she attorneys
would tell her were
hundia. “We hope that
he ripping open
of his first
in
Appellate
socampaign
outraged
by a 146-page transcript of Dockery’s
testimony
before
friends, “Well, at least he’s 1990. He trounced the ingets excited about it today.” ages like it was Christmas
not
a
politician.”
cumbent,
Al
Stahl,
garnerThe
45-year-old
suffers
morning,
tossing
208th Harris
County grand jury on April 21, 2003, that they entered
it into the public recordwrapfor judges
from chronic pneumonia ping paper, ribbons and
But Sadler, now 66, got ing over 60 percent of the
the itch to run for county vote. By the time he retires
and has to stay tethered to bows aside to reveal stuffed
to review.
an electric oxygen pump in animals, Hello Kitty dolls
judge after being appoint- at the end of the month,
Sadler will
haveinquire.
six terms Noah
ed to a committee
to studydon’t
Edwardsinterrogate.
gets a pat on the head They
from “Santa”
order to breathe.
She saidappear
and Nerf guns.
In it, grand
jurors
just
They
intimidate.
They
to abandon
the efficiency of MontSadler continues on B2 Clutch during Saturday’s event at Toyota Center.
she didn’t want her illness Goodfellows continues on B3
their duty to serve as a check on overzealous government prosecution and instead join the team.
“Unbelievable,
“ veteran criminal defense
attorney Pat McCann said after I asked him to read the
Houston’s First Baptist Chur
rch
The they
Loopwere
Campus
document. “When she went in there, Mr. Brown had an alibi. When
finished browbeating
at 4p & 6p
her with her children, he didn’t. That’s the single biggest misuse and abuse of the grand jury system I
Cypress Campus
have ever seen.”
at historic Tin Hall
Rizzo and Lynn Hardaway with the DA’s office declined comment, citing
a state law that keeps grand
at 4p & 6p
jury proceedings secret.
CANDLELIGHT SERVICES
Sienna Campus
At first, the fact that Dockery
seemed to be “a good, nice, hard-working
lady, “ in the words of one
at 4p & 6p
Wed,
24 But jurors soon seized
grand juror, gave her credibility with
theDec
group.
on her vulnerabilities and fear.
Dave Rossman
Christmas Eve
HoustonsFirst.org/Christmas
Created on Adobe Document Server 2.0
“Hey, Dan, “ the foreman calls to the prosecutor. “What are the punishments for perjury and aggravated perjury?”
“It’s up to 10 years, “ Rizzo responds.
“In prison. OK, “ the foreman says.
“Oh no, “ says another grand juror as if on cue, echoing other commentary that reads at times like a
Greek chorus.
Every word challenged
“I’m just trying to answer all your questions to the best of my ability, “ Dockery says.
A bit later, a female juror asks pointedly: “What are you protecting him from?”
“I’m not protecting him from anything. No ma’am. I wouldn’t dare do that, “ Dockery eventually responds. As Rizzo and the grand jurors parse Dockery’s every word and challenge each statement, she
complains they’re confusing her.
“No, we’re not confusing you, “ a grand juror says. “We just want to find out the truth.”
Although Dockery says repeatedly that she knew it was Brown on her couch that morning, the foreman tries to get her to subscribe to an implausible theory that it was somebody else on her couch.
She doesn’t budge. The group takes a break - one of several.
When the grand jury returns, the foreman says the members are not convinced by Dockery’s story
and “wanted to express our concern” for her children if she doesn’t come clean.
“That’s why we’re really pulling this testimony, “ the foreman tells her.
The foreman adds that if the evidence shows she’s perjuring herself “then you know the kids are
going to be taken by Child Protective Services, and you’re going to the penitentiary and you won’t see
your kids for a long time.”
‘Think about your kids’
Rizzo goes on to accuse Dockery of misleading the grand jury. Then, after being told again and again
to think about her children, Dockery changes her story a bit. She says Brown was not at the house
when she left for work.
“No, no, no, “ she finally blurts out.
“One minute, Ericka, “ a grand juror says a bit later, apparently sensing an opportunity. “He wasn’t
in the house when you put your kids on the bus either, was (he)?”
“I’m trying to remember, “ she says.
“Think about your kids, darling, “ a grand juror says.
“I’m trying to remember, “ Dockery says.
“That’s what we’re concerned about here, is your kids, “ the foreman says.
“He was not at the house, “ a grand juror urges.
“We’re as much concerned about your kids as you are, “ the foreman says. “So, tell the truth.”
“He was not in the house when you put your kids on the bus, was he?” a grand juror says.
“Tell the truth, girl.”
“Yes, “ Dockery says finally. “He was there.”
A bit later, Dockery acquiesces on that point, saying that Brown was not in her house earlier that
morning, either.
Pivotal phone call
There’s a long break. Whatever happened during that time must have been profound. Dockery comes
back in and tells yet another, completely different, story - that she left her house far earlier than she’d
said previously, to rekindle a relationship with an old lover, and therefore doesn’t know what time
Brown left.
Rizzo, his patience seemingly wearing thin, suggests again he doesn’t believe her story. “I think that
you’re up to your neck involved in this deal, “ he says.
He is intent on getting Dockery to admit she made a call to one of the suspects, as he says records
show.
“I never called. I never called, “ she says.
“Girl, you just made a big mistake, “ a grand juror says.
One of them advises her to get an attorney.
“We’re done, “ Rizzo announces.
And although Dockery had never been implicated in the crime, a grand juror closes out Dockery’s
testimony by leveling the harshest, most intimidating allegation yet.
“I think she was with him at the check cashing place.”
Months later, Dockery found herself in jail charged with perjury for allegedly lying about what time
she last saw Brown the day of the murder and whether she called another suspect. She faced bail she
couldn’t pay and, apparently, one cruel choice - stay locked up away from her children, or tell them
what they wanted to hear.
(Coming next, part II of Dockery’s story)
[email protected]
LISA FALKENBERG
Commentary
But the prosecutor, Dan
Rizzo, didn’t believe her. And
neither did the Harris County
grand jury listening to her
testimony.
They seemed convinced that
Ericka Jean Dockery’s boyfriend
of six months, Alfred Dewayne
Brown, had murdered veteran
Houston police officer Charles
R. Clark during a three-man
burglary of a check-cashing
place, and they didn’t seem to be
willing to believe Dockery’s testimony that he was at her house
“Sir, I don’t know anything
else,” the young mother of three
told a Harris County prosecutor
on an April morning in 2003.
porting Brown’s contention that
he called Dockery that morning from her apartment phone
had mysteriously turned up in
a homicide detective’s garage,
more than seven years after he
was convicted and sentenced
to death. The Harris County
District Attorney’s Office maintained Rizzo, now retired, must
have inadvertently lost the record, and agreed to a new trial.
The Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals inexplicably has sat on
the case for more than a year.
Initially, Dockery’s story
meshed with Brown’s. She told
grand jurors he was indeed
asleep on her couch at the early
morning hour when prosecutors believed he was scouting
venues. Dockery also confirmed
the land-line call to her workplace — made at the same time
prosecutors placed Brown at
an apartment complex with
suspects, changing clothes and
watching TV news coverage of
the crime.
CITY | STATE
INSIDE
Fired Kyle Field
construction worker
claims he sabotaged
the stadium.
Page B4
Houston Chronicle
the morning of the murder.
“If we find out that you’re not
telling the truth, we’re coming
after you,” one grand juror tells
Dockery.
“You won’t be able to get a job
flipping burgers,” says another.
Dockery tells the group that
if she believed Brown actually
killed people, she’d turn him in
herself: “If he did it, he deserves
to get whatever is coming to
him. Truly,” she says.
In May, I reported that a
land-line phone record sup-
Falkenberg continues on B4
EDITORIAL
Affirmative action
suit against UT still
ill-considered and
poorly timed.
Page B8
Houston Chronicle | Thursday, July 17, 2014 | HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com
@HoustonChron
Section B xxx
CDC closure may affect work at UTMB biohazard lab
As agency enhances safety protocol,
Galveston facility could have to curb
research on lethal pathogens
By Harvey Rice
GALVESTON — The
closure of a U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention
laboratory
because of a potentially
life-threatening release
of anthrax could disrupt
operations at the Galveston National Laboratory,
which researches some of
the world’s deadliest diseases.
The National Laboratory
on the campus of the Uni-
versity of Texas Medical
Branch works closely with
the CDC on several projects, including the study of
the Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, lab director
James LeDuc said. Those efforts and other projects are
likely to be jeopardized the
longer the delay in reopening the Bioterrorism Rapid
Response and Advanced
Technology Laboratory on
the CDC Roybal Campus in
Atlanta, he said.
“If it goes on for any
COURTS
Where
does
HCC
trustee
reside?
length of time, it will impact
that,” LeDuc said about the
Crimean Congo study.
The closure also could
interfere with the National
Lab’s attempt to land a
contract for evaluating anthrax treatments because
the CDC would be doing
some of the work, LeDuc
said. The Galveston laboratory is at the forefront of
research on the most contagious and lethal pathogens
on the planet.
A CDC spokesman said
in an email Wednesday that
its Roybal laboratory would
reopen as soon as a safety
review was completed but
Researchers
work in a
Level 4 lab at
the Galveston
National
Laboratory
at the
University
of Texas
Medical
Branch. The
lab works
on some of
the world’s
mostly
deadly
diseases.
University of Texas
Medical Branch
Lab continues on B7
PORTER
Workman’s leg amputated
after dead oak collapses
By Benjamin Wermund
Houston Community
College Trustee Dave
Wilson, whose name has
become a staple on local
election ballots, has made
a habit of claiming one
residence after another to
qualify for his numerous
runs for office, a Harris
County attorney argued in
court Wednesday.
Wilson also has claimed
tax exemptions at a home
on Lake Lane, which is in
the Lone Star College System district. Lake Lane is
where his wife lives and
where he raised his children, spends his weekends
and has his family gatherings, Douglas Ray, an assistant county attorney,
told a jury in his opening
argument in a case to determine where exactly Wilson
lives.
Wilson lives exactly
where he says he lives: in
a “fully furnished” apartment in a warehouse on W.
34th Street, in District II of
the HCC system, defense
attorney Keith Gross told
the jury. Just because his
wife lives on Lake Lane
does not mean it has to be
his residence, Gross argued.
If Wilson, accused of
claiming a false residence
in his run for his HCC
seat, in fact lived outside
CAMPAIGN 2014
Battle for
cash in
No. 2 race
is even —
for now
By David Saleh Rauf
and Peggy Fikac
Marie D. De Jesús / Houston Chronicle
Mary Beleele, 83, of Porter feels upset about the accident that took place in the backyard of her home
when a man hired by her daughter to cut a tree on her property got pinned by a branch.
By Mihir Zaveri
“I’d never
have had him out
if I knew he’d
get hurt.”
Mary Beleele,
owner of the old
dead oak that
Ray Leyva was
cutting down
when it collapsed,
pinning his leg
HCC continues on B2
Mary Beleele’s wooded neighborhood in Porter is quiet at noon on
Wednesday, as a dog walks lazily
by and a neighbor smiles and waves
from across the street.
But a pile of sawed-off branches
and a ladder lying askew at the base
of a dead oak tree in Beleele’s yard betray the tragic and bizarre sequence
of events that happened the day before, when a man she hired to cut the
tree lost his leg after part of the tree
collapsed on him.
“I’d never have had him out if I
knew he’d get hurt,” Beleele said.
Ray Leyva, 42, was high up in the
tree cutting it when it collapsed, said
Steve Solis, who occasionally worked
with Leyva and was helping him
Tuesday. Part of the tree pinned his
leg near a fork in the tree and dangled
Leyva backward, Solis said. He said
Leyva may have been cutting the tree
at a point that was too low, causing it
to collapse.
Solis said Leyva was bleeding profusely. Beleele said Leyva was yelling
and screaming in pain.
“He knew it was hurting, and it
Amputation continues on B4
AUSTIN — Democratic
lieutenant governor nominee Leticia Van de Putte
posted an impressive haul
this week — cash raked in
since the beginning of the
year via a nearly nonstop
fundraising blitz.
But the roughly $2 million raised by the San Antonio state senator may
quickly be swamped by
her opponent, Republican
Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, who this election season already has shown the
ability to summon the big
GOP money guns.
The latest campaign finance reports showcase
perhaps the key factor determining whether Van de
Putte will be able to compete with Patrick deep into
the homestretch: her ability to raise cash.
According to new reports, Van de Putte has
outpaced Patrick since
the last week of May, raising $1.2 million to Patrick’s
roughly $1 million. That
haul included $100,000 in
contributions from Houston trial lawyer Amber
Mostyn and Houston investor Lillie Robertson.
“She has the right vision for Texas and wants
to change the direction it’s
going in,” said South Texas
Big continues on B3
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Created on Adobe Document Server 2.0
B4 | Thursday, July 17, 2014 | Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com x x
CITY | STATE
Fired Kyle Field worker claims sabotage
By Kolten Parker
SAN ANTONIO — A
construction worker who
was fired this week for
hanging a University of Alabama flag on Texas A&M
University’s Kyle Field suggested in several Facebook
posts that he sabotaged the
stadium.
“This stadium will never
be ready for this season, I’m
putting iron in backwards
and wrong holing everything!!” Bobby Livingston
posted on Facebook on
Feb. 28, along with a photo
of himself in a University of
Alabama shirt.
Livingston, an ironworker who posted several
pictures working on site,
was part of a crew making
major renovations to Kyle
Field in College Station.
In an April post, Livingston, 44, said: “If you
ever attend a Texas A&M
football game, don’t sit at
the Northeast End Zone,
it was raining today and I
made 2 very “questionable”
welds!!”
Inspector: It’s safe
Paul Hawryluk, director
of facility services for Raba
Kistner Engineering, the
inspector for the Kyle Field
renovation, told KBTX that
the construction is safe.
“All steel fabrication has
been observed and critical welds tested/verified
at the plants by the third
party firm, Raba Kistner
Engineering. Once delivered to the site, field welds,
moment connections, and
bolt torquing are tested/
verified in accordance to
building code and engineering specification by
the third party inspectors.
Structural engineers of re-
tions to Raba Kistner Engineering.
Alabama and A&M
are division rivals in the
Southeastern Conference.
Last year, the Aggies lost to
the Crimson Tide 49-42 in
College Station.
“Its only taken 43 years,
but I think I’ve finally
grown up!!” Livingston
posted March 20.
cord review the inspection
reports as well as conduct
site observation/review of
the in place steel,” Hawryluk said in a statement to
KBTX.
No A&M comment
Steve Moore, vice chancellor for marketing and
communication for the
Texas A&M University
System, declined to comment and deferred ques-
[email protected]
Amputation was performed at the scene
Amputation from page B1
was broke, and he was saying ‘Help, help I know I got
a broken leg,’ ” Solis said.
Leyva is in critical condition at Memorial Hermann
Texas Trauma Institute,
said Alex Loessin, a hospital spokeswoman.
Help from across street
Solis said Leyva called
him on Wednesday, and
while Leyva did not remember parts of the day
before, he sounded coherent and was worrying
about his dog.
Solis and Leyva had arrived about 4 p.m. to cut the
oak in Beleele’s yard, which
she said had been dead for
about a year. Beleele, who
has lived in that house at
the corner of Summer Hills
Boulevard and Butterfly
Lane for 20 years, said she
worried that a hurricane or
storm would bring the tree
down onto her house.
She said she did not
know Solis or Leyva, but
found them through her
daughter.
Eric Brocken, who was
arriving at his former inlaws’ place nearby that
afternoon, heard the loud
crack and ran across the
street to help after telling
his ex-father-in-law to dial
911.
He leaped over Beleele’s
fence, grabbed a ladder
and climbed into the tree.
He and Solis then held the
man up to make sure he
wouldn’t slip out, fall and
break his neck.
“It seemed like an eternity,” Brocken, 40, said. “I
couldn’t let the man fall.”
Half-ton of wood
Brett Audilet, captain
of the Porter Fire Department, said Leyva was
pinned by more than 1,000
pounds of wood and it took
five firefighters about half
an hour to free him.
“The fire department
went up there and cut limb
by limb,” Solis said.
Brocken and Solis said
emergency responders
amputated Leyva’s leg at
the scene. It was unclear if
the amputation occurred
in the tree or after Leyva
was moved.
Fire officials and a
spokeswoman from the
Montgomery County Hospital District declined to
provide details on the amputation, citing medical
privacy.
Solis said Leyva had
worked on trees and fences
his entire life.
Audilet said that, though
the fire department had responded to many incidents
where people are stuck in
trees, he had never seen
anything like this.
“This is probably a oncein-a-career call,” he said.
[email protected]
Montgomery County Police Reporter
The Porter Fire Department transports Ray Leyva,
whose leg was amputated as a result of a treetrimming accident in Porter. Emergency responders
amputated Leyva’s leg at the scene.
Falkenberg: Finally, she gave in
Falkenberg from page B1
Neither the prosecutor
nor the grand jury would
take Dockery’s “truth” for
an answer.
The young woman, a
home health aide who
made Subway sandwiches by night, had no
attorney. No experience
dealing with authorities.
No criminal history aside
from traffic tickets.
She caved. At Brown’s
capital murder trial in
October 2005, Dockery
was a key prosecution
witness, helping seal her
boyfriend’s death sentence
by telling the court that
when she asked him if he
did it, he had confessed,
saying, “‘I was there. I was
there.’”
How she got from one
point to another would
be hard to imagine. But
thanks to a formerly
confidential document
in Brown’s court file, we
don’t have to imagine.
Part of public record
In a rare, disturbing
glimpse into the shrouded
world of the Texas grand
jury system, we can read
with our own eyes the
beginnings of the young
woman’s tortured evolution.
Appellate attorneys
were so outraged by a 146page transcript of Dockery’s testimony before
the 208th Harris County
grand jury on April 21,
2003, that they entered it
into the public record for
judges to review.
In it, grand jurors don’t
just inquire. They interrogate. They intimidate.
They appear to abandon
their duty to serve as a
check on overzealous government prosecution and
instead join the team.
“Unbelievable,”
veteran criminal defense
attorney Pat McCann said
after I asked him to read
the document. “When she
went in there, Mr. Brown
had an alibi. When they
were finished browbeating her with her children,
he didn’t. That’s the single
biggest misuse and abuse
of the grand jury system I
have ever seen.”
Rizzo and Lynn Hardaway with the DA’s office
declined comment, citing a
state law that keeps grand
jury proceedings secret.
At first, the fact that
Dockery seemed to be “a
good, nice, hard-working
lady,” in the words of one
grand juror, gave her credibility with the group. But
jurors soon seized on her
vulnerabilities and fear.
“Hey, Dan,” the foreman calls to the prosecutor. “What are the punishments for perjury and
aggravated perjury?”
“It’s up to 10 years,”
Rizzo responds.
“In prison. OK,” the
foreman says.
“Oh no,” says another
grand juror as if on cue,
echoing other commentary that reads at times
like a Greek chorus.
Every word challenged
“I’m just trying to
answer all your questions
to the best of my ability,”
Dockery says.
A bit later, a female
juror asks pointedly:
“What are you protecting
him from?”
“I’m not protecting
him from anything. No
ma’am. I wouldn’t dare do
that,” Dockery eventually
responds. As Rizzo and
the grand jurors parse
Dockery’s every word and
challenge each statement,
she complains they’re
confusing her.
“No, we’re not confusing you,” a grand juror
says. “We just want to find
out the truth.”
Although Dockery says
repeatedly that she knew
it was Brown on her couch
that morning, the foreman
tries to get her to subscribe to an implausible
theory that it was somebody else on her couch.
She doesn’t budge. The
group takes a break — one
of several.
When the grand jury
returns, the foreman
says the members are not
convinced by Dockery’s
story and “wanted to
express our concern” for
her children if she doesn’t
come clean.
“That’s why we’re really
pulling this testimony,”
the foreman tells her.
The foreman adds that
if the evidence shows she’s
perjuring herself “then
you know the kids are
going to be taken by Child
Protective Services, and
you’re going to the penitentiary and you won’t see
your kids for a long time.”
‘Think about your kids’
Rizzo goes on to accuse
Dockery of misleading the
grand jury. Then, after being told again and again to
think about her children,
Dockery changes her story a bit. She says Brown
was not at the house when
she left for work.
“No, no, no,” she finally
blurts out.
“One minute, Ericka,”
a grand juror says a bit
later, apparently sensing an opportunity. “He
wasn’t in the house when
you put your kids on the
bus either, was (he)?”
“I’m trying to remember,” she says.
“Think about your
kids, darling,” a grand
juror says.
“I’m trying to remember,” Dockery says.
“That’s what we’re concerned about here, is your
kids,” the foreman says.
“He was not at the
house,” a grand juror
urges.
“We’re as much concerned about your kids
as you are,” the foreman
says. “So, tell the truth.”
“He was not in the
house when you put your
kids on the bus, was he?”
a grand juror says.
“Tell the truth, girl.”
“Yes,” Dockery says
finally. “He was there.”
A bit later, Dockery
acquiesces on that point,
saying that Brown was
not in her house earlier
that morning, either.
Pivotal phone call
There’s a long break.
Whatever happened during that time must have
been profound. Dockery
comes back in and tells
yet another, completely
different, story — that she
left her house far earlier
than she’d said previously,
to rekindle a relationship
with an old lover, and
therefore doesn’t know
what time Brown left.
Rizzo, his patience
seemingly wearing thin,
suggests again he doesn’t
believe her story. “I think
that you’re up to your
neck involved in this
deal,” he says.
He is intent on getting Dockery to admit
she made a call to one of
the suspects, as he says
records show.
“I never called. I never
called,” she says.
“Girl, you just made
a big mistake,” a grand
juror says.
One of them advises
her to get an attorney.
“We’re done,” Rizzo
announces.
And although Dockery
had never been implicated in the crime, a grand
juror closes out Dockery’s
testimony by leveling the
harshest, most intimidating allegation yet.
“I think she was with
him at the check cashing
place.”
Months later, Dockery found herself in jail
charged with perjury for
allegedly lying about what
time she last saw Brown
the day of the murder
and whether she called
another suspect. She faced
bail she couldn’t pay and,
apparently, one cruel
choice — stay locked up
away from her children,
or tell them what they
wanted to hear.
(Coming next, part II
of Dockery’s story)
[email protected]
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INSIDE
New records show gas
flaring in the oil patch
continues to grow in
the Eagle Ford Shale.
Page B3
Houston Chronicle
@HoustonChron
CITY | STATE
EDITORIAL
Texas lawmakers can
address the income
gap that divides us by
funding education.
Page B13
Houston Chronicle | Sunday, December 21, 2014 | HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com
Section B xx
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Evidence mounts that wrong man could be retried in cop killing
LISA FALKENBERG
Commentary
decides whether to retry Alfred
Dewayne Brown for the slaying
of a Houston police officer.
She’s got a dead cop on her
hands, Charles R. Clark, a 20year veteran, beloved husband
and brother, who was gunned
down as he tried to stop a threeman robbery of an ACE checkcashing place in April 2003.
Somebody must pay.
I’m sure Anderson would
prefer that a guilty person pay.
But in the absence of another
suspect, the district attorney
COMMENTARY
may feel pressure — from the
public, from law enforcement,
from the victim’s family, from
political advisers — to go after
Brown a second time, even
though the state’s case against
him has unraveled to mere
shreds.
Last month, an appellate
court threw out Brown’s conviction and death sentence because
the DA’s office withheld key
evidence at trial that supports
Brown’s contention that he was
home the morning of the rob-
bery. No physical evidence ever
tied Brown to the crime. Nearly
every witness who fingered him
has recanted.
But what if there were
another suspect, a legitimate
suspect that mounting evidence
suggested could have committed the crime instead of Brown?
Wouldn’t we expect the district
attorney to take a hard look
before pursuing another weak
case against Brown?
Of course. And records show
there is such a suspect. His
name is Jero Dorty. And the district attorney’s office has been
aware of his potential role in
Clark’s death for at least seven
years.
In 2007, Brown’s writ attorneys with the firm K&L Gates
named Dorty as a “critical suspect” and spent nearly 10 pages
of an appeal laying out the
reasons why. In 2008, Brown’s
attorneys filed an emergency
motion to test Dorty’s DNA. But
prosecutors dragged their feet.
Disturbing peek behind grand
jury curtain
Let’s face it. Potential innocence isn’t the only thing Harris
County District Attorney Devon
Anderson is considering as she
Falkenberg continues on B10
By Lisa Falkenberg
Family
“Sir, I don’t know anything else, “ the young mother of three told a Harris County
tiesprosecutor
raise on an
April morning in 2003.
But the prosecutor, Dan Rizzo, didn’t believe her. And neither did the Harrisred
County
grand jury
flags
listening to her testimony.
no-bid
They seemed convinced that Ericka Jean Dockery’s boyfriend of six months, on
Alfred
Dewayne
Brown, had murdered veteran Houston police officer Charles R. Clark during a three-man burglary of
contracts
a check-cashing place, and they didn’t seem to be willing to believe Dockery’s testimony that he was at
KATY
Political watchdogs,
her house the morning of the murder.
lawmakers note links
“If we find out that you’re not telling the truth, we’re coming after you, “ one in
grand
juror tells Dock21CT controversy
ery.
By Brian M. Rosenthal
“You won’t be able to get a job flipping burgers, “ says another.
AUSTIN — When then-Texas
health official Jack Stick sugDockery tells the group that if she believed Brown actually killed people, she’d
turn
inthatherself:
gested
earlierhim
this year
a
company he had helped land $20
million
in
no-bid
state
contracts
“If he did it, he deserves to get whatever is coming to him. Truly, “ she says.
might get another one through a
sister department,
was refer- DockIn May, I reported that a land-line phone record supporting Brown’s contention
that hehe called
ring the firm to a familiar face:
Frianita
Wilson,
wife
of Doug
ery that morning from her apartment phone had mysteriously turned up in a homicide
detective’s
gaWilson, who as Stick’s boss was
overseeing
the
first
project.
From
right,
Tremel
Cooper,
11,
Bryan
Worthy,
9,
Katelyn
Washington,
16,
and
Byron
Worthy,
9,
play
street
basketball
near
rage, more
than
seven
years
after
he
was
convicted
and
sentenced
to
death.
The
Harris
County
District
Of course, Stick — then the
their homes on the corner of Roberts and Danover in Katy. Some residents call the area around Roberts Road “the ghetto.”
at the stateand
healthagreed
Attorney’s Office maintained Rizzo, now retired, must have inadvertently
lost top
thelawyer
record,
might qualify for Houston
commission — could also have
As suburban market skyrockets,
Habitat for Humanity’s first
turned for help to his own wife,
to a new trial. The Texas Court of
Criminal
Appeals
sat on the Erica
case
for more than a
low-cost
options
struggle inexplicably
to survive home has
Stick, who served as chief
in the Katy area. But
rising land prices have put
of staff at the mega-agency, which
year.
By Leah Binkovitz
runs all health and human serplanned communities. The that project on hold.
soon-to-come, 2,000-home
As the Katy area grows
vices and has a $33 billion annual
Initially, Dockery’s story meshed
with
Brown’s.
She
told
grand
jurors
he
was
indeed asleep on her
budget.
Families moving to Cane Island touts a trained and prospers, affordable
And that wasn’t his only famthe flourishing Katy area golden Retriever that will housing seems increasingcouch at the early morning hourcanwhen
scouting
Dockery
also
scan realprosecutors
estate list- pose for believed
photographs andhe
ly was
out of reach,
sometimes venues.
ily connection
at a state agenings, walk through model offer its business card to by design and sometimes
cy. His brother, Jeremy Stick,
confirmed the land-line call to her
workplace
at the same
time ofprosecutors
placed
Brown at an
homes
or visit open hous-- made
potential buyers.
as a reflection
a broader
worked
at the same department
es. They’ll see a $1.2 million
Meanwhile, in a small problem in many commuas Frianita Wilson.
apartment complex with suspects,
changing
watching
TV
the
strip mall and
storefront
in nities ringing
five-bedroom
on Brightonclothes
thenews
Houston coverage
The web ofof
family
ties crime.
at the
Sky Lane, a four-bedroom downtown Katy, families area. Katy’s city governTexas Health and Human Serattend atake
differentDockery’s
kind of ment lacks
Crystal Meadow
any sort of housvices
Commission is raising new
Neither the prosecutor nor theongrand
juryPlace
would
“truth”
for an
answer.
listed for $363,000, or open house, reviewing ing program, the county’s
questions in a growing contract
documentsSubway
to see if they sandwiches
model homes
from masterHousing continues onby
B5 night,
controversy
roiling
the Capitol.
The young woman, a home health
aide
who made
had
no
attorney. No
State continues on B2
experience dealing with authorities. No criminal history aside from traffic tickets.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY JUDGE
She caved.
At Brown’s capital murder trial in October 2005, Dockery was a key prosecution witness,
Rockets
host party for Goodfellows children
Sadler
legacy
ofsentence
helping seal herleaves
boyfriend’s
death
by telling the court that when she asked him if he did it, he
By Michelle Iracheta
to stop her children, espefiscal care
amid
had confessed,
saying,
“ ‘I growth
was there. I was there.’ “
cially Memo, from enjoying
By Cindy Horswell
Memo Archundia had the game.
gomery County’s governHow she got from one
point
to
another
would
be
hard
to
imagine.
But
thanks
to
confidenment. The county native
never been to a basketball a “Iformerly
have confidence
in
Montgomery County concluded at the end of the
game before Saturday, but myself that I can play any
tial document
in Brown’s
court
file,
Judge Alan Sadler,
who is two-year
study that
with we don’t have to imagine.
the 8-year-old said he has sport,” said her son. “MayMarie D. De Jesús / Houston Chronicle
Boom puts
homes for
working
class out
of reach
stepping down after nearly
always been interested in
his finance degree from the
be basketball for the Rock-
ets.”
quarter of a century in University of Texas and 18
sports.
Part ofaoffice,
public
record
never dreamed
of a years’ work experience, he
“His podiatrist
On
Saturday
could run a tighter ship by
always said he’d
night, they were in
career in politics.
In a rare,
glimpse
into the shrouded world of the Texas
grand
jury system,
wesuite
can
the job himself.
a private
at read
Whendisturbing
Sadler married doing
make
a great basketToyota Center that
his wife, Mimi, 34 years
“So naively, I jumped
ball player because
with ourago,own
beginnings
was joyfully chahe waseyes
workingthe
in in
and ran, and damn of
if I the young woman’s tortured evolution.
he’s so tall,” said his
otic. Children were
banking and real estate didn’t win,” recalled Sadler
mother, Sonia Arctheir pack-the
and she attorneys
would tell her were
hundia. “We hope that
he ripping open
of his first
in
Appellate
socampaign
outraged
by a 146-page transcript of Dockery’s
testimony
before
friends, “Well, at least he’s 1990. He trounced the ingets excited about it today.” ages like it was Christmas
not
a
politician.”
cumbent,
Al
Stahl,
garnerThe
45-year-old
suffers
morning,
tossing
208th Harris
County grand jury on April 21, 2003, that they entered
it into the public recordwrapfor judges
from chronic pneumonia ping paper, ribbons and
But Sadler, now 66, got ing over 60 percent of the
the itch to run for county vote. By the time he retires
and has to stay tethered to bows aside to reveal stuffed
to review.
an electric oxygen pump in animals, Hello Kitty dolls
judge after being appoint- at the end of the month,
Sadler will
haveinquire.
six terms Noah
ed to a committee
to studydon’t
Edwardsinterrogate.
gets a pat on the head They
from “Santa”
order to breathe.
She saidappear
and Nerf guns.
In it, grand
jurors
just
They
intimidate.
They
to abandon
the efficiency of MontSadler continues on B2 Clutch during Saturday’s event at Toyota Center.
she didn’t want her illness Goodfellows continues on B3
their duty to serve as a check on overzealous government prosecution and instead join the team.
“Unbelievable,
“ veteran criminal defense
attorney Pat McCann said after I asked him to read the
Houston’s First Baptist Chur
rch
The they
Loopwere
Campus
document. “When she went in there, Mr. Brown had an alibi. When
finished browbeating
at 4p & 6p
her with her children, he didn’t. That’s the single biggest misuse and abuse of the grand jury system I
Cypress Campus
have ever seen.”
at historic Tin Hall
Rizzo and Lynn Hardaway with the DA’s office declined comment, citing
a state law that keeps grand
at 4p & 6p
jury proceedings secret.
CANDLELIGHT SERVICES
Sienna Campus
At first, the fact that Dockery
seemed to be “a good, nice, hard-working
lady, “ in the words of one
at 4p & 6p
Wed,
24 But jurors soon seized
grand juror, gave her credibility with
theDec
group.
on her vulnerabilities and fear.
Dave Rossman
Christmas Eve
HoustonsFirst.org/Christmas
Created on Adobe Document Server 2.0
“Hey, Dan, “ the foreman calls to the prosecutor. “What are the punishments for perjury and aggravated perjury?”
“It’s up to 10 years, “ Rizzo responds.
“In prison. OK, “ the foreman says.
“Oh no, “ says another grand juror as if on cue, echoing other commentary that reads at times like a
Greek chorus.
Every word challenged
“I’m just trying to answer all your questions to the best of my ability, “ Dockery says.
A bit later, a female juror asks pointedly: “What are you protecting him from?”
“I’m not protecting him from anything. No ma’am. I wouldn’t dare do that, “ Dockery eventually responds. As Rizzo and the grand jurors parse Dockery’s every word and challenge each statement, she
complains they’re confusing her.
“No, we’re not confusing you, “ a grand juror says. “We just want to find out the truth.”
Although Dockery says repeatedly that she knew it was Brown on her couch that morning, the foreman tries to get her to subscribe to an implausible theory that it was somebody else on her couch.
She doesn’t budge. The group takes a break - one of several.
When the grand jury returns, the foreman says the members are not convinced by Dockery’s story
and “wanted to express our concern” for her children if she doesn’t come clean.
“That’s why we’re really pulling this testimony, “ the foreman tells her.
The foreman adds that if the evidence shows she’s perjuring herself “then you know the kids are
going to be taken by Child Protective Services, and you’re going to the penitentiary and you won’t see
your kids for a long time.”
‘Think about your kids’
Rizzo goes on to accuse Dockery of misleading the grand jury. Then, after being told again and again
to think about her children, Dockery changes her story a bit. She says Brown was not at the house
when she left for work.
“No, no, no, “ she finally blurts out.
“One minute, Ericka, “ a grand juror says a bit later, apparently sensing an opportunity. “He wasn’t
in the house when you put your kids on the bus either, was (he)?”
“I’m trying to remember, “ she says.
“Think about your kids, darling, “ a grand juror says.
“I’m trying to remember, “ Dockery says.
“That’s what we’re concerned about here, is your kids, “ the foreman says.
“He was not at the house, “ a grand juror urges.
“We’re as much concerned about your kids as you are, “ the foreman says. “So, tell the truth.”
“He was not in the house when you put your kids on the bus, was he?” a grand juror says.
“Tell the truth, girl.”
“Yes, “ Dockery says finally. “He was there.”
A bit later, Dockery acquiesces on that point, saying that Brown was not in her house earlier that
morning, either.
Pivotal phone call
There’s a long break. Whatever happened during that time must have been profound. Dockery comes
back in and tells yet another, completely different, story - that she left her house far earlier than she’d
said previously, to rekindle a relationship with an old lover, and therefore doesn’t know what time
Brown left.
Rizzo, his patience seemingly wearing thin, suggests again he doesn’t believe her story. “I think that
you’re up to your neck involved in this deal, “ he says.
He is intent on getting Dockery to admit she made a call to one of the suspects, as he says records
show.
“I never called. I never called, “ she says.
“Girl, you just made a big mistake, “ a grand juror says.
One of them advises her to get an attorney.
“We’re done, “ Rizzo announces.
And although Dockery had never been implicated in the crime, a grand juror closes out Dockery’s
testimony by leveling the harshest, most intimidating allegation yet.
“I think she was with him at the check cashing place.”
Months later, Dockery found herself in jail charged with perjury for allegedly lying about what time
she last saw Brown the day of the murder and whether she called another suspect. She faced bail she
couldn’t pay and, apparently, one cruel choice - stay locked up away from her children, or tell them
what they wanted to hear.
(Coming next, part II of Dockery’s story)
[email protected]
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