VOL 7 No. 8
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FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2014
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Best Artwork
Best of Show artwork by Michelle Huang of Dulles High School. This year, approximately 600 elementary, middle and high school students produced western-themed art pieces to showcase in Fort Bend ISD’s annual art show. Judges from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™ School Art Committee selected 11 students to advance to the rodeo’s school art competition, where their art will be further judged and exhibited at the Reliant Center. Story on Page 8.
Case clearance rate shows ‘extraordinary improvement,’ says Sheriff Nehls By SESHADRI KUMAR The overall number of crimes committed in the unincorporated area of Fort Bend County in 2013 is down 10 percent as indicated in the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office’s Uniform Crime Reporting statistics. Seven crime categories, called Part 1 crimes, include Burglary, Larceny, Motor Vehicle Theft, Aggravated Assault, Robbery, Rape and Homicide. Case clearance ratios when compared to the past decade show an extraordinary improvement. The overall crime clearance average from 2001 to 2010 was 12 percent. The overall crime clearance rate in 2013 was 27 percent, according to a press release issued by Sheriff Troy Nehls’ office. “We are extremely proud of the work our staff has illustrated in 2013,” said Sheriff Troy E. Nehls. “We promised our clearance rates would improve, and they did so in a dramatic fashion.” The most dramatic improvement was in the Aggravated Assault category. In 2013, 79 percent of the Aggravated Assaults were cleared compared to last decade’s clearance rate of 47 percent.
Most races colorless, one ‘colored’ By SESHADRI KUMAR Early voting has begun in the March 4 party primary elections. In Fort Bend County, as in other parts of Texas, the contest is keen in only in a few races, that too in the Republican Party. In Fort Bend, of the six contested judicial races, the county court-at-law judge No. 1 is an open seat as the incumbent is not running and in the remaining five, the incumbents are seeking re-election. Each one of them faces an opponent. The campaign, in most cases, has been lackluster, and could be described as colorless, but in one case, (the district attorney) maybe the race is “colored.” Of late, candidates spring up just at the time of filing for the election. Some of them enter politics for the first time. They may have no name recognition either. Thus, they have to wage a battle for a few weeks to defeat the incumbents. If an incumbent has earned a bad reputation and if that is public knowledge, a genuine opponent could come up and challenge the incumbent. The campaign can gain some traction in such instances. If the incumbent is non-controversial, then the challenger should be so uniquely qualified that voters would be tempted to dump the incumbent and hire the newcomer. Those who have a personal grievance against an incumbent, often recruit or find someone and goad the person to file. There lies the problem. The challengers suddenly find all the problems with the incumbent, on the eve of the primary election and try to convince voters. If there are really issues with an incumbent, they should have been exposed earlier, during nonpolitical season or whenever they occur. To wait for an election to take advantage of a controversy or crisis does not carry conviction and such campaigns suffer from lack of credibility. Let us look at the district at-
torney’s race, for example. Incumbent District Attorney John Healey is challenged by Dawn Zell Wright. Admittedly, she has been in Fort Bend for a little more than two years and that does not disqualify her from running for office. She made a virtue out of her recent trial experience by saying that Healey did not try a case in the last 20 years. Healey has been a prosecutor for 11 years before he was appointed DA. Wright in a paid article wrote about the recent “knockout” case involving a 79-year-old African American victim who was knocked to the ground by a white man from Katy. She said “the failure of the DA’s office to timely prosecute the case is currently depriving the elderly citizen of the much needed victim rights afforded to him by the State of Texas.” Healey says Wright is shooting from her hip and does not know the law. Whether the state prosecutes or not, if there is a legitimate crime report, the victim is eligible for compensation. In this case the victim has already applied for assistance and a claim number has already been issued. A Houston Chronicle article also has given a misleading impression, according to Healey. Healey said he went to the victim and his attorney and offered assistance. Race is a factor in this case. The Katy Police Department, believing that only the federal government can prosecute a “hate crime” sent the case to the FBI, without the knowledge of the Fort Bend County District Attorney. An eager U.S. Department of Justice under Eric Holder rushed two DOJ officials to Houston to help investigate the “knockout” and expedite prosecution. Healey was contacted by the U.S. prosecutor’s office, when it was ready to arrest the white man. Healey then spoke to the
victim and his attorney and explained the legal ramifications, of both the state and the federal prosecution. Despite the federal prosecution, the state still has its jurisdiction and can prosecute the case later. Healey could have taken over the case from the FBI, but that too could have been viewed with colored blinkers. The knockout case is national news and the DOJ is already in the picture. If Healey decides to wrest the case away from the FBI, he cannot simply piggyback on the evidence collected by the FBI. He has to re-do the investigation, while the FBI was ready with a warrant to arrest. If Healey had taken the case from the federal government, in the current election campaign he would have been accused of taking a hate crime, just to show that he is tough and he would prosecute a white man for a crime against a black man. Whether he prosecuted the case first or last, Healey could not escape racial intonations. Warren Diepraam, a prosecutor is running against incumbent judge Sandy Bielstein. Healey’s office perceives Bielstein as more defense-friendly, unlike any other court in the county. This has given rise to the rumor that Healey paid Diepraam’s filing fee, which is not true. If Healey’s opponent got a contribution from a former prosecutor and Healey’s adversary, the same day and the same amount as she paid the filing fee, does it mean Healey’s adversary paid her filing fee? Technically, no. Diepraam, though qualified, has entered the game late. He has little time to convince voters why Bielstein should go. As Bielstein told a forum, he needs no on the job training. Overall, the saying “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” pervades these political races, and thus fails to impress.
“My campaign focused on clearance rates and we used the figures from 2001 to 2010, which were the UCR figures available to us when we kicked off our campaign,” Nehls said. “Through the hard work of our dedicated staff, we have accomplished a marked improvement.” Other clearance rates by category are: Auto Theft, 28 percent in 2013 from 18 percent in the last decade; Larceny, 20 percent from 5 percent; Burglary, 11 percent from 4 percent; Robbery, 36 percent from 21 percent; Rape, 57 percent from 35 percent; and Murder, 100 percent from 83 percent. “Our clearance ratios are closer now to the UCR statistics from nearby Montgomery and Brazoria counties, which have similar populations and are considered two of the safest counties in our area,” Nehls said. “Previous reports showed us with significantly lower clearance rates than those counties. “Our continued goal is to make Fort Bend County the safest county in the Greater Houston Area,” he said. “We are committed to that goal and we are on our way to achieving it,” Nehls said. After receiving the press release, this writer send an email to the sheriff’s office with the following questions. “I want to ensure that the claims made in this press release are accurate. “Case clearance ratios when compared to the past decade show an extraordinary improvement.”
Please define the criteria used for “case clearance.” Is it the same as in the previous administration? Does case clearance mean case solved? Is it the same definition as used in DA’s office and in other law enforcement agencies? Have the codes used for processing cases been changed? How just in one year, especially after eliminating wasteful overtime in the crime detection unit, can there be a dramatic increase in case clearance, with lesser staff? If the previous administration could be accused of fudging the numbers, why should one rule out the same possibility in this administration? Sheriff Nehls sent a response: The press release sent out of this office regarding our UCR is accurate. We use the UCR handbook as our guide when reporting the crime statistics. We follow the book. We follow the criteria for “case clearance” according to the book. The previous administration did not follow the book and added their own personal interpretation. The sharp decline in overtime in Criminal Investigation Division (CID) is a result of eliminating scheduled or builtin overtime. Remember during the campaign I discussed all of the Detectives working day shift with Friday, Saturday, and Sundays off? We made a change in the schedule. We now have Detectives working evenings and weekends. This has reduced the wasteful overtime and has
played a role in the much improved crime solve rates. “We have changed the culture and the way we have been doing business at the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office.” However, according to sources, who chose to remain anonymous, the claim is questionable. “Lt. X is running around showing people how they need to be closed so ‘the sheriff can get credit.’ He was out in patrol recently showing some folks how to close out these cases,” according to one source. “It is easy to just close cases but we all know there is no real police work being done here. Please explain to us how the changing of the offense titles improves your solving rate. Or how closing cases out that have no leads improve your “solve rates”! said another. In one whistle blower blog, a comment reads as follows: I have been present for the meetings and conversations about how we will change the way we close cases now. I have recorded every meeting since January 2, 2013. I have also kept all the little closure code print outs our sergeants have given us from the last administration to the current set of screwballs that call themselves running the Sheriffs Office. The codes reflect quite differently from the Wright Administration to the current admin. ... and so are the fudged numbers on the UCR report. Several of us are taking notes and recording because we know it is a matter of time before ... we become the target.”
Houston’s Nina Magon to appear in NBC TV series Dream Builders Nina Verma Magon, a Houstonian and a reputed interior designer has been selected as one of the “12 Best & the Brightest interior designers and Builders in the USA” for a new TV serial which will start showing in March 23, 2014 on NBC. Nate Berkus, the famed interior designer and producer will debut a new reality competition series, American Dream Builders, on NBC on March 23, showcasing the talents of 12 accomplished designers and home builders from around the country. Each week the contestants will be pitted against each other in two massive, transformative home-renovation projects, ultimately competing for a cash prize of $250,000. Daughter of noted Indian American community members in Houston, Dr. Arun and Vinni Verma, Nina Magon, owns two companies in Houston; “Contour Interior Design” and “Capital Builders.” On “American Dream Builders,” Nate Berkus says: To meet “magazine-worthy designs, we had to start with a great cast capable of reaching that level of design. They had to be established — a group focused on maintaining their hard-earned reputations.” To that end, Berkus recruited an accomplished cast of contestants from New York to Huntington Beach and everywhere in between. Houston’s Nina Magon is one of them. Nina has to her credit the 2013 design awards from ASID and houzz, with features
Nina Magon by photographer Michael Khachadoorian for NBC TV serial American Dream Builders. Nina Magon is a multi-award winning interior designer with a passion for creating spaces that are singular and reflective of the clients who live in them. As President and Creative Director of Contour Interior Design in Houston, Nina seeks to first create a vision and then execute it for each client. Contour is lauded in its industry for its integration of design innovation, construction expertise, and business acumen. in House and Home and Luxu- which Nina designed from concept through construction ry Portfolio. She is a former beauty-queen and décor in Houston’s upscale who is used to fierce competi- neighborhood of West Univertion. Nina has a post-graduate sity in 2006, sold for close to degree in architecture and de- a million dollars within two sign from The Art Institute of months of completion. Houston. Her first speculative house, —SESHADRI KUMAR