TRUE DEMOCRACY SPRING 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS
POLICE BRUTALITY
Texas Police Brutality
- Part 1 -- TRUE STORY
- Part 2 -- STATEMENT OF FACTS
- Part 3 -- HERE COMES THE JUDGE
- Part 4
- Part 5
- Part 6
- Part 7
- Part 8
Children are God's way of saying
The world should go on!!
--- Brenda Pitts Bennett
The following account is brutal and shocking. It is not intended as a
blanket condemnation of the entire police force, but rather as an expose on
law enforcement practices in Royse City (in Rockwall County) Texas, as well
as the true story of one family's terrifying plight."
MY STORY is an unbelievable one of Texas Police Brutality, corruption,
nepotism, southern racism, and conspiracy by Royse City, Rockwall County,
State of Texas. This is an example of how a small incident can become an
ongoing major battle.
Please read my true story. I know, it seems bizarre for the State of
Texas, the Royse City Schools, the Royse City Police, the Rockwall County
Sheriff Dept., and others to conspire together against my family, but it is all true and provable. In Rockwall County Texas ( approximate population of 10,000 people), the police, crime watch, the state of Texas employees, and the judges lived on my street and in my neighborhood, and were family members, friends, etc. to each other, making it effortless to aid one another in the revenge harassment of one man. The authorities have caused unbelievable hardships for many in the town of Royse City, Texas, including, but not limited to, illegal jail terms and prison time, etc.
I am forty-five years old with no police record; I have never used drugs
or alcohol and I consider myself a decent law-biding citizen. You have my
permission to check any of our files, and please check files in Rockwall
County evidencing this judge and Rockwall County's illegal system !
After twenty-five years of marriage, and being married at the age of 17
years old, my husband and I divorced. We are the parents of three grown children. All three have birth defects. One child has malformed feet and legs. A different child has mild MR. Another child lives with multiple defects. We had two other babies that deceased before our living children were born, while carrying them. We understand that the fathers' and my blood was incompatible and therefore caused malformations. [Ed's note: Blood incompatiblilty can effect a first pregnancy according to the American Medical Association.]
"During the illegal searches of my home, the police became aware of a certain closet that is always kept locked and they asked me why it was locked. I explained that the closet is kept locked because it contains the prescription medication that my one of my children takes. I have two grandchildren and I don't think that medication should be placed where a child may find it. The policeman, Officer Charles Hall, took the door off the hinges and in the process damaged the doorframe and wall due to his lack of education on remodeling, as they had destroyed many doors and walls in my home during other illegal searches."
MY STORY - How It All Began
After the divorce, I bought a low-income home near my hometown in Royse
City, Texas. This is a very small county [Royse City is approximately 30 miles north east of Dallas] and the DA knows me well from our childhood days. The chief of police of Royse City, Dana Thomasson, was my neighbor. This situation all started with him walking into my home too many times without knocking. He was insistent on wanting to "help because you are divorced," and he said 'You will need my help." After he barged into my home the third time, and made me feel very uneasy with his advancements towards me, I told him to get off my property and to never come back. He took lasting offense.
The following day Chief Thomasson came to my door and told me to keep the
black people off my property. The chief told me if I would keep the
people of color out of my yard, he would leave us alone. "Keep your black friends off this property, or you will live to regret it." He, as a racist, has a problem against blacks. I told him he would not choose our color of friends. My children have many black and brown friends. He told my children's' black friends to leave and stay on "their side of Royse City".
There were times that, as the children would leave my home after a game of
basketball, the police would pull out of the church parking lot (across
the street from my home where they sit 24/7) and detain the kids until curfew time was up and then persue to arrest them or give them a citation for violating curfew.
Another friend of my son, Robert White, was given a ticket because the
police said he flipped them off [showed disrespect] while in my yard. I was sitting on my porch to guard the boys as I had to do often from the police because I was aware of the police stalking them and all of us, and therefore, I knew this was another false allegation of the police.
Many of my son's friends were arrested out of my yard for false allegations
of ignorant things such as the cops' most famous reason, "crime watch,
(Greg Forrester) said you boys flipped him off!" They arrested the boys for
this many times.
Many times the police have stopped at my home and forced every person of
color to give the police their ID and the police would run their license.
Some of these people were arrested for misdemeanour warrants that they
received from this illegal procedure. After that, several officers (Hall,
Hutchinson, Thomasson, etc.) began to really harass my family and for the
first time in my life, at age 41, I was arrested for allegedly stealing
cable, but the DA did not prosecute the case. I spoke with the president
of the cable company and he stated that he knew I was not stealing cable and said he did not file a report or call the police and report this and
therefore something was very fishy, yet Chief Thomasson did not stop the
other officers from harassing my family and the chief himself was the
initiator of the harassment. Since that day five years ago, this bizarre harassment conspiracy involving Rockwall County Sheriff's department and other agencies has escalated without regard for the real laws.
Letter From Witness Below
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Verla Erdahl. I live in Forney, Texas. I met Brenda at the
Texas Back Institute where we were both undergoing therapy for injuries. At that time we started chatting and she told me some of the things that were happening to her in Royse City. I really did not know what to think. I
have worked in the legal field as a legal secretary for almost 20 years. We
completed our therapy and went our separate ways until I got a call one
night from Brenda stating that they were trying to take her child "Chip" away from her. I could not believe that this was really happening because I observed
Brenda and Chip together and I thought the relationship a very healthy one.
She asked me for assistance and so I got involved in the case.I have never in my life witnessed such a cesspool of lies, deceit and malicious destruction on the part of the welfare department and the Royse City officials. I went to many of the meetings with Brenda, her ex husband and Chip. These meetings were a sham with everyone knowing what they were going to do before they sat down. Brenda was treated as a criminal with no rights. They tried to take her very sick child under the pretense that Brenda was in fact making the child sick to get attention. I went to the psychiatrist's office with Brenda and they would not even give her copies of her own records. I went to the sheriff's office to get an offense report
with her and the officer on duty - I can't remember his name but I could
identify him -- unsnapped his pistol and put his hand on the gun and took a step towards us and told us if we want a report to get a lawyer and subpoena to get it. Very menacing! I am sure that they ran my license plates and found out that my husband is an attorney or they would have pulled me over.
I was at Brenda's house and the police kept driving around her block. At
one point, they threw Brenda out of her house and she had to stay with me and other friends. They said if she did not move out then they would put Chip in foster care. They gave the house and Chip to his father, who really did not want to keep Chip. He told me many times that Brenda needed to care for Chip because she had taken care of him since birth. They took all of the medication away from Chip and said he did not need it that the only reason he had it was for Brenda to have for herself. I was at the meetings where these decisions were made. I knew Brenda was being railroaded but they had the judge in their pocket, so to speak. I know I will remember much more if I could just get together with Rhonda and Brenda for lunch because we all were afraid for ourselves and I am amazed that they have not killed Brenda yet.Royce City is like a Mafia and I think there was a Texas Ranger involved in this at that time I was and he also was afraid for Brenda. At this time, I can't remember any more but I know there was much more that went on. I think the city was trying to run Brenda out of their city and the welfare officials all went to lunch with the judge after the court sessions. I know I will probably never in my life experience the things that went on when I was helping Brenda. My husband was afraid that they would make an excuse to pull me over and end up killing me so he told me I could not help Brenda anymore.
If you need anything further from me, let me know.
Verla Erdahl
(972)564-5229
*********************************************************
The police have busted my door down, waved papers in the air, and claimed
they were search warrants. My home was illegally searched at least 20 times and always after 12:00 midnight to wake us up. Several months later a Texas Ranger, Alvin Alexus, told me that not one of the papers the police ever told me were search warrants, was actually a legal search warrant. This ranger also brought all this police harassment to Rockwall County DA for help - and the Rockwall Grand Jury would not indict for fear of publicity. Now I realize that the DA and the Grand Jury are just as guilty as the police. They should have stopped these police years ago. The DA knew of all the enormous tickets Royse police was giving my family. He tried prosecuting us for these. I won a majority of these cases, but only after much suffering, jail stays, etc. The chief's wife is employed at our county (Rockwall) sheriff's office and she would have the county deputys to stop us and harrass us as her husband, the Royse City chief, would call her and tell her when we was driving toward that direction every time. After many
times of being stopped for no reason, I asked the deputy, Hodebeck, why
he had stopped me. He told me that dispatch (the chief's wife) had
alerted officers in the area to stop this particular vehicle description.
A different time, my ex husband had a misdemeanor ticket in another county. The local county officer called me and asked me why the chief in this town
had it in for us so bad and told me that the chief of police called him
often to try and get him to put a warrant on my ex husband.
My daughter and son were given many tickets many different times without
their knowledge. As a Royse City officer would pass them, they would
write a ticket and not stop them to give it to them and therefore my children would not show up for court. The court would put a warrant on them for failure to appear in court. The cops would be waiting in front of my home
for them to walk in my front yard and the police would run in my yard and
arrest them. I finally realized what was happening and I called the DPS
in Austin and talked with their legal department. They investigated my
allegations and found it to be true and discovered that Judge Brenda
English was a part of the scheme and they called The Texas Judicial
Commission and the judge was removed from the bench.
___________________________________________________________________
THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 5 YEARS NOW AND THIS PAST MONTH THEY HAVE GOTTEN SO BRAVE AS TO TEAR MY SHIRT OFF OF ME IN MY OWN FRONT YARD!
*********************************************************
FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Texas Police Brutality!
Royse City, Rockwall County, State of Texas
April 2000: The Royse City Texas police pushed me down deliberately,
ripping my shirt off. This was done to scare me. They were hoping this scare
would make me stop my lawsuit against them! I went to Lake Pointe Hospital in Rowlett, Texas for treatment after this incident.
I dialed 911 [emergency]and the Rockwall County Sheriff came and got the police off my property (reluctantly), but they would not take my signed complaint on him or take the policeman to jail. I have pursued a lawsuit for my safety. After tons of[many] calls to attorneys, I found that they all required at least $5000 down payment. I had no money. But, after five years of harassment from these government officials, an attorney finally took my case. I now have the FIRST civil rights lawsuit against Child Protective
Services of Texas, and will be, according to my attorney, Douglas Larson at (972) 329-0160), the first suit that is going to be won against CPS. The truth of Texas' corrupt good old boys' behavior will come out. Things will change and their misuse of power will stop on my family!
*********************************************************
The police told everyone in town that my home is a drug home. There has" never" been illegal drugs at my home and never will but they knew we have prescription drugs. The police told everybody in this 2000 population city that they should keep their children away from my son, etc.
They have unjustly sent my 25 year old son to prison. They made more
false allegations on us and took my youngest son to Child Protective
Services for the reason that they were "concerned about him taking too many
prescribed medications", and they bizarrely stopped his lifelong needed
prescriptions for his multiple birth defects and damaged him physically.
They beat my daughter black and blue and my attorney has the pictures.
They have now stooped so low as to tear my clothes off of me while
throwing me down.
My ex husband had a professional government inspection business and they charged him with so many false allegations and put him in jail and put a record
on him that is all lies. The Royse policemen wrecked into my vehicle and
came to my home to scare me so he would not have to pay for fixing my
car. I just went to his insurance company and told them. They paid me and
he said he would get me[threatened to retaliate]. He did through my ex by hurting my childrens' dad and his business that helped them also. This officer's flat bed trailer had been stolen a year before he wrecked into me but after I made his insurance company pay me, he lied and made a report that my ex husband had stolen his trailer a year prior. They came and took my ex husband to jail and because no one had the bond money to get him out, he took their plea or else he would have been in jail a year.
The police shine spotlights in our windows about every 20 minutes every
dark moment of the night as scare tactics and sound their sirens.The chief called the DPS medical facility and reported me as needing my license taken away because I am disabled and he knew from digging in my trash that I take prescription medications. I had to go through special test to keep my license.
The police called the food stamp office and got them to stop my food
stamps. The worker told me the chief said a lot of people live in my
home. They stopped them for months and my son has sugar problems and he
could not keep his sugar regulated for lack of food because of the chief's
lies. My son lost weight and he was already skinny from being sickly.
The chief called my government housing and did the same thing.
The small school's assistant principal, Terry Young conspired with the
chief also. They called my son's doctor, Dr. Ceasar Gregerio in Rockwall, and told him not to give my son any more excuse notes for school when he was absent and sick from school. The doctor immediately called me and told me and he refused to let this cop scare him into doing this illegal procedure. The corrupt principal then proceded and gave my son and I a truancy even with a doctors letter stating that due to my sons multiple birth defects, he requested homeschool for my son. We were forced in Rockwall JP court and we won here but they did a double jeopardy on this exact same truancy and took us to Collin County JP Terry Douglas in Wylie Texas and won. I explained to the judge that this was double jeopardy and he still illegally charged us.
The police illegally impounded my vehicles and sold one at their auction.
This vehicle was impounded for the reason of a SR-22 was filed on my
vehicle. This is perfectly legal and cannot legally be impounded for this
reason.
As friends left our home, they were arrested, etc. The police sit in
front of my home 24/7 with binoculars, etc.
Governor George Bush sent Texas Rangers to my door August 21, 2000 to
inform me that Bush was calling for an investigation of the local
government conspiracy on my family and me.
Of course, I am very concerned for mine and my childrens safety, etc.,
more now than before.
Bush became aware that 48 Hours Producer Patti Aronfsky, is
investigating my story and now he fears that he may look bad in the
elections.
I have many, many letters responding back to me from Bush from the past 4
years or so that state that he believes in his police forces in Texas.
Another words he was telling me that he believed the cops and not me. Now
he is pretending to care.
He called for a grand jury in Rockwall County Texas of the cops and of
course this was a joke.
September 9, 2000, a 17 year old boy, Dustin Hix, who is a witness for us
in my civil rights lawsuit against Royse City Texas police, was beat to a
pulp by Royse City police. Dustin is now in Parkland Hospital in Dallas
Texas where he is under going surgery for his face being beat[assaulted] so badly, which the doctors say may leave him blind in one eye.
Dustin was first handcuffed by Officer Nancy Guefston (mispelled) husband
with Nancy's handcuffs, and then Officer Nancy's husband and other Royse
officers proceeded to beat Dustin. Hunt County Sherriff removed the
handcuffs off Dustin as they approached the scene as this happened in
Hunt County. This happened at a party of Officer Nancy's nephews home.
Officer Nancy and other officers distributed alcohol to these minors and
shared drinking with them. Royse City is a three county town, consisting
of Hunt County, Rockwall County, and Collin County. Hunt County Sherriff
took Dustin to Greenville Texas Hospital where they sent him to Parkland due to the seriousness of the damages.
This is just a "small part" of this 5 year torture on my family. Please
read the web site below that tells more? I am seeking to find a producer or agent to make this true awful story into a movie I have no knowledge of the entertainment business.
Thank you so much,
Brenda Pitts Bennett bpb123@earthlink.net
http://www.american-prisons.co.uk/policebrutality.htm
(972) 636-2404 Fax # (413) 556-1891
701 Meadowdale
Royse City, Texas 75189
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