Archive for August 29th, 2012

“Gun” death.

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

Stealing from Weer’d again:

HOLLYWOOD PARK, Texas – A South Texas mayor has been found dead after apparently being attacked by a 500-pound donkey on his ranch.

According to the sheriff’s office, it was a “male, aggressive donkey”. Thank you, Captain Obvious! We were thinking it was one of those pacifist donkeys.

More from the (quasi) local paper here.

Posted in Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed

21-50 to headquarters!

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

Have you ever heard of the Texas Highway Patrol Association?

Did you know they had a museum in San Antonio? I did not. I might have gone down to see the museum, had I known it was there. But in retrospect, I’m kind of glad I didn’t make the trip: here are some photos of the museum from the Texas DPS website.

As you might have guessed from that link and the associated commentary (which I personally think is very unusual for Texas DPS), the THPA was one of those charities that does telemarketing calls, collects your money, and does very little to benefit anyone but the company that makes the calls.

In particular, the organization apparently promised to pay a $10,000 “death benefit” to families of troopers killed in the line of duty. The organization never paid, the families sued, and…

As part of a 39-page agreement, property belonging to the Texas Highway Patrol Association in Austin and a museum it operates in San Antonio will be liquidated…

Interestingly, the museum was founded by a former state legislator from Waco, Lane Denton. (Waco is also the home of the Texas Rangers Museum, which is actually well worth the drive from Austin to visit.)

In 1995, Denton was found guilty of theft and misapplying money belonging to a different organization, the Texas Department of Public Safety Officers Association, and sentenced to six years of probation.

And:

The lawsuit said state investigators found that few survivors received any financial assistance and that money from a scholarship fund went to children of board members. The suit also said officials used up to $10,000 in donations a day to buy tickets to amusement parks and movie theaters and to pay for airfare across the United States.

(Subject line hattip. I loved that show when I was a kid. No, I’m not that old: one of the local UHF stations showed syndicated reruns.)

Edited to add: In case you were wondering, here’s a Google Maps street view of the THPA headquarters. Note that this isn’t the large building on North Lamar, across from Texas DPS and right next to Dan’s Hamburgers, but another building.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law, Museums | Comments Closed

Playing dice with the MSM, August 29, 2012.

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

We haven’t had a good Bell update in a while, but now the drought is broken.

Eric Eggena used to work for the city of Bell. He was the city prosecutor, director of general services, and was in charge of code enforcement.

While Eggena was in charge of code enforcement, the city collected tens of thousands of dollars from business owners and scavengers cited for violating city laws. The Times found Bell officials created official-looking documents and told violators that they had to pay the city. The vast majority of these cases never were filed with the court, as they were supposed to be.

Mr. Eggena was fired after the fecal matter hit the rotating blades of the impeller in Bell. He has not been charged with any crimes, and is not currently under indictment.

Mr. Eggena is now suing the city of Bell for $837,000, “including compensation for 329 unused sick and vacation days.”

When Eggena went to work for Bell in 2002 he earned $90,000 a year, but his salary nearly tripled over the next eight years, his total compensation swelling to $421,000 annually, putting him in the top tier of city officials nationwide.

But wait! There’s more!

In addition to his salary, the city paid the employee portion of Eggena’s Medicare and Social Security deductions, and he accumulated double sick and vacation time, according to his contracts.

And because we can’t mention Bell without mentioning Robert “Ratso” Rizzo:

The Times also found that Eggena and Rizzo were involved in a deal in which the city bought a piece of land for more than double its assessed value as part of an unusual redevelopment deal that required the seller to donate $425,000 back to the city — a sum that cannot be accounted for.

Today’s NYT has a nice tribute to the late DeAndre McCullough. (Previously.) The paper did run an obit several days after his passing, but this is more of a retrospective piece about DeAndre’s life and struggles.

This, along with some things Weer’d has said, and my reading of Bill James’ Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence, has got me thinking. If I have time this weekend, I’m hoping to do a longer, more thoughtful post tying these things together.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Obits | Comments Closed