Well Done, Montgomery County

Well Done Montgomery County, well done indeed!! Last Night one of the most corrupt public officials in Montgomery County went down in flames badly. Few times in history has an incumbent been beaten so bad by a challenger. For almost 12 years now Michael McDougal has been the District Attorney of Montgomery County, Texas, and he has become arrogant and I dare say corrupt in his handling of his office over the past several years. I began looking at the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office when I began looking into the cases of Michael Perry and Jason Burkett both of who were convicted of capital murder for the homicide deaths of three Montgomery citizens; Michael Perry for the murder of Sandra Stotler, and Jason Burkett for the murders of Sandra Stotler, James Adam Stotler, and Jeremy Richardson. Michael Perry was sentenced to death for his crime and Jason Burkett was given a life sentence.

It seems so cut and dry doesn't it? But it wasn't. I found so many things wrong in the way the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office conducted the investigation to the way the District Attorney's Office handled the prosecution.

Since this is Mikey McDougal's night let me focus on him for a minute because he was District Attorney at the time of the crimes and he was responsible for the oversight of his employees. So let's talk about Mikey's employees for a minute shall we;

First we start off with Heather Cash an investigator with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office. In March/April of 2002 Ms. Cash went to the Montgomery County Jail and removed all the records that related to the arrest of Michael Perry as James Adam Stotler on October 26th 2001. The problem with that was that when the jail asked to make copies Ms. Cash advised "you don't need them". How in the world Ms. Cash can you remove official Sheriff's Office documents and not allow them to make copies? How arrogant is this woman I swear; In most counties in this country when you remove evidence or remove documents that is tampering with evidence, but of course not in Montgomery County; not under Mikey McDougal at least. Anybody want to guess what happened to those documents? You guessed it they mysteriously got lost.

Then Ms. Cash met with Montgomery County Sheriff's Detective Monte Morast in April 2002 and had him rewrite his official police report that detailed the arrest of Michael Perry as James Adam Stotler, and that original report was destroyed. Anybody want to guess why the original report was destroyed? Could there have been something in that report that the District Attorney's Office did not want the world to see at trial?

Then we have a seedy little character by the name of Assistant District Attorney Bluestein; it seems Mr. Bluestein just can't get enough of computer porn so he has to use the District Attorney's Office computers to conduct his hobby while being paid by the hardworking citizens of Montgomery County, TX.

Then we had former Assistant District Attorney Robert Bartlett; now it seems that Mr. Bartlett has a wee bit of a drinking problem and was arrest for DUI on two separate occasions. In the first occasion he was uncooperative to the officers, and created a disturbance in the jail booking area by banging his head repeatedly against the door. Anybody want to guess what he was convicted of? Well it appears that Mr. Bartlett who verbally abused and was uncooperative with officers was allowed to plead guilty to Reckless Driving which is basically a slap on the wrist. Well now Mr. Bartlett just couldn't get enough of the old bubbly so a couple years later here he is again arrested for DUI and back he goes to the Montgomery County Jail where by all accounts he appeared to be relatively subdued this time, but then he was probably familiar with the old gang in the holding cell from his previous time in jail.

Then we have old Mikey McDougal himself, the big fish of the District Attorney's Office, and he recently got caught using drug forfeiture funds for parties for his friends, political advertisements for himself, and Christmas parties and birthday checks for all his employee in his office. The only problem is that the men and women that money was suppose to be used for were serving search warrant without proper equipment, were borrowing equipment from other agencies from adjoining counties just trying to maybe have something that might save their lives if God forbid the arrest goes south on them. I'm sure that made the law enforcement officers feel so warm all over knowing the money THEY collected from doing their jobs and enforcing drug laws in their county was used for Christmas parties and birthday checks for the District Attorney's office personnel. Then when he is confronted with the evidence he has nerve enough to say "well we got the money we can do what we want with it". How arrogant does a man have to be to say his office got the money? Oh no Mr. McDougal the men and women who risk their life every day enforcing the laws in Montgomery County got that money not you, and by God they had a right to that money more so then your employees. I wonder how Mr. McDougal would feel if one of those fine men and women lost their life because he used the money for Christmas parties and they got killed because they lacked the proper equipment; would he even care? I doubt it. After all that was his personal "slush fund" and not theirs wasn't it?

Well thank God Montgomery County woke up and threw Mikey McDougal and his cronies out on their proverbial butt and a professional man by the name of Brett Ligon was elected the new District Attorney. Things are looking up Montgomery County; oh yes things are looking up indeed. After all the District Attorney's Office has hit rock bottom and it has nowhere to go but up from there.

Good Luck Mr. Ligon and serve the citizens of Montgomery County well and you will be rewarded with many more victories I'm sure, and for God sakes give the drug forfeiture moneys to the men and women who actually earned them for the county will you?