KTBB News, Weather, Talk

TYLER — Vandals are leaving their calling card across Tyler — and graffiti marring new bathrooms, parks, and trails is causing the Tyler Parks and Recreation Department to spend unnecessary cash. According to KETK, that’s money they say they don’t need to spend at a time when the city is dealing with a tight budget. The latest rash of vandalism happened at the Rose Garden, where 30 nozzles were stolen from the fountain at a cost of more than $5,000. Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Rollings says money they’re using to clean up the mess could have been used elsewhere. According to Rollings, “The vandals doing this I don’t think really know the massive effect they’re having on the city’s budget as well as the citizens of Tyler.” Rollings says every citizen who uses those parks is affected. So far, all the graffiti has been cleaned up, and stolen items have been replaced.

LONGVIEW — Longview police say the death of a Kilgore woman found in a hotel room on July 2 was ruled accidental due to “combined drug toxicity” by Justice of the Peace Sam Lawson. The body of 25-year-old Danielle Davison of Kilgore was located in a room at the Express Inn at 3120 Estes Parkway by hotel management. Investigators located evidence of narcotics usage inside the hotel room and found no obvious signs of trauma to Davison’s body. Dr. Tommy Brown, of the Southwest Texas Forensic Center in Tyler, performed the autopsy.

LUFKIN — Police in Lufkin are following up on some motorcycle thefts, according to KETK. Sometime during the early morning hours of July 22, an unidentified thief or thieves stole three motorcycles from outside of the 1400 and 1500 buildings at Deer Cross apartment complex, located at 3000 South First Street. The complainants reported that all three motorcycles were accounted for as of 2:00 A.M. on July 22, when one of the complainants left home for work.

The complainants identified the three motorcycles as:
-A 2002 Honda CBR600 displaying Texas personalized license plate 1FOX, with a unique black and white “Sharpie” paint job, a stretched swing arm, and a camera built into the fuel tank.
– A 2006 Suzuki GSXR750 displaying Texas license plate 3UP301, with a blue and white paint job that included black and white gun decals, and damage to the right side fairing.
– A 2006 Yamaha R6S displaying Texas license plate 3EU084 with a factory black paint job.

If you can identify the thieves, or if you can provide any information concerning this crime or the location of the stolen motorcycles, you”re asked to leave an anonymous tip at http://www.LufkinCrimeStoppers.com or call Crime Stoppers at (936) 639-TIPS. Police say you never have to give your name, and Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest or arrests related to this crime.

WINNSBORO — Kathie Glass, the Libertarian nominee for Texas governor, has scheduled a campaign appearance for 7:00 p.m tonight at the Winnsboro City Auditorium, 959 Wheeler Dr. at City Park. Glass plans to discuss four main issues that spokespeople say distinguish her from other candidates: border security, state sovereignty, dramatically lower taxes, and strengthened property rights.

LONGVIEW — A man is wounded during an attempted robbery. It happened July 31 around 6:10 p.m. Longview Officers responded to the Sunbelt Mobile Home Park at 1203 State Highway 31 South for a report of an attempted robbery. Officers arrived and located the victim, Benito Martinez, who had been shot in the leg and was bleeding. Martinez told officers that he was parked in his driveway looking for something in his car when he was approached by three young males who demanded his wallet. Martinez refused to give them his wallet and was subsequently shot in the leg by one of the suspects. The suspects then fled the location and were last seen running eastbound, where they jumped a fence and ran towards the Autumnwood Apartments. Martinez was transported by the Longview Fire Department/EMS to Good Shepherd Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. The suspects are described as three black males between the ages of 15-16, one wearing long black shorts, no shirt with a semi-automatic handgun.

GUN BARREL CITY — Five law enforcement officers were attacked, four of them suffering knife wounds Tuesday evening after two Gun Barrel City Police officers attempted to serve an arrest warrant on the man. The suspect was identified in a Wednesday afternoon press release from the Gun Barrel City Police Department as 19-year-old Donald Ray Huback, Jr., was finally apprehended inside a recreational vehicle he had been living in on Rising Star Trail in the Cherokee Shores subdivision. By Wednesday morning, Huback was in Smith County Jail held in lieu of bonds for aggravated assault on an officer, totaling $2.5 million. Another $5,000 was added for an alleged check forgery.

LUFKIN (AP) — An east Texas police officer has resigned following a videotaped stop in which he is heard and seen berating a speeding driver rushing a passenger to a hospital. KTRE-TV reports 73-year-old Johnny Hodge of Seven Oaks says his insurance would not pay for an ambulance. Diboll Officer Grant Jones on July 27 stopped the pickup in nearby Lufkin. Dashcam video, obtained in an open records request by KTRE, shows Jones with his gun drawn, breaking the driver’s side window and hauling out 75-year-old Tracey Lott.
A police review found that Jones, who resigned Tuesday, violated policy by not waiting for backup officers. A ticket Jones wrote to Lott, for speeding and failing to stop, has been dropped.

EMS examined Hodge, who refused transport. Lott then drove Hodge to the hospital, for treatment of respiratory and blood pressure problems.

LUFKIN (AP) — A poke in the eye is worth three years in prison for an Angelina County man. Alex Yanez on Tuesday pleaded guilty to assaulting a public servant for gouging the eye of a Lufkin police officer. A warrant said Yanez, during a June 29 traffic stop, snatched the sunglasses from the face of Officer Brad Lawrence and poked him in the eye as the lawman questioned the suspect over three warrants. Lawrence, who suffered a minor eye injury, managed to arrest the 20-year-old Yanez. He faced up to 10 years in prison for the third-degree felony, but accepted the plea deal. Yanez has a criminal history to 2008, including charges of theft, engaging in organized criminal activity and giving a false report to an officer.

PALESTINE — An Anderson County woman is in custody, charged with capital murder, in the death of a toddler. Jennifer Jill Whitehead, 38, of Palestine, was indicted Wednesday in the death of her 16-month old grand daughter, Emma Nicole Whitehead. She turned herself in to authorities Wednesday afternoon at the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office. She remains in the Anderson County Jail in lieu of a $1 million bond.

The little girl suffered head injuries on May 4th. The grandmother told authorities the youngster was injured in a fall from a playpen. The youngster was taken by family members to Palestine Regional Medical Center. She was transferred to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas where she died on May 5th.

A Dallas lab performed the autopsy. It said the cause of death was “blunt force trauma.” The autopsy listed the death as a homicide.

TYLER – As the result of the work of ten area law enforcement agencies, nine persons are in custody and a multi county theft ring has been busted. KETK-TV reports it started June 7th with a Lindale man reporting the theft of a 4-wheeler. The investigation led to two young men. After interviewing them, it led to the arrest of the man who is accused of being the ringleader of this group, Johnny Michael Moore, Jr., 39, of Grand Saline, who is pictured here. That led to the investigation of more thefts.

According to Constable Dennis Taylor, “Once we arrested Johnny Moore, it just kind of broke open.” Officers continued looking into more thefts. The investigation led to nine arrests. One suspect is still at large.

Officers from five counties were involved and over $100,000 worth of merchandise has been recovered. Most of it farm and ranch equipment, tools and vehicles like ATV’s and golf carts. According to Constable Taylor, “45 cases, $100,000 in property that people would not have gotten back. I just know that in my 31 years, this is the best cooperation between departments that I’ve ever seen.”

The root cause of the problems was said to have been methamphetamines. All of the suspects arrested were said to have been meth users. And Moore, the ring leader, is accused of selling methamphetamines.

TYLER — Tyler voters may have a school bond proposal on the ballot in November. That will be the recommendation that Tyler School Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid will present to school trustees later this month. On Thursday the school board looked over renovating or replacing Rice and Dixie elementary schools as well as building a new middle school in southwest Tyler. It is estimated that building the three new schools would cost around $90 million. The board will consider a bond proposal when it meets August 23rd.

MT. PLEASANT — A fireman suffered minor heat related injures in fighting a fire at the Pilgrim’s Pride Feed Mill in Mt. Pleasant. The fire in the mill on South Jefferson Street is said to have followed a dust explosion inside a conveyor belt. The damage was said to be minimal.

JACKSONVILLE — Jacksonville’s fire department has received a generous donation after losing all its donated life jackets. According to KETK, the fire department asked for donations for new jackets after 18 went missing from Lake Jacksonville. Tyler-based Kent Watersports donated three dozen life jackets to the department this week. Fire officials say Kent Watersports manufactures life jackets, so it was very generous of the company to donate them. According to the fire department, people who have used life jackets may also donate them — such as jackets that kids have outgrown.

TYLER — Tyler police report a serious injury at the intersection of S. Beckham and E. Houston Street, where a motorcycle crashed into the back of a mini-van around 11:55 a.m., Thursday. Officers were told by witnesses that the mini-van was traveling south in the outside lane on Beckham when it stopped to yield the right-of-way to an emergency vehicle. An ambulance was traveling east on Houston approaching the intersection with lights and siren activated. A 59-year-old man riding a motorcycle was behind the mini-van and, unable to stop in time, crashed into the rear of the mini-van.

The driver of the motorcycle was not wearing a helmet and suffered severe head trauma. The ambulance responding to another emergency stopped immediately to attend to the motorcycle victim. He was transported to East Texas Medical Center while the three occupants of the mini-van reported no injuries.

TYLER – Tyler’s Total Healthcare Center and Bethesda Health Clinic will each receive an equal share of an estimated $2.6 million payment in damages and transferred assets of Doctors Memorial Hospital, Inc. (DMH). That’s under an agreed judgment negotiated by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Officials say both health care providers were selected for the funding because of their longstanding commitment to serving East Texas’ indigent population.

“Total Healthcare Center and Bethesda Health Clinic are not just world-class clinics and pillars of the Tyler community — they are institutions that have demonstrated remarkable commitment to serving financially disadvantaged Texans,” Attorney General Abbott said. “By allocating remaining assets to Total Healthcare Center and Bethesda Health Clinic, we have ensured that more than $2 million worth of charitable resources will remain in Tyler and will help support two of the community’s finest institutions.”

In 2009, the Attorney General’s Office filed an enforcement action against DMH, its directors and officers. A review by the Charitable Trusts Section indicated that the hospital’s board of directors approved paying full salaries and benefits to Chief Executive Officer Olie Clem and his daughter, Lisa Blaine, the Chief Operations Officer. Officials say that was despite the fact that the charitable hospital had closed its doors on August 31, 2000. In addition to their post-closure salaries and benefits, the two senior employees also received $550,000 in severance payments. According a news release from the attorney general’s office, after DMH closed, its board of directors continued paying Clem and Blaine full salaries and benefits for four years – and authorized severance packages so that both former executives received full salaries and benefits for two additional years.

To resolve the State’s legal action, DMH and its directors and officers agreed to distribute its remaining assets to Total Healthcare Center and Bethesda Health Clinic to fund indigent health care in the Tyler area. Additionally, former executives Clem and Blaine agreed to repay $675,000, which will also be distributed to the two health care clinics upon the wind up of the receivership. The former hospital’s temporary receiver will file a certificate of termination for DMH after the hospital’s debts are paid and its assets are distributed.