The Other Face of Justice

By Jon Carrigan

"The criminal justice system is overwrought with police officers overstepping their ethical bounds, prosecutors who seek convictions over justice, and public defenders who are over worked and not equipped with the resources necessary to provide an adequate client centered defense. The business of the prison system is now the equivalent of legal slavery. "

Amber C. Macias Attorney at Law

"There are two constitutions, one for criminal cases generally and another for drug cases which invites police officers to behave like criminals and they do."

United States Magistrate Peter Nimkoff of Miami,

"Our prison resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too loaded. I can accept neither the necessity nor the wisdom of federal mandatory minimum sentences."

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy addressed the American Bar Association

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781637102503

Book preview

The Beginning

The Next Seven Months

Letters

To Each of the One Hundred United States Senators

Letter to Police Officer Jones

Letter to Officer Kevin Hollway

Letter to Officer Mike Hernandez

Letter to Officer Terry Fincher

Letter to Allison Palmer

Letter to Attorney Joe James Sawyer

Letter to Ex-Chief of Police Tim Vasquez

Letter to The San Angelo Standard-Times

Letter to Tanya K. Pierce

Letter to Samuel R. Cummings

Letter to the United States Attorney General

Letter to Assistant US Attorney Clay R. Mahaffey

Letter to Stephen Lupton

Complaint to the Texas Attorney General

The Criminal Justice System

An Example of the Process

Accountability

Comments and Opinions from an Ex-Con

Prison

After Prison

Things Never Change in San Angelo

Letter to United States Senators

Reflections

Glossary

To the Reader

The following is not just a story about the incarceration of my wife and me; it is an example of the working legislation produced by Congress that is responsible for filling our prisons for over thirty years. The laws enacted were to ensure that those who were guilty received a just sentence and ultimately address society’s problem of drugs. Congress achieved much more than they intended.

The legislation established a process that gives prosecutors the ability and power to be judge, jury, and executioner. It is also a process that is dependent upon the moral compass of those in authority with little or no accountability. One of the most important issues the legislation did not address was the collateral damage of misconduct by those in authority.

On July 28, 2000, my wife, Deborah Carrigan, and I left our office to pick up an eight-month-old child to babysit over the weekend. While we were at the residence, officers of the Rio Concho Multi-Agency Drug Enforcement Task Force in San Angelo, Texas, arrived to execute a search-and-arrest warrant.

The search-and-arrest warrant had the forged signature of Judge Curt Steib. This document was the foundation that sent both my wife and me to prison. We were never confronted with one allegation, or physical evidence, or questioned by the local or federal authorities as to our participation of any crime. We were never allowed to know who had composed statements against us; we were denied possession and examination of all legal documents concerning our case. We were denied possession and examination of government’s discover and presentence reports, which are both mandated by federal statute to be given to the defendant.

The misconduct of the authorities in San Angelo, Texas, was simply a duplication that has been practiced for many years by local and federal authorities to incarcerate people. Reba McIntyre recorded a song called The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. The song is not only about the corrupt authorities in Georgia: it is about the authorities in San Angelo, Texas, and cities and towns throughout our country.

United States Magistrate Peter Nimkoff of Miami, Florida, said, There are two constitutions, one for criminal cases generally and another for drug cases, which invites police officers to behave like criminals and they do.

After many years and a continual litany of abuse of powers by the drug task forces in the state of Texas, Governor Rick Perry ceased funding them. One such group that fits the description United States Magistrate Peter Nimkoff was referring to and Governor Perry defunded was the Rio Concho Multi-Agency Drug Enforcement Task Force in San Angelo.

The psychologist, Dr. James Mitchell, who developed the enhanced interrogation program for the CIA, said, The best measure of future behavior is behavior of the past. The ones who were responsible for our arrest are still in San Angelo, Texas, on the police force, in the District Attorney’s Office, and some are still wearing robes. We were not the first to be subjected to their form of justice as it is just business as usual in San Angelo, Texas.

The Beginning

Deborah Lynn Watson was an experienced methamphetamine cook with a past that reflected all the negative benefits of the drug business with a history of legal problems, mental and physical abuse from too many drugs, and years of living an underground lifestyle. Watson demonstrated both cunning and resilience. Watson was arrested in Coleman County, Texas, in 1993 for aggravated manufacture of a controlled substance. She not only continued the drug business, she also taught her seventeen-year-old daughter to cook meth, and for $1,000 she would pass her trade on to others. She was an addicted meth head in the business for money and always had access to her drug of choice.

Watson was introduced to Deborah and me in 2000 by her number one protégé, Robert, whom she would later train to be an accomplished meth cook. The relationship between Watson and Robert was of mutual needs. Robert wanted to learn how to cook methamphetamine, and Watson gained another in her circle of people she could manipulate. Both needs were met.

She requested help from us to get out of the drug business and into a legitimate business. She claimed past experience in repairing truck bodies with her ex-husband. I had access to property on South Chadbourn Street with buildings that could be used as a paint-and-body shop, so we agreed to help.

The reason she gave for wanting to change was for the benefit of her eight-month-old grandson Walter and her daughter Heather Lynn Dicus, the mother of the child, who lived with her.

Only after our initial introduction did we learn of two other people who made up their household, Jimmy Don Clifton, who was Heather’s live-in partner and meth cook, and Lisa McClain, Watson’s sister-in-law.

Drug people are extremely devious in sucking you in to assist them. My wife Deborah and I became vulnerable when we were introduced to the child as we were past the age to have children.

Our social contact was limited to picking up the child from Watson’s residence and taking him home with us, which usually was for the weekend. In retrospect, allowing us to babysit the child was simply one method of manipulation.

Deborah was concerned for the welfare of the child as Watson did not have any access to transportation. We began by furnishing her with a vehicle and auto insurance and helping her renew her license.

We agreed to allow her access to the property she was going to use for the repair of truck bodies, with specific and strict stipulations. She was not to allow anyone, other than herself, a key to enter the property. No one was allowed to be at the property after 6:00 p.m. without our permission. She agreed to all our terms.

Watson attempted, early on, to befriend Deborah in a way that excluded me. This behavior would increase to the point of her suggesting things that would try and make Deborah jealous. Deborah and I were homebodies who went to work and were together for twenty-four hours a day, and her attempt at disrupting our relationship was ludicrous.

Over time she continued her attempt to get Deborah’s approval of her drug activities, as an excuse for making money to care for the child. Watson portrayed her activities as innocent and would not be needed much longer as she would begin the new business. Deborah was adamant that we would not be a part of her drug activities but that we would help her under the conditions we agreed upon.

On July 28, 2000, my wife and I were offered an opportunity to babysit Watson’s grandchild over the weekend. After our first introduction to Watson, we formed an emotional attachment to the child and looked forward to every opportunity to babysit. After spending a few hours at the office, we left to pick up the child and go home.

I had been suffering for weeks with a condition diagnosed as endocarditis. The condition was not serious but produced symptoms of extreme fatigue that prohibited me from working, except for short periods between constant rests.

It was in the afternoon when we arrived at Watson’s house. There was no one home except Watson, her daughter, Heather Dicus, and the child. Immediately after arriving, exhaustion dictated that I needed to rest, and I fell asleep on the sofa. Deborah asked Watson to drive her into town to get me a container of ice tea before leaving to go home.

Before leaving to go to town, Deborah picked up the child and then Watson told her she wanted to show her something in an outbuilding at the rear of the property. She was attempting to make one of the precursors for cooking methamphetamine and, once again, ask Deborah to persuade me to allow her to use the Chadbourn property. Deborah told her no. My wife was holding the child while Watson was showing and introducing this seemingly innocuous process. I would discover in a few hours that members of the task force filmed this.

While Watson was driving Deborah to town to get ice tea, individuals of the task force were following with the intent of stopping Watson’s vehicle in a school zone. If they could have stopped the vehicle in a school zone with narcotics in the car, mandatory minimums would have added years to any federal charge. They found none.

Between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m., I was jolted from my sleep by an individual sticking a gun in my face. He did not identify himself as a police officer but woke me by yelling Don’t move! My response was to ask him, Who in the hell are you? He then told me he was the police as he and two others, with guns drawn, searched the empty residence. It was apparent that there was a high level of fear in this group.

The residence was thoroughly searched with only a trace amount of weed found in the daughter’s room. After completing their search, they took us all out on the front lawn and shackled Watson, her daughter, Deborah, and me and put us on display. I did not understand why we were waiting and for what. It all became clear while we listened to the conversation of two of the officers.

The conversation between these two was extraordinary in the sense that there was neither concern of their close proximity that allowed us to hear nor fear of future accountability that might arise from their storming a residence and completing a search without a warrant. I did not know at the time that the warrant had been forged, and apparently it didn’t matter to this group.

The conversation went thus: Task Force Number 1 asked, How do we explain the early entry, and when will the warrant get here?

Task Force Number 2 responded, Alison is getting it, and it is supposed to get here by six o’clock. Man, we have never had it so good since she got on board. When Fincher gets out of the saddle, we are going to have to draw straws to see who takes his place.

The search-and-arrest warrant that Allison was getting would arrive after the search, and the question remained: Who in the District Attorney’s Office forged Judge Steib’s name on it?

Task Force Number 1 was commenting, They followed them to town and tried to stop them in a school zone. If they could have nailed them with a bag of dope in a school zone, that would have been a home run.

While listening to this conversation, I immediately was aware that it was five o’clock; they had come through the door and searched the house forty-five minutes earlier. The warrant would not arrive for another two hours.

The search warrant was two sheets of paper without scope of authority to search, no address or names of individuals. The warrant only reflected the name of Curt F. Steib, Magistrate, without an affiant’s signature.

The search-and-arrest warrant that was recorded on July 31, 2000, became a five-page document after all the blanks were filled in. The document (M-00-62) was recorded on July 31 in the Tom Green District Clerk’s Office with a forged signature of Judge Steib.

Deborah Watson, without anyone’s knowledge, was attempting to create one of the precursors she would need for a future methamphetamine cook, in an outbuilding on the back of her property. To equate Watson’s attempt to make a precursor as being in the process of cooking methamphetamine is equating someone buying apples in the grocery store as being in the process of baking a pie. There was no denying she would attempt another meth cook at such time when she had all the necessary ingredients and we, or no one else, with the exception of her house of cooks, would know about it.

I was also informed they were going to search my vehicle even though it was parked on the street and away from the residence, as they claimed it was covered by the search warrant. There was nothing found.

My wife and I were then placed in Officer Kevin Hollway’s vehicle, at which time he addressed me with one question. Carrigan, what is going on here?

I responded, I don’t know, and any further conversation will be done in the presence of an attorney.

I was then asked by Officer Hollway if they could search my office. I immediately gave consent, going with them to unlock the door to my office, and they completed a thorough search and found nothing.

An associate of my wife and me, Mike McNew, had called earlier to inform my wife he had received some payments. She asked Mike if he would bring them by Watson’s house. Mike drove up in a 1984 Corvette that he had previously been appraising for purchase or to possibly put on consignment.

The vehicle was later seized by the authorities in San Angelo. The citation and notice of seizure and intended forfeiture was prepared by Assistant District Attorney Allison Williams. The citation is supported by sworn affidavits of two seizing officers, Tracy Fincher and Mike Hernandez (Tom Green County Clerk’s Office A-00-0940-C).

Assistant District Attorney Allison Williams drafted and recorded the document, which was factually incorrect by misspelling