Myart\u2019s remains<\/p>\n
Disenfranchised seek new legal counsel after in-your-face Civil
\nRights attorney is sidelined<\/p>\n
Justin Parr<\/p>\n
Helen Hullaby with a photo of niece Terry Woods.<\/p>\n
Greg Harman<\/p>\n
Another loss for Brenda Shaw and John McCalister Sr.<\/p>\n
By Greg Harman<\/p>\n
It could have been a 12-step program gathered in the basement meeting
\nroom of Mt. Zion Baptist Church. There was no shortage of tears,
\nanguish, or exhaustion. But the demons this gathering was bonding over
\nweren\u2019t those of personal or family addiction, but the more abusive
\nelements within San Antonio\u2019s Police Department.<\/p>\n
In the slow slog for justice, the January hearing on police practices
\nwasn\u2019t intended to rile television audiences or mobilize a simmering
\ncrowd, it is a time to speak and be heard.<\/p>\n
A panel from the Police Executive Research Forum have their faces
\nburied in legal pads at the back of the room, their fingers knotted
\nover yellow sheaves of paper. They\u2019ve been retained by Police Chief
\nWilliam McManus to investigate his department\u2019s use-of-force
\npolicies, both on paper and in practice.<\/p>\n
After meeting with the ruling caste the night before and scavenging
\npolice files, they are on San Antonio\u2019s East Side tonight to get the
\nreport from the street.<\/p>\n
One after another, those bearing wounds they claim were inflicted by
\nmembers of the SAPD take to the front of the room and share their
\ngrief, anger, and confusion.<\/p>\n
A young man talks about having his pants pulled to his ankles at a
\ncity service station. In front of numerous witnesses, the man says he
\nwas penetrated by SAPD contraband-seeking latex.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since then it\u2019s kind of hard to talk about it,\u201d he tells
\nthe PERF representatives seated at a folding table up center, as
\ndozens of others crowd around listening. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s sexual
\nassault. This cannot be right. This cannot be the way things are
\ndone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stories of these self-identified victims and their families
\nsuggest it is \u2014 in too many cases \u2014 exactly that.<\/p>\n
For years, these were the stories Civil Rights attorney James
\nMyart\u2019s practice guaranteed prominent placement on regional
\nnewscasts, local radio, and in untold inches of newsprint.<\/p>\n
Moving about the room in a wide-cut suit, Myart was operating with
\nuncharacteristic tenderness, circulating among clients, exchanging
\nmuted words with attendees, and offering handshakes all around. It is
\na potential watershed moment, capping years of his own efforts to draw
\nattention to what he considers a cancer in San Antonio law
\nenforcement. A positive outcome here will almost excuse his episodic
\ntirades, out-and-out tantrums, and innumerable slights and slurs.<\/p>\n
Brenda Shaw describes how a family disturbance call unraveled because
\nof bully police tactics, resulting in her whole family being violently
\ncuffed. How her daughter Lakisha McCalister was dropped facedown in a
\npile of rocks and battered. Of the seizures that started thereafter.<\/p>\n
Sobbing, Lakisha tells the group, \u201cI don\u2019t know why I have
\nseizures. And I\u2019m going to have them for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt needs to change,\u201d Shaw pleads with the PERF board. \u201cIt
\nstarts with y\u2019all, because y\u2019all are an outside agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
PERF describes itself as a collection of \u201cprogressive police
\nexecutives from the largest city, county and state law enforcement
\nagencies,\u201d dedicated to \u201cimproving policing and advancing
\nprofessionalism through research and involvement in public policy
\ndebate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under pressure from mounting complaints about its officers, the City
\ncommissioned PERF to conduct a use-of-force report on the SAPD. Though
\nexpected in the spring, those findings were only submitted to Chief
\nMcManus two weeks ago. After the department has drafted its response
\nto the report, the package will be presented to the City Council and
\nthe now-simmering debate will be fed a fresh cord of kindling.<\/p>\n
SAPD spokesperson Sergeant Gabe Trevi\u00f1o said McManus would not be
\ncommenting on the report or on Myart, referring questions to the City
\nAttorney\u2019s office. \u201cObviously, the police department has systems
\nin place for citizens to complain and express their concerns when they
\nhave a complaint against a police officer,\u201d Trevi\u00f1o said. \u201cThere
\nmight be some tweaking of some of those things, with what the PERF
\nrecommendations may have, but I think those systems are in place and
\nare effective\u2026 with some minor adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing is certain, the iconic face of antagonistic resistance,
\nJames Myart, won\u2019t have any part in the drama that will unfold from
\nhere. It\u2019s lamentable.<\/p>\n
I have to confess, I liked the bomb-chucking attorney from the start
\n\u2014 from the first press conference I attended.<\/p>\n
The City had just offered an $80,000 settlement to a young black man
\nwhose scalp was split by an SAPD bullet. After being stopped on his
\nway to work, Joseph Fennell said he removed a set of keys from his
\npocket. He was matched with a shot to the head.<\/p>\n
After snapping pics of Fennell and Myart for a good 20 minutes, I
\nstarted taking a few shots of the back of the room \u2014 the many
\ntelevision cameras and reporters grouped behind me. A scribbler from
\nthe Express-News brayed his objection, demanding I not take his
\npicture.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, the press conference stopped. The outburst cut into
\nMyart\u2019s presentation, which, to this point, had included his tossing
\na thick binder of associated police records of the incident onto the
\nfloor in a show of contempt. The showman blasted the other writer and
\ninstructed him to get out of the room.<\/p>\n
A snap judgment. A loud \u2014 and (to me) righteouss \u2014 command.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve enjoyed his other eruptions almost equally.<\/p>\n
There have been few local attorneys, for instance, willing to take
\ntheir charges of racist police behavior before such expectantly
\nunappreciative audiences as FOX News duo Hannity and Colmes. Fewer
\nstill eager to unload on national television gems like: \u201cMr.
\nHannity, again, as I told you, you\u2019re just a rich, white boy who
\nwill never understand,\u201d as Myart did in November 2006 during a
\nsegment headlined, \u201cDo police target African-Americans?\u201d<\/p>\n
For the crowd at Mt. Zion, the question wasn\u2019t even worth asking.
\nMyart, the 300-pound pontiff of black justice, was the voice on the
\nmountain when it came to Civil Rights in this decidedly uncivil town.
\nEven those in disagreement with him at that meeting knew him at least
\nas a man of action.<\/p>\n
But Myart\u2019s oversize zest for insinuation and disparagement in his
\nwar on the establishment caught up with him \u2014 repeatedly.<\/p>\n
His attorney\u2019s license was pulled for four years in 1999 on charges
\nof professional misconduct. In April, he earned another three-year
\nsuspension for aggravated perjury. Only a few weeks later a jubilant
\npress release scrolled out of the Current fax, blaring, \u201c\u2018CIVIL
\nRIGHTS\u2019 ATTORNEY JAMES MYART ADMITS TO CRIMINAL WRONGS.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of a plea deal, Myart pleaded guilty to not only stealing
\nfrom a Habitat for Humanity store in 2005 and filing a false report
\nabout being attacked by police officers in 2006, but also to charges
\nof pocketing $13,275 from a client.<\/p>\n
Compounding his embarrassment, the client he admitted to wronging
\nturned out to be the reputed founder of the Texas chapter of the
\nMexican Mafia, Heriberto \u201cHerbie\u201d Huerta.<\/p>\n
Online forum-goers \u2014 like one gun site dedicated to the AR-15
\nmachine gun, a police favorite \u2014 went ballistic on Myart. Comments
\nraged from an offer of a noose to rampant speculation on Myart\u2019s
\nprison life expectancy.<\/p>\n
Neither Myart nor his attorney Christopher Gale could be reached for
\nthis article.<\/p>\n
Wherever one lines up on Myart\u2019s rebel style \u2014 whether you
\nconsider the man rabidly racist himself or heroically uncompromising
\n\u2014 his failings have left a gaping hole, a truly Myart-sized hole, in
\nSan Antonio\u2019s legal network.<\/p>\n
Drawn typically from the economic underclass, Myart\u2019s former
\nclients have fallen into a legal miasma. Some have found their way to
\nnew counsel, thanks to the local American Civil Liberties Union
\nchapter. Others drift still.<\/p>\n
St. Hedwig resident Helen Hullaby was at Zion the day that PERF
\nmembers settled into folding chairs to hear from what Myart described
\nas \u201ca small microcosm\u201d of San Antonio\u2019s mistreated minorities.<\/p>\n
Though she paid Myart $5,000 for assistance, Hullaby\u2019s effort to
\ngain help for her niece \u2014 as well as confront the SAPD and a local
\nhospital \u2014 never made it to the starting blocks.<\/p>\n
Hullaby\u2019s niece, Terry Lynn Woods, is a 42-year-old deaf woman with
\na string of violent behavior to her record. Due to her unpredictable
\ntemper, something Hullaby blames on her deafness and a bi-polar
\ndisorder, Woods is not welcome to stay with family in San Antonio. So
\nshe bounces around the assisted-living circuit.<\/p>\n
During a police confrontation at one such residence, Woods didn\u2019t
\nmake it downtown. Instead, she found herself dumped at Nix Specialty
\nHospital with a fractured leg.<\/p>\n
Hullaby said Woods told her she was having trouble getting her state
\ndisability check and blamed the owner of Rosa\u2019s Assisted Living,
\nRosa Toney.<\/p>\n
Toney said the fight was over a man talking to Woods\u2019 girlfriend.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe threw large rocks through all first-floor windows across the
\nfront of house. Cut phone lines. One almost hit a resident,\u201d Toney
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The Current was not able to locate a witness to the arrest, but
\npolice records indicate officers were dispatched to the location twice
\nthat day.<\/p>\n
Previous calls list Woods as a repeated source of trouble.<\/p>\n
There were repeated struggles over her medication and a brick-tossing
\nincident. Woods was evicted.<\/p>\n
In May, Woods returned to the home to pick up her belongings, Hullaby
\nsaid. When she arrived she found her belongings piled up outside the
\nhouse \u2014 but not her check.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when a round of window breaking began.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess they told her to stop or whatever, and she didn\u2019t, so
\nthey caught up with her and they handcuffed her,\u201d Hullaby said.
\n\u201cThey threw her in the back of the car and they just continued to
\nbeat her. Even though she was in handcuffs, they continued to beat
\nher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toney said the encounter happened up the street and she didn\u2019t see
\nthe arrest.<\/p>\n
Officers supposedly then took Woods and dropped her at Nix Specialty
\nHospital on Vance Jackson, where she was put in a splint and released.<\/p>\n
Hullaby couldn\u2019t find Woods for four weeks, but when she caught up
\nwith her niece, now at another assisted-living residence \u2014 one that
\nHullaby claims was being run by drug dealers \u2014 she found a medical
\nemergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw Terry and her leg was swollen all double,\u201d she said.
\nHullaby and others got Woods to an orthopedic surgeon for emergency
\ntreatment.<\/p>\n
The aunt\u2019s primary complaint has been with the SAPD and Nix
\nHospital, but her hope in hiring Myart was ultimately to get power of
\nattorney over Woods so she could get her admitted into a state
\nhospital for long-term care.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe needs it,\u201d agrees Toney. \u201cShe needs it. She is out of
\ncontrol. She is totally out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Myart disappeared with Hullaby\u2019s $5,000, the woman didn\u2019t
\nknow what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a way, I feel like he has us in mind, but there is nothing he
\ncan do because he had his license suspended,\u201d Hullaby says. \u201cI
\nneed something to be done because Terry is in another boarding house
\nand she got into it with the people. She has problems getting along
\nwith people. They called me. They all think that I have guardianship
\nover her and I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clients who got lost in the Myart shuffle have a couple of options,
\nsays Maureen Ray, special administrative counsel in the Office of
\nChief Disciplinary Counsel for the State Bar of Texas. The first is to
\ncall the Bar\u2019s Lawyer Referral Service to get matched with an
\nattorney working in a field similar to their former lawyer.<\/p>\n
Payments made to attorneys who either intentionally pocketed
\nsettlement cash or failed to provide services at all, can be
\nreimbursed through The Client Security Fund. Amassed from the annual
\ndues paid each year by practicing Texas attorneys, the Fund cashed out
\nalmost half a million dollars on 27 cases during 2006. Most were cases
\nof attorneys holding fees they did not earn; 18 were found to be
\nincidents of theft by the lawyer, according to data maintained by the
\nBar.<\/p>\n
However, miffed clients can\u2019t claim money they feel they would have
\nbeen awarded if their attorneys hadn\u2019t dropped their cases.<\/p>\n
Keeping up with their ambulance-chasing image, personal injury
\nlawyers were responsible for most awards paid out through the Fund.<\/p>\n
Many of Myart\u2019s cases were shunted to local ACLU board member Ed
\nPi\u00f1a \u2014 likely the only other Civil Rights attorney in San Antonio
\nwho handles more cases of alleged police abuse than the now off-screen
\nMyart.<\/p>\n
There were few venues Myart was not willing to rush into with his
\nvociferous claims of racial profiling and unprovoked police attacks on
\nAfrican-Americans. Although, his behavior has earned him public
\nderision and time in jail, such as when he grandstanded at a City
\nCouncil meeting, demanding that protestors removed from the meeting be
\nallowed back into the chambers, some of his colleagues believe such
\ntrumpeting is necessary.<\/p>\n
While most attorneys contacted for this story failed to return
\nrepeated phone calls, Pi\u00f1a offered some insights.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly respect his approach to this,\u201d said Pi\u00f1a. \u201cIt\u2019s
\na necessary approach, and it probably permitted me not to have to
\nraise the profile of some of my cases, which otherwise I may have been
\nrequired to do in order to effectively represent them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pi\u00f1a is a defender of Myart \u2014 at least as far as recent City
\nactions are concerned. He spoke up for Myart when the disgraced
\nattorney was arrested at the City Council meeting and smacked with a
\nrestraining order requiring him to stay away from City Hall and Mayor
\nPhil Hardberger. But he has a far more sedate method of pursuing
\njustice.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Myart and I have always done more civil- rights work than
\nanybody else I know of, but you know, different tracks in the
\nsense that I\u2019m always leery of the spotlight,\u201d Pi\u00f1a said. \u201cNow,
\nsometimes representation of your client absolutely demands
\nand requires it and I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t do it. Otherwise,
\nI\u2019m not going to seek it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Myart\u2019s boisterousness was good for other Civil Rights attorneys in
\nthat it communicated the widespread public complaints about the police
\nforce to the public \u2014 and the potential jury pool. Myart may be able
\nto apply for reinstatement with the Texas Bar in five years, but in
\nthe meantime, another public loudspeaker may need to step in.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t like for people to hear about my cases, but sometimes
\nit\u2019s necessary,\u201d Pi\u00f1a said. \u201cI think everybody in the Civil
\nRights community owes a debt to him, in one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lakisha McCalister was in the house when the police arrived. Her
\nbrothers had been fighting. But John had since gone outside. Her
\nyounger brother retreated to his room.<\/p>\n
Then the cops showed up.<\/p>\n
John was pulled from the yard and placed face down on the sidewalk,
\naccording to mother Brenda Shaw. Then, one by one, as the family came
\nout of the house, there was more of the same.<\/p>\n
In the ensuing confusion, a disbelieving Shaw recalls a female
\nofficer shoving her way past her and heading at her daughter, who had
\ncried out, \u201cLook what these pigs are doing to us!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe pushed me into the fence and balled up her fists and started
\ngoing after Lakisha,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her own arm quickly twisted behind her back by another officer, she
\nwatched as Lakisha was slammed face down in a rockpile. As a pile of
\nblue uniforms fell upon the slight, young girl, she claims to have
\nseen a fist rise and fall on her daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first saw her have a seizure about two weeks later,\u201d Shaw
\nsaid. But Lakisha relates that just hours after her arrest for
\ninterfering with police business and assaulting an officer she lost
\ncontrol of her body.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said she first had a seizure in jail. They tied her to a chair
\nand put a plastic bag over her head. They said, \u2018Ah, you\u2019re not
\nhaving a seizure. You\u2019re just faking,\u2019\u201d Shaw said.<\/p>\n
Her parents say the 20-year-old now takes two medications to control
\nher episodes.<\/p>\n
The PERF report is unlikely to satisfy those who claim mistreatment
\nby SAPD \u2014 and it won\u2019t change the opinions of Brenda Shaw, who not
\nonly blames local police for her daughter\u2019s seizures, but now has to
\nlament the death of her son, possibly due to a Parks Police officer
\ntaking too long to call EMS after a gang-related shooting late last
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
(Though the shooting occurred on May 28, the Parks Police report had
\nstill not been filed by this week\u2019s press deadline. SAPD, who
\narrived later, reported that two men were arrested for aggravated
\nassault and aggravated robbery.)<\/p>\n
As Myart began to recognize how his own behavior was threatening his
\npractice, he began to soften, admitting to his own struggles to find
\nmental clarity. A softspoken Myart closed the PERF meeting in January
\nwith a disclaimer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of officers are honest, god-fearing, spiritual
\nhuman beings,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s more than a few bad apples,
\nladies and gentlemen \u2026 This is what you call anarchy in the worst
\nway.\u201d<\/p>\n
If anarchy comes with the territory, it\u2019s no wonder the Myart-sized
\nhole may be a hard one to fill.<\/p>\n
Any takers?<\/p>\n
Link: http:\/\/sacurrent.com\/news\/story.asp?id=68871<\/p>\n
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\nPowered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com —<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Myart\u2019s remains Disenfranchised seek new legal counsel after in-your-face Civil Rights attorney is sidelined Justin Parr Helen Hullaby with a photo of niece Terry Woods. Greg Harman Another loss for Brenda Shaw and John McCalister Sr. By Greg Harman It…<\/p>\n