Vitrella was not killed by the shots fired by multiple police officers when he pointed a gun at them. Reginald Sumbler was. Vitrella had broken in and held his wife hostage. Reginald Sumbler had called to report that he was suicidal and needed help.

Nov. 26, 2007, 5:49PM
Former police officer charged in standoff

By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A former police officer who surrendered after a standoff with Houston SWAT members last week has been charged in connection with breaking into a home and holding his ex-wife hostage at gunpoint, law enforcement officials said Monday.

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David James Vitrella, 36, of Houston, is charged with aggravated assault on a public servant, aggravated kidnapping and burglary with intent to commit another felony, said John Cannon, a spokesman with the Houston Police Department.

Vitrella is free on a total of $90,000 bail, court staff said. He is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 13.

A magistrate judge imposed an emergency protective order Nov. 22 prohibiting Vitrella from going to his ex-wife’s office and home and harassing her in any manner, such as by phone, officials said.

He could not be reached for comment.

Vitrella is a former West University Place police officer as well as a former University of Texas police officer, said Jane Waters, Harris County Assistant District Attorney.

Cannon said Vitrella allegedly broke into a home in the 900 block of Pecore about 1 p.m. Nov.21. He apparently pointed a gun at a man who lived in the home and threatened to shoot and kill him, Cannon said. The man ran from the home unhurt and called police.

Vitrella found his ex-wife in the home, Cannon said, and held her hostage in a back room of the house.

“At one point, he pointed his weapon at one police officer,” Cannon added.

He surrendered to SWAT officers about five hours later. No shots were fired and no one was injured.

dale.lezon@chron.com

Join Houston Copwatch and the October 22 Coalition this coming Monday night, October 22, at 6:30pm at Bohemeos Cafe: 708 Telephone Rd in the East End for an evening event to mark the National Day Against Police Brutality.

http://www.bohemeos.com/

http://www.myspace.com/october22ndhouston

A recent test of the same sheet found that there was in fact semen on the sheet linking the rape to a sexual offender that is already serving time in a Texas prison.

Harris County District Attorney’s Office is working for Ronald Gene Taylor’s release now that this evidence has come to light.

Oct. 4, 2007, 6:39AM
Mix-up on DNA deals HPD lab another blow
Man exonerated 14 years after rape conviction

By MIKE TOLSON and ROMA KHANNA
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Few people listened when Ronald Gene Taylor declared himself innocent of a rape charge 14 years ago. But the Harris County District Attorney’s Office finally agreed with him Wednesday, acknowledging that the scandal-plagued Houston Police Department crime lab was responsible for sending yet another wrong person to prison.

Incarcerated since being picked out of a lineup in June 1993, Taylor was exonerated by new DNA testing this summer that showed another man was guilty of the crime. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said he was sickened when he got the news late last week of the wrongful conviction.

“I feel awful,” Rosenthal said. “Nobody wants to have an innocent person wrongfully convicted and sent to prison. It’s a very regrettable thing.”

The exoneration of the 47-year-old Taylor is another blow to the tattered reputation of the Houston Police Department crime lab, which has been rocked by scandal in recent years over the reliability of its testing and quality controls.

Rosenthal said he will work quickly toward Taylor’s release and pardon. A hearing before state District Judge Denise Collins is scheduled for Oct. 12. Collins could release him on a personal recognizance bond at that time.

Lived near crime scene

The testing was done at the request of the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal clinic that assists prisoners in getting DNA evidence reviewed. It has worked on the case since 1998, when it was contacted by Taylor’s stepfather, who was pressing his son’s claim of innocence.The HPD crime lab originally reported that a bed sheet it tested did not contain semen, a conclusion that led an appeals judge to deny a request for additional testing. Absent conclusive forensic evidence, Taylor’s conviction was based on an eyewitness identification by the victim and the fact that he lived nearby.

New tests on the sheet, done this summer by ReliaGene Technologies, yielded the DNA profile not of Taylor but another convicted sex offender serving time in Texas prisons. The statute of limitations for prosecuting that case has expired, Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal said the victim’s bad ID was understandable.

“The two men are remarkably similar in appearance,” he said. “One can see how a mistake in identification can be made.”

Fleeting glimpse, in dark

According to Taylor’s lawyers, the victim never got a good look at her attacker. She felt some of his features and saw him briefly as he was fleeing her apartment. That glimpse came in a dark room lit only by a nearby street light.She viewed the lineup in the presence of one police officer without witnesses or attorneys for the defendant, Taylor’s lawyers claim. While watching the video, the victim suddenly recalled that the perpetrator had a tooth missing — not part of her initial description — and she identified Taylor, who had been placed in the lineup because a neighbor interviewed by police recalled seeing him in the area the night of the assault.

The Innocence Project has been critical of convictions based primarily on eyewitness identification by strangers. Bolstered by numerous studies that show the fallibility of such IDs, it has called for major changes in the ways police departments present lineups to crime victims.

Taylor, the eldest of five children who were raised near Huntsville, had moved to Houston about six months before the May 1993 attack in which he was accused, according to his mother, Dorothy Henderson.

“We had concerns from the beginning that this was a case of mistaken identification,” said Shelton Sparks, the attorney who handled Taylor’s appeal. “But we did not pursue DNA testing because we did not believe there was any evidence to be tested based on the (HPD analyst’s) testimony at trial.”

Family didn’t give up

As Taylor served his sentence in a prison in Tennessee Colony, his family worked to prove he had been wrongly convicted. They got lucky when the Innocence Project agreed to take on the case.”He always said that he was innocent, and I kept the faith that one day it would come through that it was not him,” Henderson said. “We have suffered so much, but soon, now, when I can hug him and know that he is free, we will have peace.”

Henderson plans to attend next week’s court hearing, after which she hopes to take him home to Huntsville “for a home-cooked meal.”

Assistant District Attorney Jack Roady said he will work with Innocence Project lawyers to agree on findings of fact to present to Collins. If she signs off on them, Taylor’s habeas corpus petition will be presented to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for final action.

Assuming Taylor is granted a pardon based on innocence, he would be eligible for compensation from the state at a rate of $50,000 per year of incarceration, for a total of $600,000 or more.

Taylor’s is the third conviction to crumble since scrutiny of work from the Houston crime lab began late in 2002 after news reports and an audit exposed poorly trained personnel and inaccurate work in the DNA division. Two other men were released from prison after new DNA tests discredited HPD’s analyses.

Josiah Sutton was released from prison in March 2003 when DNA tests challenged the HPD work that helped secure his conviction in a 1998 rape. Sutton received a pardon on the basis of innocence and the state has compensated him with more than $118,000 for the time he served.

George Rodriguez served more than 17 years in prison in the 1987 rape of a 14-year-old girl before new forensic evidence discredited the HPD crime lab work on his case and led prosecutors to dismiss the case against him.

Since HPD’s crime lab problems first came to light, errors have been found in several types of analyses, including those of firearms and of controlled substances, casting doubt on thousands of convictions and unsettling the local justice system.

Faulty evidence in the cases against Rodriguez and Taylor included serology, the science of typing body fluids that was a precursor to DNA testing.

Independent investigators who studied the crime lab over 26 months and issued a final report in June have called the work of the HPD serology division among the most troubling and problematic work from the crime lab.

Their scientists identified about 180 cases in which HPD serology work had “major issues” and called for a review of those cases to determine whether the forensic evidence played an essential role in securing convictions. Taylor’s case was not among those highlighted in the report.

The serologist who handled Taylor’s case worked in the lab from 1993 until 1996.

Call for systematic review

The investigative team recommended the appointment of an independent “special master” to review those cases. Local officials rejected the proposal. Instead, HPD and the district attorney’s office have begun their own reviews of those cases.Barry Scheck, a founder of the Innocence Project, said Taylor’s case should highlight the need for a systematic review.

“The Ronald Taylor case ought to be a galvanizing example of what has to be done to correct the historical injustices that have occurred because of the Houston crime lab,” Scheck said.

Scheck, other lawyers and local elected officials have begun working on a proposal to form a panel of lawyers to review these cases. Rosenthal was receptive to the idea of such a panel, Scheck said, and the lawyers have contacted the presiding judge over Harris County’s courts, state District Judge Debbie Mantooth Stricklin, about how to proceed with the proposal.

“There has got to be an expeditious way to go through these cases and determine whether more testing is possible and appropriate,” Scheck said. “That sort of vetting requires expertise, competence and an infrastructure to do that.”

mike.tolson@chron.comroma.khanna@chron.com

What dangers could this pose to the public? Tired, overworked, disillusioned police officers paired together. Double the pain, double the hours, all with your generous tax donations!

Rather than endangering the public, couldn’t HPD put this money to use in more thorough training of the officers? If you had to fund the HPD, what type of program would you like to see?

Oct. 2, 2007, 6:34PM
Houston to spend $24 million to beef up police force

By KEVIN MORAN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

The city of Houston will spend an extra $24 million on police overtime in the next three years while boosting the number of officers on the streets by more than 500 in that period, Mayor Bill White said today.

The overtime money will finance more than 500,000 hours of police work through the fiscal year that ends in July 2010, White said.

Police Chief Harold Hurtt said he expects the overtime work and new officers to drop violent crime by another 5 percent in the next two to three years. Hurtt last week released figures showing violent crime in Houston this year is down 5 percent from last year.

Total violent crime in Houston through August was down by 4.9 percent from August 2006, with reported rapes showing a decrease of 36.2 percent and robberies down by 4.2 percent, Hurtt said.

The added funding and manpower announced today will immediately put more officers to work, for more hours, in troubled areas of the city such as Acres Homes, where the bodies of seven women have been found in the past two years, White and Hurtt said at a City Hall news conference this morning.

The $24 million is in addition to more than $40 million the city has budgeted for overtime in each of the past two years.

The announcement drew praise from rank-and-file officers.

“The bottom line is that this is boots on the ground,” said Houston Police Officers Union president Hans Marticiuc, who attended the meeting. “This is welcome news for every Houston police officer.”

The money to add three police academy classes to four already scheduled, and put more officers to work on overtime in high-crime areas, comes from increased property taxes that voters exempted from a city budget tax cap, White said.

About 80 of the new street police will be already-commissoned officers who currently are working in the city jail and are scheduled to be replaced by civilians, he said. Those civilians eventually will become Harris County employees, he said.

“We cannot guarantee that we will not have criminals in Houston, Texas,” White said. “But what I can say is that the criminals are going to have their hands full with the Houston Police Department.”

Hurtt said more officers already are patrolling Acres Homes this week and others are looking for people there who have outstanding arrest warrants.

The increased overtime means neighborhood, or “storefront” police substations will be open longer and have more officers assigned to work there, Hurt said.

“We’re going to focus most of these individuals on catching crooks,” Hurtt said.

In some areas, Houstonians will see two officers in patrol cars “so they don’t have to wait for backup,” Hurtt said.

As the police force builds to an anticipated 5,400 or more officers in coming years, overtime spending will decrease, White said.

Hurtt said he expects to be able to show the public within as little as two months that the additional spending and manpower announced today will be reflected in reduced crime rates and more arrests in at least some areas of town.

kevin.moran@chron.com

We have a culture of self protection and second amendment rights in Houston. Is it surprising that a 74 year old woman would have a  gun? Is it surprising that a 74 year old woman might also be suffering from dementia?

In comes the HPD SWAT team to save the day. After being seen with a pistol in her hand, neighbors quickly called SWAT on the elderly woman. SWAT team negotiated with the woman to surrender after watching her sweep her apartment and listening to her on the phone “ramble about various subjects”.

Another example of excessive force brought to you by HPD.

Oct. 2, 2007, 6:30PM
Woman surrenders after N. Houston SWAT standoff

By KEVIN MORAN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A 74-year-old north Houston woman surrendered to police this morning, about nine hours after officers were called to her apartment complex because of reports that she was carrying a pistol.

The woman, with whom officers and relatives had talked intermittently during the standoff, gave up peacefully shortly after 8:30 a.m., said Houston police Capt. M.L. Curran.

Police did not immediately say whether charges would be filed or whether the woman would be taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Officers earlier had said it was not clear why she was walking around with a .38-caliber pistol in her hand, but that she did not appear to intend harm to herself or anyone else.

Police had blocked off a section of North Shepherd near Interstate 45 early this morning while members of the SWAT team tried to convince the woman to come out.

Officers had been called at 11:23 p.m. Monday after neighbors reported seeing her with the pistol at the Mesa Park Apartments, in the 7400 block of North Shepherd.

SWAT negotiators talked with the woman by telephone and used a loudspeaker in an effort to persuade her to pick up the phone or come out.

“We are here to help you. We are not here to hurt you,” a police negotiator told the woman.

“As long as you follow our instructions, we can guarantee your safety,” the negotiator said. “Let your niece, Brenda, talk with you. She is very concerned about your safety. She wants you to get back on the phone.”

During the standoff, police occasionally could see the woman through the windows of her apartment, sometimes carrying the pistol but also sweeping the floor at times, officers said.

Her second-floor apartment overlooks the intersection of North Shepherd and West Little York.

During discussions with police on the phone, the woman was “rambling about various subjects,”  HPD spokesman John Cannon said.

kevin.moran@chron.com

Mayor White claimed that much has already been done for Acre Homes in regards to the homicides, citing the clearing of lots, a reduction in homicides since last year, and the removal of trash.

Oct. 2, 2007, 11:53AM
Police chief pledges more patrols in Acres Homes

By ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt told a crowd of more than 100 Acres Homes residents Monday evening that more officers will patrol their community after another body was recently found dumped there.

“I believe somebody in this area knows the suspect, because people talk,” Hurtt said during the town hall meeting at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church. “We want to know about it.”

The latest victim, Willie Bianca Jones, 18, was found Sept. 22 near a ditch in the 1100 block of Bland.

Hurtt said his investigators have “promising leads” in the case and he would go public the moment a suspect is arrested.

Although police investigators had said Jones’ body was the seventh found dumped in the northwest neighborhood since January 2006, police Lt. Ron Walker said Monday that one victim was found outside of the neighborhood.

He said leads indicate that case is not tied to those found in Acres Homes.

Two of the victims’ bodies showed evidence they were stabbed to death, while tests on the others have yet to reveal a cause of death, Walker said.

He added that there is no evidence a single killer is behind all of the deaths.

State Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, called on Hurtt to provide an “intimidating” police presence in Acres Homes to resolve the problem that has long plagued the area.

“We don’t need No. 8,” Turner said. “We need this problem solved and we need it solved right now.”

Mayor Bill White, who did not attend the meeting, recently said his administration has done more to remedy problems within Acres Homes.

White has said the city cleared more than 880 lots and removed 40 tons of heavy trash last year.

White said the homicide rate in the police district that includes Acres Homes is down 40 percent from January to August over the same period last year.

rosanna.ruiz@chron.com

Oct. 3, 2007, 1:16PM
Ex-officer getting new trial in plot to kill wife

By STEVE McVICKER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A federal judge has ordered a new trial for a former Missouri City public safety officer sentenced to death for masterminding the fatal shooting of his wife.

Although U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon granted the trial without comment, attorneys for Robert Fratta based his appeal on what they said was an inadmissible jailhouse confession by the trigger man that factored into the jury’s decision to convict Fratta.

Fratta was convicted in the 1994 murder-for-hire of his wife, Farah, then 33. During the 1996 trial, the evidence against Fratta included a confession from Howard Guidry, whom prosecutors said was the gunman.

In the appeal, Fratta’s attorneys argued that an investigator with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office had tricked Guidry into confessing. They alleged that Guidry had not been allowed see his attorney during interrogation, even after he demanded that he be allowed to do so.

At one point, the investigator left the interrogation room, then returned saying he had spoken with Guidry’s lawyer, and that the attorney had given Guidry permission to speak to police. Guidry then confessed. Guidry’s attorney later said he had never been contacted by the investigator.

Guidry was convicted and sentenced to death. In 2006, he was granted a new trial, but later convicted a second time.

Prosecutors contend that Fratta had his wife killed after she filed for divorce following his bizarre sexual desires. He also tried to collect on his wife’s $235,000 life insurance policy days after her death.

steve.mcvicker@chron.com

Sept. 28, 2007, 11:43PM
Red-light cameras also snaring police
More than 520 tickets have been issued to public agencies since operation began

By MATT STILES
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Houston police commanders say the city’s red-light camera enforcement program should increase safety at intersections by prompting “behavior modifications” in motorists.

Not all of their own employees are getting the message, however.

More than 100 Houston police vehicles moving through intersections without emergency lights were cited in the first year of the cameras’ operation, according to ticket data.

“We’re just like regular citizens. We’re only human,” said Martha Montalvo, an executive assistant chief with the Houston Police Department who oversees the program.

“We’re hoping for some behavior modifications from all angles, not only from our citizens but also from our city employees.”

The officers’ citations were among more than 520 tickets issued to local public schools, governments and the area’s transit agency since the cameras went online last fall. The tickets resulted in nearly $40,000 in fines, according to electronic records released under the Texas Public Information Act.

The public vehicle citations represent a tiny fraction of the more than 100,000 issued to all motorists during this period. But officials from the various agencies say they take them seriously, requiring employees to pay the fines and, in some cases, undergo extra training to avoid repeat offenses. At least one school district, Aldine, has fired bus drivers for running red lights.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority, whose drivers were cited at least 129 times with fines totaling nearly $10,000, said it suspends bus operators for violations. A third citation also results in termination, Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said.

“We definitely take this very, very seriously,” she said. “We take steps that we need to take to drive that point home.”

The Houston Independent School District has a similar camera policy for its bus drivers, who were cited at least 14 times. Aaron Hobbs, the district’s interim general manager for transportation, said drivers are given verbal and written reminders to be careful.

“It’s definitely a concern,” Hobbs said. “We’re carrying a precious cargo.”

Drivers put on probation

Those who make mistakes, he said, must sit with a supervisor to review a video of the incident. They also are placed on 60 days of probation during which they receive training, and are taught to avoid situations in which they are forced to drive through a red light or decelerate quickly at the last second.They can be fired if they receive another citation during this period, a situation that has not occurred, Hobbs said.

“We would really be looking hard at whether you would continue employment with us,” he said.

Aldine ISD, which received 17 citations, 15 for buses, has a zero-tolerance policy it began with the new school year. Two bus drivers have been fired for citations, district spokeswoman Leticia Fehling said in a written statement.

“Safely transporting students to and from school is one of our highest priorities. We have improved our training of drivers to help prevent accidents and to place more emphasis on adherence to traffic laws,” the statement said.

The cameras also nabbed drivers using the cars and trucks from the city of Houston’s massive fleet of civilian vehicles and fire trucks.

Other agencies that received citations included the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Port of Houston Authority and several other school districts.

The data show the number of citations has increased in the last six months at a rate that corresponds with the city’s gradual expansion of the camera system.

From September 2006 through February, when there were 30 cameras in place, 189 public vehicles were cited. From March through August, when there were 50 cameras, at least 336 citations were issued, a 78 percent increase.

Some tickets dismissed

Montalvo and other Houston police officials say the growing number of cameras, in part, accounts for the increase in citations issued to officers during the second half of the year.She also noted that some of the violations later were dismissed because officers were, in fact, responding to authorized calls. Sometimes officers run “silent,” without lights or sirens, so they don’t telegraph their approach to suspects.

Still, she said, numerous officers have been forced to pay. Some have appealed their cases, with mixed success, to hearing examiners at Municipal Court, a right afforded to all motorists.

Asked whether the increase in public vehicles’ citations contradicted the goal of “behavior modifications,” Montalvo said the department plans a more aggressive campaign to raise awareness of the cameras to the general public — and to officers.

“We can do a better job,” she said.

matt.stiles@chron.com

If anyone has any additional information – either about police officers Jason W. Buckaloo and Christopher S. Jones or about this incident, please contact Houston CopWatch.

Sept. 26, 2007, 9:58PM
Man who died in Pasadena jail had 11 rib fractures, report says
Attorney says injuries evidence of violence by Pasadena police
By ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Pedro Gonzales Jr. suffered 11 fractures on eight of his ribs before he died in the Pasadena jail, according to a report police filed with the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

“This is further evidence of the violence committed on him by the Pasadena police department and their lack of attention to his medical needs,” said Clyde “Jay” Jackson, an attorney for the Gonzales family.

Pasadena Police Capt. Bud Corbett said the Internal Affairs Division has not completed its investigation.

Just two days after Gonzales’ July 21 death, police told the Attorney General’s Office that his death was a “justifiable homicide.”

“It should be noted that due to the decased’s (sic) age, poor nutrition, and alcoholism, he was more susceptible to broken bones, including ribs,” states the report, which the Chronicle obtained this week under the Texas Public Information Act.

The report lists “accidental injury, intoxication, suicide or homicide” as the cause of death. Gonzales died from injuries that had been “inflicted by law enforcement officers,” it continues. “Knee strikes” were listed as the means of death.

Gonzales had only been out of the Pasadena jail on a public intoxication charge about an hour when two officers approached him in an auto parts store parking lot, according to police. The officers reported they suspected he was intoxicated again and that Gonzales fought them when they tried to question him.

The Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death a homicide caused when a rib punctured a lung, filling Gonzales’ chest cavity with blood. Chronic ethanolism was given as the secondary cause of death for Gonzales, 51. The official autopsy report has not been released.

Medical experts said the fatal lung injury he suffered is rare.

“You hardly ever see a lung pierced by a rib,” said Dr. Kyle Dickson, chairman of the orthopaedic surgery department at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

“It’s a horribly painful way to die,” said Dr. Donald Winston, a Houston emergency room surgeon who has questioned the police department’s explanation of the events leading to Gonzales’ death. “Even if this patient had alcoholism or weak bones, that’s not an excuse for the level of force it took to cause his injuries.”

Police state in the report that the officers “used several knee strikes to the deceased’s torso to subdue him.”

Gonzales was arrested and charged with assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.

Police have said a paramedic evaluated Gonzales in jail and that he declined treatment.

He died a few hours later.

Gonzales’ friends and relatives said they do not believe he violently resisted arrest or that he was capable of harming the officers.

“It took him forever just to get on his bike and ride across the street,” said Raymond Sanchez, an employee of Battery Express at 805 Shaver, where Gonzales would drop off cans he would collect.

“He was so little and weak. I don’t see how they could say he threatened them.”

A woman who has said she witnessed the incident called Pasadena police shortly after his arrest to report that two officers appeared to be beating a man.

robert.crowe@chron.com