Authorities encouraged by newly elected district attorney
By SHARON KERR

IT TAKES TWO HANDS to heft the stack of almost 500 dismissals Sheriff Ronnie McBride must file away. Serious crimes dismissed by the previous district attorney's included aggravated sexual assault of a child, robbery, burglary and possession of controlled substances.

Jasper County Sheriff Ronnie McBride and Investigation Supervisor Stacey Chambers were cleaning house last week by filling away approximately 500 cases representing thousands of hours of work by the department.

The net result of all those arrests was zero, not because of any lack of work by the sheriff's office but because the previous district attorney routinely dismissed cases without so much as a plea bargain according to the two officers.

Cases included crimes like aggravated sexual assault, possession of controlled substances and meth labs, organized crime, dog fights, burglary, arson, aggravated assault and kidnapping, to name a few, according to Chambers.

At the Jasper Police Department, Todd Hunter has a similar pile of returned cases from former Jasper County district attorney Ted Walker.

"We are very encouraged with Hollis in office now," Hunter said. "We have spoken with him about current cases which are going to be filed from 2006.

"There are several cases that were investigated thoroughly and will be turned in this week and next week," Hunter said.

McBride said, "We have cases that have been under investigation awhile. We want to let (new district attorney) Steve Hollis get seated and don't want to flood him until he has his feet on the ground, but then we want to sit down and go over some things."

Chambers said, "Everything we sent to the (former District Attorney Ted Walker) was dismissed and didn't get prosecuted. It's hard to get officers motivated to work when nothing is going to happen and the guys on the street are laughing at our officers."

Hunter and Chambers agreed that Hollis in office has given a big boost to law enforcement staff across the county.

"When you have officers that work very diligently on an arrest, makes a good arrest and good case report and it goes to the DA's office and is not prosecuted - it really knocks down morale with the officers," Hunter said.

Law enforcement personnel agree that the lack of prosecution has fueled increase drug activity in the county.

"My motto has always been you can't stop drugs, but you can slow them down. Up to now there's been nothing for them to fear, but we hope that's changing," Chambers said.

Hunter said Jasper's drug problem is no different than most other small rural communities.

"We do have some drug problems and we are working diligently on them to make an impact on these drug problems," Hunter said. "Many of the people we arrest have been in the system five to 10 times for the same offenses. If we are able to prosecute these people properly, then we will make an impact on the crime scene in Jasper County."

During a drug sweep this past summer, Hunter was forced to seek federal charges against the suspects in order to secure proper prosecution and avoid the local district attorney's office.

McBride said that people have asked about previous complaints and investigations, and all he could say before was that the case was dismissed.

Hunter said all that changed on Jan. 1 when Hollis assumed office.

"You will now see us go through our district attorney's office with these offenses," Hunter said.

McBride also pointed out the sheriff's department lost thousands of dollars in forfeitures that the county could have recovered from drug busts and other crimes if only the paper work had been filed within 30 days by the D.A.'s office.

Chambers and McBride agreed that morale began to change the night of the elections.

"We have a lot of hope that with the new county judge and new D.A. that doors will open for us to be able to do things for the community," Chambers said.

Jimmy Galvan contributed to this report