Dump The DA
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Angelina County DA Janet Cassels has until Monday at 5:00 to decide if she is running for reelection. But if she really cares about the victims and their families, she’ll quit while she’s behind. If she does run, taxpayers will end up paying for the secrets she’s now trying to keep. They should dump the DA.
Crime victims
“The last time I held my sister’s hand it was hard and cold,” cried Angela Schaeffer.
Angela’s sister, Ashley, was brutally murdered in July of last year. The details are horrific.
“They killed my sister in her sleep while her ten months old was in the bed with here,” recalled Angela.
It was a very rare murder in the small town of Diboll in Angelina County.
“Profound. Very profound,” expressed Annette Archer.
The loss you can imagine almost too much for her mother to bear.
“I know everybody says sweet, loving, caring. And, you know, I don’t mean for it to be a cliche, but she was,” continued Archer.
But Ashley’s family say they are being victimized again, this time by a negligent Angelina County District Attorney Janet Cassels, accused of providing little or no help to victims’ families in their time of great need.
“I think they care about the crime. But as far as the family is concerned, no, I don’t feel like they care,” said Archer.
It is the job of the local D.A. to prosecute killers, rapists, child molesters, but they have another mission. Give the families of crime victims any help they need to recover.
That includes helping relatives apply for money from the state’s crime victims’ compensation fund. Money that can be used to pay for things like hospital bills and funeral expenses.
It is a job Angelina County D.A. Cassels doesn’t seem to want.
Brittany Tarkington used to work at the Angelina County D.A.’s office as a paralegal and she recounts the derogatory way Cassels talked about victims of crime and their families.
“She would say to our victim assistance coordinator not to talk to the families that our victims were in a ditch,” recalled Brittany Tarkington.
Wayne asked, “Why?”
Brittany responded, “She just thought she was taking up too much time. She would only let us talk to one family member. They had to designate one. We couldn’t say a lot.”
At the time of Ashley’s death, the victims advocate at the Angelina D.A.’s office was Donna Krise. Who helped with the paperwork needed to get financial help for the burial but it wasn’t enough.
“It was probably half of what we wound up paying. And in total for you know, her services and everything,” said Archer.
“We had to go into the 401k in order to bury her,” recalls Archer.
Krise declined our request for an on camera interview but Brittany will help us tell you Donna’s story.
“She had family members calling and she wasn’t able to give them anything and they’re crying, obviously upset. And she wasn’t able to do anything, or she was going to lose her job. And she did eventually, a few days after me,” recalls Tarkington.
Brittany says they were both fired to help Cassels’ husband, Jimmy Cassels, who had won election as a county court at law judge. His law firm employees needed new jobs. The D.A. made it happen.
But the D.A.’s office has become a revolving door on steroids. Dozens of people have left in the few short years of Cassels’ leadership. Some have complained to us about alleged bullying by the boss.
Krise had been at the das office just 11 months. When she left she was the sixth victim services coordinator to leave in just a few short years. That should tell you something.
Annette archer has seen the difference.
“Since then, I really haven’t gotten anything. You know, I don’t even bother to call them anymore because I don’t feel like my phone calls get returned like they should,” said Annette Archer.
Donna Krise may be gone from the D.A.’s office, but sources tell us she left a trail of the complaints she made to Cassels about her treatment of victims.
We’ve learned Krise was criticized by the D.A. when she when took a course that would allow her to be certified by the Texas Attorney General to help crime victims get the money they needed from the state in days, rather than months.
The attorney general’s office tells us there is no one at the D.A.’s office today who has that useful certification.
It’s one of the reasons that on September 8th we asked the D.A. for all emails sent or received by Krise while she was helping crime victims.
We asked for victim impact statements the D.A sent out. And we asked for documents detailing the notice victims were given about upcoming hearings in their cases.
On October 18th, we demanded production of the records under state law.
We notified the county attorney we were prepared to file suit to compel production of the records. From the D.A., from the county attorney, we got crickets.
But we already have a clue as to why Krise and other crime victim advocates have left the Angelina County D.A.’s office in the past few years.
It’s bad enough Cassel is accused of ignoring crime victims, she’s also denied justice for many of them.
Back in September we reported there were 938 pending felony cases involving dangerous and violent criminals, they include 46 child molesters, and 14 murder cases.
Including Ashley Schaeffer’s estranged husband and a second man charged in her murder.
Ashley’s mother-in-law and her estranged husband’s girlfriend have pleaded guilty for their part in the killing.
Wayne Dolcefino asked, “Cassels was it worth all the time and money just for this?”
Instead of pursuing dangerous criminals, the D.A. has spent considerable resources on controversial misdemeanor prosecutions of politicians who opposed her.
Like former County Judge Don Lymbery, headlines announced dozens of misdemeanor charges for not keeping records and talking county business once without an open meeting.
All but one of the charges went away before trial. He was convicted of jut one class c misdemeanor.
“I’m still maintaining my innocence,” said Don Lymbery.
And she was ready to repeat the performance with former County Commissioner Rodney Paulette, until we reported on the huge backlog of felony cases.
District Judge Inselman, who had the biggest backlog, announced the district courts would no longer hear misdemeanor cases.
It was a message loud and clear to the D.A.
Wayne Dolcefino asked, “Why do you feel it’s appropriate for you to prosecute these cases?”
We had long argued the D.A. should have never handled the prosecutions of her political foes in the first place.
And in an interview with the Angelina County group, We The Watchdogs, the county judge cast doubt on whether there will ever be a trials for Paulette.
“The misdemeanor as far as I am concerned is probably gone. And the felony charge may be gone too,” said Keith Wright.
Paulette was charged with misusing his office, but our investigation of that felony charge showed he had simply repaired property for constituents flooded as a result of bad county work.
Despite the glaring headlines there is no evidence that Paulette asked for anything for doing it.
“We didn’t ask him. Certainly, didn’t pay him to do it. But we do feel that he- that it came from a good place,” said Amy Donahoe.
Paulette is now fighting back, running to be county commissioner again. Promising that Angelina County’s road problems and stopping overspending will be front and center in his campaign.
Paulette and other politicians ensnared in Cassels’ web; claim they paid the price for supporting the implementation of a county wide unit road system.
The Lufkin Daily News has trumpeted other candidates in pct 1 as front-page news, but strangely not a word about Paulette’s run.
And one lawyer has already lined up to be the new D.A. if Cassels doesn’t run for re-election. She shouldn’t. Annette Archer thinks something needs to change.
“The whole system in Angelina County should be reexamined through the state or the federal government. And every position that can be thought of should be filled by someone who cares and someone who can do the job,” said Annette Archer.
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