Family Feud
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On a week we celebrate families, we bring you an investigation into a mother who was wrongly charged during an altercation with her own son. She was going to trial for assault until we got involved.
A family brawl erupts… on Mother’s Day of all days…
And the violence in this home on Balbo Street will result in Houston Police arresting Nellita Williams.
She was charged with assault with a deadly weapon… She would lose her job as a Metro bus driver because of it.
For a year and a half, she tried to clear her name… Nothing worked… The police wouldn’t listen.
“It’s just been taking a toll on me and my daughter, I mean mentally, financially in every way,” said Nellita Williams.
Then she came to us for help.
“I feel like I’m on square one… who is not afraid of getting justice? I’m thinking about who can I call and I call Wayne Dolcefino,” she added.
Wait till you see the injustice we help expose… In this explosive family feud.
Wayne: “Mary, are you ok?”
We came here to Balbo Street to do a welfare check… Just to make sure 85-year-old Mary Williams was ok.
Wayne: “You’re physically fine, nobody’s hurting you?”
Mary Williams: “No… Now I ain’t going to let nobody hurt me. But I know they have a way, and they tried to.”
This is why we were worried… Phone recordings last year of Mary claiming she was a victim of elderly abuse… At the hands… Shockingly… Of her own children.
Mary Williams [over the phone]: “Damn them. The way they treat me. Forget all of them… They shouldn’t tie me up and yell at me.”
Mary Williams: “It’s getting too messy. They are stealing my stuff. They are stealing my policies.”
Daughter Nellita Williams told us she was worried too… And made plans to see Mary on Mother’s Day along with her daughter Asia… who wanted to see grandma.
Nellita: “You wanna go somewhere and have brunch or something outdoors or somewhere, momma? Or just Asia, me and Asia?”
“But instead of grandma being outside, my brother was outside,” explained Asia.
“He was trying to push me out the house and everything and I’m like no, I have a right to visit my mom,” claimed Nellita.
That’s when this family feud really exploded.
Listen… You can hear Nellita’s own son yelling on video that he now owns grandma’s house… Not her… And Nelitta isn’t welcome.
You can’t see any physical violence unfold… But you can sure hear at least part of the fight on a phone recording we obtained…
But Asia tells us she was beaten by her own brother that day.
“He closed the door behind me and was punching me and just hitting my head into the wall and just trampling me with punches,” she told us.
“And he slammed her head she had braids at the time, and he slammed her headfirst into the wall,” Nellita added.
“I remember,” Asia says, “looking at his face. I was sliding down the wall and trying to defend myself. He had this like, this look of anger like he didn’t plan on stopping.”
“That’s when I remembered I had my weapon in my purse,” Nellita stated.
“She was brave enough to do that. I felt extremely thankful because her yelling at him was not stopping him,” shared Asia.
But when Houston Police arrived… They didn’t arrest her brother…
They put his mom in handcuffs… Charged her with assault with a deadly weapon.
You can clearly see on the body camera visible injuries on the teenager.
Here’s the knot on her head… The hospital later diagnosed Asia with a concussion… Nellita had a fractured knee…
None of it mattered… For a year and a half Nellita couldn’t get the police to dismiss her case on the grounds of self-defense…
She even went to the police station with Asia to press charges against her own son for assault. She recorded her visit.
Police: “There’s nothing to be reopened. You forced entry into a home.”
Nellita: “I didn’t.”
Police: “Any person in the state of Texas has the right to remove you out of that home. That’s where you said there was a physical altercation.”
Nellita: “Wow.”
But Asia says she saw something on the day of the fight that may explain what happened here.
Asia: “Seeing the police officers interview him, it seemed like they were friends already. It seemed like they knew each other…”
Andrea Palacio: “How did the police officers treat you that day?
Asia: “I felt invisible that day.”
“I would say that he was definitely at the very least, he was given the benefit of the doubt over two people that showed signs of being assaulted,” said attorney Brett Landriault.
Nellita’s son we learn had been a cop… Even his own mother is shocked he had a badge and gun.
“It terrified some people who know my son and what he’s capable of,” revealed Nellita.
A cop who made a false statement to 911 on the day of the fight.
So we looked deeper into Glendon Arnold’s history in law enforcement.
According to his application to the Harris County Pct 4 Constable’s Office, he admitted he had been convicted twice for assault… Trespassing as a minor. He was hired anyway.
He racked up 8 disciplinary actions in less than a year.
Leaving his post… Falling asleep on duty… Disobeying orders. His final disciplinary action was failing to report an injury and failing to report for duty.
But Glendon got hired by Brookshire Police.
He lasted just four months. That department is still withholding the records we asked for.
Then Jamaica Beach Police gave him a job. Listen to Police Chief Raymond Garivey on the phone with us.
Chief Raymond Garivey: “Yes, ma’am. What do you got going with that idiot?”
Chief Garivey said Glendon resigned after 7 months.
Chief Raymond Garivey [over the phone]: “There were just a couple of occasions where he just wasn’t doing what he needed to do for officer safety, and he just had a hard time with being called on the carpet about it, and he just decided to leave.”
We know Glendon lied on his application to get that job in Jamaica Beach.
He never admits the multiple suspensions he received at Precinct Four.
And said police had never been called to his home for any reason… This was only 6 months after this family brawl that led to his mother’s arrest.
And on the day of the fight… This lawman… He lied to the police. Just listen to the 911 call he made.
Glendon Arnold: “There is a woman at my front door with a weapon in her hand. And I need police because I’m [unintelligible] in my house right now.”
Operator: “Is this family or non-family?”
Glendon: “Non.”
Operator: “Do you know her?”
Glendon: “No.”
Of course he knew them. It was his mom… And sister.
“They weren’t believing what I was saying because it was like to see them, even my daughter at one point she said, ‘he’s going to get away with it because look at how they’re like they’re friends laughing, talking like they’re just buddies,” explained Nellita.
You couldn’t expect police on the scene that day to totally unravel this nasty family feud… But they did press Arnold on his claim he now owned the house.
Officer: “So your grandmother transferred the house over to you?”
Glendon: “Yes. I have a deed and everything.”
A deed with a signature that looks a lot more like Glendon Arnold’s than Mary Williams’… She even told police on the scene that Arnold’s claim wasn’t true.
Officer: “But this is your house here?
Mary: “Yes.”
Officer: “Did you sign this house away?”
Mary: “Not that I know of. No.”
“And it seems like she’s got a man that is her grandson, but he’s in his early 30s, mid-30s, and he is taking advantage of her, and he is getting property that is,” said attorney Landriault.
We brought the result of our investigation to Mary’s lawyer Brett Landriault… Including police documents that clearly are false.
We also told the Harris County District Attorney what we had found… And on the day of her trial… Nellita’s case was dismissed for lack of evidence.
“You guys being able to find the Jamaica Beach records, I think played a big role,” added Landriault.
Houston Police were right about at least one thing that day on Balbo Street.
Officer: “I don’t know what to think about this. It’s pretty sad.”
Sad that Nellita Williams lost a year and a half of her life…
Asia’s life changed too… Nellita has spent a lot of money trying to clear her name… Asia had no money for college. She’s now enlisted in the military.
“Even though this has pretty much turned her life upside down, she’s still been able to try to keep going forward. I mean she motivates me when a lot of things happen,” shared Nellita.
“My mom? I think she’s the strongest person that I know. She’s done a lot for me growing up. She’s made a lot of sacrifices,” said Asia.
If members of her family won’t do it… Somebody should protect Mary Williams.
“Somebody with Houston Police Department that can go and speak with her and kind of do some digging and listen to some of these recordings,” asked Landriault.
Where is Adult Protective Services? Listen to Mary when we spoke just a few days ago.
Wayne: “Do you still own this home?”
Mary: “Yes, I do. I guess my name’s still on it.”
Wayne: “Did you ever give someone permission to change the name?”
Mary: “No, I never gave my permission.”
Tax records show Mary owned this house since 1988… It has doubled in value in the last few years…
And maybe the records are wrong… But the house is currently listed in the name of Glendon Arnold. And the deed is notarized by a friend.
Regardless…. It’s very sad that Mary knows what will happen when she is gone.
“It’s going to be a fight when I do leave, I know that. Anything happen to me, it’s going to be a war right here.”
