U.S. Attorney's Office

Friends Don't Let Friends Buy Guns For Friends

Fed-up Feds

Will the "temp" United States Attorney exile dissidents to the border?

Double Trouble

Juan Diaz just wanted his citizenship. The feds wanted a drug-running felon.

Guilty Of Medicaid Fraud? Depends

If you're going to try to defraud the government, please -- for your own self-esteem -- choose a more glamorous plan than one involving adult diapers.When the announcement came in from the US Attorney's Office headlined that a local company owner had been "INDICTED IN ADULT DIAPER FRAUD CASE," we co ... More >>

U.S. informants take part in murder and drug running in Mexico

If you're going to try to defraud the government, please -- for your own self-esteem -- choose a more glamorous plan than one involving adult diapers.When the announcement came in from the US Attorney's Office headlined that a local company owner had been "INDICTED IN ADULT DIAPER FRAUD CASE," we co ... More >>

Bishop's Endgame

An early GOP force could be savoring party triumphs -- from prison

Saudi National Charged With Not Telling Feds He Intended To Make A Virtual Prisoner Of His Maid

A citizen of Saudi Arabia has been charged by the feds here for lying to obtain a visa for an employee.What's so bad about that? Well, the lie was that he told visa officials he was bringing the woman over here to be domestic help at $1,300 a month at eight hours a day six days a week, but instead, ... More >>

Perhaps The Internet-Cafe Trend In Nederland Was Overstated

​Just as we were trying to figure out why there were internet cafes in Nederland and Port Arthur, we find out that the places were actually fronts for illegal gambling, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The department announced yesterday that six people were charged with running the gam ... More >>

TDCJ Guard Gets Two Years For Lying About Kicking Inmate In The Head

​A TDCJ guard who had been found guilty of filing a false "use of force" report was sentenced today to what no doubt will be two very uncomfortable years in a federal prison. (Or maybe guards take care of their own? We don't wanna know.)Eugene Morris, 41, had kicked an inmate in the head repeatedl ... More >>

Jeff Henry Williamson Learns Not To Send Bomb Threats To The FBI From The Houston Public Library

Mess with the FBI at your own risk​Jeff Henry Williamson, who thought it was a good idea to use the Houston Public Library downtown to send threats about blowing up the FBI building, learned otherwise today.U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Williamson to three and a half years in federal ... More >>

Jaime Zamora: That's No City Park Worker, That's (Allegedly) A Murdering Drug-Cartel Kingpin

Breeding ground for drug kingpins​Jaime Zamora had a good, steady job in Houston's Parks Department.What could be more exciting than that?Importing millions of dollars' worth of cocaine and murdering rivals, apparently.Zamora, 40, was sentenced today to more than 27 years in federal prison for dis ... More >>

Geroge Wesley Ellington: Sheriff's Deputy Indicted For Moonlighting As Security For Ecstasy Dealer

Rave on, with the help of the Harris County Sheriff's Office​Harris County Sheriff's deputies moonlight all the time, providing security for local businesses.Including ecstasy dealers, apparently.A federal grand jury indicted a sheriff's deputy for selling criminal information to a ecstasy dealer ... More >>

WHAT?!? Companies Pay BRIBES To Do Business In Russia And Angola?

Shocking, we know​Be prepared to lose all faith in -- well, if not humanity, per se, at least capitalism and government officials in Nigeria.It appears -- are you sitting down? -- that bribery is sometimes used when American companies try to do business in Russia, Nigeria, Angola and Kazakhstan. Y ... More >>

Five Questions With Child Porn Prosecutors: Dealing With Stomach-Turning Evidence

How do you handle the subject of child porn at a cocktail party?​Prosecuting those who produce or enjoy child pornography is a vitally important yet seemingly horrible job -- to do it, you must face looking at the evidence. In some cases it's "easy" -- some child-porn consumers are like baseb ... More >>

Dealing with Child Porn

Prosecutors talk about the evidence,

Roxann Michelle Thomas: Actually (And Illegally) Got Something From Those "Are You Owed Money?" Lists

Yeah, that's my name, give me my check.​Newspapers and media Web sites regularly publish lists of people who are owed money by public institutions; if anyone bothers to read them, they check their name hoping to see they've forgotten all about that five-digit deposit in some bank they used to ... More >>

William Gammon, Prominent Homeowners Association Attorney, Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges

William Gammon pleads guilty to child porn possession​William Gammon, a leading figure in the move to make highly annoying homeowners associations even more powerful and annoying, has entered a guilty plea to charges of possessing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced today. ... More >>

Christina Clardy: West U Doctor, Two Others Convicted in $30 Million Medicaid Fraud

Christina Clardy among those convicted.​Christina Clardy, a 61-year-old West U doctor, was convicted with two other people of running a massive Medicaid-and-money-laundering scam that somehow involved Nigerian tankers, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced today. Kenneth Anokam, 56, and Niger ... More >>

Alejandro Smith: TDCJ Prison Guard Was Also Heroin Dealer, Prosecutors Say

TDCJ: Who's guarding the guards?​A Texas Department of Criminal Justice guard has been arrested and charged with possession of heroin with intent to distribute. Alejandro Smith, 21, worked in Huntsville's Eastham Unit; police got a tip that he was "providing contraband to prisoners," the U.S. ... More >>

Mambo's Seafood Chain Hit For Harboring Illegal Aliens

Not Mambo-nifico, feds say​Mambo's Seafood, the popular chain thatt's a big sponsor of the Houston Dynamo, has been hit with charges that it encouraged illegal aliens to come to the U.S. and then harbored and hid them. Two current and three former managers have been indicted, the U.S. Attorne ... More >>

Alpha One Investing: Great At Pretending To Be Wildly Profitable

Robert Watson likely headed to prison​A Spring man plead guilty today to running a bogus investment scheme that produced a lot of account statements to customers showing great profits as he pocketed their money. Robert David Watson, 50, told investors his "Alpha One" method of investing in fo ... More >>

Trio Made $400K Lifting PINs from ATMs, Feds Say

Do you know where your PIN's going?​Three men have been indicted for going to local ATMs and putting in overlay pads to intercept and store customers' financial info, the U.S. Attorney's Office says. Houstonians Jason Michael Lall, 38, John Pierre Griffin, 32, and John DaSilva Paz, 27, hid th ... More >>

Raul Leal: Immigrant Detention Center Officer Kicked Detainee in the Face, Breaking Skull, Feds Say

The Port Isabel Detention Center has long been the subject of complaints.​A former officer at the Port Isabel Detention Center kicked a detainee in the face, breaking a bone in his skull, and then lied to investigators, federal prosecutors alleged today. Raul Leal, 31, was arrested without in ... More >>

Ronald & Anita Witt: Union Officials Lived High Life on Members' Money, Feds Say

Signs point to fraud, feds say.​A husband-wife team of union officials lived the high life on members' money, federal prosecutors charged in indictments announced today. Ronald Witt, 64, and his wife Anita, 56, were respectively the business manager and treasurer of local 450 of the Internati ... More >>

Veteran Cop Harry Leroy Kelley Sentenced For Selling Hollow-Point Bullets and Other Police Gun Gear

Cop Harry Kelley was the man to see for illegal arms and ammunition, feds say.​A Kingwood man who was a veteran Liberty County police officer was sentenced to a year in federal prison for illegally buying and selling police guns and ammunition, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Beaumont announced. ... More >>

Jeremy Dobbins & Bobby Dean Roberts: Ripped Off Schlumberger Via $3 Million In Fake Invoices, Feds Say

A very efficient Accounts Payable department, we're sure​If you can clear $3 million in a little more than two years, you've got a pretty good scam going. Until, of course, you get caught. Jeremy Gene Dobbins, 35, and Bobby Dean Roberts, 51, who sound like a country-music duo ("Put your hands ... More >>

Leslie Aikens: HPD Cop Indicted for Drug-Running, Taking Bribe

Leslie Aikens: Allegedly dealing coke​The feds unsealed an indictment today against a 19-year veteran of the Houston police force accused of drug trafficking and taking a $2,000 bribe. Leslie Aikens, 46, was arrested at the end of his shift today. He is charged with aiding and abetting the p ... More >>

Kenneth Randle, Unluckiest Get-Away Driver Ever, Gets 11 Years Because His Pals Were A-Holes

Kenneth Randle: See ya in 2022​A 23-year-old man who sat unarmed as the driver of a bank-robbery car has been sentenced to 11 years without parole mostly, it seems, because his colleagues were violent a-holes. During the $40,000 robbery last October, the three dudes he was working with physic ... More >>

Lorenzo Garcia: El Paso ISD Chief With Local Ties Indicted Over Houston Contract

Lorenzo Garcia: Contract with Houston company leads to indictment.​The head of the El Paso school district has been indicted over charges he steered a lucrative no-bid contract to a Houston company owned by a woman with whom he had a personal relationship. Lorenzo Garcia, a former assistant s ... More >>

Pedro Rosales: Allegedly Tried to Convince Kid to Take The Rap for His Child Porn

Pedro Rosales: That must have been some other body.​A Houston man caught with a computer full of child porn tried to convince "a juvenile family member" to take the rap for it, the U.S. Attorney's Office says. Pedro Rosales, 32, thought "that if the juvenile claimed the images/videos, the fam ... More >>

Seven MS-13 Gang Members Indicted Here

Three murders, the feds say.​The U.S. Attorney's Office announced the unsealing of indictments for racketeering and murder against seven members of the notorious MS-13 gang, who have been arrested. The USAO says MS-13 is: a criminal organization in Houston that functioned as a unit engaged i ... More >>

Khanh Vu: Fish-Farm Owner Says Ignore the Shotgun Shells, Those Protected Birds Died Because of Transmission Lines

Time for revenge.​The owner of a Palacios fish farm was found guilty of killing 90 protected brown pelicans and a slew of other birds, the U.S. Attorney's Office says. Khanh Vu, the owner of Seaside Aquaculture Inc., faces a fine of up to $15,000 and six months in prison for his conviction. ... More >>

Om Prakash Budha: Faces Prison over Refusals to Fill Out Visa Forms

Man, Om Prakash Budha, 28, does not want to go back to Nepal. He was nabbed in October 2010 crossing the U.S. border at Brownsville without proper documentation. Fine, you got caught, go home and try again, right? Wrong. "On four separate occasions during a four-month period, Budha steadfastly ref ... More >>

Rob $1K from a Bank, Get Four Years; Defraud It of $100K, Get One Year

The hammer comes down, sometimes.​Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen. -- Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd" Our advice: Do your bank robbing with the fountain pen. Or its modern equivalent. One ... More >>

Jodi Leonore Latson: Quite the Alleged Medicare Defrauder

Houston makes the fraud lineup.​If you're going to defraud the U.S. government, go big. It's not like they're going to miss a stray $62 million or so. Thus was the thinking of Houstonian Jodi Leonore Latson, 45, who -- unfortunately for her -- ended up as one of the bigger fish caught in a na ... More >>

James Walter Porter Jr.'s Child-Porn Haul: 10,000 Images, Hundreds of Magazines And An MP3 Player For His Post-Office Job

James Porter was a dedicated collector​Former postal worker James Walter Porter Jr., 57, pleaded guilty today to one count of child-porn possession, the U.S. Attorney's Office says, but what a count it was. The Pasadena man had moved out of the house he was renting; the owners then went there ... More >>

Bennie E. Richardson IV: Says His Massive Child-Porn Stash "Relaxed Him"

Bennie E. Richardson IV liked to relax​Bennie E. Richardson IV, a 40-year-old Pasadena man, has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for possessing and distributing child pornography. Looking at the porn was a form of relaxation, he told cops when he was arrested. Richardson was arre ... More >>

Peter Kingman Lindsley: Infant Porn, for When Child Porn Isn't Sick Enough

Prison time is coming for Montrose man.​A Montrose man has entered a guilty plea to possession of child pornography, and he's taken the "child" part of it to extremes. Peter Kingman Lindsley, 49, was found to have on his computer "3,805 digital images and 860 video files that depicted childre ... More >>

Heights Burglary Ring Busted

Don't brag on Facebook, kids

Leslie Aikens: Veteran HPD Cop Convicted of Drug Work

Escorting drugs, but not free of charge.​Leslie Aikens, a 19-year Houston Police Department vet, has been quickly convicted of drug-related corruption after a federal trial. The U.S. Attorney's Office says a jury took less than two hours to return the guilty verdict after a two-day trial in w ... More >>

Michael Giventer: Sudden-Stop-Accident Scammer Arrested For Bankruptcy Fraud

A simple accident -- or was it?​Michael Giventer owed State Farm Insurance $8.6 million after losing a civil suit where the company proved he had been scamming the company for years through false claims stemming from "sudden-stop" accidents. he also had been convicted of criminal fraud for st ... More >>

Seven Arrested With 1,600 Pounds of Pot

No Mary-Louise Parker, just a lot of dudes​Seven men have been arrested and 1,600 pounds of weed taken on the northwest side of town, the U.S. Attorney's Office says. The men had transported the weed from the Rio Grande Valley to the 13200 block of Reeveston. They unloaded it there and re-loa ... More >>

Nine Charged In Grocery-Store Bank-Robbery Ring; One Still On The Run

Photo via DOJPatrick Wayne Simmons is a wanted man​Federal prosecutors and the FBI announced the indictments of nine men who they say robbed eight Houston-area bank branches in grocery stores. One of the men, Patrick Wayne Simmons, 27, is still on the run; the others are in custody. Arrested ... More >>

Christopher Clark Pollett: Guilty Child-Porn Plea from Kids' Nonprofit Worker

Christopher Clark Pollett, a former employee of well-respected kids-and-family nonprofit agency Neighborhood Centers, Inc., has entered a guilty plea to charges of owning a massive cache of child pornography. Pollett was arrested in January, while still an NCI employee, and charged with possession ... More >>

DJ Christopher Lowe: Recruited Neighborhood Boys for Child Porn

DJ Christopher Lowe will be going away for a long time.​A "stay-at-home dad" who often watched over neighborhood kids used them to produce child porn, federal prosecutors say. DJ Christopher Lowe, 37, pleaded guilty today to eight child-porn counts. Police discovered him through an investigat ... More >>

Rigoberto Vargas-Munoz & Edgar Munoz-Munoz: Uncle-Nephew Big-Time Drug Dealers Busted

A traffic stop​Two Houston-area men have been arrested and charged with running a large drug ring dealing marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Rigoberto Vargas-Munoz and his nephew, Edgar Munoz-Munoz, are both Mexican nationals living here illegally, t ... More >>

Patrick Simmons: Most-Wanted Bank Robber Turns Himself In

Patrick Simmons gives up.​The suspected bank robber who was spotlighted by the FBI in a digital-billboard campaign turned himself in to authorities about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the feds say. Patrick Wayne Simmons, who was wanted in a string of eight Houston-area robberies of bank branches located ... More >>

Mark William Woerner: Urged Kids to Take His Child-Porn Collection to School

Share it with your school pals.​Mark William Woerner, 55, is being sent to federal prison for a long, long time -- 80 years, in fact -- and with the evidence produced at his trial, not many people are going to question that. Among his highlights, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office: Posse ... More >>

Taqueria Arandas Owner Gets Year In Prison On Tax Charges

Prison food will be not so sabroso​Jesus Huerta, the owner of two Taqueria Arandas restaurants in Houston, has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for filing false tax returns that underestimated income by $4.6 million over five years. Huerta was also ordered to pay $543,646 ... More >>

Dougals Demmon: Former National Park Ranger Convicted Of Child Porn

Retired ranger, child-porn fan​National Park Rangers are an American icon, with their Smokey-bear hats, green uniforms, and eagerness to help everyone enjoy the great outdoors. And then there are the Park Rangers like Galveston's Douglas Demmon, who has entered a guilty plea on charges of dis ... More >>