DEFENDANT IN STAGED BANK ROBBERY IN RED OAK, TEXAS, PLEADS GUILTY IN FEDERAL COURT
DALLAS — Just days before his trial was to begin in federal court, the last defendant from a bank robbery that occurred in Red Oak, Texas, in June 2007, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Roderick Bernard Hunter, and three other individuals, robbed the Wachovia Bank located at 557 E. Ovilla Road, in Red Oak, on June 28, 2007.
Hunter, 32, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank robbery and bank robbery. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Co-defendants Tareesa Johnson, 23, D’Andre Jones, 21, and Jesse Lee Bell, 25, each pled guilty to bank robbery, which carries a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. All defendants, with the exception of Johnson, are in custody. Johnson is on home confinement.
According to documents filed in the case, beginning in June 2007, Johnson, a teller at the Wachovia Bank on Ovilla Road in Red Oak, and her boyfriend, Jesse Lee Bell, along with D’Andre Jones and Roderick Bernard Hunter, conspired to rob the bank where Johnson was employed. The robbery was to happen on a date and time when Johnson knew that she would have access to large sums of cash and was to be committed by someone that Johnson didn’t know. She had previously discussed with Bell the protocol she was to follow in case of a robbery and the four defendants had agreed that they would split the robbery proceeds.
Hunter admits that at Bell’s request, he solicited D’Andre Jones to enter the bank and pass the bank robbery demand note to Johnson. On the evening of June 27, 2007, Hunter, Bell and Jones met and discussed the details of the staged robbery that was to take place the following afternoon. On the afternoon of June 28, 2007, Hunter, and Jones drove to a location near the bank in a maroon 2004 Chevrolet Impala that belonged to Hunter’s mother. When they arrived at the location, Hunter removed the license plates from the car and then got into a separate vehicle that Bell drove and waited outside the Wachovia Bank until Jones had completed the staged robbery. In the meantime, Jones drove the maroon Impala to the bank, parked on the west side of the building and left the keys in the ignition with the vehicle running.
Jones entered the bank and passed the demand note, which Hunter had written, to teller Tareesa Johnson. Johnson gave him cash and Jones departed the bank, entered the Impala getaway vehicle, and was arrested by law enforcement agents following a short chase. Johnson was arrested the same day; Bell was arrested in July and Hunter was arrested in August.
U.S. Attorney Roper praised the excellent investigative efforts of the FBI and the Garland and Red Oak, Texas, Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Calvert is prosecuting the case.
TWO SENTENCED IN BEAUMONT FOR FEDERAL DRUG VIOLATIONS
BEAUMONT TX – United States Attorney John L. Ratcliffe announced today that a man and a woman have been sentenced for separate drug violations in the Eastern District of Texas.
ANTONIO TAMEZ, JR., 33, of Houston, was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute cocaine today by United States District Judge Ron Clark.
According to information presented in court, an undercover investigation into drug trafficking from the Houston area to Southeast Texas resulted in the arrest and indictment of Tamez. He was indicted on March 21, 2007 and charged with possession with the intent to distribute over five kilograms of cocaine. Tamez pleaded guilty on July 24, 2007.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Pasadena Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John A. Craft.
BUOAKAI SONSING PEELER, 58, of Silsbee, was sentenced to 24 months probation for distribution of a controlled substance today by United States District Judge Ron Clark.
According to information presented in court, on December 12, 2005, Peeler sold an undercover officer 50 Hydrocodone tablets at her residence on E. Avenue J in Silsbee. Peeler was indicted by a federal grand jury on February 7, 2007 and pleaded guilty to distributing a controlled substance on August 1, 2007.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Hardin County Sheriff's Office and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert L. Rawls.
FUGITIVE DEFENDANT IN MAJOR COCAINE DISTRIBUTION RING ARRESTED IN MEXICO
Pablo Rivera Appears in U.S. District Court in Dallas
DALLAS — A defendant who was indicted in the Northern District of Texas in summer 2003 on charges related to his involvement in a major cocaine distribution ring, appeared this afternoon in federal court in Dallas and U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma C. Ramirez ordered that he be detained pending trial, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper. Pablo Rivera was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Dallas in June 2003 with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute narcotics. He had been a fugitive but was arrested in Mexico in September and was returned to the Northern District of Texas per extradition orders.
Pablo Rivera was charged in the case styled U.S. v. Juan Pablo Elizondo, et al., 3:03 CR 188. In that case, 31 individuals, including Rivera, were charged with various offenses related to their involvement in a major drug distribution organization that operated from Laredo, Texas, to Dallas, and into Oklahoma.
The North Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force began investigating the drug trafficking activities of Elizondo and other members of his organization in 2002. Elizondo, using a network of individuals to store, transport and distribute cocaine, supplied large amounts of cocaine to the Ellis County, Texas area, and to the Ardmore, Oklahoma area. Millions of dollars in U.S. currency, hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, and numerous weapons, including fully atuomatic assault weapons, were seized during the investigation.
While Elizondo remains a fugitive, other members of the organization have been convicted and have received substantial prison sentences. For example: Virgilio Rosales and Gary Thomas were sentenced to life in prison, Martha Flores was sentenced to 292 months in prison, Roy Combs was sentenced to 296 months, MD Guillermo Garcia was sentenced to 360 months, and Jorge Martinez was sentenced to 292 months in prison.
U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of local, state and federal law enforcement, including the North Texas Hih Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Federal Bureau of Invstigatin; the Dallas county District Attorney’s Office; the Dallas, Carrollton, Coppel, Irving, Lancaster, and Richardson, Texas Police Departments; the Ardmore, Oklahoma Police Department; the Ellis and Dallas County Sheriff’s Offices; the Texas Department of Public Safety; and the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation.
Deputy Criminal Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Guess is prosecuting the case.
FEDERAL JURY IN SAN ANGELO, TEXAS, CONVICTS WOMAN FOR DEFRAUDING U.S. GOVERNMENT OF MORE THAN $30,000 FOLLOWING HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA
SAN ANGELO, Texas — A federal jury in San Angelo deliberated just one and one half hours before convicting former San Angelo resident, Sandra K. Howell, 53, on various offenses related to a scheme she ran to defraud the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) of approximately $23,000 and the Department of Labor (DOL) of approximately $7000 in disaster-related benefits following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas.
Specifically, the jury found Howell guilty of one count of conspiracy, one count of making false claims, seven counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government funds. She faces a maximum statutory sentence of 200 years in prison, a $3 million fine and restitution. U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings, who presided over the trial, ordered a pre-sentence investigation with sentencing to be scheduled after that investigation is completed. Howell was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Howell’s two co-defendants, Charles J. Chaisson, 44, and Gregory J. Chaisson, 46, each pled guilty in September and October 2007. Charles J. Chaisson, who pled guilty to one count of making false claims and aiding and abetting, was sentenced last month to 12 months in prison and ordered to pay $3956.64 in restitution. Gregory J. Chaisson pled guilty to theft of government property and aiding and abetting and was sentenced earlier this month to 36 months in prison and ordered to pay $1250 in restitution. Gregory Chaisson was Howell’s fiancé and Charles Chaisson is his brother.
The government presented evidence at trial that on Friday, September 23, 2005, the day Hurricane Rita made landfall on the Gulf Coast, Howell arrived in San Angelo, Texas, from Lafayette, Louisiana. She was accompanied by Charles J. Chaisson. At that time, Gregory J. Chaisson was in jail in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. Upon his release from jail on January 17, 2006, Gregory J. Chaisson traveled to San Angelo and resided with Howell.
Howell and Charles J. Chaisson conspired together to defraud FEMA of approximately $30,000 by falsely making claims to FEMA that they were victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Howell claimed that her primary residence in New Orleans was damaged by Hurricane Katrina and both Howell and Chaisson made false claims that their residence in Lafayette, Louisiana, was damaged by Hurricane Rita. In addition, they both made false claims for disaster relief on behalf of Gregory Chaisson, falsely stating that his primary residence was also damaged by Hurricane Rita.
The government presented evidence however that Howell was not residing in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29, 2005. During 2005, Howell resided in an apartment in Lafayette, Louisiana, until she was evicted at the end of August 2005. Further, neither Howell nor Charles J. Chaisson nor Gregory J. Chaisson had established residency at the address in Lafayette, Louisiana, which each claimed sustained damages from Hurricane Rita.
Howell and the Chaisson brothers made false claims to Concho Valley Workforce Solutions, a San Angelo-based organization that received and disbursed emergency relief funds for hurricane evacuees through a grant from DOL. As a result of Howell and the Chaisson brothers falsely portraying themselves as Hurricane Katrina evacuees, Concho Valley Workforce Solutions disbursed approximately $7000 for their benefit.
In September 2005, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force, designed to deter, investigate and prosecute disaster-related federal crimes such as charity fraud, identity theft, procurement fraud and insurance fraud. The Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force – chaired by Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division – includes members from the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, the Postal Inspector’s Office and the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, among others.
U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts in this case of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security - Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Department of Labor - Office of the Inspector General, and the San Angelo Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ann C. Roberts and Scott Frost of the Lubbock Office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.