By Brian Rogers
Disbanded a month before their term was scheduled to end last year, members of a Liberty County grand jury investigating that county’s officials want to know why they were taken off the case, according to the foreman.
“We have heard person after person describe unacceptable practices and questionable activities that reek of fraud, collusion, selective investigation and prosecution, and abuse of office personnel and resources by county officials and employees,” James Smith wrote in a letter to several judges in December. “We demand an explanation of what is going on here.”
The grand jury that Smith presided over began hearing cases in July and was scheduled to run until Dec. 31. On Nov. 27, Beaumont judge Larry Gist signed an order dismissing the panel after reviewing a sealed motion filed by special prosecutor Larry Eastepp.
Because of grand jury secrecy, Smith would not discuss what evidence the body heard or which witnesses were called, but he confirmed he had written letters obtained by the Houston Chronicle and that other grand jurors agree with him.
He began writing the letters to the state district judge who originally empaneled the grand jury, to other judges and the head administrative judge and has yet to get an answer.
“We haven’t done anything wrong,” Smith said about his service as foreman or his requests to know why the term was cut short. “That sealed motion, that’s what has people really scratch-ing their heads.”
Controversy not new
In the letters, Smith said the grand jury was “repeatedly forced to look beyond the ineffectiveness of the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office” and said the actions of several county officials and employees appear to be criminal.
He wrote that the grand jurors convened regularly and “voluntarily met on additional occasions to examine multiple alleged wrongdoings perpetrated in Liberty County that were frustratingly noted by federal investigators and the media.”
What the grand jurors heard remains a secret, but Liberty County officials have been no stranger to controversy. Last year, prosecutors dropped charges against former Liberty County Judge Phil Fitzgerald, who was accused of misuse of Hurricane Ike government cleanup funds after a federal judge rejected a plea deal in which Fitzgerald previously had admitted making a false claim for federal funds.
U.S. District Judge Ron Clark rejected the agreement, saying three years’ probation wasn’t a strong enough sentence.
After the case was dropped, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Beaumont said further investigation of the alleged offenses is necessary while Lum Hawthorn, Fitzgerald’s attorney, said his client did nothing illegal.
In the current controversy, state District Judge Chap Cain empaneled the grand jury in July for a term to end in December, according to court records.
But Gist was appointed to oversee the grand jury, apparently because Cain was the victim of an alleged mail fraud that could have come under the purview of the secret body.
Gist appointed Eastepp, a former federal prosecutor, as the special prosecutor.
State law
Eastepp said he cannot comment on the sealed motion or about anything pertaining to the grand jury because state law prohibits it.
It’s a pretty absolute secrecy rule with anything involving a grand jury,” Eastepp said. “The participants can’t talk about it, so I’m just following the dictates of the Texas Legislature and the Code of Criminal Procedure.”
Judges Gist and Cain also said they could not comment.
brian.rogers@chron.com twitter.com/brianjrogers
Courtesy Houston Chronicle 
