Part II: Locked up and facing tough choice

LISA FALKENBERG
Commentary

nasty, full of ghts, unclean

women, and a world away
from the most important part of
her life her three children.
Dockery had a choice: Stay
locked up or tell authorities the
story they wanted to hear so
they could prosecute her boyfriend for capital murder.
Nearly seven weeks in, Dockery chose the latter.
On Oct. 9, 2003, she dictated
a jailhouse letter, a desperate plea to state district Judge
Mark Kent Ellis, asking him to

For 120 days, Ericka Dockery

sat in a Harris County jail cell
on Baker Street, a place she
would later describe as hellish,

INSIDE

Public works director

Daniel Krueger
resigns after four
years at post.
Page B3
Houston Chronicle

@HoustonChron

GALVESTON

Associate
of former
Kemah
mayor
testifies
By Harvey Rice
GALVESTON A past
business associate of former Kemah Mayor Matt
Wiggins testied Thursday
before a Galveston County
grand jury examining Wiggins real estate dealings,
three days after FBI agents
questioned city employees
and reviewed city documents.
The state and federal
inquiries focus on land acquisitions that Wiggins, a
major property owner in
the bayfront city of 2,000,
made after Hurricane Ike
severely damaged scores of
buildings in 2008. Several
property owners accused
Wiggins, while mayor from
2009 to 2011, of using his inuence to have properties
declared uninhabitable so
he could purchase them.
Wiggins is willing to testify before the grand jury if
prosecutors will disclose
the accusations against
him, said his attorney, Paul
Doyle.
The Galveston District
Attorneys Office cant
even specify what kind of
crime he may have committed, Doyle said. Doyle
said he twice wrote the ofce of District Attorney
Jack Roady asking what
charges it might be pursuing against Wiggins. They
cant even answer that
question, he said.
The district attorneys
office declined comment.
Prosecutors have asked
to speak with Wiggins, but
Doyle said he will consent
only if prosecutors specify
Wiggins continues on B2

Dockery also testied that

Brown made a landline call to
her workplace around the time
of the crime, a contention that
would have supported his alibi
but was never supported with
evidence at trial. It wasnt until
more than seven years after
Browns 2005 conviction and
death sentence that a phone record documenting the landline
call turned up in a detectives
garage. Last year, the judge
agreed to a new trial, but the

Falkenberg continues on B2

OUTLOOK

Debate over
Confederate
license plates
fuels passions.
Page B7

Houston Chronicle | Friday, July 18, 2014 | HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com

Section B xxx

Jury sides with HCC trustee in address feud

Investigators secret footage fails
to convince panel that Wilson
doesnt live in warehouse in district
By Benjamin Wermund
Harris County officials
hired a private investigator to trail Dave Wilson for
four days in their quest to
prove he didnt live where
he claimed when he won a
seat on the Houston Community College board in
November.

But the evidence they

gathered and presented
in court this week from
clandestine footage of
Wilson loading barbecue
meats into his wifes vehicle outside a warehouse to
pictures of the spare, clean
apartment inside wasnt
enough to convince a jury
that Wilson was lying

about his residence.

Thank you, Wilson
shouted when the verdict
in his favor was announced
Thursday afternoon.
County officials led a
lawsuit seeking to remove
Wilson from office on
grounds that he did not live
in an apartment at 5600 W.
34th St. in the HCC district
he represents. Because of
this, county officials said,
he was unqualied to hold
his seat.
Wilson, whose resi-

Dave
Wilson has
had his
residency
questioned
multiple
times.

dency has been questioned

multiple times over the last
several years, said he hopes
the decision puts the issue
to rest.
Im glad its nally resolved so I can get back to
the business of working at

HCC, he said.
The county could appeal, but that decision
wont be made for a couple
of weeks, said Douglas
Ray, the assistant county
attorney who presented
the case.
Were disappointed
in the outcome, but we do
respect the verdict, Ray
said. Whether or not we
want to appeal, I just dont
know.
Testimony on Thursday
Jury continues on B3

A catwalk for canines

James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle

Greg Price and his canine, Major, watch the action as Prices wife, Ginger, center, and Lynette Roland look over the competition
schedule on Thursday during the Houston World Series of Dog Shows at NRG Park. At right is Majors father, Storm. Both Storm and
Major are boxers, a German breed known for its stocky, mid-sized, short-haired dogs.

Greater Houston Zone

designed to create
small public projects
Millions in public improvements will bind
seemingly
unrelated
stretches of northeastern
downtown and the 610
South Loop in Houstons
largest economic development zone during the next
three decades.
Amounting to something of a super TIRZ, the
Greater Houston Zone
spans more than 7,000
non-contiguous acres of
two distinct areas: The
business-heavy eastern
tip of downtowns central
business district and an infrastructure-deprived area
to the south, near NRG
Park, bounded roughly by
Old Spanish Trail, Almeda
Genoa, Highway 288 and
Main Street.
City Council this week
approved an agreement

felony aggravated perjury

allegedly for lying to grand
jurors after they pressured her
to change her story in a 2003
cop-killing case.
Dockery had testied to
the grand jury that her thenboyfriend, Brown, was at her
apartment when prosecutors
believed he was with guys he
knew from the neighborhood,
scouting venues for a burglary
that would lead to the murder of Houston police officer
Charles R. Clark.

CITY | STATE

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

By Katherine Driessen

consider her children, then ages

11, 8 and 6, and vowing to be a
productive mother and citizen if
allowed to go home.
The time here without them
is almost unbearable, she
wrote in the letter, obtained
from Alfred Dewayne Browns
court le.
As I recounted in Thursdays
column, Dockery was a home
health aide who had worked
nights making Subway sandwiches when she found herself
charged with three counts of

with Harris County to

structure the zone, which
could see roughly $300 million in public facility and
infrastructure improvements by 2042.
David Turkel, who
handles development for
Harris County, was quick
to quash suggestions those
funds would be funneled
into redeveloping the nowempty Astrodome.
Ive gotten that question, Turkel said. It
would take 100 years. This
is for $5 million, $10 million. These are for small
public infrastructure projects.
Under a tax increment
reinvestment zone, property tax revenues within
the zones boundaries are
frozen at a base level. The
amount collected above
that level, known as the inTIRZ continues on B3

Created on Adobe Document Server 2.0

Relatives testify in murder trial

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Local cases reveal

increasing impact
of domestic violence
By Bobby Blanchard
and Samantha Ehlinger

Billy Smith II / Houston Chronicle

Defendant Harlem Lewis IIIs capital murder trial

continued Thursday, when relatives of the two people
hes accused of killing one of them a Bellaire police
officer took the stand. Story on page B2

Julia Green visited a

friend for a couple of hours
late one day last week and
told her she was scared
to go home because her
boyfriend would be angry
at her having been out so
long.
Fifteen minutes later,
she was dead in her northwest Houston apartment.
The friend told authorities
she had seen the boyfriend
assault her friend before
and that he was very controlling toward her, court
records show.
On Thursday, a domestic
argument in north Houston ended in tragedy after
a 24-year-old man shot his
26-year-old wife and then
killed himself, police said.
While the deaths of six
members of a Spring fam-

ily last week allegedly

at the hands of a relatives
ex-husband caught national attention, the two
recent cases are part of an
all-too-common problem
of domestic violence, local
abuse victims advocates
and law enforcement said.
It happens every day
and in every part of our
community, said Sheryl
Johnson, director of the
Northwest
Assistance
Ministries Family Violence Center, at a news conference Thursday.
In 2012, for example,
198,504 people in Texas
were involved in 198,366 incidents of family violence,
according to a Texas Department of Public Safety
crime report.
That same year, 114
women (and 15 witnesses
or bystanders) were killed
Murder continues on B8

B2 | Friday, July 18, 2014 | Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com x x x

CITY | STATE

Editor,

@TonyFreemantle

COURTS

AROUND THE
AREA & STATE

Kin testify in trial

of accused cop killer
By Brian Rogers
The youngest brother
of a Bellaire police officer
gunned down the morning of Christmas Eve 2012
choked up Thursday as he
described to jurors a call
from his brothers widow.
She said, Jimmies been
killed in the line of duty,
Jamie Norman said.
In testimony that lasted
just a few minutes, the
49-year-old man said he
was very close to his
brother, who always wanted to be a police officer.
Jimmie Norman was
killed with business owner
Terry Taylor after a traffic

stop turned into a highspeed chase.

Jamie Norman and Taylors adult daughter, Courtney Taylor Faigle, were the
last witnesses called before
prosecutors rested in the
capital murder trial of Harlem Lewis III.
Faigle, who lives in St.
Louis, described getting a
call from her mother.
She sounded pretty
rattled, Faigle said.
Neither family member
was cross-examined by
Lewis defense team.
Prosecutors said Lewis,
23, fatally shot the two men
as he tried to evade arrest.
Earlier in the day, jurors

heard from medical examiners that Norman died

instantly after being shot
above his left eye at close
range. Taylor bled to death
in minutes after a bullet hit
him in the neck and severed his carotid artery.
Defense lawyers for
Lewis called his mother
to the stand later Thursday. After a few questions,
lawyers for both sides approached state District
Judge Mark Kent Ellis,
who sent the jury home for
the day.
Whether Lewis will testify in his trial, which began Monday, is unclear.
Ellis said he did not

Four convicted
of sex trafficking

Billy Smith II / Houston Chronicle

Jamie Norman, youngest brother of Jimmie Norman,

the Bellaire policeman shot on Christmas Eve 2012,
describes to jurors a call from his brothers widow.

know how long the defense

case might be but told jurors to bring a change of
clothes in case they are
sequestered Friday night.
Harris County jurors often are sequestered while
deliberating death pen-

alty cases and rarely in any

other case. They are not sequestered until after they
hear closing arguments,
which could be Friday.
brian.rogers@chron.com
twitter.com/brianjrogers

Wiggins real estate

documents sought
the charges they are pursuing.
The grand jury heard
testimony Thursday from
Kemah Municipal Judge
Mark Foster, a Wiggins
associate in several real estate transactions. Fosters
attorney, Michael E. Clark,
was not present during his
clients testimony but said,
I would suspect he would
testify about the circumstances that involved him
and Mr. Wiggins.
Kemah Mayor Bob
Cummins said a city official, whom he declined to
identify, recently had been
subpoenaed along with
city documents relating to
Wiggins real estate dealings while mayor .
We have received a
couple of subpoenas,
Cummins said. We have
been visited by Galveston
authorities and federal authorities.
FBI officials visited city
offices Monday to question
city employees and pore
over city documents, Cummins said.
Former City Administrator Bill Kerber, employed while Wiggins
was mayor, said he was
subpoenaed by the same
grand jury. He said he was
scheduled to testify next
week but did not know the
subject.
Wiggins attorney accused Foster and other
Wiggins enemies of engineering accusations that
are the subject of the grand
jury investigation. Doyle
said Foster had a pending
lawsuit against Wiggins,
adding, Its interesting
that they have all of a sudden come up at this point in
time after the Mark Foster
lawsuit.
Clark, Fosters attorney,
said, It doesnt surprise

Catch up on past
coverage regarding these
real estate transactions at
HoustonChronicle.com/
kemahprobe

me that Mr. Wiggins lawyer is saying something like

that. I dont think there is a
chance that its correct.
Doyle also said the U.S.
Attorneys Office told him
that it had examined the
accusations against Wiggins and found nothing to
prosecute.
Cummins
unseated
Wiggins in a bitter 2011
campaign and has been
critical of Wiggins real estate transactions.
Its been a long time
coming, and we will just
have to see if the legal system actually works, Cummins said.
Grand jury subpoenas
for city documents involving Wiggins real estate
transactions were served
last September, but this is
the rst time a city official
has been subpoenaed to
testify.
The Houston Chronicle
examined records at Kemah City Hall that were reviewed by the FBI. The records involved purchases
of storm-damaged properties by Wiggins through a
straw purchaser, Foster.
The Chronicle reported
in February that while in
office, Wiggins acquired
several properties damaged by Ike after the city
building inspector imposed restrictions that
discouraged the previous
owners from rebuilding.
In at least one case, those
restrictions disappeared
after a Wiggins associate
acquired the property.
harvey.rice@chron.com
twitter.com/harveyricechron

Four people pleaded

guilty Thursday in federal
court for their roles in a
Houston-based sex trafcking ring that prostituted underage girls from
Mexico for up to $500 an
hour.
Abel Medeles, 64, and
Odelia Hernandez, 45,
both from Houston, were
among 13 people arrested
after federal agents in October raided several Houston bars and brothels that
charged premium prices
for sex with girls.
They were convicted of
a conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants used in
sex trafficking and money
laundering.
Federal prosecutors said
the ring xed the prices
for sex with the underage
girls based on how young
and pretty they were. The
victims were kept locked
in a room over the bar and
regularly were beaten by
pimps and clients.

Woman sought
in baby abduction

Real estate
transactions

Wiggins from page B1

Houston Chronicle

Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle

Crash snarls Westheimer

Harris County Sheriffs Office investigators examine a traffic accident Thursday

along Westheimer Road near Vineyard. The accident involved three vehicles, but
no other details were available.

HFD

2 share Firefighter of Year honor

By Carol Christian
Two Houston reghters whose last-second
rescue of a construction
worker from a burning
apartment building made
for breathtaking video
have been jointly honored
as Fireghter of the Year.
Capt. Brad Hawthorne
and Engine Operator Dewayne Wyble, both from
Station 18 at Lockwood and
Telephone Road, received
the award July 16 from the
Independent Insurance
Agents of Houston. They
were honored during the
organizations 36th annual
Fireghter of the Year luncheon at a Galleria restaurant.
Nearly 200 reghters
and 80 pieces of equipment
responded to the vealarm blaze March 25 at an
apartment building under
construction on West Dallas at Montrose.
But it was Hawthorne
and Wyble and the construction worker they
saved who captured na-

A resident of The Woodlands is one of two women

being sought by authorities in the abduction of an
Oklahoma baby.
An Amber Alert was
issued Thursday afternoon for 5-month-old
Olivia Smith, who was reported missing from her
grandparents home near
Cashion, Okla., around
noon. She is believed to
be traveling in a brownover-black 2013 Hyundai
Santa Fe with Texas plates
BYZ3364.
The child, who was
wearing a white, gray and
pink long-sleeved Onesie, is believed to be with
Cynthia A. Findley a
48-year-old Woodlands
woman also known as Cindy Findley and Jennifer
Skousen, a 43-year-old
Utah woman.

8 decayed bodies
seen at mortuary

Karen Jones via Associated Press

In this video image provided by Karen Jones, a

worker reaches for a ladder manned by the Houston
Fire Department to escape a raging re on March 25.

tional attention, thanks to

viral video.
As the re raged, the
worker jumped from the
fourth-oor balcony to a
balcony one oor below.
When Hawthorne moved
near him on an aerial ladder, the worker made a desperate leap to safety.
Right then, a large sec-

tion of the top oor collapsed behind them, and

the burning wall fell to the
ground.
The worker was rescued
pretty much seconds before the re would have
overtaken him, Capt. Ruy
Lozano said.
carol.christian@chron.com

No signs of trauma or
foul play were found on
eight decaying bodies discovered at an abandoned
funeral home in Fort
Worth, officials said.
Seven of the eight bodies found Tuesday at the
Johnson Family Mortuary
were in advanced stages of
decomposition, the Tarrant
County Medical Examiners Office said Wednesday.
Authorities have said the
business, owned by twin
brothers Dondre and Derrick Johnson, was already
under state investigation
and its license was due to
expire in two weeks.
Fort Worth police are
investigating the case
on abuse-of-corpse charges. No charges have been
led.
From staff and wire reports

Falkenberg: Pressured into changing her story but jailed anyway

Falkenberg from page B1

states highest criminal court

has been dallying for over a
year on whether to allow it.
Back in 2003, the lead Harris
County prosecutor, Dan Rizzo,
believed early on that Brown
was the murderer, and the
grand jury apparently agreed.
A transcript of the secret
proceedings details how the
group intimidated Dockery into
changing her story by threatening to take away her children
and send her to prison.
She did change her story,
but Rizzo saw to it that she was
charged with perjury anyway
perhaps to compel her cooperation, perhaps to help discredit
her with the jury if she ever
tried to defend Brown again.
Guilty of loving my children
Another grand jury indicted
her, in part for testifying that
the last time she saw Brown on
the morning of the murder was
8:30 a.m., when she later said
it was 6:50 a.m. And in part for
denying she had made a phone
call to another of the murder
suspects when phone records
showed that she had.
Why Dockery would deny
making the phone call to an

acquaintance of her boyfriends,

if in fact she did, is still a
mystery to me. She may have
lied out of fear, or perhaps she
forgot the call or didnt realize
she had misdialed. Whatever
the reason, it gave Rizzo rope to
bind her.
Bail was set at $5,000
for each count and wasnt
lowered, even though Dockery
wasnt much of a ight risk
she had local ties, a steady job,
no criminal record beyond trafc tickets, and children.
Dockery couldnt pay it. So,
she appealed to Judge Ellis and
confessed her guilt of aggravated perjury.
At the time I appeared in
front of the grand jury I answered their questions to the
best of my belief and knowledge, Dockery wrote, adding
that she didnt know at the
time that Brown was not at her
apartment. He (Brown) asked
me to lie and tell anyone who
asked that he was in fact at my
home when in fact he was not.
She claimed that Browns
brother had threatened to kill
her and her children if she gave
any statement conicting with
Browns.
Out of fear for the safety of
my children, I remained silent,

Theres more
to the story

Read Part 1 of Lisa Falkenbergs

look into the grand jury system at
HoustonChronicle.com/dockery
wrote the judge.
She gave details about the
crime that she said she had
gleaned from others and reiterated her plea for leniency.
Your honor, I just want to
say that I am guilty of aggravated perjury and of loving my
children more than anything
else in the world and would do
whatever necessary to protective (sic) them and keep them
safe from harm, she wrote.
Under prosecutions thumb
Whatever necessary apparently meant cooperating with
the prosecutors and becoming
their key witness.
Among conditions of
Dockerys release from jail,
she agreed to a 10 p.m. curfew,
drug testing twice a month and
to wear an ankle monitor. The
last one made sure she stuck
around. But it wasnt enough.
To make sure she stuck to
her story, Dockery was required
to call a homicide detective once
a week.

Two criminal defense attorneys told me theyd never

heard of such a thing. Rizzo,
the prosecutor, defended the
requirement for a witness who
was expected to give important
testimony at trial.
Thats fairly typical for
someone were not sure is going to be there, to just keep in
contact so you dont have to
go looking for them again, he
said, adding that he believed the
calls to the homicide detective
came only after Dockery gave a
sworn statement on her version
of events.
Randall Ayers, who was
Dockerys court-appointed
defense attorney at the time,
said the intent of the provision
was clear, but it was one to
which his client readily agreed.
Obviously, I think their goal
was to keep her under their
thumb, Ayers said. Of course
I was concerned, but theres
nothing I could really do. The
judge required it. It was just
how it was.
Dockery held up her end of
the bargain.
She testied at Browns capital murder trial in October 2005
that, once, when she asked if he
had done it, he told her I was
there. I was there.

It was the rst time Dockery

had ever mentioned that statement, according to Browns
appeal.
A persuasive visitor
After Browns conviction and
death sentence, Dockery tried to
get on with her life. In November 2005, she was granted two
years community supervision.
And in 2007, Judge Ellis ended
her supervision early and she
avoided a conviction through
deferred adjudication.
Years later, when an investigator for Browns appellate
attorneys came knocking on her
door, hoping she would help
lead them to the truth, Dockery
turned the woman away and
ordered her off the lawn.
Then one day they sent
someone else, a capital murder
exoneree who had survived his
own tortured journey through
the criminal justice system.
Look, sister, Anthony
Graves told her before she could
close the door. I just want to
tell you what happened to me.
And she let him in.
(Coming next: Part III
of Dockerys story)

lisa.falkenberg@chron.com

INSIDE

New records show gas

aring in the oil patch
continues to grow in
the Eagle Ford Shale.
Page B3
Houston Chronicle

@HoustonChron

CITY | STATE

EDITORIAL

Texas lawmakers can

address the income
gap that divides us by
funding education.
Page B13

Houston Chronicle | Sunday, December 21, 2014 | HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com

Section B xx

Friday, July 18, 2014

Evidence mounts that wrong man could be retried in cop killing

LISA FALKENBERG
Commentary

decides whether to retry Alfred

Dewayne Brown for the slaying
of a Houston police officer.
Shes got a dead cop on her
hands, Charles R. Clark, a 20year veteran, beloved husband
and brother, who was gunned
down as he tried to stop a threeman robbery of an ACE checkcashing place in April 2003.
Somebody must pay.
Im sure Anderson would
prefer that a guilty person pay.
But in the absence of another
suspect, the district attorney

COMMENTARY

may feel pressure from the

public, from law enforcement,
from the victims family, from
political advisers to go after
Brown a second time, even
though the states case against
him has unraveled to mere
shreds.
Last month, an appellate
court threw out Browns conviction and death sentence because
the DAs office withheld key
evidence at trial that supports
Browns contention that he was
home the morning of the rob-

bery. No physical evidence ever

tied Brown to the crime. Nearly
every witness who ngered him
has recanted.
But what if there were
another suspect, a legitimate
suspect that mounting evidence
suggested could have committed the crime instead of Brown?
Wouldnt we expect the district
attorney to take a hard look
before pursuing another weak
case against Brown?
Of course. And records show
there is such a suspect. His

name is Jero Dorty. And the district attorneys office has been
aware of his potential role in
Clarks death for at least seven
years.
In 2007, Browns writ attorneys with the rm K&L Gates
named Dorty as a critical suspect and spent nearly 10 pages
of an appeal laying out the
reasons why. In 2008, Browns
attorneys led an emergency
motion to test Dortys DNA. But
prosecutors dragged their feet.

Part II: Locked up and facing

tough choice
Lets face it. Potential innocence isnt the only thing Harris
County District Attorney Devon
Anderson is considering as she

Falkenberg continues on B10

Family
ties raise
For 120 days, Ericka Dockery sat in a Harris County jail cell on Baker Street, a place she would
later describe as hellish, nasty, full of fights, unclean women, and a worldred
away flags
from the most
important part of her life - her three children.
on no-bid
Dockery had a choice: Stay locked up or tell authorities the story they wanted to hear so they could
prosecute her boyfriend for capital murder.
contracts
Nearly seven weeks in, Dockery chose the latter.
KATY

By Lisa Falkenberg

Political watchdogs,
On Oct. 9, 2003, she dictated a jailhouse letter, a desperate plea to state district
Judge Mark Kent
lawmakers note links
21CT
Ellis, asking him to consider her children, then ages 11, 8 and 6, and vowing toinbe
acontroversy
productive
By
Brian
M.
Rosenthal
mother and citizen if allowed to go home.
AUSTIN When
then-Texas
The time here without them is almost unbearable, she wrote in the letter, obtained
from
Alfred
health official Jack Stick suggested
earlier
this
year
that
a
Dewayne Browns court file.
company he had helped land $20
million in no-bid state contracts
As I recounted in Thursdays column, Dockery was a home health aide who had
worked nights
might get another one through a
sister department, he was refermaking Subway sandwiches when she found herself charged with three countsring
ofthefelony
aggravated
rm to a familiar
face:
Frianita Wilson, wife of Doug
perjury - allegedly for lying to grand jurors after they pressured her to change her
story
in
a
2003
copWilson, who as Sticks boss was
overseeing the rst project.
From right, Tremel Cooper, 11, Bryan Worthy, 9, Katelyn Washington, 16, and Byron Worthy, 9, play street basketball near
killing case.
Of course, Stick then the
their homes on the corner of Roberts and Danover in Katy. Some residents call the area around Roberts Road the ghetto.
top lawyer at the state health
Dockery had testified to the grand
jury
that
her
then-boyfriend,
Brown,
at
her apartment
might qualify
for Houstonwascommission
could also have
As suburban market skyrockets,
Habitat for Humanitys rst
turned for help to his own wife,
low-cost
struggle
to from
survivethe
when prosecutors believed he was
withoptions
guys he
knew
neighborhood,
scouting
venues
Erica
Stick, who served
as chief for a
home
in the Katy area. But
rising land prices have put
of staff at the mega-agency, which
on hold. R. Clark.
By Leah Binkovitz
runs all health and human serplanned communities.
The that project
burglary that would lead to the murder
of Houston
police officer
Charles
soon-to-come, 2,000-home
As the Katy area grows
vices and has a $33 billion annual
prospers, affordable
budget.
Families
moving
to Cane Islandcall
touts ato
trained
Dockery also testified that Brown
made
a landline
herandworkplace
around
the time of the crime,
And that wasnt his only famthe ourishing Katy area golden Retriever that will housing seems increasingcan scan real estate
listposebut
for photographs
and ly out
of reach, sometimes
ily
connection at aat
state
agen- It
a contention that would have supported
his
alibi
was
never
supported
with
evidence
trial.
ings, walk through model offer its business card to by design and sometimes
cy. His brother, Jeremy Stick,
homes
or
visit
open
houspotential
buyers.
as
a
reection
of
a
broader
worked
at
the
same
department
wasnt until more than seven years
after BrownsMeanwhile,
2005 conviction
and death sentence
that a phone
es. Theyll see a $1.2 million
in a small problem in many commuas Frianita Wilson.
strip
mall
storefront in nities
on Brighton
ringing theLast
Houstonyear,The
web judge
of family ties
at the
record documenting the landlineve-bedroom
call
turned
up
in
a
detectives
garage.
the
agreed
to a
Sky Lane, a four-bedroom downtown Katy, families area. Katys city governTexas Health and Human Seron Crystal Meadow Place attend a different kind of ment lacks any sort of housvices Commission is raising new
new trial, but the states highestlisted
criminal
court has been dallying for over a year
on whether to allow it.
for $363,000, or open house, reviewing ing program, the countys
questions in a growing contract
model homes from master- documents to see if they
continues on B5
controversy roiling the Capitol.
Back in 2003, the lead Harris County
prosecutor, Dan Rizzo, Housing
believed
early on
thatStateBrown
the
continues onwas
B2
murderer, and the grand jury apparently agreed. A transcript of the secret proceedings details how the
MONTGOMERY COUNTY JUDGE
group intimidated Dockery into changing
her story
by party
threatening
to take away herchildren
children and send
Rockets
host
for Goodfellows
Sadler
leaves
legacy
of
her to prison.
By Michelle Iracheta
to stop her children, espefiscal
care
She did
change
heramid
story,growth
but Rizzo saw to it that she was charged with perjury anyway
-enjoying
perhaps to
cially Memo, from
By Cindy Horswell
Memo Archundia had the game.
gomery Countys government.perhaps
The county native
been to ever
a basketball
have
condence Brown
in
compel her cooperation,
to help discredit her with the jurynever
if she
triedIto
defend
Montgomery County concluded at the end of the
game before Saturday, but myself that I can play any
Judge Alan Sadler, who is two-year study that with
the 8-year-old said he has sport, said her son. Mayagain. stepping
always been interested in be basketball for the Rockdown after nearly his nance degree from the
Marie D. De Jess / Houston Chronicle

Boom puts
homes for
working
class out
of reach

a quarter of a century in

University of Texas and 18

sports.

ets.

office,loving
never dreamedmy
of a children
years work experience, he
His podiatrist
On
Saturday
Guilty of
could run a tighter ship by
always said hed
night, they were in
career in politics.
doing
the
job
himself.
a
private
suite
at
When
Sadler
married
make
a
great
basketAnother
grand jury indicted
her, in part for testifying that the last
time she saw Brown
on
the
Toyota Center that
his wife, Mimi, 34 years
So naively, I jumped
ball player because
wasfor
joyfully
chawas working
in inwas
and ran,8:30
and damn
if I
hes so
tall, said
his
morningago,
ofhethe
murder
a.m.,
when she later said it was 6:50
a.m.
And
in part
denying
she
otic. Children were
banking and real estate didnt win, recalled Sadler
mother, Sonia Arcand she would tell her of his rst campaign in
hundia. We hope that he ripping open their packhad made
a
phone
call
to
another
of
the
murder
suspects
when
phone
records
showed
that
she
had.
friends, Well, at least hes 1990. He trounced the ingets excited about it today. ages like it was Christmas
not a politician.
cumbent, Al Stahl, garnerThe 45-year-old suffers morning, tossing wrapWhy Dockery
would
deny
making
of her
boyfriends,
if inandfact
from chronic
pneumonia
ping paper, ribbons
But Sadler, now
66, got ing
over 60 percent
of the the phone call to an acquaintance
the itch to run for county vote. By the time he retires
and has to stay tethered to bows aside to reveal stuffed
she did,judge
is after
still
a
mystery
to
me.
She
may
have
lied
out
of
fear,
or
perhaps
she
forgot
the
call
didnt
an electric oxygen pump in animals, Hello Kittyor
being appoint- at the end of the month,
dolls
ed to a committee to study Sadler will have six terms Noah Edwards gets a pat on the head from Santa
order to breathe. She said and Nerf guns.
realize she
had misdialed.
Whatever
it event
gave
Rizzo
rope she
todidnt
bind
the efficiency
of MontSadler
continues on B2 the
wanther.
her illness Goodfellows continues on B3
Clutchreason,
during Saturdays
at Toyota
Center.
Bail was set at $5,000 for each count and wasnt lowered, even though Dockery wasnt much of a
flight risk - she
had local
ties,Baptist
a steady
job,
no criminal record beyond traffic tickets, and children.
Houstons
First
Chur
rch
The Loop Campus
Dockery couldnt pay it. So, she appealed to Judge Ellis and confessed
her
of aggravated perjury.
at 4p
& guilt
6p
At the time I appeared in front of the grand jury I answered their questions to the best of my belief
Cypress Campus
and knowledge, Dockery wrote, adding that she didnt know atatthe
time that Brown was not at her
historic Tin Hall
apartment. He (Brown) asked me to lie and tell anyone who asked that
was
at he
4p &
6p in fact at my home
when in fact he was not. CANDLELIGHT SERVICES
Sienna Campus
She claimed that Browns brother had threatened to kill her and herat
children
4p & 6p if she gave any
Wed, Dec 24
statement conflicting with Browns.
Dave Rossman

Christmas Eve

HoustonsFirst.org/Christmas
Created on Adobe Document Server 2.0

Out of fear for the safety of my children, I remained silent,

Theres more
to the story
wrote the judge.

Read
Part 1 of Lisa Falkenbergs
She gave details about the crime that she said she had gleaned
look into the grand jury system at
from others and reiterated her plea for leniency.
HoustonChronicle.com/dockery
Your honor, I just want to say that I am guilty of aggravated
perjury and of loving my children more than anything else in the
world and would do whatever necessary to protective (sic) them and keep them safe from harm, she
wrote.
Under prosecutions thumb
Whatever necessary apparently meant cooperating with the prosecutors and becoming their key
witness.
Among conditions of Dockerys release from jail, she agreed to a 10 p.m. curfew, drug testing twice a
month and to wear an ankle monitor. The last one made sure she stuck around. But it wasnt enough.
To make sure she stuck to her story, Dockery was required to call a homicide detective once a week.
Two criminal defense attorneys told me theyd never heard of such a thing. Rizzo, the prosecutor,
defended the requirement for a witness who was expected to give important testimony at trial.
Thats fairly typical for someone were not sure is going to be there, to just keep in contact so you
dont have to go looking for them again, he said, adding that he believed the calls to the homicide
detective came only after Dockery gave a sworn statement on her version of events.
Randall Ayers, who was Dockerys court-appointed defense attorney at the time, said the intent of
the provision was clear, but it was one to which his client readily agreed.
Obviously, I think their goal was to keep her under their thumb, Ayers said. Of course I was
concerned, but theres nothing I could really do. The judge required it. It was just how it was.
Dockery held up her end of the bargain.
She testified at Browns capital murder trial in October 2005 that, once, when she asked if he had
done it, he told her I was there. I was there.
It was the first time Dockery had ever mentioned that statement, according to Browns appeal.
A persuasive visitor
After Browns conviction and death sentence, Dockery tried to get on with her life. In November
2005, she was granted two years community supervision. And in 2007, Judge Ellis ended her
supervision early and she avoided a conviction through deferred adjudication.
Years later, when an investigator for Browns appellate attorneys came knocking on her door, hoping
she would help lead them to the truth, Dockery turned the woman away and ordered her off the lawn.
Then one day they sent someone else, a capital murder exoneree who had survived his own tortured
journey through the criminal justice system.
Look, sister, Anthony Graves told her before she could close the door. I just want to tell you what
happened to me.
And she let him in.
(Coming next: Part III of Dockerys story)

lisa.falkenberg@chron.com