Published: December 29, 2008 08:57 am      

Top story: House of Israel leads high-profile cases in 2008

Editor’s note: Each issue until Jan. 1, 2009, the Daily Progress will publish one of the top local stories of 2008. The following are three high-barratry, fraud and theft.



Robert Fox arrested by JPD three times in 2008

For the past four and a half months, the Jacksonville Police Department has not known the whereabouts of Robert Fox, but one of the last places they expected to find him was at the Cherokee County Courthouse in Rusk.

A fugitive since July 24, when an arrest warrant was signed for the felony crime of barratry, Fox surprised everyone when he showed up Wednesday morning at his arraignment hearing for a previous charge. He was arrested at the scene, and was transported to the Jacksonville jail.

“He was scheduled to be arraigned in the court of Judge Craig Fletcher on one of the possession of a dangerous drug charges that he faces, when somebody from the court called the police department and notified us that he had shown up for the hearing,” said Detective Jason Price. “They verified that he was in fact Robert Fox, detained him, we faxed the court a copy of the warrant, I drove to the courthouse in Rusk, placed him into custody, brought him back and booked him in for the felony charge of barratry.”

Barratry is a third-degree felony, with a punishment range of between two and 10 years in prison for a conviction. In addition to the barratry charge, Fox also faces three counts of possession of dangerous drugs, one count of possession of a controlled substance and two counts of the unauthorized practice of the law.

These charges all stem from a series of search warrants which were executed at the House of Israel building in the spring of this year. During their searches, JPD confiscated about 20 boxes and two file cabinets full of Fox’s legal and financial documents, seven computers, a cache of illegal prescription drugs and a large collection of political propaganda hailing Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols as patriots.

“During the last few months we have been continuing the investigation, shoring up the case against him and getting it ready for prosecution. I’m confident that we have a grade-A case against him at this point, with some teeth and a lot of meat to it,” Price said.

Fox’s bond had not been set as of Wednesday afternoon. Price said he has notified the U.S. Marshals Service of Fox’s arrest, as they have been investigating him regarding a mailing that he sent to a federal judge in Smith County.

“We were actually quite surprised to hear that he had shown up down at the courthouse, but it always gives you a good feeling to finally get an arrest made on a felony — especially after such an extensive investigation,” he said.



Brent Hallford under investigation by United States Postal Inspection Service.

Local police are investigating a burglary in the 1700 block of South Jackson Street — the location from which Eual Brent Hallford operated his trading card business before being charged with multiple felonies by the Jacksonville Police Department and being investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service.

Detective Daniel Franklin said the building’s landlord contacted JPD about the break-in Tuesday afternoon.

“Somebody made entry into the old store and removed the majority of the inventory that had been left inside the business. Hallford had been evicted out of the business back in July, and there was a lien placed on most of the merchandise that was still inside,” Franklin said. “The landlord wasn’t sure exactly what had been left there, but the majority of what was in there is definitely gone now. He estimated the value of the stolen merchandise to be about $6,000.”

JPD officials said they have no suspects at this time.

Hallford’s business, Trading Card Collectibles, was based in that location, and sold trading cards and other sports memorabilia over the Internet. Franklin said the business has ceased operations since Hallford’s arrests last year.

“He was arrested in November 2007 for five counts of credit/debit card abuse and again that December for forgery. All of those charges are state jail felonies,” he said.

Last year, the Better Business Bureau of Central East Texas provided local police with a list of 400 Trading Card Collectibles customers who claimed to have purchased items from Hallford’s Web site but never received the items bought. In contacting several of those individuals, the police were able to obtain enough evidence to file the credit/debit card abuse charges, Franklin said.

The forgery charge stems from an incident in which Hallford is believed to have used a counterfeit cashier’s check during a business transaction.

He has not stood trial for the offenses.

During his December arrest, the U.S. Postal Service also obtained a federal search warrant and seized several documents and computers from the business.

Brad Meyer, the USPS postal inspector assigned to the Hallford case, was unavailable for comment on Wednesday, but Detective Tonya Sonntag, who has been in regular contact with Meyer since the investigation began, said federal charges stemming from the USPS investigation are expected to be filed in the near future.



Rusk bookkeeper indicted of first-degree felony theft

Doris C. Robinson, a former city of Rusk employee, was indicted by a Cherokee County grand jury earlier this year. Robinson has been charged with theft of property in an amount more than $100,000 but less than $200,000.

According to District Attorney Elmer Beckworth, Robinson was indicted Feb. 25. An indictment indicates a grand jury felt enough evidence exists in the case for it to proceed to trial.

A former bookkeeper for Rusk’s water department, Robinson was terminated by the city in January 2007, after a large sum of city water funds came up missing.

“Suspicious activity was noticed in July or August of 2006, and I believe the Texas Rangers were called in in September of 2006,” said Rusk City Manager Mike Murray.

The Rusk city financial audit for the year ended Sept. 30, 2006, shows an undisclosed amount of money was found to be missing from the city’s water collections.

“During the year ended September 30, 2006, the city discovered various transactions which it believes included the possibility of theft of water collections by an employee. It is currently investigating water revenue to determine the amount of potential theft loss. If the employee is found to have stolen water collections, water revenue would be understated and theft loss understated by a like amount,” read the audit conducted by Acker & Company.

According to Beckworth, the allegations in the indictment pertain to money that was allegedly stolen between August 2004 and September 2006. He said monetary restitution to the city could be ordered in the event of a conviction.

Robinson, 60, was hired by the city on July 18, 1994, as a utility billing clerk. She is the wife of Jacksonville City Councilman Hubert Robinson.