Mowdy Addresses the Culture of Corruption in Williamson County
Williamson County's Culture of Corruption Speech Text
by
Tom Mowdy
As my website, www.TomMowdy.com indicates, I'm dissatisfied with the conduct and performance of the Williamson County Commissioners Court and our legal courts. The Williamson County leadership and justice system have demonstrated questionable integrity, disrespect for citizens and our laws, and neither has the ability to competently perform the required duties.
My statements are justified with undeniable evidence and examples. I've turned my dissatisfaction to this positive political action.
My concerns about Wilco corruption began in 2011, when I, a veteran and senior citizen was escorted out of the Taylor police station, by the police chief. I went there to file a criminal complaint about a false claim against my homestead. A retirement home my wife and I designed and built.
When I named the person I was complaining about, the police chief refused to take my complaint and while laughing, escorted me to the door. My complaints have since been proven to be true.
That event was the beginning of my personal battle. I am glad to say Taylor now has a new police chief and a new city manager. But, I could not ignore the behavior, and as I peeled backed the layers, I began to discover the culture of corruption in Williamson County. A culture that gave a "good old boy" police chief confidence that he could ignore a criminal complaint.
All citizens deserve respect, their rights, and the protection of law. If our system does not respect, protect, and observe the rights of veteran senior citizens, then it cannot be expected to give such concern to our families, our children, and our future.
Regardless of our political beliefs, we cannot let our systems ignore the application of the laws and the principles of our society and still live secure lives.
Texas law states it is perjury to make a false sworn statement and when there are two conflicting statements by the same person, both cannot be true. That is a felony under Texas law.
Texas law states it is criminal deceptive trade to demand payment for work that was not performed.
Texas law states it is a felony to file a false document in an official proceeding.
Perjury, deceptive trade, and felonies are criminal acts we, as a society, have determined are harmful. We created laws and a system of justice in an effort to prevent those and other acts we determine to be harmful.
We rely on that system to protect our property, our persons, and our future. The greatest harm comes when we can no longer trust that system. A threat to one individual signals a failing system that is, or will be, a threat to all of us.
Michael Morton, lost a family and 25 years of his life, wrongly convicted of murder by elected officials, he was a victim of Williamson County's culture of corruption. Not one sitting commissioner stood to demand the truth for Michael Morton.
I have undeniable proof that when perjury, deceptive trade, and forgery are committed against you in Williamson County, you cannot be confident in a just and fair system of legal or court protection. That is my personal documented experience.
A fraudulent claim for $113,000 was filed on my homestead. A false contract and false accounting was personally sworn and verified by an attorney and filed in court. My home and assets were at stake. The false contract and accounting were found, as a legal fact, to be false and the contractor breached the contract.
A Williamson County district judge confirmed the legal fact, of the breach, the false contract and accounting, and then chose to ignore the perjury and felony of a false document being filed in her court.
She refused a judicial review of the false sworn document, let the lawyer from San Antonio, who filed the false document go free, and forced the victim, to pay for the legal expenses of removing the false lien claim against my property.
That judge confirmed the legal facts of perjury and felony acts committed against this combat veteran senior citizen and then ignored those criminal facts. I do not want another citizen to face that kind of justice. It is not the government and courts I fought to defend.
My case, the Robert Lloyd case, Michael Morton, the county landfill, sexual harassment and the old boys network, and others I've encountered on this tour of corruption, are the evidence and examples that motivate me to address the Williamson County corruption problem.
My research, observations, and personal experiences are undeniable evidence that Williamson County citizens are forced to live in an oppressive culture of government corruption. A state of being where elected public officials, legislators, commissioners, and judges, have abandon their pledges to our principles and their own conscience. Their decisions are now governed by arrogance, alliances, and greed.
Corruption erodes public trust. Our system is corrupted when elected officials ignore and avoid good decision processes and our law courts do not honor our laws and constitutional rights.
As a combat veteran I'm sensitive to constitutional rights and the need for a dependable, fair, and honest system. My reason is simple. Veterans put their lives at risk, they suffer death, wounds, family separation, and un-measurable grief for the principles they defend.
Veterans, and their families bear these burdens with swelling pride when we raise our flag and honor our principles, and their treatment in our society is the litmus test for the quality of our government and nation.
But, we have elected officials in Williamson County who demonstrate no concern with the reasons young men and women pay such horrible prices. And for that, I would label those officials as traitors to our nation and our principles.
If we are not going to ensure the principles and rights veterans served to defend, then why are we paying so much for our freedom. Why do we send our children to fight and die for principles and freedom we do not enjoy?
We cannot trust our future to corrupt government, corrupt legislators, and corrupt courts? No American patriot and no American veteran wants to see any citizen denied the rights that veterans served to defend.
Williamson county government has been led to moral decay and a debt burdened financial future. We have more debt per capita than any county in Texas.
Our commissioners take our borrowed money and overpay their political supporters through unreasonable contract rates. We pay thirty percent of our taxes, almost one third, for debt service alone. Williamson County is a broken system that needs to be repaired.
When we see five commissioners unanimously grant an unwarranted 96% contractor pay rate increase with "practically no discussion," and no stated justification, it warrants suspicion about those decisions. Particularly, when that contractor's political action committee made significant donations to each sitting commissioner before the rate increase.
When citizens are confronted with questions about their religion during a government job interview, it is an unacceptable signal that our government decision makers are identifying, judging, and treating citizens according to their religious beliefs and other prejudices.
When sexual harassment is illegally defended with public money, it forces the victim to pay for the predator's defense and is a signal that those officials, who made that illegal decision, will ignore and oppress citizens to protect their close associates.
When 40 year no-bid contracts are awarded to contractors who then conceal operations of a county facility, it cast suspicion about the true business relationship and signals the need for a thorough and independent audit.
When a State Representative claims public respect and honor to our war wounded while privately refusing to acknowledge a senior war veteran's written pleas for constitutional rights, it signals more deception and lies to come.
When our courts deny any citizen the constitutional right to know the charges and claims made against them, then your home and assets, can be taken from you for no reason except corruption.
When a Williamson County district court judge confirms facts of crimes in her court and then ignores the perjury and felony acts against, and injuries to, a senior veteran citizen, it destroys trust in our legal system. It is a corrupted and failing process, oppressive, and is a clear threat to the security of our lives, homes, and assets.
When no leader will speak to demand the truth by a simple DNA analysis, for a questionable murder conviction in our district court, it destroys a family, imprisons an innocent man for years, and signals a disgusting absence of moral leadership. Not one sitting commissioner would rise to demand we seek the truth for Michael Morton, a citizen of Williamson County.
When claims can be made against you and our courts and government officials will not stand behind your constitutional right to know the specific nature of those claims, it is a constitutional violation that reminds me of the oppressive foreign regimes we abhor.
When we see these kinds of actions continually committed with indifference, arrogance, and no remorse, we must each stand and demand change. We must demand competent, honest, fair, and financially responsible government. A government that respects each citizens rights.
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