Harrelson Trial Day 4

LIBERTY, September 26, 2003 - On Thursday, the fourth day of the Janet Harrelson trial, witnesses including Retired District Court Judge J. C. “Zeke” Zbranek, Liberty Attorney Joe Warren, DPS Computer Forensics Expert Arnold Briscoe and County Court at Law Judge Don Taylor, among others testified as part of the prosecutions case against Janet Harrelson.

Judge Zbranek testified that District Clerk Melody Gilmore told him that a bench warrant was coming in and that he called his coordinator, Barbara Shipman and told her to stamp it. He testified that he did not know it was coming from Richard Burroughs and that he thought it was coming from the District Attorney. He also stated that he did not authorize his signature on the second bench warrant but he did on the first bench warrant and takes responsibility for it. He further stated that he did not have a prior conversation with Janet Harrelson about a bench warrant.

Judge Zbranek stated that he first realized something was wrong on December 2, 2002, which was a Monday after he spoke with Janet Harrelson and Mark Beausoleil. He was contacted at home by then Chief Deputy George Ellington about the matter at his home. That’s when he learned there had been no motion filed in Janet Harrelson’s divorce case. He then asked “JD” if he had used his stamp and “JD” said no. He asks Melody Gilmore about it and she reminded him that he had called Barbara telling her to stamp it. It was about a week or more later when Channel 11 News contacted him. He stated that he ordered Jeff Hale back to Huntsville on December 3, 2002.

Arnold Briscoe from Willis, TX is retired from the Department of Public Safety and works with special crimes unit in the area of computer forensics. He testified that he had examined Janet Harrelson’s computer, hard drive and floppy disks and was able to access deleted files from Janet’s computer.

Briscoe testified that he was asked to make the following queries.

Zbranek
Bench Warrant
54144 (Janet Harrelson’s divorce case number)
1097606 (Jeff Hale’s TDC Number)

The word Zbanek had 83 hits with 18 hits pertaining to this case. The phrase Bench Warrant had 80 hits with all 80 of them pertaining to this case. 541447 had 7 hits all pertaining to this case.

All of these documents had been deleted from Harrelson’s computer.

The hits and documents that they produced were from E-mails, Internet downloads and MS Word files. He could tell when these documents were created and modified and that the files containing "bench warrant" were created on November 8, 2002 and modified on November 12, 2002.

Barbara Clements a records clerk at CCA Liberty County Jail testified that she keeps a log of the number of times an attorney visits someone in jail and that no attorney visited Jeff Hale while in the Liberty County Jail.

County Auditor Harold Seay testified that Jeff Hale had stayed in the Liberty County Jail for 22 days at a cost of $33.00 per day.

Perhaps the most interesting testimony came from County Court at Law Judge Don Taylor. In relaying the subject of a conversation he had with Janet Harrelson, Judge Taylor stated that Harrelson told him that State Rep. Dan Ellis could assist her in moving Jeff Hale to Liberty County. Judge Taylor testified that when Harrelson approached him about moving Hale to Liberty that he said it was not a good idea and this it would be a misuse of public funds.

Judge Taylor was asked if he knew that Odell McDuffie had made a trip to Beaumont to pick up Jeff Hale on November 13, 2002 and testified that he knew he probably went but not before he left.

Judge Taylor was ask if he had a conversation with Sheriff Greg Arthur, Attorney Joe Warren, and Janet Harrelson about moving Jeff Hale to Liberty. He testified that he was at the meeting. Judge Taylor testified that Sheriff Arthur was questioned about the cost of housing a prisoner in the Liberty County Jail and stated that it would cost about $40 per day and that he thought he could take care of that.

Judge Taylor was asked if he had sent Odell, his bailiff, to Louisiana to purchase lottery tickets and the judge said I may have.

He was then asked if he had sent Odell to Baytown to a title company for personal business and Judge Taylor said he didn’t recall.

He was then asked if judges sometimes send bailiffs on personal errands and Judge Taylor said yes.

Joe Warren, a Liberty Attorney who was present at the meeting with Sheriff Arthur, Judge Taylor and Janet Harrelson then testified. He stated that in June or July of 2002 he received a call from Janet Harrelson to come to Judge Taylor’s chambers and upon arrival found Sheriff Arthur, Judge Taylor and Janet Harrelson were all present. They were discussing the bench warrant and getting Jeff Hale to the Stiles unit in Beaumont and ultimately how to get him to Liberty County.

Janet asked Joe Warren to prepare a bench warrant and Warren said no. Warren testified that he told Janet Harrelson that this would blow up and all involved would go down with it. Warren also testified that he advised the group of potential criminal charges could result from the plan. It was discussed at the meeting that it would cost about $1,000 per month to house a prisoner in the Liberty County Jail.

Attorney Warren asked Janet who would sign the bench warrant and that Janet said, “We’ve got that covered.”

Then the group discussed for what reason Hale could be brought to Liberty County.
Warren testified that Sheriff Arthur stated that he didn’t have any problem housing Jeff Hale in the jail for as long as they wanted to keep him there and further stated that Sheriff Arthur was in agreement with doing the bench warrant.

Joe Warren testified that Judge Taylor didn’t have a problem until he told him that this could be illegal and then he expressed reservations and left the room.

Joe Warren was asked if Sheriff Arthur, Judge Taylor and Janet Harrleson were all on the same page in bringing Jeff Hale here to Liberty and he answered yes.

Check back tomorrow for coverage of Friday’s court proceedings where the prosecution rested it’s case, as did the defense. The case is expected to go to the jury on Monday.

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