Book Review

The Governor's Tast Force [sic]

After I finally received the documents I'd asked for in an open records request for copies of everything the Texas DPS had concerning my case as discussed in my previous post, I began looking the pages over carefully. I immediately noticed many problems with them: they were incomplete (from the page numbers, pages were missing); the pages concerning the former DEA and FBI agents I'd filed complaints about were not signed by the investigator as the other pages were; many of the investigator's statements were inaccurate or misleading (and some were totally false); and in one place, my name was listed along with my ex-husband's address!

I also noticed the statement excerpted here about a "Governor's Tast Force" [sic] that I could potentially go to for help. Although the investigator states that he told me about this when he and a colleague came to my house and interviewed me after I'd filed my complaints, I have no memory of either of them mentioning this. I assumed he meant there was some sort of task force that investigated corrupt law enforcement, so I emailed Gov. Perry's office to see if I could talk to them.

A female staffer of the governor's soon called me, and she said she wasn't sure what I'd asked about, so I explained about this statement in the document and offered to fax her a copy. She gave me the fax number for Gov. Perry's office, and I immediately sent the page to her. After about an hour, she called me back and said no one in the governor's office knew what this task force was and that they couldn't help me.

Recently I have learned the governor does indeed have multiple task forces, some with known purposes and others said to be secretive. I still don't know exactly what task force the DPS investigator was referring to here (and he never returned my phone calls asking about it), but it seems clear at this point that, for whatever reason, my children and I won't be getting any help from it.