Raynor Barrett, Ashley Authorlee: Pair Allegedly Hijacked a Christmas Toy Drive
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"No, my name isn't 'Grinch,' it's 'Griinch.' I don't know who you're talking about."
If you've ever wondered what sort of bottom-feeding Grinches would create a bogus "charity" and mislead donors in order to collect cash and toys, you might want to meet Raynor Barrett and Ashley Authorlee, two fine specimens who've allegedly diverted donations meant for needy families at Stevenson Middle School.
We were first alerted to this by Stevenson's PTO treasurer, Elizabeth Perez, who said that the "special events coordinator" of Mama D's Pantry had identified himself as one Raynor Barretti. Barretti and Mama D's "CEO" Ashley Authorlee had helped the Stevenson PTO with a similar drive for Thanksgiving, and it went off without a hitch. So they decided to hold another toy and food drive for the same families -- fifteen Stevenson families who live below the federal poverty line.
But on the day of the December 10 toy drive, Perez said, Barretti and Authorlee didn't show up until the last fifteen minutes -- empty-handed.
"When we asked them for those donations, they said that...what they had collected was for themselves, for their toy distribution, that they weren't helping us, that they were only giving us moral support," Perez said.
Barretti and Authorlee wouldn't return phone calls, Perez said, and she didn't hear from Barrett until earlier this week, when he said Mama D's was holding a toy drive at Allen Samuels Dodge, and she could send any needy families that way. (Apparently, the "D" in Mama D's stands for "douchebag.")
We found nothing online for "Raynor Barretti," as the name appears on flyers created for the Stevenson toy drive. But we found a Facebook page for "Raynoir" Barretti, and a LinkedIn page for that same spelling, with the person identified as being part of Mama D's. But that person appears to be part of a fairy wonderland, because the dude's real name, we quickly discovered, is Raynor Barrett, who was just paroled from TDCJ in January after serving eight years of a 99-year sentence for stealing a car.
(Although "Barretti" denies he's Barrett, the evidence we have indicates otherwise, so we're going to refer to him as Barrett.)
Barrett's recent prison stint wasn't his only brush with the law. He was also sentenced to 10 days in Harris County Jail in 1997 for failing to identify himself to a police officer. According to the same court records, it appears he was given 10 years probation for theft by check in 1987, but then sentenced to six years in prison for another theft by check in 1988. His earliest offense dates to 1983, for another car theft.
That's why we chuckled to ourselves when we got Barrett on the phone and asked about his previous line of work, which he said included "cars."
But here's how freaking dumb Barrett is: Although he now uses the improbable alias "Barretti," he identifies himself on his voice mail as "Barrett," probably in case his parole officer calls. He adamantly denied to Hair Balls that he's ever gone by any other name than "Raynoir Barretti," and had no idea who "Raynor Barrett" was. Which is weird, because the two look identical.
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