Blogs

Willow River Farms, a private group home for the mentally retarded and physically disabled in Brookshire, turned into a place where "residents would gather in groups and have sex with multiple partners at the same time," and the atmosphere was described as "one big orgy" by a former employee, according to a lawsuit recently filed in Harris County.

The suit, filed by Houston attorney John Ramsey, focuses on the alleged sexual assault of a 42-year-old mentally retarded woman.

"The more the family told me about this, the angrier I got," Ramsey tells Hair Balls. "[Willow River Farms] helped create a predator who is preying on other residents at this facility."

A citizen of Saudi Arabia has been charged by the feds here for lying to obtain a visa for an employee.

What's so bad about that? Well, the lie was that he told visa officials he was bringing the woman over here to be domestic help at $1,300 a month at eight hours a day six days a week, but instead, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office:
 

During the six years the Indonesian national worked for [Mohammed] Al-Zehairi, the complaint alleges she worked far more than the agreed upon eight hours a day every day, received a total of two payments of $200 each during her entire term of employment while her family in Indonesia received cumulative payments once a year equivalent to $160 per month and was denied access to her passport.

The passport was reportedly kept in a closet locked with a combination lock in the master bedroom of the Al-Zehairi home.

Hey, he was just trying to protect her passport!!! Can't a man follow some basic security measures without the feds getting all hot and bothered?

Photo by MACSURAK

Team Rocket lost another battle in court today as Federal District Court Judge Keith Ellison reaffirmed his ruling from earlier this year that dismissed most of Roger Clemens's defamation suit against Brian McNamee. The portions of the suit that had been dismissed dealt with Brian McNamee's statements to the feds and George Mitchell about Clemens's steroids/HGH use. And when he originally dismissed those claims, the judge stated that the statements were immune from suit because they were part of a criminal investigation.

In reaffirming that opinion, Ellison stated that he was refusing Rocket's request to punish McNamee, writing "if (Clemens) believes that the federal investigators or the Mitchell Commission overstepped the bounds of the law, he is free to bring suit against those enemies, subject to possible immunity defense. This court, however, is solely concerned with the behavior of (McNamee). The Court will not accept (Clemens') invitation to thwart the government's allegedly 'coercive' behavior by punishing (McNamee), who was the target of that behavior."

The first weekend of the county's DWI crackdown resulted in 110 arrests at "Hot Spots," the DA's office announced today. And the big weekend is still to come.

The Hot Spots feature lots of patrol cars and a mobile lab with all that's necessary to get a blood sample for those who refuse the breathalyzer.

Thirty-five suspects were arrested after refusing the breath test, the office said.

"The message is getting out there. We're seeing people leaving their cars behind in parking lots rather than risk driving after they've had too much to drink," presuctor Brent Mayr said. "They've heard that if you get stopped and refuse, we're going to get a search warrant and take your blood."

So where are the Hot Spots?

William James Dennis, the 42-year-old rapper best known as Willie D. of the Geto Boys, was arraigned on June 15. According to court papers, the pioneering Southern hip-hop MC pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of wire fraud.

If convicted on all counts in the alleged international iPhone scam, Dennis faces 20 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Dennis is expected in Judge Gray Miller's court for a pre-trial conference on July 27. Jury selection and his trial are expected to begin the same day, though Lord knows these things have a way of getting pushed back. Meanwhile, Dennis remains out on bond, not traveling and not using the Internet.

A phone call to Dennis's attorney was not returned.

Photo by superfem

David Hernandez of Harlingen may have been delivered by a midwife not far from the border with Mexico, but he always knew he was born in the United States. The trick was convincing the U.S. Department of State, which refused to issue him a passport based on a history of midwife fraud along the Texas-Mexico border.

The government was claiming that because Hernandez's midwife's name appeared on a list of midwives suspected of committing birth certificate fraud, Hernandez had to prove and document that he was in fact born in America. Yet no matter how much proof Hernandez submitted, the government still would not give Hernandez his passport. After a year of fighting, Hernandez must fight no more.

Hernandez was one of many Hispanic-Americans who filed a class-action lawsuit, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, against the U.S. State Department last year, claiming the government was unfairly burdening Hispanic-Americans delivered by midwives by making them provide an excess number of documents normally not required to get a passport. Earlier this week, it was announced that the lawsuit settled. Hernandez now his passport.

"I got it in the mail and it felt great," Hernandez tells Hair Balls. "It was a real sigh of relief. It was such a long process and it was very stressful."

Linda Lay, wife of Ken, is back in the news!

The New York Daily News, that is. And what company she's keeping: Victoria Gotti, Rith Madoff, Karen Kozlowski, etc. -- all members of what the News calls "The Cursed Wives Club."

Cursed? Living for years and years on "I-know-nothing" millions while being treated as a secular saint who does endless charity work? Just because the gravy train ended, you're cursed?

We can think of worse curses.

Anyway, the News gave Lay the lowest-ranking in the club. (Will the insults never stop?) Not only were Gotti, Kozlowski (spouse of Tyco's CEO) rated above her, so was the wife of former media giant (and con artist) Conrad Black. No photo, either!!

A lawsuit filed in Harris County rips open the (alleged) seamy, sexy underworld of...ummm....a kiddie dinosaur show.

According to Courthouse News Service, a Houstonian named Johnny H. Smith is suing the producers of the touring show Walking With Dinosaurs because they fired him for -- as he tells the tale -- being gay and not a flirty, partying gal like his predecessor.

Smith was hired to run the show's "skins" department, which is like a costumer. We'll let CNS summarize the suit:

Smith says [his predecessor] delayed and canceled training sessions because she was "consistently hung over, or inebriated, or too exhausted from the previous night's escapades."

He says male crew members on tour were disgruntled, because [the predecessor] was a "reliable party partner and reliable flirting partner," a role Smith did not wish to play. Crew member Mike Hamilton, along with Mast and other tour workers, allegedly criticized Smith's skills and frequently commented on his masculinity and sexual history.

In his third week on the job, Smith was allegedly told he was "not one of the boys" and was being sent home because he did not fit in. Hamilton pushed for his firing by telling managers that he wanted someone who would sit on his lap and expose her breasts, the lawsuit claims. Smith was then replaced by a straight woman, he says.

"All I want is a woman who'll sit on my lap and expose her breasts!! Is that too much to ask?!?!?"

Hair Balls reported in early June that Charles Raby, who has been sitting on death row since 1994 after being convicted of slaying a grandmother, had received some good news in his ongoing DNA challenge.

An outside expert, Patricia P. Hamby, determined that the much-maligned Houston Crime Lab had been, at best, misleading in reporting its blood work during the original trial. Blood was found under the victim's fingernails, and it belonged to neither Raby nor the victim. Yet analyst Joseph Chu reported the results as "inconclusive".

It remained to be seen whether Hamby's conclusion would be relevant within the narrow confines of Raby's challenge. That question seemed to be answered this morning, when the judge decided to both accept Hamby's testimony into the record and hear from her in person.

That means closing arguments, scheduled for this week, will be put off indefinitely -- yet again -- until Hamby can appear before the judge.

Photo courtesy Harris County Attorney's office

Luis Ortiz, the polluter who was sentenced to five days' jail time for failing to clean up his auto-salvage business, went behind bars today after a last-ditch effort to stay free.

Ella Tyler of the county attorney's office tells Hair Balls district judge Tony Lindsay ordered Ortiz to begin his sentence even though much of the clean-up has been done.

"It's been a long, long time getting it," she says.

Ortiz and the county have been fighting for three years, and the property owner had ignored several court orders demanding he fix the problem. He had one last chance to argue at a hearing this morning, but Lindsay wasn't impressed.