Tyler

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

Smith County Precinct 1 Constable Henry Jackson’s attorney asked a county court-at-law judge to recuse himself from presiding over his official oppression case, which is set to go to trial next week.

Jackson, 55, who has served as constable for nine years, was indicted in May on three counts of official oppression/sexual harassment misdemeanor charges and seven felony tampering with governmental record charges.

During a pre-trial hearing in County Court-at-Law No. 2 Judge Randall Rogers’ court Thursday, defense attorney William Hughey, of Marshall, asked Rogers to remove himself from the case.

“I do not voluntarily agree to recuse myself,” the judge said after reviewing the motion.

State District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent, who serves as the local administrative judge, will preside over the recusal hearing today.

In his motion for recusal, Hughey questions the impartiality of Rogers in the case. In an affidavit Hughey signed and attached to his own motion, he claims that during a July 1 pre-trial hearing in the case, Rogers said he would not treat the case any differently than any other case and that if a jury could be selected in the Deanna Laney case, which garnered national attention, a jury could be seated in Jackson’s case.

Hughey noted how the indictment and arrest of Jackson were “well publicized in the media” and states that it is too short of a time schedule to go to trial to not bring some form of prejudice or bias into the courtroom.

He said the court’s “predetermined mindset” to try the case on Monday compromises the defendant’s right to a fair trial and places his attorneys in a position to be ineffective and not able to adequately prepare for trial.

Hughey has also filed a motion for a change of venue, asking the court to move the trial out of Smith County because Jackson could not receive a fair trial in the county. But the judge said he could not take up any motions until the recusal issue was resolved.

Ms. Curry filed affidavits controverting the motion for change of venue from four Smith County residents who claim they are aware of the case and they believe there has been no publicity in an amount of or of the nature that would deprive Jackson from receiving a fair trial in Smith County.

Hughey has also filed a motion for continuance in the trial for more time to prepare the case. The judge already granted one continuance, pushing the case back from July 7 to Monday.

The constable was arrested May 23 after he was stopped by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers when he was driving at a “high rate of speed” in Van Zandt County the day after he was indicted. He was released on bonds totaling $425,000.

Jackson, who served as a Tyler Police Department reserve officer before he was elected to his current office, was charged with seven second-degree felony counts of tampering with a governmental record, for which he faces two to 20 years in prison for each charge if convicted. The tampering charges arise from alleged false filings made by Jackson regarding his private security company, Fail Safe Security Agency, said Tonda Curry, who is a Tyler defense attorney who has been appointed special prosecutor in the case.

According to the indictments, Jackson made false entries as to when noncommissioned and commissioned security officers were hired. The officers had worked for months or even up to a year in some cases before their recorded hire dates, the documents show.

Jackson was also charged with three misdemeanor counts of official oppression for alleged sexual harassment while acting under the color of his office as a public servant.

On Dec. 15, 2006, March 11, 2007, and July 1, 2007, Jackson made unwelcome sexual advances to three different women — “submission to which was expressly or implicitly made a term or condition of the exercise or enjoyment … of … her employment,” according to the indictments. Each misdemeanor charge could result in one-year confinement in the county jail and a fine not to exceed $4,000.

Jackson has remained acting as constable while out on bond.

Staff writers Kenneth Dean and Roy Maynard contributed to this report.

Constable Henry Jackson
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