Category: Uncategorized

By Greg Moses

Below are transcribed excerpts from the Rocha files released by the Travis County District Attorney’s office following an announcement that the Grand Jury had decided to issue no criminal indictments. Here are a few key phrases:

• Rocha’s body was off to my left side but now he was on top of my boss. I could see Sgt. Doyle and Rocha fighting.–Julie Schroeder
• he was still on his feet and struggling. I was hoping we could get him to the ground. At that time I heard a pop….–Schroeder’s boss
• The path of the gunshot wound was back to front, left to right, and downward.–medical examiner
• Probable body positions for the deceased include down on one or both knees or bent over at the waist.–Forensic consultant
• I could see Julie standing to the east of an unknown male who was laying face down on the ground and Sgt. Doyle was on his knees on the west side of the subject–Backup Cop
• I hear the guy say "weapon" but I didn’t see anything in his hands. I saw him get on his hands and knees and saw the female officer with her left hand trying to put him on the ground and she was kinda kneeling with her left hand and knee. I saw her with a gun in her right hand. I saw he was lying flat. I don’t know if the guy was fighting with the officer or resisting because I did not see that. I thought that the police were going to arrest him and put him up. I walked off back to my house but then I heard a shot….–Witness

What to make of this sad, sad stack of docs? There is no question that Daniel Rocha had been a troubled kid and was making some poor choices in the first weeks of his adult life. He was very likely engaged in illegal activity of a not very unusual kind on the night he was killed. He was involving himself in petty drug dealing. From the testimony of friends and teachers, Daniel was a spirited character with an outlaw edge.

The record shows that he was also doing things that anyone would call cops to stop, such as burglary or theft. But on the night of his death was he engaging in the kind of behavior that justified a killing? If he was no role model, he was also no monster, and no stack of previous behaviors attributed to him would warrant anything near a summary execution–not even in Texas.

In this case, it appears from the evidence released by the grand jury that Officer Schroeder displayed a pattern of poor judgment in her impulsive decision to make the traffic stop and in her life or death determination to detain Rocha right then and there. Reports from her partner and her boss indicate that they were not quite prepared in advance for the ‘take down’ when she abruptly initiated it.

The inability of Schroeder and her boss to contain Rocha even when double teaming him indicates that the ground was poorly chosen for this action. From the time Officer Schroeder threw her car into reverse, the tone for this tragedy was set. It is difficult to imagine that good cops would find this a worthy pattern of action.

The expert report from Oklahoma indicates that the probable position of Daniel Rocha at the time of shooting was on one or two knees or bent over, with Officer Schroeder at arm’s length to his left. In other words, the probable positions confirm Officer Schroeder’s statement, that Rocha was not fighting her at the time of the shooting.

Schroeder’s claim that Rocha was doing something more than trying to get away from her boss seems incredible when compared to her boss’ statement that he was hanging onto Rocha’s foot. So there is no question that Daniel Rocha was playing with fire in his gangsta attitude, but there is also an expectation that cops are trained to deal with such cases in ways that do not escalate into on-the-spot executions. I think that’s why they are called peace officers. To kids, especially teenage males, we have to suggest better things, but then again, we have to be pretty careful that we not pretend to have offered Daniel a well-chosen world to work with. When I think of the comment that he had a slight learning disability, then I can see how he was following the wrong crowd, he just wasn’t so quick as the one who first jumped the fence. A slight learning disability is all it would take for that moment of hesitation, then that moment of tragic motivation to follow his friend over the fence.

Did Officer Schroeder raise a gun to that first escapee? No, she called him by name, just to let him know that she knew who he was and where to find him another day. He climbed a tree, waited, and lived to hear the shot. What was so different about Daniel that night?

I don’t know if the Police Association intends to come off this way, but in their public comments about this mess, they seem to indicate that any resistance to police may very well justify deadly force. In other words, they want absolute authority in this life. If this is the message that the grand jury was trying to send–‘obey or die’–then the grand jury has run too far into police state mentality. Everyone has a role to play in breaking cycles of unfairness. Unfortunately, in these docs one finds too many trails of continuing evasion.

The Texas Civil Rights Review has signed a petition asking that prisoners no longer be denied their rights to vote.

Like many folks, your editor for decades held the position that the
violation of some ‘social contract’ could serve as moral grounds for
denying convicted felons their rights to participate in elections.

But what is a ‘social contract’? And does a felony conviction
fairly count as the sole criterion for judging that someone has broken
one?

To comment on this article please go to the comment blog.

To skim an easy example from Texas headlines these days, let’s consider
the elected representatives of the legislature, and the role they are
supposed to play in the ‘social contract’, if there is such a thing.

Because, if there is such a thing as a ‘social contract’, one would think that the
state legislature would be the most likely place to look for people who
honor it.

If there is a ‘social contract’, then, state legislators would be the
ones morally obliged to say things like: ‘look, we have a "social
contract" to keep with the children of Texas, etc.’ Then they would pass an income tax, and go home for the summer.

I skim the example, not to get back into all the cruddy history of the
Texas state legislature, especially when it comes to their stewardship of
education. I just use the example of the legislature’s track record in
education
to show how, if there is a ‘social contract’, and if breaking it were
sufficient grounds to deny someone the right to vote, then how would we
begin to apply the enforcement of such a rule, fairly, across
the board?

If breaking a ‘social contract’ is grounds to revoke a person’s right
to vote, then state legislators ought to lead by example, and revoke
their own voting rights next week. How’s that for a modest proposal?

So the argument that prisoners shouldn’t be allowed to vote, because
they broke their ‘social contract’, is an argument that runs into all
kinds of Civil Rights problems, if you take the equal protection clause
of the 14th amendment to be a central premise of civil rights logic.

***

But to be honest about it, the flaw of the ‘social contract’
justification was not what really prompted your humble editor to
re-think voting rights for prisoners. More persuasive has been
the trend over my adult lifetime for lawmakers across the USA to
replace
education with incarceration as the great hope of domestic tranquility.

The first time I heard Angela Davis make the argument, I was
startled. She said (I forget exactly which time) that if you
compare the political economy of the prison population today, with the
slave population of 1860, then you get a pattern that expresses some
deep, visceral structure of American power relations.

In fact, at no time in American history have we been able to produce a
sharable system of freedom and justice for all. Seen in this light,
the legislature’s failure this summer to provide
excellent education (let’s face it, for poor kids and brown kids and
black kids) is not simply to be chalked up to conflicting personalities
between three old white men. The failure is deeply structural.

Or put it this way: let’s suppose some court declared the Texas highway
speed limits unconstitutional, and then ordered the legislature to fix the
system, or face the closure of all highways. And suppose at the end of
two regular sessions, with half a dozen special sessions in between,
the result came out that nothing had yet been resolved, and Texans were
told that come October, the highway system would be shut down.

Hang with your humble editor, dear reader. The point is just about done. Now suppose we had some political analysis
that said, well, we have three ornery white guys who just can’t get
their egos (or whatever the folks at PinkDome call that thing) lined
up. Would we be just sitting back, reading that account, and
shaking our heads?

Or even worse–would we be expecting any of these guys to be remotely considering campaigns for re-election?

At times like this I think of my cat, Princess. She is such a
bearutiful and clever creature. Sometimes, if I get busy typing
or reading, and I forget to feed her promptly on time, she has this way
of slipping. She just walks across the table and her foot slides,
ever so accidentally of course, right down onto some fleshy surface,
and ouch! Oh my god, she is such an artist when it comes to
slipping up in just the right way at the right time.

***

No, to get back to the story, the ability of the legislature to
fumble this ball over and over again, with everybody watching, shaking
their heads, and wringing their hands, speaks to our collective
character as a state population, because goddammit, it’s who we deeply
are. We are not ashamed of these guys, because we have no shame when it comes to our own faith in education.

And part of this structure of our collective personality involves the
criminalization and incarceration of the very same people who we never
believed we should share anything with anyway.

And that’s why prisoners should not be denied their right to vote.

***

But there is still one argument more. It has to do with
consequences of social drift. When public policy drifts into
criminalization, and when the felons are at the same time deprived of
their rights to vote, then the politicians who are most reponsible for
the trend have no consequences to fear, because they are busy
disenfranchising their most likely critics.

The trend is reinforced when rural, white populations compete for
prison-related opportunities, importing populations into their counties
who will have no say whatsoever in local elections. Again, as
with politicians, thinly populated rural communities might think twice
about importing swing voters, and, when it comes to prison policy,
thinking twice is really what we need more of.

So, given the incoherence of the ‘social contract’ argument, given the
visceral traditions in America (and in Texas) that continue to
perpetuate ugly structures of power, and given the one-way direction in
which these consequences tend to be dumped–these reasons give us
sufficient warrant to sign a petition asking that prisoners be restored
their rights to vote.

[PS, sorry, I realize Sunday sermons should not use the GD word.
But if we really are the collective character that our legislature is
reflecting back on us, then too many Sunday sermons have needed improvement anyway.]

Dear Friends:

This message is sent to family members and friends
to provide an update on the medical status of my husband,
Ramsey Muniz. In a previous message I stated that he had
shown improvement, but since that time he has again become
ill. His abdomen area has filled with bile. He has
infection which is accompanied by fever. Tomorrow
morning (Monday, September 19) Ramsey will undergo surgery
which will give doctors a new opportunity to fix the
source of his illness. We welcome everyone’s prayers,
and ask God that Ramsey be granted a long awaited recovery.

Thursday, September 8: Ramsey undergoes an ERCP procedure for
the 3rd time. The doctor removes two stents previously inserted, and
replaces them with a larger one. He expresses confidence that this will
solve the problem. When I visit with Ramsey, he is heavily sedated.
Friday, September 9: For the first time Ramsey has eaten an entire cup of cream of wheat. Under the circumstances, this is
tremendous progress. His face alone reflects improved health.

Saturday, September 10: Early in the morning Ramsey has
problems breathing and he is given oxygen. In the morning he is taken
to walk because of the long amount of time that he has spent in bed. I
visit with him later and he is very weak. He hardly speaks. Because he
has remained in a lying position for so long, he has developed a very
painful bed sore.

Sunday, September 11: Ramsey’s abdomen is again filled with
fluid. He forces himself to walk , in an effort to rid himself of the
fluid. His liver enzymes are down, which is positive.

Monday, September 12: Ramsey is taken for another paracentesis
procedure to drain around the stomach area. They remove about
2 1/2 liters of what appears to be bile. They attempt to do
hemodialysis, but his catheter is clogged, so dialysis is postponed,
and they instead repair the catheter.

Tuesday, September 13: Ramsey is given hemodialysis again, as
his kidneys need to improve. It seems that the antibiotics are
effective, as his white blood cell count is lowering.

The physician has ordered a consultation with a surgeon to
determine if surgery will help.

Wednesday, September 14: Ramsey begins to eat solid food,
though he remains very ill. His stomach has again filled with bile, but
the amount seems less. The doctor does not want to resort to surgery,
and instead wants to wait to see if the fluid can be fought through the
body’s normal functions. He feels that the stent is just taking longer
to be effective.

Thursday, September 15: I called the nurse’s station at 5:45
AM for an update on Ramsey’s status. He has not been feeling well and
his stomach is bloated but he is sitting up in a chair, in an attempt
to fight the illness through mobility. His body is extremely tired.


Friday, September 16: I visit with Ramsey and he remains
very weak. I do everything possible to impart faith, spirituality,
hope, and strength. He has been told that surgery has been scheduled on
Monday morning or during the noon hour.

Saturday, September 17: Ramsey remains very weak.

Sunday, September 18: Ramsey remains very weak. We welcome
prayers from family members and friends, and ask God that Ramsey be
granted a long awaited recovery.

Our sincerest gratitude goes to all who have expressed
compassion, love, and concern, and more importantly to
those who have said prayers on behalf of my husband.

Irma Muniz

Received via email Sept. 18

I have been an Austin Police Officer for seven years. I graduated
from the Austin Police Academy 3/29/98. I was in the 91st Cadet
Class. I am currently assigned to the Souteast Street Response
Unit for about 20 months. Prior to being assigned to the
Southeast Street Response unit I worked George 200’s. I also
worked Walking Beat at night. I also worked Charlie sector, 300’s
and 500’s.

In the street response unit my partner is Officer Michelle
Borton. I have worked with Michelle for 1 year and 4
months. We work street level narcotic investigations and assist
in prostitutions stings. We talked about working property crimes
but have not had much success with property crimes.

On this Bittercreek operation, Michelle and I have have worked the
Bluff Springs area and researched the area for suspicious
activity. What happens is that we watch the pay phones in the
area, especially the pay phone at Cannon Food Mart at 1719 E. William
Cannon. The way this drug activity works is taht these mobile
drug dealers will drive around to these homeless/drug addicted people
and give them phone numbers where they can call and order some
drugs. The way it works is that the drug dealer will dleiver the
narcotics to the person at a designated place and time.
One time Michelle and I were at the Cannon Food Mart and this guy comes
up to us. We were working undercover trying to buy some
crack. He asked us if we wanted to purchase some crack. We
told him to use our city cell phone but something spooked him and we
didn’t get anything from this transaction. He also wanted in our
car to speed things up but we didn’t do that.

Michelle had worked Frank sector prior to coming to street response and
knew this crack user and dealer named [X name withheld by editor]. [X]
lives at [address withheld by editor.] She is a white female
between [age withheld by editor] years of age. We don’t always
make contact with [X] when we are working. If we are out on
someone at the Cannon Food Mart and [X] is in the area she will stop
and talk to us. We have watched [X] and her residence for some
time. We suspect [X] of being a coordinator or middleman for
these crack dealings. [X] would walk to the Cannon Food Mart and
use the pay phone and make short phone calls. If [X] was not
successful she would loiter around the pay phone and make another
call. If she was successful she would walk directly back to her
residence. We would watch her and [X] would wait for someone to
roll up for a delivery.

On 6/9/05 I came into work at 2:00 p.m. Did some research on some
addresses and names and checked e-mails. The research that I did
yesterday was on other names of people that have come up about some
guys that got busted at the airport with some meth. Michelle and
I went to eat about 4:00 at the Boiling Pot. We were there about
45 minutes then headed to Henry sector to check the address from a
vehicle that had run from us last night. The vehicle had left
[X’s residence.] We tried to stop this vehicle to detain and
identify the occupant. It was a [description withheld by editor.]

We checked some houses over off of Honeybee Bend. One of the
occupants who had involvement in the [vehicle described above] that ran
from us the night before came back to [address withheld by editor]
Honeybee. We got some citizen complaints of drug
dealing. Lots of drug dealing activity, cars coming and
going. We drove past this area looking for the car and didn’t see
it.

Michelle and I drove to the south sub and dropped off our cool car and
picked up the army green/grayish unmarked police unit. We hooked
up with Officer [Y name withheld by editor] about 5:30 p.m.
I don’t remember the exact time. [Y] was driving the black
suburban and we all drove to the William Cannon/Bluff Springs
area. We were in the area trying to see what was going on as far
as suspicious activity.

It was very light out when Michelle and I sat up at [address withheld
by editor] Elm Creek while [Y] had an eye on [X’s] house. He was
atually shufflling from watching the pay phones at Cannon Food Mart and
[X’s] house and the pedestrian traffic in the area. He was
watching to see what looked more promising.

It was very slow so Michelle and I broke off to do regular
patrol. We drove around Frank sector to look for suspicious
activity. We broke loose about an hour before sunset.
During this time I heard another street response unit looking for
F307. They wre following a heroin dealer to a known address at
[address withheld by editor] Echo Lane. We checked by with
them. When they were code 4 we left. We headed back to
William Cannon/Bluff Springs and called [Y].

We sat up at the Sonic, took our vests off and pulled our shirts out
and sat in the picnic area of the Sonic and ordered a burger. We
ate the burger but we were also watching the pay phones. We had
already coordinated with Sgt. Doyle and [Y]. The plan was for
Sgt. Doyle to come to the Sonic and get into the black suburban and
drive [Y] back to [address withheld by editor] Bittercreek. [Y]
was to be in the back of the suburban and keep an eye on [X’s]
house. Sgt. Doyle drove [Y] back to Bittercreek. Sgt. Doyle
walked back to the Sonic when [Y] was on the radio telling us that a
[description withheld by editor] four runner had just driven up
to [address withheld by editor] Bittercreek. This vehicle
was there for a little bit.

Michelle and I got into our vehicle to conduct a traffic stop on the
four runner. It pulled into the car wash on William Cannon and we
went out on a Hispanic male. I was trying to speak Spanish to
this Hispanic male he tried to speak English. We checked him and
he only had a condom in his pocket and he had a previous arrest for
prostitution. We determined he was probably looking for a
prostitute. We cut him loose.

[Y] came up on the air and said that [X] was getting into a
[description withheld by editor] truck witha white male driver.
Michelle and I had briefly gone back to the Sonic but we didn’t want to
be around the Cannon food mart so that [X] would see us. I
dropped Michelle off on the east side of Sonic and she took her vest
off. I then drove around that general area of Sonic.
Michelle was out doing surveillance for about 5 minutes before I picked
her up. I don’t remember who told me [X] had made the call.
I got on the radio and told officers [A & B names withheld by
editor] to come over to our location because we needed another take
down vehicle. I was coordinating the incident. We have had
cars run from us in the past and earlier I had talked to Sgt. Doyle
about doing a stationary take down. I thought it would be safer
to do it in this manner and not get into a pursuit situation.

In the past, maybe in March/April we have ad two vehicles run from
us. A [description withheld by editor] had left [address withheld
by editor] Bittercreek and we tried to get a stop on it and it
fled. The second time the same [description withheld by editor]
was on William Cannon and we tried to stop it again but it fled.
The [description withheld by editor] I told you about also left
[address withheld by editor] and fled from us.

The [description withheld by editor] with [X] and the white male driver
had driven back to [address withheld by editor] Bittercreek after
having been at the Cannon food mart and made a quick phone call. [Y]
has got the eye and says the pedestrian traffic had increased. I
am coordinating the take down. We had coordinated where Michelle
and I are coming from the east and Sgt. Doyle and [A & B] are coming from the west. I was on the radio
making sure everyone knew that we were talking about [X’s] residence
and where we were going to do the takedown. I even came up on the
radio and said that Michelle and I were carrying tasers. I wanted
this to be simultaneous where everyone converged at the same time.

[Y] said that another white male from the front yard of [X’s ] place
had go

tten into the [description withheld by editor] truck and they
drove to the Cannon food mart. Michelle and I had been on Elm
Creek and we hustled back to the Sonic and saw them at the food
mart. I saw the passenger get out of the truck and he went to the
pay phone and made a call. It was a short phone call. I
think he had on a bright yellow shirt but I don’t really
remember. While we were at the Sonic this guy [description
withheld by editor] had come up to Michelle and gave her the name of
this guy who was dealing. The [description withheld by editor]
truck has left the food mart and drove directly back to [X’s]
house. Sgt. Doyle told us the truck was back at [X’s].

[End of Part One]