Monday, November 14, 2005
How dumb can you be.
From the featured article....
HOUSTON -- A Houston-area justice of the peace went on trial Monday for allegedly using her deceased mother's name to apply for a handicap-parking permit, Local 2 reported.
Harris County Judge Betty Brock Bell, 55, applied for the permit in September 2004, officials said. She is charged with tampering with a government document, which is a felony punishable by up to two years in jail. Opening statements in her trial began Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors said Bell is blaming an inexperienced clerk.
"The defendant says, 'Well, they should have told me I couldn't do it. When I went to the tax office and I made this application, I didn't know it was illegal. I didn't know it was illegal to put my dead mother's name there as the applicant,'" the prosecutor told jurors.
(Hmm, I wonder if it's illegal to fill out a form for social security benefits for a dead person...idiot)
The defense said it would show that Bell did not receive enough explanation from the clerk.
"(The clerk said) 'Go ahead and initial this application,' and, of course, it was the application they still had on file for her deceased mom. Thinking that she could still continue to renew it under that application, she goes ahead and initials the application," defense attorney Jeffrey Gelb said.
Gelb said when the application was filed, Bell had a hip problem and drove around relatives who were handicapped.
He also told jurors that a disgruntled employee of Bell's sparked the investigation. The judge barred that statement and would not allow the jury to consider it.
Bell said she would provide a solid, legal reason why she obtained the handicap placard using her dead mother's name, but she declined to answer KPRC's questions about it Monday.
County workers who took the parking permit application last year knew her mother was deceased, so they turned it over to the district attorney's office, according to authorities.
Bell has been on the bench for nearly 20 years. She won re-election to Precinct 7, Place 1 last year. She was the first black woman to be elected as a justice of the peace in Harris County.
HOUSTON -- A Houston-area justice of the peace went on trial Monday for allegedly using her deceased mother's name to apply for a handicap-parking permit, Local 2 reported.
Harris County Judge Betty Brock Bell, 55, applied for the permit in September 2004, officials said. She is charged with tampering with a government document, which is a felony punishable by up to two years in jail. Opening statements in her trial began Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors said Bell is blaming an inexperienced clerk.
"The defendant says, 'Well, they should have told me I couldn't do it. When I went to the tax office and I made this application, I didn't know it was illegal. I didn't know it was illegal to put my dead mother's name there as the applicant,'" the prosecutor told jurors.
(Hmm, I wonder if it's illegal to fill out a form for social security benefits for a dead person...idiot)
The defense said it would show that Bell did not receive enough explanation from the clerk.
"(The clerk said) 'Go ahead and initial this application,' and, of course, it was the application they still had on file for her deceased mom. Thinking that she could still continue to renew it under that application, she goes ahead and initials the application," defense attorney Jeffrey Gelb said.
Gelb said when the application was filed, Bell had a hip problem and drove around relatives who were handicapped.
He also told jurors that a disgruntled employee of Bell's sparked the investigation. The judge barred that statement and would not allow the jury to consider it.
Bell said she would provide a solid, legal reason why she obtained the handicap placard using her dead mother's name, but she declined to answer KPRC's questions about it Monday.
County workers who took the parking permit application last year knew her mother was deceased, so they turned it over to the district attorney's office, according to authorities.
Bell has been on the bench for nearly 20 years. She won re-election to Precinct 7, Place 1 last year. She was the first black woman to be elected as a justice of the peace in Harris County.
# posted by CU @ 4:13 PM 
