Spring Girl A Baby Grace Match

While investigators struggle to learn the identity of the girl they’ve named Baby Grace, one grandmother in Ohio is praying the tip she gave them doesn’t solve the mystery.

Galveston County Sheriff’s Office investigators are taking DNA samples from an Ohio father, Robert Sawyers, to see whether it matches the remains of a little girl found Oct. 29 in a plastic tub on a small island in Galveston Bay, spokesman Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo said.

Test results take two to three weeks.

He said the Sawyers case is one of several investigators are focusing on, but said he didn’t want to highlight one lead over another.

Sheryl Sawyers last saw her granddaughter, 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers, May 25.

Sex Offender Mayor Barred from City Hall

The mayor pleaded guilty to indecent conduct toward two girls and is barred from going to City Hall because it is near a youth center. But he still doesn't plan to resign.

Mayor Lino Donato entered the pleas Oct. 31 to three counts of indecency, cutting short a trial on accusations that he exposed himself to two girls between 1996 and 2000 and improperly touched one of them.

He planned to resign at a meeting a week later, but he changed his mind, saying he wasn't guilty.

As a registered sex offender, Donato is required to stay more than 1,000 feet from places where children congregate, and the Atascosa Boxing Club and Youth Center is less than that distance from City Hall, City Attorney Frank Garza said. Probation officers checked the distance with a tape measure, officials said.

The mayor did not attend Tuesday's council meeting, saying it was the first meeting he's missed in five years. But Donato reiterated Wednesday that he wouldn't resign.

His term doesn't expire until May 2009. He can't be forced from office because he received "deferred adjudication" of his case, which technically isn't a conviction. There's also no rule in Poteet requiring a mayor to attend meetings, Garza said.

Poteet, population around 3,500, is about 30 miles south of San Antonio in South Texas.

Fake Cop Forced Teen To Undress

A fake cop pulled a gun and forced a teenage girl, in Kingwood, to take off her clothes. The assault happened in a kingwood park.

Children are taught that Police are the ones to trust-

"He said I'm with HPD and you don't have to worry,” the teen told 11 News.

Just one problem.

11 News: Did he look like HPD?

Victim: “Not really."

The 15 year old was alone in Elmgrove Park about 8:30 p.m. Sunday.

She had been dropped off by some friends, when the man approached her.

"He had a black cap on and it had like a badge on it,” said the victim, whose identity 11 News agreed to protect.

The “officer” asked if she'd seen two boys on bikes.

"I pulled out my phone to call someone and the second that I pulled out the phone to call someone. He pulled out this gun,” said the victim.

The man then led her to a wooded area, forced her to take off her shirt and pants, and fondled her.

When the victim started to make noise he told her to just go home.

"I was scared and I just I don't know,” the teen girl said.

“She came in just running up the stairs and she seemed to be having an anxiety attack,” he mother said. “(She said), ‘Mom this man he came and he had a gun.’”

Her mother called police. But what frightens her most is she thinks others have been victims.

And it is not the only one reported assault in the Kingwood area.

In July of 2006, two teenagers were approached in very similar fashion by a man claiming to be HPD. His description is also very similar to the one given in the latest attack.

Police say the suspect is a white male in is 30s. He is 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10 and about 160 pounds.

He was wearing a red windbreaker type jacket and tan shorts, along with the black police-style baseball cap.

Investigators also think that there could be more victims. They are also concerned that the suspect used a gun in this latest attack.

Former Councilman Sentenced Today

Former New Orleans City Councilman was sentenced to 37 months in prison today. The judge scoffed, at the ex-councilman, for his actions:

"By all accounts, you could have been the next mayor," the judge told him.

For all his work, he was rewarded by constituents' votes and the power of office, Vance said.
But at a "critical time," Vance said, Thomas "sold out" and took a bribe.

"The defendant has not been truthful or fully cooperative," Judge Sarah Vance said in sentencing the former city councilman, who pleaded guilty to bribery and has refused to provide prosecutors with information on other public corruption. "Mr. Thomas, your actions are a tragic disappointment to this entire community."

Thomas earlier pleaded guilty to taking about $15,000 in exchange for helping to rig a French Quarter parking contract for Stan "Pampy" Barre, who told the government about the deal as part of his own plea agreement. Barre pleaded guilty to skimming money from a City Hall energy contract.

Oliver Thomas Decides Not To Do A "Pampy"

Former Councilman Oliver Thomas has decided that he will not follow Stan "Pampy" Barre's example by becoming a rat.

The prosecution's motion, filed under seal Thursday, makes it plain that federal authorities believe Thomas has knowledge of other crimes but is refusing to divulge it. It says that Thomas met once with FBI agents and federal prosecutors in early September and had a discussion that "covered several areas of interest to the United States of which Mr. Thomas was believed to have knowledge."

A week later, Thomas and his lawyer, Clarence Roby, met with authorities again, but this time "indicated he did not wish to be a 'rat' and that very close family members did not want him to be a 'rat' and therefore he would not relate any knowledge about other criminal activity to us."

What will be the punishment for not taking a bite out of the cheese?

Oh Really!!! - What Does Mississippi Have?

New Orleans can't host a debate but Mississippi can!!! What is the real reason for this decision?

New Orleans lost out in the competition to host one of the 2008 presidential debates Monday after the commission that selects the sites decided that the city has not sufficiently recovered from Hurricane Katrina to handle such a major event.

Backers of the New Orleans debate, who had won the support of seven presidential candidates and three of the nation's leading newspapers, reacted with indignation and disputed the debate commission's assertion that New Orleans has not recovered its touch for staging national events.

"Politics trumped the moral decision," said Anne Milling, founder of Women of the Storm, one of the sponsors of the proposed debate.

"They missed an opportunity to help America," said Norman Francis, president of Xavier University, which joined forces with Dillard, Loyola and Tulane to host the debate. In passing on New Orleans' bid, the commission skipped an opportunity to award a debate to a historically black college for the first time.

One of the cities selected, Oxford, Miss., which will host the first presidential debate on Sept. 26, won even though it lacked the hotel rooms required by the debate commission, Milling said. The University of Mississippi is the host of the Oxford debate.

TSU Outlines Broad Reforms

Texas Southern University is proposing top-to-bottom changes to ease the concerns of state lawmakers, including greater oversight from regents, tighter controls over spending and the involvement of outsiders in academic and financial matters.

The sweeping set of reforms comes after nearly two years of turmoil at the state's largest historically black university and could lead to an infusion of money from the state.

While the additional funding is an immediate and critical need, campus leaders characterized the proposed strategy as the best chance for improving a school with myriad of problems, including declining enrollment and low graduation rates.

The long-range plan calls for new policies that would require the governing board to be more involved than before, especially in money matters. At the same time, it says the regents' first priority should be to hire a permanent president.

The 167-page blueprint draws from ideas already proposed by Gov. Rick Perry's TSU advisory committee, which offered a stinging assessment of the chronically troubled university in March. In following the committee's report, the new plan suggests a renewed focus on undergraduate education while making no mention of earlier research ambitions.

Oliver Thomas to be Sentenced Wednesday

Ollie could not deliver others in handcuffs:

Less than four months after he shocked New Orleanians by pleading guilty to accepting bribes while in office, former City Councilman Oliver Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced this week.

Observers called the quick sentencing a clear sign that Thomas, who resigned his at-large council seat after his plea in federal court, has given investigators little or no information to aid other public corruption probes.

The sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m., four days after city voters elected former City Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson to replace Thomas and serve the two-plus years remaining in the term.

Thomas will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance, who, if history is a guide, may have stern words for him. When the councilman entered his plea in August, Vance called his actions "a body blow to a community that is already reeling under a wave of public corruption," adding: "If this city is ever to recover, we have to have an end to this type of venality."

Though he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, Thomas is likely to receive far less for various reasons, including his previously clean record, his admission of guilt and the relatively small amount of money, about $20,000, that he confessed to taking.

Federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence in the range of 30 to 37 months based on the offenses Thomas admitted, according to Tulane law professor and former federal prosecutor Tania Tetlow. Federal judges are no longer required to follow sentencing guidelines.

However, it appears unlikely he will receive extra leniency in exchange for providing what federal law calls "substantial assistance" in the investigation or prosecution of another person, according to courthouse observers. Were that the case, prosecutors would have almost certainly asked Vance to delay Thomas' sentencing.

"When someone is cooperating, you usually see one or two motions to continue," said Loyola Law School professor Dane Ciolino. "The purpose is to make sure he cooperates as expected, and that he testifies as expected."

"The government has a policy of waiting (to sentence a convict) until after he has testified," agreed lawyer Julian Murray, a former federal prosecutor. "It doesn't mean he hasn't given them some information that was helpful, but it's unlikely he'll testify in another case."

Not only does a delay ensure prosecutors the testimony they seek, it gives them time to complete the paperwork to request a downward departure, often known as a cooperation letter, or a 5K1 after the section of the federal sentencing code that describes it.

That Thomas' sentencing appears to be on schedule is a "pretty good suggestion that he is not cooperating -- or at least has not been able to deliver any additional wrongdoers to the government," Ciolino said.

In contrast, Ciolino noted, convicted restaurateur and political operative Stan "Pampy" Barre, -- who helped provide the government with the evidence it needed to prosecute Thomas -- still awaits sentencing.

Barre pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to skim more than $1 million from a large City Hall energy contract awarded by former Mayor Marc Morial. His sentencing, now set for January, has been delayed numerous times.

Thomas' lawyer, Clarence Roby, said he couldn't discuss the details of Thomas' conversations with investigators. But he hinted that his client hadn't provided the government much information, and he said he doesn't expect any delay in the sentencing.

"He's cooperated the best he could," Roby said of Thomas. "But unlike Stan Barre and others, he didn't necessarily walk in saying, 'Let me tell you about every corrupt act I've ever witnessed.' He's in an unenviable position. But he's taken responsibility for his misdeeds."

It appears that Ollie was not privy to any other misdeeds. If he did have other info, I am pretty sure he would have provided it.

Feds Looking Into Morial's Records

What could it be Marc? Did Slimy Mac-P (aka Stan "Pampy" Barre) steer the feds your way?

For his part, Morial's lawyer Pat Fanning said he "cannot imagine" why prosecutors would be subpoenaing legal records. He characterized the latest subpoena, which he said he was not aware of until receiving a call from a reporter, as another "bewildering" turn in a senseless investigation.

"I cannot imagine why they would be subpoenaing Adams and Reese's records," he said. "I can't imagine they would think those lawyers over there are going to participate in a deal to help Marc get some illegal money. That's a big business over there.

"My read on all this is that somebody either at the FBI or the IRS got a bug up their ass and said, 'Let's send a subpoena over there.' I never have been able to figure out what they're investigating about Marc. I guess it's just the government being the government."

Could that "bug up their ass", that Pat Fanning is eluding to, be Stan "Pampy" Barre quivering at the prospects of spending his golden years in prison? I guess we just have to wait and see.