UNMASKING OF A DA

PAMPA — The FBI's public unmasking of a drug-ruined district attorney earlier this year turned a mirror on this part of the Panhandle.

FBI agents descended upon Richard James Roach Jan. 11 in a Gray County courtroom. They opened his briefcase to find two firearms and a small quantity of methamphetamine. They found more than two dozen guns, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, a variety of pills and child and adult pornography at Roach's office and home.

Roach, 54, pleaded guilty to one charge of owning a firearm while using illegal drugs. He awaits sentencing in the coming weeks under house arrest at the home of his stepfather, Weldon Trice, a respected former high school football coach in Canyon, just south of Amarillo.

Those in this jurisdiction of five Panhandle counties who labored for him in fear and incomprehension are certain Roach's arrest prevented an even bigger tragedy. Those he left behind to clean up his mess, including a wife he drained of everything but indifference, believe Rick Roach is yesterday's news. Except that he isn't, because methamphetamine is an ongoing front-page story here.

-much more-

http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/03/6roach.html

The people in prosecutor's offices are just as flawed, confused and screwy as everyone else.

I live in a county seat, just across the street from the prosecutor's office. Because of that, I guess I am a bit more attuned to things regarding that office. I have seen terrible, terrible judgment from them on a number of occasions. Especially in sex crime cases. They have lost some very significant cases, and rightly so, when they rushed to judgment in the office but it didn't hold up in court. No, they defendants did not get off on "technicalities", they got off because there really was either no case or a case so flimsy and so made up from whole cloth that no semi-reasonable person could or would have bought it. In the bargain, some lives were destroyed, including one defendant that moved away and changed his name.

That should never, ever happen.

Now, they are prosecuting a "child pornography" case that I know something about. I know details about this case. They are utterly screwing this case up. They have utterly blown the chain of evidence. The accusers are completely non-credible. I could decimate their case, on the basis of computer technology and net technology, except I am not expert-qualified. That isn't even the worst of it, however. It is very complex, and the whole thing seems to hinge on getting the defendant to cop a plea. Something he thankfully refuses to do. It is a travesty.

The lead investigator is a zealous woman who has shown very flawed judgment in the past and is known, in the legal community, for her strong and tainted agenda. My opinion is that there are issues in her past that colors her objectivity.

The defendant has a public defender. I fear he hasn't a chance.

This hypocrite should expect no mercy. He's one of those do as I say, not as I do type of prosecutors. They think they're above the law. He's going to get what he did to this boy Kerry. - They will make an example out of him.


(snip)
The candidate(Roach) with a public history of drug use recast himself as a crusader against drugs, in particular methamphetamine. He used his and his wife's family ties to the community, dissatisfaction with Mann and a promise of stiff sentences for drug dealers to eke out a three-vote victory.
(/snip)

(snip)
"I'm going to make an example of him.' He (Roach) made that statement to the papers about Kerry," Weatherbee, who is trying to get a new trial for her son, said. "He asked that the jury give him 99 years, and they gave him 60."
(/snip)

Sonia