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WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 20, 2017
Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 40 • No. 19
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Court upholds Reynolds’ conviction Legislator continues appeal while seeking re-election
Reynolds seeking answers to oil well odors
By Theresa D. McClellan FOR THE FORT BEND STAR
By Theresa D. McClellan FOR THE FORT BEND STAR
When an oil well blew out in Southwest Houston near Texas Parkway and the Fort Bend County Tollway in early December, authorities assured residents all was safe despite the strong smell of hydrogen sulfate gas in the air. Now more than a week after the Dec. 6 blow out, the smell is still strong and a former state investigator who once worked with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) investigating odor complaints is calling foul. “I don’t think we were told the whole truth,” said Dr. Neil Carman, the Clean Air Program
State Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, will continue to appeal a conviction against him for barratry, also known as ambulance chasing, while he runs for a fifth term in the Texas House in District 27. He is also investigating health claims made by state agencies regarding an oil well that blew out earlier this month in his district. He is pictured here giving a legislative update in Missouri City last summer. (Photo by Joe Southern)
Director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club and former TCEQ investigator. “There was some misrepresentation. It only takes a single breath of hydrogen sulfate gas. It
takes very little to cause adverse health effects. We haven’t done a good enough job in Texas,” he said. Carman spoke Friday at the site of the blowout
during a press conference organized by State Rep. Ron Reynolds. Reynolds, the ranking member of
SEE SMELL PAGE 5
Even though he could be facing a year in jail after an appellate court ruled against him, State Rep. Ron Reynolds said he is so confident his conviction for barratry will be overturned by a higher court that he is running again in 2018 for his House District 27 seat. A local district attorney, however, said the Appeals Court decision brings Reynolds “one step closer to justice.” “I feel that the appellate court unanimous decision affirming the correctness of the trial court and jury brings him one step closer to justice,” said Montgomery County prosecutor Joel Daniels, one of the prosecutors in the case. Reynolds was convicted in 2015 of barratry, commonly called ambulance chasing. He was one of eight Houston area lawyers charged in 2013 with the offense and the only one who did not accept a plea. He represented himself in court. In November, a threepanel appellate court
upheld the initial decision by Montgomery County jurors that he worked with a convicted felon to solicit clients for his law firm. Texas law states that attorneys cannot contact clients within a 30-day period of an accident. Robert Valdez had a chiropractic business and Reynolds claimed he thought Valdez was recommending his medical clients. The prosecutors argued that Valdez used fresh police reports immediately following vehicle crashes, contacted the drivers who were not at fault, and gave the names to Reynolds for his personal injury law business in exchange for payment from Reynolds. It is a misdemeanor conviction and does not preclude Reynolds from serving as a state representative, Daniels said. “The evidence showed he was paying an ex-convict named Robert Valdez to send him cases that Valdez had illegally solicited,” Daniels said.
SEE REYNOLDS PAGE 6
Questioning authority: People protesting President Trump
F-Trump woman tells her side of story By Theresa D. McClellan FOR THE FORT BEND STAR
Gale McCray, known as the Old Man With a Sign, made a visit to Missouri City last week to see fellow President Donald Trump detractor Karen Fonseca. (Photo by Joe Southern)
Old Man With a Sign brings message here By Joe Southern JSOUTHERN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
He’s an old hippie. She’s a kindred spirit. Gale McCray, 75, of Fort Worth – better known as the Old Man With a Sign – was recently in Missouri City for a few days to meet Karen Fonseca and see the f--- Trump sticker on her pickup truck. “I wanted, you know, just to meet her,” McCray said. Along the way it gave him an excuse to visit his sons in Waco and San Antonio. “The f--- Trump lady. That’s not my deal. My message is about as far away from that as it can get,” he said, noting that they do share a common desire to have President Donald Trump removed from office. McCray has become an Internet sensation by traveling around the country and standing on street corners with his sign that reads “Trump, that boy don’t act right.” “It’s crazy. How it got
started? – Trump got elected,” he said. McCray is a retired mailman, recreational therapist, and school bus driver. He was unhappy when Trump was elected a year ago and went to see his representative in Congress, but wasn’t satisfied with the response. “I gotta do something,” he said. He thought about it for a while before coming up with the idea. “There’s a little bit of a ham in me so I thought well, just make a sign and make it big. I’m glad I made it big. Makes it real simple, real sturdy,” he said. He started out holding the sign at an intersection about five or six blocks from where he lives in low-income senior housing. “I’ll stand at this intersection … and I’ll do it every once and a while as it hits me, that’s it,” McCray said. Then one day someone
SEE SIGN PAGE 10
During a meal at a local Chinese restaurant, a silver-haired man paying for a carryout meal spotted Karen Fonseca across the room and asks, “is that your truck?” Parked a couple spots down from the front door of the Rice and Roll restaurant in Stafford was Fonseca’s infamous white GMC Sierra with the stickers on the back window dismissing President Donald Trump and Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls. Fonseca, seated with her 19-year-old daughter and a reporter, nodded, and smiled. The man gives a wide grin and gave a thumbs-up gesture. “I like it,” he said and walked out grinning. It’s a scene repeated daily, Fonseca said, but even more so once her message went viral after the sheriff posted a picture Nov. 15 of the truck on Facebook stating he’d received multiple complaints and wanted to talk with her. Nehls stated at the time that her message of “F--- Trump and f--- you for voting for him” was inciteful and could “breach the peace” if someone took it personally. He said he could charge her with disorderly conduct and the following day she was arrested while leaving the Rice and Roll restaurant with a bowl of soup. The arrest sparked a flurry of outrage over freedom of speech. Nehls said once he learned her identity he removed the post from his Facebook page. He also learned she had a felony warrant for an alleged fraud from a 2014 incident. She was arrested on that charge. The arrest created a flurry of protest from those who said the sheriff targeted Fonseca because he did not like the message and violated her First Amendment right to free speech. Fonseca was surprised because she had the sign on the truck for nearly a year. Last year on Dec. 23 she went to Austin and got married. Her husband Mike had a small sticker on his truck with the
Karen Fonseca poses with some of her merchandise in back of her pickup truck with the anti-Trump message on it. (Photo by Theresa D. McClellan)
same message and the truck was stolen. It took two months to get another truck and her husband said he wanted a bigger sign. By now Trump was in office and Fonseca said she was growing weary of the new president. “I know f--- Trump is a bold statement to say how you feel. You can say, ‘we don’t like Trump or impeach Trump.’ Everyone says that. But when you’re mad you say ‘f--- Trump and f--- you for messing up our world,” Fonseca said. The mother of 12 dismisses the concerns from some who are upset when they see the truck on the road and have to explain the obscenity to their
children. “I understand, but they can hear this in their music,” she said. “And what about the president and what he is doing?” “I don’t like the border wall separating families, and he has the audacity to say Mexico will pay for it,” she said. “The few who do make it over here are not causing the high crime; they are trying to raise a family. And crime, it’s in every nationality. But he’s all about separating. We are one. I’d say to Trump, ‘why don’t you try to help them and not separate them.’” News of her arrest landed in newspapers across the country and abroad. Now she is selling merchandise
including bumper stickers, hoodies, and sweatshirts online and in person when she travels across the state meeting folks who engaged her on Facebook. The first Go Fund Me page was created by one of her daughters following the arrest. She was released on bond and the case is expected to go to court in January. She said it involves a dispute between Fonseca and a former family friend she stayed with during her divorce from her husband of 22 years. Now, Fonseca is traveling across the state with her message. People want to get
SEE FONSECA PAGE 3