The First Skirmish - SOAH June 10, 2015

For years I have struggled to find out how I could beat the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and their partners in crime, the Texas Attorney General's Office. I state that the Texas Attorney General's Office is a "partner in crime" because they do the dirty work for DFPS, which in this case, is Adrienne Driggers. The Texas Attorney General's Office advertises on their website that they have three duties and responsibilities: One is to approve public bond issues which had no bearing in this case. The other two duties and responsibilities created conflict within itself as they advertise that they have a duty defend the laws and the Constitution of the State of Texas and to represent the State in litigation. They chose the latter as I fully expected.

Going into the hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings(SOAH) I felt that we were at a disadvantage as we were going before a State appointed judge who would very likely feel as if DFPS employees and the attorneys working for the Texas Attorney General's Office, as fellow State of Texas employees, would be honorable and truthful but that wasn't all. We were also at a disadvantage as the office for the SOAH judge is next door to the local DFPS office! As I have mentioned throughout this blog, conflicts of interest within the State of Texas government make it almost impossible for Texas citizens like ourselves to obtain fairness in fighting for our Constitutional rights.

We needed every edge we could get. We needed to convince the presiding judge that these people that we were fighting against were anything but honorable and truthful. We needed for the presiding judge to see these people for what they really were. Having obtained experience against them, I knew exactly what actions that were going to take long before they did them. With strategy and planning and with a secret weapon we were able to expose them to the judge in such a way that it created doubt as to the honor and truthfulness of our adversaries before the hearing even took place.

Our secret weapon? God. We placed our fate in the Lord's hands. We felt that we still had to plan and strategize but we would need a little divine intervention. We were initially going to have the hearing before June 10th but miraculously my wife was stricken with an emergency health situation that caused us to have a continuance. What this incident did was expose how little the State cared about the fairness of facing someone who was in serious pain. The amazing thing about this is that I had told my wife prior to her health problem that we wouldn't be having the hearing as "something" was going to happen to cause a delay. Sure enough it happened. The Attorney General's Office helped us, as I fully expected them to by reacting not only in an uncaring way but wanting even more to face someone experiencing excruciating pain.

It was shortly after that I discovered that we were entitled to receive all of the documentation and a list of the witnesses that the State was going to present. I knew that the Attorney General's Office and DFPS were not going to cooperate by providing us with this information. Though I knew that they were not going to cooperate I asked the Attorney General's Office repeatedly for this information but they completely disregarded me, as I fully expected them to. What I did though was notify the presiding judge about my attempts and their failure to cooperate.

I knew that without our having an attorney they were going to look upon us as insignificant. People beneath them that were not worthy of their cooperation. At 4:30 in the afternoon the day before we were to have the hearing(June 10) we received a FedEx package that contained the documentation that we had been asking for! Anyone who has ever used FedEx will know that when you send a package to someone you know exactly when that person is going to receive it. Our receiving the package so late in the day was planned. They were going to claim that they did indeed deliver the requested documents to us but not give us the time to read the material!

What the Attorney General's Office did not count on was that I had been in contact with the presiding judge regarding their failure to provide the documentation. Plain and simple, I used their arrogance against them as the first thing the presiding judge asked was if the State had provided us with the documentation that I had been requesting. When I informed her that we did receive them at 4:30 in the afternoon the day before she looked incensed. She glared at Rosa Pfeifer, the attorney representing Adrienne Driggers!

Ms. Pfeifer fought desperately for the hearing to be held even though we were not given the opportunity to read the documentation that had been withheld from us. She lied repeatedly to the judge by stating that we had admitted to having the received the documentation but was thwarted each time by myself. When that failed Ms. Pfeiffer argued that we had plenty of time to prepare for the hearing by asking for the documentation long in advance. That failed as well as the judge was well aware that we had tried in vain to obtain the documents from them. Ms. Pfeifer went as far as to blame her fellow attorney, Patricia Fernandez, for her poor record keeping! The presiding judge ordered the rescheduling of the hearing to September 9, 2015.

We won the skirmish by planting the seed of doubt into the presiding judge's mind as to the integrity of our adversaries. The judge stated to me that she doubted our truthfulness of not having received the documents as she "had never known the Department (DFPS) to do something like this". I smiled at her and stated "There is a lot that you don't know about how these people operate (while I pointed at Adrienne Driggers)".  It was on. She looked at me with a puzzled look as if she wanted to ask me what I meant. She would find out. She would find out in a big way!

One thing to note is that we discovered that the Attorney General's Office was planning on using as their star witness the employee whose error caused the entire situation. I am certain that you too realize not only how suspicious it was for the Department and the Attorney General's Office was to use this person but I am sure that you also realize the extent that the State was out to convict and punish an innocent person. It is our belief that this person was very likely offered a deal for her testimony against my wife. The element of surprise was gone and the State was going to pay dearly.