Woodlands RUD voter fraud conviction overturned on appeal
From Conroe Courier By Brandon K. Scott | Posted: Monday, June 8, 2015 9:35 pm
Woodlands RUD voter fraud conviction overturned on appeal
James Alan Jenkins, far left, watches his attorney Audley Heath, of Houston, make a summation during the illegal voting trial June 28, 2013.
The Texas 14th Court of Appeals overturned the voter fraud conviction of James Alan Jenkins and remanded the case for retrial.
The case began when Jenkins and a group of residents, after reportedly consulting with state officials, moved into The Residence Inn in The Woodlands and changed their voting addresses to that location in order to vote in The Woodlands Road Utility District election in an effort to gain control of the board. The RUD is an entity empowered by Texas law to levy taxes and spend the revenue on road improvements in The Woodlands.
The RUD was created by state legislation in 1991. It is funded through taxes from commercial businesses within the district at a rate of 36 cents per $100 property valuation.
Since its inception, the RUD has funded more than $80 million in projects in The Woodlands and leveraged another $200 million.
The 10 voters’ goal was to elect three RUD board members who eventually would dissolve the district.
Instead, a handful of the voters who changed their voting addresses were prosecuted for voter fraud. Jenkins was convicted by a jury and sentenced to three years in prison. Adrian Heath, Sybil Doyle and Roberta Cook also were sentenced and are challenging their convictions as well.
Three other defendants — William Berntsen, Thomas Curry and Peter Goeddertz — were given probation in exchange for guilty pleas and cooperation.
According to the appeals court, visiting Judge John Stevens, of Jefferson County, failed by refusing to instruct the jury on the “defense of mistake of law,” meaning the judge refused to relay to the jury that Jenkins had consulted with the state of Texas before carrying out his plan and reasonably understood his actions were legal.
Critics of the RUD have called the system “taxation without representation.”
Since the RUD only taxes commercial property, those who vote for the directors and a potential bond referendum would have to reside in that commercial area.
Jenkins said he believes the law on residency is intentionally vague to allow voting in elections where there is a particular interest.
In 2010, then-voter registrar and Elections Administrator Carol Gaultney issued a cerJtification letter listing all 24 eligible voters within the boundaries of The Woodlands RUD No. 1.
The list includes all 10 of those who changed their addresses to the Residence Inn on Six Pines. Twelve of those 24 did not vote in the May 2010 election.
Most of the addresses listed, like the Residence Inn’s, are commercial properties, such as the Montgomery County United Way building at 1600 Lake Front Circle and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company at 10001 Six Pines Drive.
“The voters are just fed up,” Jenkins said. “I expect this to end up in federal court and the election law is going to get looked at.”
Heath told The Courier in February that he is opposed to the way it is structured because it does not conform with the Texas Constitution.
“In Texas, people have the right to revise and reform the government any way that they see fit, provided that it is a republican form of government, meaning voter control,” Heath said. “If a government has no voter involvement, and in fact it’s structured so that there’s no voter presence in the district, they don’t hold elections, and they fly below the radar; it’s chicanery.”
Some of the largest taxpayers in the RUD are Anadarko, The Woodlands Mall and The Woodlands Development Company.
Three board members of the RUD lost the May 8, 2010, election each by a 10-2 vote. However, Gene “Ed” Miller, Bill Neill and Winton Davenport filed suit, alleging the results were obtained by illegal votes.
Visiting Senior District Judge P.K. Reiter ruled the next month there was “clear and convincing” evidence that the 10 Montgomery County residents who voted for the three challengers – Richard McDuffie, Peter Goeddertz and Bill Berntsen – did not reside within the boundaries of the RUD.
After hearing three days of testimony, Reiter declared the voter registration applications and the votes cast by the 10 were “fraudulent.” In addition to McDuffee, Goedderz and Berntsen, Reiter also ruled the votes cast by Jenkins, Heath, Cook, Curry, Doyle and Benjamin and Robert Allison “are not to be counted for any candidate.”
Prior to the election, the 10 individuals changed their voter registration address to 9333 Six Pines Drive in The Woodlands, the location of the Residence Inn hotel. Eight of the 10 — excluding Cook and Doyle — subsequently testified it was their intent to establish the hotel as their residence and take control of the RUD board.
Jenkins faced trial two years ago in Montgomery County, prosecuted by then Texas Attorney General’s chief state prosecutor David Glickler, who is now a judge in Hayes County and was charged with his second DWI last month.
Gov. Greg Abbott was the state attorney general at the time.
