Texas D.A.'s Anti-Drug Rants Hid Struggle

[RedEarth]

PAMPA, Texas - Rick Roach got elected district attorney in West Texas on a vow to rid the streets of drug dealers and users, and he went after them mercilessly.



"Drugs, drug usage, drug trafficking has become a scourge in our society," Roach thundered during closing arguments at a drug trial that sent a 30-year-old man to prison for 60 years in 2001.


Few guessed, until recently at least, the hypocrisy behind it all: Roach himself did drugs.


Roach, 55, was arrested inside a courtroom Jan. 11 and charged with possessing methamphetamine and cocaine. In February, he took a plea bargain on one charge — possession of a gun by a drug addict. He could get up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in mid-April.


Roach told The New York Times that he had suffered from depression from age 13, and that he used illegal drugs to medicate himself.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=720&e=10&u=/ap/20050314/ap_on_re_us/district_attorney_drugs

[Blue_Tires]

1. time like this i wish

i did choose 'nothingshocksmeanymore' as a name...it's so apt.

[sasquatch]

2. He's gonna get shived in the big house

And I sort of find that amusing too.

[William Bloode]

7. Not exactly sure of how it works in Texas...

But in my state i do know they put former law enforcment and court personel in protective custody. So if thats the case he is protected. I prefer he would have to make it in gen pop, but the good side is he would be for all intents and purposes in solitatry confinement which is no picnic i can tell you that.

[whistle]

3. Uhmm, a Texas Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, but with no integrity

[Hobarticus]

4. Boo-freakin-hoo. Buh-bye.

No sympathy here, and typically I'm a bleeding heart for substance abusers.

[Tempest]

5. Hard to have sympathy for such a blatant hypocrite

Let's hope he gets some of his own medicine.

[sasquatch]

6. It'll be suppository as well

:evilgrin:

[Tempest]

8. Except it won't be lubricated

He'll have to bring his own.

[gratuitous]

9. Hmm, 60 years for the guy he prosecuted in 2001

But he's only facing a 10 year stretch himself. In Texas, this is called "justice."

Claims he's been suffering from depression since he was 13, but apparently being a DA, he doesn't have any insurance or the financial wherewithal to go see a doctor about it, huh? So he "self medicates." I wonder what Prosecutor Roach would have had to say about Defendant Roach using that excuse for his drug use?

[rainbow4321]

10. Wanna bet he gets probation??

I had read a while back that the meth charge would not be included...funny how Texas and other states are trying to crack down on meth production and labs <to a point where they limit purchases of some over the counter medications> yet this guy's meth charges quietly slip away in a plea bargain?
They'll probably have entire Panhandle reouke population in court show up to say what a swell guy he is and, poof...there goes any jail time.

[hatrack]

11. Yes, it was a cry for help

Isn't it always for the GOP hypocrites?

[daleo]

12. It doesn't say what party he was with.

"David Holmes, a prosecutor under Roach between 2001 and 2003, said Roach at times was friendly and talked about his Christianity; he even sang a few times in a gospel band. But more often, Roach was demeaning, controlling and paranoid, he said."

You can add religious hypocrisy to the rest, though.

[NorthernSpy]

13. yes, the Roachman is indeed a Republican...

So sayeth the New York Times:

No one prosecuted the war on drugs in the Texas Panhandle more zealously than Richard James Roach. As the blustery and hot-tempered Republican district attorney for five counties overrun with methamphetamines, he had eked out an election victory in 2000 vowing a crackdown (...)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60711FC395E0C768DDDAB0894DD404482

According to the Denton Record, Roach has priors: drunk driving and theft. His wife began divorce proceedings twice because she was afraid of his temper. He admitting doing illegal amphetamines while in the military.

And here's a nice example of his handiwork as a prosecutor:

Some, like brick mason Harley Knutson, are struggling to make sense of it all. He considers Mr. Roach a friend, but can't forget that the DA turned a deaf ear to Mr. Knutson's plea for help for his drug-addicted son.

Mike Knutson, a former Pampa firefighter, pleaded guilty last year to methamphetamine possession and was given a deferred sentence. Harley Knutson – and Mike Knutson's lawyer – urged Mr. Roach to find some place, any place, even jail, to put him until a bed opened in a state-sponsored rehab center.

"Mike had said he couldn't stay off drugs," Harley Knutson said. "Rick Roach said that's Mike's problem. He's got to stay clean until a bed comes open."

He couldn't. He ended up failing a court-mandated drug test. And he was ordered to serve a 10-year sentence in a Texas prison.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/021305dntexrickroach.75d5b.html


Basically, he knowingly set that guy up to fail -- and then slammed him when the inevitable happened. Rick Roach gives 'despicable' a whole new meaning. If anyone ever deserved to go cold turkey in the federal pen, it's him, surely!

NO sympathy for this POS from me!


(edit: fixed typo)

[rainbow4321]

14. "Special Prosecutor" assigned to his case

Panhandle DA sworn in to replace one facing federal prison time

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D88R0I781.html

Switzer, 47, has said she will appoint a special prosecutor to look into state charges against Roach.

Roach, who ran on a tough-on-drugs campaign in 2000, was 11 days into his second term when he was arrested Jan. 11 at the Gray County Courthouse in Pampa. Federal agents found two guns in his briefcase.

He was charged on four federal counts that accused him of possessing methamphetamine and cocaine and the unlawful possession of a firearm by a drug addict.

Roach resigned Feb. 8, the same day he pleaded guilty in federal court to the firearm charge. Three drug charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement.