Determined voter wins battle for respect

Braving the chill and

drizzle, a nearly 80-yearold woman in a wheelchair rolls into the Texas
Department of Public
Safety building on U.S.
290 on a recent morning,
her stiff upper lip softened
only by the presence of an
oxygen tube.
Shes got her favorite
cartoon character, the
resilient Tigger, on her
sweatshirt, two daughters by her side, and a
fat brown envelope that
should settle things, once
and for all.
They say the third time
is the charm. For Laura
Troth, it better be.
She doesnt know how

many more times she can

get her daughters to wheel
her into the DPS office so
she can get a state identication card that would
allow her to comply with
the newly implemented
voter ID law.
Both times she tried,
she was told there was
something else, another
document, another piece
of proof she needed to
convince the clerks that
shes the woman pictured
in her expired Texas

LISA FALKENBERG

Commentary

drivers license.
I just dont understand
why theyre trying to keep
me from voting, says
Troth, a former licensed
vocational nurse who
considers herself an independent. To me, theyre
taking my rights away.
The feisty mother of
seven grandmother
and great-grandmother
to many more doesnt
take kindly to such things.
Her ordeal started last
year, when Troth says she
was turned away from her
voting precinct because
she had only her voter
registration card, not a
photo ID.
Determined to vote,
Troth says she had a
friend of the family drive
her to the DPS office that
Falkenberg continues on B3

Mayra Beltrn / Houston Chronicle

Laura Troth has faced several bureaucratic obstacles while trying to get a state ID
card that would allow her to vote. To me, theyre taking my rights away, she says.

Inside

Free speech? Dismissed re

captain defends post of
Obama image as satire. B3
Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Wednesday, February 12, 2014 | Section B

CRIME

Rape
kit tests
begin
to yield
results

xxx

Houston Chronicle

@HoustonChron

Brutal killing of teenage girl

tied to suspects satanic ritual

By James Pinkerton
No false arrests by Houston
police have been uncovered
during an ongoing $4.4 million
testing of thousands of old rape
kits, but new suspects have been
developed with DNA, leading
to an undisclosed number of
arrests, police commanders told
City Council members Tuesday.
Houston Police Department
Assistant Chief Matt Slinkard
told the councils Public Safety
Committee that 280 hits from
DNA proles resulted from the
6,170 cases returned so far to
HPD from private labs.
Last year, two labs began
processing nearly 10,000 cases
for usable evidence, including
6,600 untested sexual assault
kits, the oldest stretching back
to 1987, that were stored in the
HPD property room.
DNA testing at HPDs crime
lab was suspended in 2002 after
an independent audit revealed
shoddy forensic work including
unqualied personnel, lax protocols and inadequate facilities
that included a roof that leaked
rainwater onto evidence.
Slinkard and Capt. Jennifer Evans said that so far, the
DNA testing has not found any
instances of HPD mistakenly
arresting someone.
There are zero indications of
false arrests at this time, said
Evans, who heads HPDs Special
Crimes Division.
Evans would not say how
many hits were conrmations
of people previously arrested
by HPD, or how many led to the
identication and arrest of a new
suspect.
A nationwide database,

Tests continues on B3

Marie D. De Jess / Houston Chronicle

Corriann Cervantes was found dead in a vacant unit at The Bays Apartments in Clear Lake with an upside down cross on her stomach.

Clear Lake student was beaten,

mutilated in bewildering attack
by two friends, prosecutors say
By Brian Rogers
The crime was as baffling as
it was horrifying and bizarre:
two teenage boys allegedly
killed a 15-year-old-girl whom
they had known since middle
school in what prosecutors
described as a satanic ritual.
Corriann Cervantes partially clothed, mutilated body
was found in an abandoned
apartment Saturday in Clear
Lake. An upside down cross
had been carved into the girls

stomach.
Authorities arrested Jose
E. Reyes, 17, on Sunday, and a
16-year-old boy, whose name
is not being released because
he is a juvenile, on Monday,
and charged both with capital
murder in the Feb. 5 slaying.
All three teens were students
at the Clear Lake High School
Alternative School.
They were all very good
friends, and I dont understand why they would do
that to her, said a 16-year-old

Jose E. Reyes, 17, left, and a

juvenile are accused of killing
Corriann Cervantes, 15, right.

friend who met the three while

all were enrolled at Clear Lake
Intermediate School. The girl
said she had drifted away from
the group after they started experimenting with marijuana.
They used to be the sweetest people you could ever
meet, the girl said of the sus-

pects. She described Cervantes

as an outspoken girl with a big
heart.
Assistant Harris County
District Attorney John Jordan
disclosed details of the occult
killing Tuesday but provided
no explanation for what may
have motivated the two boys
or where their interest in devil
worship had come from.
They discussed the fact
that Mr. Reyes had sold his
soul to the devil, said Jordan.
And if they ended up killing
this teenager, it would allow
the 16-year-old to also sell his
soul to the devil.
Jordan said investigators
believe the two boys decided

Victims continues on B8

CAMPAIGN 2014

Patrick known as a showman

with a penchant for reinvention
By Patricia Kilday Hart

Houston Chronicle le

State Sen. Dan Patrick, a candidate for lieutenant governor,

debated his three opponents in Houston late last year.

Created on Adobe Document Server 2.0

When Houston radio talk

show host Dan Patrick was
sworn in as a state senator in
2007, he did not park his broadcasting skills at the Capitols
massive oak doors. Within a few
weeks, he held a press conference decrying runaway government spending with a prop no
television camera could resist: $1
million in $20 bills.
In 2011, he arranged for a live

Editors note

This is the rst of four proles

on Republication candidates for
Texas lieutenant governor.

sonogram at the Capitol to promote his bill requiring women to

undergo the procedure before an
abortion.
The theatrics continued last
spring, when he provoked a
member of the state Board of Education to debate a controversial
public school curriculum. In re-

cent weeks, he has demanded a

debate with San Antonio Mayor
Julian Castro on immigration,
taunting Castro on Twitter with
a picture of a eeing chicken.
Born Dannie Scott Goeb to a
Baltimore newspaper vendor,
Patrick has re-invented himself
several times with a new name,
new jobs, even bankruptcy.
Every phase, however, is knit
together with one consistent
thread: his talent as a consum-

Patrick continues on B2

xxx

Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Wednesday, February 12, 2014 |

B3

CITY & STATE | OBITUARIES

LA MARQUE

      

Obama post was free speech,

lawyer for fired official says
By Harvey Rice
GALVESTON A
Facebook post by a La
Marque re captain
showing President
Barack Obama with a
noose around his neck is
constitutionally protected
speech and is not racist, an
attorney for the dismissed
reghter said Tuesday.
Capt. Alfred Decker, 46,
a 20-year veteran of the
La Marque Fire Department, has appealed his
ring to the city manager
as provided for in the city
contract with the reghters union, attorney
Gregory Cagle said.
The image that appeared on Deckers Facebook page was Obamas

Free
speech?

1Online : Is
the red re captains
Facebook post protected
free speech? Like our
Facebook page, then let
us know at chron.com/
redcaptain

face superimposed on
a photo of former Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein being hanged, Cagle
said. The caption read,
The making of a national
holiday.
Its a political satire,
Cagle said. Its First
Amendment speech
whether you like it or
agree with it or not.
La Marque Fire Chief

Gerald Grimm red

Decker Feb. 5 for incompetence, acts showing a lack
of good moral character,
conduct prejudicial to
good order and discourtesy to the public.
The memo said that
in addition to posting
the image on Facebook,
Decker ordered the demolition of a re-damaged
house without allowing
the owner to retrieve his
belongings and took a safe
from the house without
legal authority so that it
could be opened by La
Marque police. The house
had been the focus of a
previous police investigation, the memo said.
The memo did not
mention a Facebook post

Falkenberg: A slight
smile in the photo
Falkenberg from page B1

day to get a Texas ID. She

presented the woman at
the front desk with various forms of identication
her old drivers license,
her Social Security and
Medicare cards but was
told she needed her birth
certicate.
The woman was short
and rude, Troth says:
I was old and she was
disrespectful.
Barely existent fraud
The Texas Legislature,
in its innite wisdom,
decided to protect the
citizens of Texas from
barely existent voter fraud
by requiring everybody
to show photo ID before
voting. An investigation by Texas Attorney
General Greg Abbott into
the epidemic of voter
fraud found little: 26 cases
to prosecute, two-thirds
involving technical
violations, and none that
would have been affected
by voter ID requirements.
After a lengthy court
battle, voter ID is now the
law of the land. And Troth
set out to comply.
She says she contacted
the state of Nebraska to

see about getting a birth

certicate. But before she
could complete the process, she came across the
original document by the
grace of God in January.
Last week, Troth asked
her daughter, Andrea
DeLeon, to take her back
to the DPS office.
Troth says the same
rude woman was at the
front desk and, this time,
the woman told her the
birth certicate wasnt
good enough because the
name on it differed from
her married name.
I told them I didnt get
married out of the womb,
Troth says.
The elderly widow
was instructed to come
back with her marriage
license. And not only
that. Because she lives
with her other daughter,
Alana Troth, that daughter would have to come
in person to verify her
mothers residency.
I was mad as hell,
Troth says. She got on
the phone, calling DPS,
Gov. Rick Perry, and
nally, state Sen. John
Whitmire, D-Houston.
She gave him an earful
about the wrongheadedness of a law that sets up

roadblocks for older folks

to vote. Once the veteran
Democrat explained hed
voted against voter ID, he
encouraged Troth to vote
by mail. No photo ID is
required for that form of
voting. Answer me this,
Troth told me, If you
have to have all this proof
to vote in person, why
can anybody just vote by
mail? I didnt have a good
answer.
Shes got documents
She followed Whitmires advice, begrudgingly. She likes voting in person, likes the experience.
She meets nice people. Its
a reason to go out.
So, she decided to try
one more time for the
state ID. Earlier this week,
I tagged along.
Mid-morning, there is
already an L-shaped line
nearly out the door of people ddling with phones
or staring vacantly. Troth
is able to bypass it because
of her wheelchair.
At the front, Troth begins slapping documents
and cards on counter:
birth certicate, marriage
license, voter registration,
AARP card. She even
brought a subscription

Tests lead to suspects,

some arrests in cases
Tests from page B1

CODIS, determined the

hits.
The database stores the
DNA proles of criminals,
and the results from private labs has allowed HPD
to upload 1,268 proles to
see if they matched known
criminals.
We do have new suspects and we do have a few
arrests, I just dont have
the numbers, Evans said
after the meeting.
Evans said that even in
cases where the outside
labs have not found usable
DNA evidence, HPD is
giving all the old cases a
second look.
I think that through
this effort were going to
do the best we can to nd
justice for our victims,
Evans said. Were going
to try and identify offenders as fast as we can and
take the cases are far as we
can.
Slinkard also conrmed
a few arrests have resulted from the DNA testing
but declined to provide a
breakdown. Slinkard said
he did not know if any of
the hits came from the old
6,600 sexual assault kits,
noting the labs were also
sent thousands of criminal cases involving more
recent sexual assaults and
property crimes that were

awaiting DNA testing in

HPDs crime lab.
Slinkard said HPD has
developed a process to
quickly triage the new hits
as they come in, which he
said are arriving from the
out-of-state labs every day.
HPDs top priority,
Slinkard said, is making
sure a person was not
falsely arrested. A second
priority is determining
if the hit is a person who
was already identied in a
case. Finally, investigators
want to nd out if the hit is
linked to a criminal still on

the streets.
Ray Hunt, president
of the Houston Police Ofcers Union, emphasized
the 280 hits does not mean
HPD is looking for hundreds of predators.
I think theres been
an handful of arrests
already, but its very rare
when you get a hit where
its somebody who is still
on the street, said Hunt,
explaining the criminal is
usually in jail on another
charge.

on Deckers page that

used profanity to describe
Houston Mayor Anise
Parker.
The memo said that the
Facebook post on Obama
showed that Decker
harbored racism and
prejudice toward AfricanAmericans.
There is nothing racial
about it, Cagle said. Its
no different from any political magazine that might
have the president swimming in a tank of sharks or
any political cartoon.
The building inspector,
not Decker, was responsible for the re-damaged
house being torn down,

  

    
    

        
    


   
 
 
    
    
 
   



  
 


 
 
 

 



   

  
 

   



  
 
    

  

    
    

    

  

 

 

  
 

harvey.rice@chron.com
Cagle said.

Readers Digest, still in the

plastic.
This time, the woman
at the counter is patient
and helpful. She assures
Troth that shes got everything she needs.
When her number is
called, Troths daughter
wheels her to the back.
She nishes the paperwork and even manages a
slight smile in the photo.
Moments later, she hands
me her temporary ID.
Theres a look of pride on
her face, but also a hint of
unnished business.
The manager soon joins
Troth and her daughters.
They recount their story,
and the manager apologizes and promises an
investigation.
Troths tale ended well.
But I have to wonder how
many dont. How many
Texans dont have the
moxie or the piss-andvinegar tenacity to keep
coming back? How many
dont have anyone to take
them?
This isnt just me,
Troth says. This is
everybody. Theres other
people, Im sure, other
senior citizens, who are
being denied the right to
go vote or have to vote by
mail. And its not right.

        

  

  
     
  
  
     
      

    


    

 
 
  
    
    
 

 
    

    

  
   
 


 
  
      
  


     

      
    
   

  
   

    

   
  
  
 
   

   



    

  
  
     
   
 

 
   
    

    

 

    
  


 
   

 


 

  


 
  

 
   

 
 
   
   
     

    
     
   
  
 

 
 
 
    
  
    
 
 

  

  
 
 
    



  
 
   
   
   
     

  
 

 
  
  

        

    
 

    
     
     
 
    
      

   
 

    
       
   

      
 


   
 
  

   


  
   

  


   
  
 
  

 







    
 
  



   
  

 

       

  
  
 


 
   
  



  
    
 

        

      
 
  
   
   



         


  
 

 
     

     
     

 
     
    
    

  
  

 
 
    
  
  
 

 

 

   

  
   
     
    

   

    

   
 



 

 


     

      
      

  


   
  
 
  

    



 
 
 
 
     

 
  

   
 

   

 
 

  
  



lisa.falkenberg@chron.com

james.pinkerton@chron.com

       

   
  



 
 
 
  
 


 
   
  



  
    

 
      
    
     
 
    
     
 
    
 
   
 
        


  

  


   
    
 
    
  
 
 
  
 
   
    
    
    
 
  

 
  
 
     
     
    

  
     
   

 
  
  
     


 



 

   
  
   
   

  
 


 

   
 


       
  




     
 
  
 




  

   
  




  

  
  


  
    


 

   
   
      
  
    

    

       

  
      

    

  

    

    
 

   

    
     

     
  

   
    
   
   
   
     
   

  

 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

oter wins battle for respect

Commentary

vers license.
I just dont understand
y theyre trying to keep
from voting, says
oth, a former licensed
ational nurse who
nsiders herself an indendent. To me, theyre
ing my rights away.
The feisty mother of
en grandmother
d great-grandmother
many more doesnt
e kindly to such things.
r ordeal started last
r, when Troth says she
s turned away from her
ing precinct because
had only her voter
istration card, not a
oto ID.
Determined to vote,
oth says she had a
nd of the family drive
to the DPS office that

lkenberg continues on B3

Mayra Beltrn / Houston Chronicle

Laura Troth has faced several bureaucratic obstacles while trying to get a state ID card that
would allow her to vote. To me, theyre taking my rights away, she says.
Mayra Beltrn / Houston Chronicle

Laura Troth has faced several bureaucratic obstacles while trying to get a state ID
card that would allow her to vote. To me, theyre taking my rights away, she says.

Determined voter
wins battle for
respect
Inside

Free speech? Dismissed re

By Lisa Falkenberg

captain defends post of

Braving the chill and drizzle, a nearly 80-year-old woman
in a wheelchair
into the
Obama
image asrolls
satire.
B3Texas

Department of Public Safety building on U.S. 290 on a recent morning, her stiff upper lip softened

| Wednesday,
12, 2014
| Section
xxx
only byFebruary
the presence
of an
oxygenBtube.

Houston Chronicle

@HoustonChron

Shes got her favorite cartoon character, the resilient Tigger, on her sweatshirt, two daughters by her
side, and a fat brown envelope that should settle things, once and for all.
They say the third time is the charm. For Laura Troth, it better be.
She doesnt know how many more times she can get her daughters to wheel her into the DPS office so
she can get a state identification card that would allow her to comply with the newly implemented voter
ID law.
Both times she tried, she was told there was something else, another document, another piece of
proof she needed to convince the clerks that shes the woman pictured in her expired Texas drivers
license.
I just dont understand why theyre trying to keep me from voting, says Troth, a former licensed
vocational nurse who considers herself an independent. To me, theyre taking my rights away.
The feisty mother of seven - grandmother and great-grandmother to many more - doesnt take kindly
to such things. Her ordeal started last year, when Troth says she was turned away from her voting
precinct because she had only her voter registration card, not a photo ID.
Determined to vote, Troth says she had a friend of the family drive her to the DPS office that day to
get a Texas ID. She presented the woman at the front desk with various forms of identification - her old
drivers license, her Social Security and Medicare cards - but was told she needed her birth certificate.
The woman was short and rude, Troth says: I was old and she was disrespectful.

al killing of teenage girl

to suspects satanic ritual

Barely existent fraud

The Texas Legislature, in its infinite wisdom, decided to protect the citizens of Texas from barely
existent voter fraud by requiring everybody to show photo ID before voting. An investigation by Texas
Attorney General Greg Abbott into the epidemic of voter fraud found little: 26 cases to prosecute,

two-thirds involving technical violations, and none that would have been affected by voter ID
requirements.
After a lengthy court battle, voter ID is now the law of the land. And Troth set out to comply.
She says she contacted the state of Nebraska to see about getting a birth certificate. But before she
could complete the process, she came across the original document by the grace of God in January.
Last week, Troth asked her daughter, Andrea DeLeon, to take her back to the DPS office.
Troth says the same rude woman was at the front desk and, this time, the woman told her the
birth certificate wasnt good enough because the name on it differed from her married name.
I told them I didnt get married out of the womb, Troth says.
The elderly widow was instructed to come back with her marriage license. And not only that.
Because she lives with her other daughter, Alana Troth, that daughter would have to come in person
to verify her mothers residency.
I was mad as hell, Troth says. She got on the phone, calling DPS, Gov. Rick Perry, and finally,
state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston. She gave him an earful about the wrongheadedness of a
law that sets up roadblocks for older folks to vote. Once the veteran Democrat explained hed voted
against voter ID, he encouraged Troth to vote by mail. No photo ID is required for that form of voting.
Answer me this, Troth told me, If you have to have all this proof to vote in person, why can
anybody just vote by mail? I didnt have a good answer.
Shes got documents
She followed Whitmires advice, begrudgingly. She likes voting in person, likes the experience. She
meets nice people. Its a reason to go out.
So, she decided to try one more time for the state ID. Earlier this week, I tagged along.
Mid-morning, there is already an L-shaped line nearly out the door of people fiddling with phones or
staring vacantly. Troth is able to bypass it because of her wheelchair.
At the front, Troth begins slapping documents and cards on counter: birth certificate, marriage
license, voter registration, AARP card. She even brought a subscription Readers Digest, still in the
plastic.
This time, the woman at the counter is patient and helpful. She assures Troth that shes got
everything she needs.
When her number is called, Troths daughter wheels her to the back. She finishes the paperwork and
even manages a slight smile in the photo. Moments later, she hands me her temporary ID. Theres a
look of pride on her face, but also a hint of unfinished business.
The manager soon joins Troth and her daughters. They recount their story, and the manager
apologizes and promises an investigation.
Troths tale ended well. But I have to wonder how many dont. How many Texans dont have the
moxie or the piss-and-vinegar tenacity to keep coming back? How many dont have anyone to take
them?
This isnt just me, Troth says. This is everybody. Theres other people, Im sure, other senior
citizens, who are being denied the right to go vote or have to vote by mail. And its not right.
lisa.falkenberg@chron.com