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CRIME STOPPERS OF HOUSTON FUGITIVE FRIDAY
Texans name Greg Grissom as team president
The Houston Texans on Wednesday promoted Greg Grissom to team president.
Grissom, who was the senior vice president of corporate development, takes over for Jamey Rootes who announced his resignation last month.
Grissom will now manage all the team’s business operations, such as marketing, communications, broadcasting, ticket sales, and human resources. He will also oversee Lone Star Sports & Entertainment, the team’s marketing company.
“Greg’s extensive industry knowledge is evident by the meaningful relationships he continues to develop with our partners, our community, and Texans teammates,” said Texans Chairman and CEO Cal McNair. “While going through the interview process, Greg’s intentional, forward-thinking approach showed an authenticity and commitment to championship-caliber excellence that made him the ideal choice to take on this role.”
According to the team, Grissom has more than two decades of experience in sports sponsorship sales, planning, execution, and event marketing.
Grissom has also worked with the Houston Astros.
Source: www.click2houston.com
2 MLB players test positive for COVID-19 in past week
Two major league players and two staff members were positive for COVID-19 during the past week among 13,978 tests, a 0.03% positive rate.
There have been 17 positive tests — 12 for players, five for staff — among 72,751 monitoring tests during spring training, a rate of 0.02%, the commissioner’s office said Friday. The positive tests were among 11 of the 30 teams.
Including intake testing upon arrival at spring training, there have been 33 positive tests — 25 players, eight staff — among 78,227 tests, a positive rate of 0.04%. The positive tests were among 18 teams.
All players on 40-man rosters and players with minor league contracts invited to big league training camps are screened. Also tested are all other on-field personnel, such as managers, coaches and athletic trainers, strength and conditioning staff, and physicians.
In the final figures released last year, MLB said it had collected 172,740 samples and that 91 had been positive, or 0.05%. Fifty-seven of 91 positives were players, and 21 of the 30 teams have had a person covered by the monitoring test positive.
There were 45 regular-season games postponed for virus-related reasons last year but just two were not made up, between St. Louis and Detroit.
Source: www.click2houston.com
News intrudes on President Biden’s agenda at first news conference
President Joe Biden arrived in the East Room on Thursday for his first White House news conference with an agenda: the progress his administration has made in addressing the coronavirus pandemic and its economic repercussions.
But news beyond his control kept interrupting.
The room of socially distanced reporters had other topics on their minds. They repeatedly pressed him about his administration’s struggle to deal with an influx of migrants on the southern border. Two asked about the Senate filibuster that threatens to stall his legislative agenda. One asked about provocative missile firings by North Korea and another about fraught relations with China.
The predictable disconnect between his message and their questions was presumably one reason Biden waited until Day 65, later than any other modern president, to convene his first formal news conference. (It’s also a reason journalists believe the gatherings are important to hold, although it’s not entirely clear whether voters feel the same way.)
In an opening statement, Biden announced he was doubling his initial goal for COVID-19 vaccinations, now vowing to deliver 200 million injections to Americans during his first 100 days in office. He touted the impact of the $1.9 trillion relief package he has signed into law, which is already putting money in bank accounts and boosting estimates of economic growth. He noted that new unemployment claims had dropped.
“Help is here, and hope is on the way,” he said.
But perhaps it was a sign of his success on those fronts that not a single reporter mentioned either COVID-19 or the economic recovery. Instead, he was asked if he would meet former President Trump’s deadline to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1 – probably not, Biden said, but he suggested they would be out within a year – and about Republican efforts to enact restrictions on voting.
“This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle,” he said of the hundreds of bills Republican state legislators have submitted to regulate voter access. His voice rising, he called the efforts “un-American” and “despicable.”
There were even two follow-up questions about whether he plans to run for a second term. He replied that he expected to, and with Vice President Kamala Harris on his ticket, although he cautioned that 2024 was distant and he was “a great respecter of fate.”
A majority of the questions dealt with immigration and the border, especially about the treatment of an influx of unaccompanied children. His administration has seemed unprepared to deal with the issue despite early signs it was going to pose a problem. Biden dismissed the assertion that his policies had encouraged families in Central America to send their children on the dangerous journey north, but he also rejected the notion that he should adopt a harder line to stem the flow.
“Well, look,” Biden said. “The idea that I’m going to say – which I would never do – when an unaccompanied child ends up (at) the border, we’re just going to let them starve to death and stay on the other side? No previous administration did that either – except Trump. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it.”
He was, well, Biden-esque. It was the longest extemporaneous exchange of his presidency, stretching just past an hour. He expressed empathy, spoke conversationally, and twice caught himself going on too long and said he would stop – generally an observation public officials don’t say out loud. He didn’t use a teleprompter, but in responding to questions on Afghanistan and China he did seem to be reading from notes, presumably an effort to get each word precisely right on a sensitive issue of diplomacy.
He wasn’t always crisp, and his reference to “Jim Eagle” sparked fruitless Google searches to understand the reference – perhaps the Biden counterpart to Trump’s mystifying 2017 tweet about “covfefe.” But he was focused and responsive, countering jibes by his harshest critics that at age 78 he had lost a step.
The contrast with his predecessor was hard to miss. Trump was often deliberately provocative when he talked with reporters, reveling in barbed exchanges and sometimes attacking the intelligence and patriotism of those asking questions. Biden was low-key, even suggesting at one point that perhaps he was providing more details about policy than reporters wanted to hear.
When a reporter from Univision asked about the influx at the border, he thanked her for her reporting there.
Near the end, when no one had asked about his next big legislative priority, he pivoted from a question about gun control to a promotion for the sweeping economic recovery bill he plans to unveil Friday in Pittsburgh. When no one asked the question he wanted, he answered it anyway.
“The next major initiative … is to rebuild the infrastructure, both physical and technological infrastructure of this country, so that we can compete and create significant numbers of really good-paying jobs, really good-paying jobs,” he said. “There’s so much we can do.”
Source: www.usatoday.com
2 Fulshear officers injured in small plane crash in New Mexico
Two Fulshear officers are recovering after a plane crash in Lordsburg, New Mexico.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the plane crash that happened on Wednesday.
Fulshear Police Department posted on its social media accounts that two officers, Adam Schoof and Dilon Rice, were severely injured in the crash.
According to the department, Schoof, the pilot, flies during his off time for recreation and also volunteers his time to fly patients to hospitals. This accident, the department says, was not duty-related.
Officials said Schoof and Rice were the only passengers on board the aircraft at the time of the crash.
The Fulshear Police Foundation set up a benefit fund for the two officers.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Source: www.click2houston.com
Suspect in Vanessa Guillen case asks judge to toss out confession
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Lawyers for Cecily Aguilar, the woman charged in connection with the disappearance of Vanessa Guillen, moved to suppress evidence that her confession was illegally obtained, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
The defense stated that Aguilar’s statements on June 30, 2020, were made while she was not under arrest and was not Mirandized, according to court documents. They requested a hearing to establish the facts and resolve any disputed facts.
The motion hearing is set for Saturday at 1:30 p.m. before Judge Jeffrey C. Manske of the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, Waco Division.
Aguilar is charged with conspiracy to tamper with the body of Gullien, a Fort Hood soldier who was reported missing in April 2020. She pleads “not guilty”.
According to court documents, officers interviewed Aguilar multiple times during their investigation because they believed her boyfriend, Aaron Robinson, was the last person to see Gullien before she went missing.
On the night in question, which is the same day human remains were found in the area where Robinson’s cell phone was pinged on April 22, 2020, officers spoke with Aguilar at the store where she worked, according to court documents.
Later, officers observed Aguilar get into a van and drive to Fort Hood. The officers then pulled over the van and detained Aguilar and the driver, per court documents.
Aguilar was not permitted to be in Fort Hood, but she said she was looking for a vehicle her estranged husband had left for her, according to the court documents.
Officers let the driver go and informed Aguilar she was not under arrest and was free to leave. However, they also asked if she would like to go with them to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command Office in Fort Hood to be interviewed, and she agreed, according to court documents.
Court documents stated Aguilar was not handcuffed, but her phone was not returned, which was taken earlier by an officer because she refused to stop texting during the initial traffic stop.
At the Fort Hood office, Aguilar was led into an integration room where she was constantly watched by at least two officers. Court documents stated that Texas Ranger Travis Dendy entered and interrogated Aguilar from about 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.
“The officers did not read Ms. Aguilar her Miranda rights at the beginning of the interrogation. They did not tell her anything she said could be held against her in court. They did not say she had the right to an attorney during questioning. And they did not ask if she was willing to waive those rights,” the motion stated.
The defense also presented several examples from the video-recorded integration to support their claims, including that Dendy told Aguilar that “she did not have to talk to him if she did not want to.”
Aguilar later confused that she previously lied when she said Robinson and her not leaving the house on the night of April 22, according to court documents. She told the police that the two of them went for a long drive.
The motion document said Dendy pushed Aguilar to provide more information, asking her if she was willing to die or go to jail to protect Robinson. The officer also informed her that a body was found near where they had been on April 22.
Aguilar then told officers that Robinson took her to the woods and showed her Gullien’s body in a tough box and made her help him dismember the body, per the court documents.
Dendy told Aguilar to “think of anything and everything to save yourself right now,” per the motion.
Aguilar went on to conduct several controlled calls to Robinson and told officers Robinson would try to escape or shoot himself before being taken into custody.
After three hours of interrogation and failed attempts to help officers locate Robinson, Dendy informed Aguilar that she was under arrest, per the motion. At that point, the officer read Aguilar her Miranda rights and she continued to help the police.
On the next day, July 1, 2020, Robinson, who is suspected of Gullien’s death, died by suicide as police tried to take him into custody. According to Aguilar’s account, on April 22, Robinson killed Guillen by hitting her in the head with a hammer while at Fort Hood.
Source: www.click2houston.com
Former HPD officer sentenced to 87 months in prison on drug conspiracy charges
A former officer with the Houston Police Department has been ordered to prison after admitting her guilt in a Houston-area cocaine conspiracy, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced Wednesday.
On Jan. 16, 2020, 41-year-old Julissa Diaz pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine. At that time, she admitted she stopped a vehicle containing cocaine and arrested the occupant to allow others to steal the drugs.
On Wednesday, Julissa was sentenced to 87-months in prison, which will immediately be followed by three years of supervised release.
“Julissa Diaz used her position as a sworn police officer to commit these crimes. When she participated in the drug trafficking conspiracy, she violated a sacred oath, as well as the trust our city placed in her,” stated Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge Daniel C. Comeaux. “Each day, the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers place their lives on the line to protect our communities, while upholding the trust of a nation, and stand firmly against those few who would tarnish our badge.”
In November 2018, Carlos Campos identified a potential drug courier and provided that information to Jesse Holt, a tow truck driver. Holt passed the information to Ricardo Diaz — the husband of Julissa — who gave it to his wife and asked her to conduct the illegal stop.
On Nov. 8, 2018, Julissa stopped and arrested the occupant who was actually an undercover officer posing as the drug courier. The vehicle contained eight kilograms of cocaine. Officials say Julissa deliberately left the drugs in the car so the co-conspirators could then steal them. Holt was stationed nearby and towed the car away.
Ricardo — her now ex-husband, Campos and Holt also pleaded guilty.
Source: www.click2houston.com
Publicación 1195 de HOUSTON – Revista Digital 25 de marzo – 31 de marzo / 2021
Gracias por SEGUIRNOS, este artículo contiene la revista digital de HOUSTON de ¡Que Onda Magazine! De fecha 25 de marzo – 31 de marzo / 2021
Publicación 1195 de DALLAS – Revista Digital 25 de marzo – 31 de marzo / 2021
Gracias por SEGUIRNOS, este artículo contiene la revista digital de DALLAS de ¡Que Onda Magazine! De fecha 25 de marzo – 31 de marzo / 2021