Incident #2

October 13th, 2004- The first attempt to take Robert’s life and make good on their promise to kill us happens. While we are on our normal early morning walk, Roger runs Robert over with a red doolie pickup truck belonging to Farris King. Robert got up and Roger hit him with the 1-ton truck a second time!!! To defend himself, Robert used a stick and hit the truck with it causing the driver’s side window to break. (This damage will come back up a little later.) Roger leapt out of the truck screaming I told you I’d get you O’Steen and pinned Robert to the ground. Randy Maberry came running out of his house to Robert’s defense yelling at James to call 911. Roger was yelling, screaming and cursing all three of us talking about how he was going to burn all of us out and get rid of us. I decided to take action to save my husband. I picked up the stick and warned Roger to get off my husband twice before I hit him with the stick. After three blows, Roger got off my husband and started threatening Randy calling him an abomination that didn’t deserve to live. I gave Roger back his glasses that I had retrieved from the ground so they would not get broken and we all went to wait for the Sheriff. The deputy took written statements from Robert, Randy, and myself and confiscated the stick, without giving anybody a receipt for it. The deputy saw no reason to arrest anybody as the fight was over and no one was really hurt (just scrapes and bruises). Randy had long been suffering extreme harassment and threats from Salter. Randy filed a terroristic threat charge against Roger (case #2004-11127). Our charge against Roger was assault with a deadly weapon in a motor vehicle (case #2004-11132). I discussed with Deputy Arnold later how I now understood what cops mean about perps who are so “hopped up” on drugs that they just keep coming at you and they are almost unstoppable. The three blows I dealt him did not affect Roger. He got up and fought with all three of us at once.

October 16th, 2004- Every year we harvest tunas from the property. Tunas are the purple fruit that grows on a prickly pear cactus. We use them to make one of the best wines I’ve ever tasted. As we were out harvesting these tunas with a couple of friends, the Salters invented a new way to “get at us”. As they would drive past our land (seeing as it was the last thing you passed going out or the first thing passed coming in) they would purposely speed up and hit a patch of soft sand, rocks, or mud and use the cars to fling this at us and the house. They felt they would add insult to injury, so to speak, and give us the middle finger simultaneously. Sometimes, when they were especially bold, they would hang their heads out the window, wave a finger, and shout “bitch” or “bastard” or some other foul names at us. This behavior continues every time a Salter or one of their mules goes by our property. I must warn people just trying to do their jobs, that they may be harassed or even shot at by the neighbors because I will not have them go there unprepared for what has happened to so many others. (This harassment is the exact same behavior that will come into play later when the Sheriff Sergeant in charge of protecting us allows them to continue this display of threatening behavior against us and he offers to help them kill me.)

Situation #2

October 18th, 2004- We scheduled a meeting with Chief Morgan to speak about having a volunteer deputy patrol for Brazos Rock Road. Since it is considered a “private road” we asked for no funding or man-hours from the sheriff’s department. We asked for training on how to file reports, patrolling, and matters required in establishing a sub-station. (See enclosed copy of the proposal.) We got to the meeting only to find out we were being stood up and Chief Morgan was not coming. In his place, instead, was Sheriff Jay Brown. Brown read through the proposal and told us it sounded like a good idea to him and assigned us a liaison named Sammy Slatten (or Slammin’ Sammy) to contact when we wanted the training to begin and the patrols to start. We walked out of this meeting feeling like we had accomplished a big task and that the neighborhood was going to be safer. We tried to contact Slammin’ Sammy shortly after and never had a phone call answered or returned. The volunteer deputy patrol is still not in effect, even after the okay from Sheriff Jay Brown. This is the first of many appeals for patrols to stop the crime in the neighborhood. Here is what we submitted to Sheriff Brown.


Brazos Rock Road Citizens
Security & Safety Proposal
Presented to
Chief Morgan
Parker County Sheriff Department
Monday, October 18, 2004

Problem
Over the last several years, there have been a large number of illegal activities at the Brazos Rock Road area. There have been:
1) a rash of thefts;
2) blatant defiance of laws and codes pertaining to livestock roaming free, pets without supervision and lack of vaccinations,
3) hunting and fishing law violations through improper trot lines,
4) improper sewer lines, and refusals to adhere to building codes as established by Brazos River authorities and health authorities in spite of warnings by those authorities;
5) significant property destruction and vandalism including property of the sheriff department and it’s officers;
6) unauthorized use of private property as in overnight camping and joy riding 4 wheelers;
7) drug dealing and manufacturing;
8) hate crimes and harassment against some residents;
9) death threats against several residents where it has been told to us that they were going to run us out of there, we are not welcome, and had better pack before we get “hurt and hurt bad”, and;
10) assaults with intent to cause bodily injury in an attempt to carry out prior threats.

We, the owners and residents at the Brazos Rock Road area, have banded together and have come up with this proposal and the following goal and purpose statement as a solution to alleviate the above-mentioned problems of lawlessness in our rural community.
Goal and Purpose Statement
To provide security and safety for the lives, livestock, and property of the owners and residents of the Brazos Rock Road unincorporated sub-division by adding a presence of law enforcement to the community.
Solution and Proposal
We propose to accomplish this goal of having an increased law enforcement presence by forming a volunteer deputy sheriff sub-station to be located on the Brazos Rock property grounds. We propose to model this deputy station after the idea of a volunteer fire department. We have a local, rural need and we propose a local, rural solution. We propose to expand the presence of the sheriff department without adding a financial burden on the county or sheriff budgets. The owners and residents of Brazos Rock will provide funds, locations, and most property for this sub-station. No wages will be expected. Funding for other needed materials will be raised by the Brazos Rock deputies, their families, and other interested citizens through normal church, social, government grant, and charity fund-raising activities.
We will need the sheriff department to provide us with training on patrolling, how to complete reports, and other matters necessary to set up a sub-station and become a volunteer deputy. Regular scheduled patrols of the Brazos Rock area will be passed up the chain of command and posted as any other duty roster. Incident and surveillance reports will be submitted to investigators as needed or as requested by superiors. Brazos Rock deputies will furnish their own vehicles with insurance for patrol duties.
We, the owners and residents of the unincorporated sub-division known as Brazos Rock, do hereby respectfully submit this proposal to the Parker County Sheriff Department in the spirit of helping to solve our crime problem. We ask you to accept this proposal and we look forward to working with the Sheriff department in the near future.
Robert P. O’Steen
Brazos Rock Citizens Representative

October 27th, 2004- Deputy Marc Arnold had Robert, myself, and Randy come down to headquarters to give video statements regarding incident #2 when Roger hit Robert with the truck. We all gave our statements willingly. Arnold claimed to be a traffic expert for the sheriff’s department and mentioned that Roger Salter had shown him the tracks in the road. However, Salter showed Arnold these tire tracks over two weeks later and it had rained 4-5 times. We are talking about a dirt road that is made up mostly of what is called “Sugar Sand”, the terra cotta red sand that gets into everything. This red sugar sand road freely shifts and blows up huge clouds of dust every time someone drives by. There was no way much could be left of any tracks in this sand after more than two weeks and four rains. During my interview I found that Arnold was far more interested in telling me what happened instead of allowing me make my own statement. I left the interview feeling very uneasy. Arnold made it clear he had already made up his mind. Arnold told me he was getting extreme pressure from the Salters, Farris King’s wife, and Matt Hall (Salter’s Attorney). Those individuals were reportedly in his office every day since the 13th demanding to know why nothing was being done about the incident. (Later, DA Swaim would tell us that Arnold is who cases go to when the sheriff’s department wants the “right” decision, which is really the wrong one. Swaim called Arnold not so bright.)

Incident #3

October 28th, 2004- The day after making our statements, while taking our dogs for a walk, Roger again tried to hit us in the same red truck. In order to hit me, Roger had to cross the centerline and drive on the wrong side of the road. I reported it but the Parker County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) would not acknowledge it or assign it a case number. I filed the complaint through a faxed statement to Arnold. In that same fax we also sent a copy of Robert’s medical report pertaining to incident #2 (getting hit twice by a truck). The PCSO confirmed receipt of the medical records but not of the complaint. Yet, it was sent in the same set of faxed documents. I call that selective evidence gathering. Make up your mind, convict someone, and then go make up evidence to support your desired theory. Never get the facts and let them lead you to the proper conclusion, that isn’t the Parker County Sheriff Department’s way of conducting an investigation.