A Houston teenager who was beaten by police after running from a burglary scene has been arrested again for burglary, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Chad Holley and three other suspects were picked up by deputies who responded to a burglary report in northwest Harris County. Holley has been charged with burglary of a habitation. Holley was 16 when he was beaten by HPD officers in 2010. The incident was captured on surveillance video.
Last month an all- white jury returned a not-guilty verdict in the trial of Andrew Blomberg, the first officer accused in the case. “He [Holley] had a chance to straighten up and this shoulda been a wakeup call to him,” said attorney Dick DeGuerin who represented Blomberg. “Obviously, what we said in the trial was correct. He’s a gang member and once you’re in that it’s awfully hard to get out.” The verdict triggered protests and threats of retaliation by community activists Quanell X.
Chad Holley recently told Houston CBS affiliate, KHOU-TV, that he hoped for a fresh start after graduating from Cy Falls High School. “I’m just ready to graduate,” said Holley as he looked forward to the next step in his life. When asked what he plans to do, he said, “going to college and finishing. I’m fixing to try and be a nurse.” Holley admitted that he had made some mistakes, from his choice in friends, to his appearance in another video in which he flashed what appeared to be a gang sign. “I’ve learned not to hang out with the wrong people. To keep a positive crowd—people who keep you motivated,” Holley said. Holley was convicted of the 2010 burglary and sentenced to probation. Three other officers are awaiting trial in the Holley beating case.
Texans love guns and prisons and I must admit being a bit shocked at a jury decision today in (Houston) Harris County. Jurors Wednesday evening ruled Raul Rodriguez is guilty in the shooting death of Kelly Danaherat a 2010 party in northeast Harris County. The jury deliberated about five hours in state District Judge David Mendoza’s court. They will return Thursday to consider his punishment. Jurors decided that Rodriguez provoked Danaher and others by going to their party to demand they quiet down just after midnight on May 2, 2010. Defense lawyers said Rodriguez should have been found not guilty of murder because it was self-defense.
Rodriguez and his family lived near Danaher, an elementary school teacher, and his family in rural Huffman. Rodriguez approached the party, upset by the noise, and videotaped the encounter. During the last seven minutes of the 22-minute video, Rodriguez can be heard telling the partygoers he wants them to turn down the noise, then that he is afraid the drunken group will hurt him. The video goes to black seconds after several men, including Danaher charge him. There is a cackling laugh, then a gunshot and the camera falls.
Rodriguez’s lawyers said he had a split-second to decide if he was going to shoot when he was charged by Danaher and others and “stood his ground.” “Everything has to be seen through Raul’s eyes,” Neal Davissaid in closing arguments Wednesday. “If through his eyes, he believed he was in apparent danger, he was justified.” Prosecutors said Rodriguez, 47, was parroting buzzwords he learned in a concealed handgun licensing class like “I’m standing my ground,” and “escalating the situation” to bully his neighbors. “Raul Rodriguez is a neighborhood bully who had a CHL, an arsenal of weapons and a knowledge of the law,” said prosecutor Donna Logan. “He felt he had the ultimate control, the control to decide who lives and who dies.” She told jurors that “self-defense was never meant to protect the one who started the fight.”
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