Travis County Commissioners Court
July 5, 2006
Item 2
Good afternoon, let's call to order this special voting session of the Travis
County Commissioners court. This session was called to deal with two sort
of emergency items, one a lot more emergency than the other.
Commissioner Sonleitner will miss this meeting but item no. 1 is to consider
and take appropriate action in response to order from the united states district
court for the eastern district of Texas, marshall division, and league of
united latin american citizens, et al., that et al. Including Travis County,
and rick perry, governor of Texas, et al., civil no. 203-cv-354 consolidated,
and this will be taken up under the consultation with attorney to exception
to the open meetings act, which is Texas annotated code section chapter 551.071.
T he second item will be to consider and take appropriate action on the following
issues regarding the Travis County medical examiner's office, to, a, appointment
of Travis County chief medical examiner and 2 b update on recruitment of a
chief deputy and two deputy medical examiners and 2 will be taken up under
the matters exception to the open meetings act and the consultation with attorney
exception to the open meetings act. We'll discuss these matters in executive
session but will return to open court before taking any action.
We have returned from executive session where we discussed the two items that we announced. Number one, regarding the redistricting litigation. We discussed that with legal counsel. In my view, no action required today. We'll have this or similar wording on the July 11 agenda, which will be our regular voting session agenda. For us to get an update and take any appropriate action on that item.
Number two involves the appointment of a chief medical examiner in 2-a. In b, matters regarding a chief deputy and two deputy medical examiners. And we do have one citizen who has come to address us today. And ma'am, if you would give us your full name. And you have a written statement you would like to give us?
>> yes, I do, I have a written statement.
>> I'll be take that for you.
>> thank you.
>> first I'd like to thank roberto bayardo for helping me when I did a video. I just want to thank him for his participation. He was able to answer the questions and provided a good interview on that tape. The second item on a new deputy, a new medical examiner and staffing of the office, I just want to say that I believe that you need to hire plenty, plenty of medical examiners because I feel that until the city of Austin and Travis County respond to family violence in a more -- according to chapter 5, then you're going to need plenty of medical examiners because I just recently looked at the case of sophia king and I felt that she died long before because of the response by the Austin and Travis County. And this is the handout. I was reading the short and happy life of sophia king in the Austin chronicle and saw that her life ended years before she died from a bullet fired by a police officer. These sentences stood out in the Austin chronicle article. In 1995, for example, when she was only 15, sophia made her first appearance as a victim on the police blotter. According to the police report, sophia's aunt who lived with her and was angry to find that she hadn't gone to school grabbed king to grab her away. King resisted. The aunt struck king in the face and left visible welts on king's face, several long scratches on the right cheek. The officer concluded this case, as reported, appears to be a situation of parental discipline rather than assault. I could be wrong, but this seems like a case of family violence. Under chapter 5 of the code of criminal procedure, family violence is defined as an act by one member of a family or household intended to physically harm another member, a serious threat of physical harm, the abuse of a child. So this seems like family violence in which a child was abused. Chapter 5 goes on to state that in any law enforcement prosecutor torl or judicial response to allegations of family violence, the responding law enforcement or judicial officer shall protect the victim without regard to the relationship between the alleged offender and victim. So her life ended at 15 and she was not protected and kept from harm. When the officers saw the welts and scratches, he classified the crime as parental discipline and not a serious threat of physical harm, and not the abuse of a child. He did not classify it as family violence. King did not receive, as chapter 5 requires, the maximum protection from harm or abuse or the threat of harm or abuse as is permitted by law. The current police department general orders policies and procedures states officers are to treat all incidents involving family violence as criminal conduct, and it basically tells them when the victim is 15 the report will be titled family violence parental. So it was family violence, but the officer found no assault, no threat, no child abuse, so there was no arrest. This meant that there was no safety, no counseling, no protection for sophia king. There was no one to help her with the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, which normally results from family violence situations. Now she was left with an empowered abuser who knew that the police would do nothing to help her. The Austin chronicle said the staimgz in sophia's social development were marked not by school dances or family functions, but by court dates and hospital visits. So this explains why king asked an officer shortly before her death, why are you keeping us here on death row?
>> what's your name for the record?
>> barbara terrell.
>> thank you, ms. Terrell. In item number 2 I move that we appoint david -- dr. David goldenact as the Travis County chief medical examiner. That we set his salary at $250,000 annually. That his tenure with Travis County should begin mid August of 2006. That we authorize moving expenses to Austin, Travis County in the amount of $7,500. That we authorize the release of the prepared press statement and that we post at the appropriate time the supplemental employment contract for court approval.
>> second.
>> any more discussion of the motion? We'll have this and a similar item back on next week just in case we need some sort of follow-up action. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> judge? Before we adjourn, I'd like to say this, for those of you who may not be aware, but this past Monday, July the third, we lost captain willie ray Davis, who was the first fireman to be hired here in Austin, Travis County. In fact, the state of Texas. As you know, captain Davis, he is my uncle, and I'd like to just announce and let the public know that his body can be viewed from k-9d a.m. To 7:00 p.m. This coming Friday at the funeral home at the address of 607 east atherton lane. And of course the funeral will be Saturday at the st. James missionary baptist church at 11:00 a.m. And the family is just asking and encouraging prayer. So I'd like to just thank you for allowing me to make that statement.
>> thank you for the announcement. Any further business today? Move adjournment.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, July 5, 2006 4:40 PM