My Letter to the District Attorney About Gary Polland

Reprinted from the November 14, 2014 Mongoose newsletter.

Now that the election is over, I have written District Attorney Devon Anderson’s Public Integrity Unit about Gary Polland. Similar letters send by me in the past led to the indictment of Judge Dupuy and the forced resignation of Judge Pratt.

The actions of Mr. Polland are particularly important because of his influence with judges as the former Republican Party Chair, one of the “Big Three Endorsers” who dominate local GOP primaries and as a Houston television personality (on Channel 8 at least).

This is what I wrote to the D.A.:

I attach documents relating to attorney Gary Polland and what I contend are false pay vouchers he submitted to the county for work he did as a lawyer appointed on CPS cases. I believe that the crime of tampering with a government record may have been committed.

I am providing you:

1. A legal article that establishes that a court appointed ad litem in a CPS case cannot bill the county for legal work done by someone else.

2. A spreadsheet that summarizes Polland’s billing to the county for a three month period (August – October 2013).

3. By way of example, a spreadsheet and backup invoices for just one day, October 1, 2013, when Polland billed 20 hours for home visits, 10 hours for other “out of court” work and for one juvenile court appearance – all in one day.

4. By way of example, I provide invoices for August 10, 2013, when Polland billed for four home visits totaling 19 hours. In CPS cases, the law requires the attorney ad litem appointed to represent the child to personally visit the child at home before each court appearance. Polland almost always bills exactly 5.0 hours for “travel to and conduct home visit; draft report with pictures,” which is itself highly suspicious. These invoices submitted by Polland clearly make it look like Polland did all of this work and certainly do not mention any associate or social worker conducting these home visits. It is clearly not possible for one attorney to conduct four or five home visits or to honestly bill 19 hours in one day. Did Polland visit a child at home at 3:00 a.m.?

It is also very odd that Polland almost always bills exactly 5.0 hours for these home visits, regardless of where the child lives. I have now seen hundreds of CPS pay vouchers, and most attorneys bill from 2.0 to 3.5 hours for home visits and the number of hours they claim always varies because, of course, the time they spend in travel and visiting the child varies every time.

5. An e-mail from an attorney casting doubt on the number of hours Polland billed for a home visit on August 29, 2014 and the invoice Polland submitted for that day.

6. Copies of my newsletter for the period August – October 2014 which, in part, address this issue and even suggest what Polland’s defense will be.

I strongly urge District Attorney Devon Anderson to recuse herself and ask for the appointment of a prosecutor pro tem because of her ties to Gary Polland and his influence in the local Republican primaries. Ms. Anderson will be running in Republican primary in just two years and we all know that she will be counting on Polland’s support.

Sincerely,
Greg Enos

I have no doubt about the facts involving the CPS billing submitted by Gary Polland and Alicia Franklin. However, there are genuine legal issues that could make indictments difficult to obtain. The misleading and, to me, false pay vouchers they submitted may not be false enough to constitute a crime given the format of the forms and the fact that some judges permitted the improper billing.

Someone other than Devon Anderson and her crew who made such a sweet deal for Judge Denise Pratt should do the investigating of Anderson’s fellow Republicans. If nothing else, Anderson can avoid another political attack when she faces a very tough re-election campaign in two years in a presidential election year.