Phoenix Jail Prisoners Victims in Fake Illness Scam

by Matt Clarke

Margarita Zaragoza was in the process of bonding out her former cellmate using her car as collateral when she found out the truth—she had been had. And Zaragoza was not alone. Other prisoners at the Phoenix jail had also been taken in by Kelly Wasko, a smooth-talking con artist.

The prisoners say Wasko, 41, befriended them all while telling them sad stories about how she had multiple sclerosis and was in jail for taking a $1,500 charity check from the Salvation Army. She made promises to pay them back for anything they gave her. Her apparent intent was to scam them out of items from the jail commissary, such as envelopes and food.

"I'm in shock. What do I believe? I'm still in shock," said Zaragoza. "She's a sweet person and I wouldn't look at her like she would do something like this."

After her release Zaragoza checked online and discovered that Wasko was actually in jail for allegedly faking cancer to solicit over $12,000 in donations from family and friends online.

"She never takes pills, never takes medicine. She's healthy," Zaragoza said. "I called the bondsman…I find out ...

San Antonio Police Kill Probation Department/Jail Security Guard

by Matt Clarke

Jimmy James Garza, Jr. was 31 years old and had worked at the Bexar County Community Supervision and Corrections Department in San Antonio, Texas as a security monitor for ten years when he was shot and killed by police responding to a complaint that he had beaten his former girlfriend.

Despite having broken up with Garza following an eight-month relationship, the girlfriend, 34, a probation officer since 2007, met with Garza at a bar. Things seemed normal and he offered to drive her home. During the drive he began beating her.

"Everything was OK until he suddenly began beating her while he was driving," according to a police report. The report went on to say that Garza handcuffed his former girlfriend and repeatedly told her "this was going to be his last night alive." The report said that he dragged her by her handcuffed wrists inside his house and threatened to shoot her with a handgun. Eventually, she convinced him that her injuries required medical attention and suggested that she tell hospital officials that she was injured in a fall. Garza agreed to take her to the hospital, but ...

$425,000 Settlement in Suit over South Carolina Jail's Failure to Treat Diabetic Prisoner

by Matt Clarke

In June 2013, Sumter County, South Carolina and Southern Health Partners, Inc. (SHP), the contract provider of health care for prisoners at the Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center (the jail), settled a lawsuit brought by ...

Texas Judge Sentenced For Concealing Evidence of Innocence

by Matt Clarke

In a week-long legal proceeding held in April 2013, special prosecutor Rusty Hardin presented evidence against then-sitting Williamson County District Judge Ken Anderson that as a prosecutor Anderson had suppressed evidence of innocence which resulted in the wrongful conviction ...

Texas Leads the Nation in Both Executions and Exonerations

by Matt Clarke

Texas has long been notorious for applying the death penalty, executing more prisoners than any other state. Between 1976 and September 1, 2015, Texas carried out 528 executions – nearly five times as many as neighboring Oklahoma, which ranked second in the U.S. according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

More recently, however, Texas has become known for the flip side of the capital punishment coin – leading the nation in the number of exonerations, passing the most generous compensation package for wrongfully convicted prisoners of any other state, and enacting laws to help prevent wrongful convictions and hold prosecutors responsible.

From 1994 to 2014, Texas saw 52 prisoners exonerated after DNA evidence revealed they did not commit the crimes for which they had been convicted and sentenced, according to the Innocence Project. Counting all wrongful convictions, including those not involving DNA evidence, there have been 215 confirmed exonerations in Texas.

“The big story for the year is that more prosecutors are working hard to identify and investigate claims of innocence,” said Samuel Gross, who authored a 2014 report for the National Registry of Exonerations (NRE). “And many ...

Jails in Trouble as IRS Investigates Tax-Exempt Bonds

by Matt Clarke

Jails financed with tax-exempt revenue bonds, including numerous facilities in Texas, are scrambling to sell or refinance their debt following investigations by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) into whether the bonds are properly classified as tax exempt. County officials ...

Nevada: Federal Suit over Shackling of Pregnant Prisoner Settles for $130,000 and Policy Changes

by Matt Clarke

On February 4, 2014, the Nevada Department of Corrections (DOC) settled a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by a former prisoner who was shackled during her pregnancy. The Board of State Prison Commissioners ...

British Banking Giant Fined for Laundering Mexican Drug Money Through U.S. Banks

by Matt Clarke

In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) fined major British bank HSBC almost $2 billion following an investigation that found HSBC was being used by Mexican cartels to launder drug money by transferring ...

Two Reports Find at Least 54 Countries Complicit in Secret CIA Prisons

by Matt Clarke

The Central Intelligence Agency operated a network of prisons around the globe where suspected terrorists were routinely tortured, and in some cases the agency secured funding for foreign governments to pave the way for greater ...

Vermont Newspaper Defends Hiring Reporter with Sex Offense Conviction

by Matt Clarke

The publisher of a Vermont newspaper and its sister publication defended the hiring of a registered sex offender as a reporter covering the police and court beats after facing criticism from a rival paper and national media watchdog ...