Leaving a nice car like a Porsche Boxster in such condition seems almost criminal, but apparently abandoned in this state, it was towed from roof of the Dallas County courthouse garage, leading to all manner of typical DA's office hilarity.
It takes some doing to shift even a smidgen of sympathy to towing companies that haul off your ride while you’re chatting up a waitress, leaving you with an empty space near a little warning sign. One commenter calls towing companies “the Iranians of the business world: hold you hostage for ransom.”
My own experience with such tows was, as is so often the case, my own stupid fault. I parked on Main Street outside the old Dallas police headquarters and missed the sign that warned my truck would get towed if left after 4 p.m., as I recall. I did, and it was.
So I come to last week’s news story with no built-in love for the sometimes-shady characters who hook and roll.
One such company, United Tows, insists it did everything by the book in 2013, when it hauled a 2001 Porsche Boxster from the roof of Dallas County’s courthouse garage off the former Industrial Boulevard. As the photo above would indicate, the Boxster had been shamefully neglected by its owner, left on the roof in the elements and caked with so much dust that passers-by took to writing little messages on it.
As it happens, the Boxster belonged to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, although that fact apparently was hidden behind some sort of shell company, Rockett Enterprises, with a Garland post office box.
As a lawyer for United Tows, Robert Jenkins, tells it, the DA’s office took its time figuring out what had happened to its Boxster and, when it did, went straight to abuse-of-authority in an attempt to get its car back. Jenkins says a top prosecutor, Lincoln Monroe, and DA’s investigator, Eddie Salazar, threatened United Tows owners with a grand jury investigation and criminal charges if they didn’t give the car back.
They refused, and finally the Watkins’ people relented and dipped into the occasionally controversial forfeiture fund for money to get their Porsche back. The amount was either $3,600 (Jenkins) or $1,800 (Salazar); Channel 8 also reports that Watkins’ office tossed Jenkins $750 to cover his legal fees.
And before you think, “No way the DA’s office would threaten to use the grand jury system and criminal charges to intimidate some towing company guy,” remember that this particular DA’s office has something of a track record on this score.
Back in 2010, Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey accused Watkins of abuse of power and official oppression after his public integrity unit sought to question her about a vegetable and butterfly garden she established at her road and bridge district headquarters.
No, seriously.
The Watkins-Dickey standoff was over his apparent reluctance to investigate county constables (and fellow Democrats) accused of wrongdoing. The Republican commissioner and the DA also were known to butt heads over his budget, among other pleasantries. Maybe they just didn’t like each other.
Proving himself a bipartisan abuser of authority, Watkins also has attempted to sic grand juries on (two or) three Democratic judges, related to his refusal to testify in the Al Hill III-Lisa Blue mess that chewed up so much airtime at the courthouse (instead of, you know, actual criminal cases).
So if Watkins would use the threat of a grand jury to lean on a county commissioner and three judges, it’s not even a bit of a stretch to imagine that he’d order his people to do the same with a company that legally towed one of his cars.
Forfeiture funds are supposedly reserved for law enforcement purposes. In Watkins’ reasoning, this includes buying back a towed car; spending $50,000 to settle a car wreck he caused by rear-ending another driver at tollway speeds while texting and driving; and another $1,250 to sweep his offices for listening devices.
The car crash settlement included a provision for a $40,500 penalty paid to Watkins himself — not the forfeiture fund — if the other driver spoke publicly about the incident. Some people would call that hush money; the question is whether it has an actual law enforcement purpose.
This newspaper’s recommendation of Republican Susan Hawk over Watkins in the Nov. 4 election was based, in large part, on the two-term incumbent’s loss of public trust. This nonsense with the towed Boxster is just one more brick in that wall.