Heavy and grandmother, Irene Gilliam Hensley pose with Okra!

Mistaking okra plants for marijuana leads to internal affairs investigation
(Content edited for mistakes)
By ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

After mistaking a backyard patch of okra for homegrown marijuana, the La Porte Police Department has found itself in the middle of an internal affairs investigation into whether an officer stole personal property during the mistaken drug raid.

The officers on Aug. 14 served a warrant at the home of 88-year-old Irene Gilliam Hensley, in the 200 block of North Nugent Street.

Officers believed her grandson, Charles Gilliam, who also lives there, was growing pot in a backyard shed and garden.

The department received a warrant after an officer -- following a tip from a family member of Gilliam's -- said he saw marijuana plants growing in the backyard after he peeked over Hensley's fence.

While the officers seized a pipe, catalogs and High Times magazines, they found no marijuana.

The plants the officer identified in the backyard turned out to be okra in Hensley's garden.

Gilliam was arrested and charged with a Class C misdemeanor for possessing the pipe, which he said belonged to his deceased father, as drug paraphernalia.

Gilliam, 33, is upset with the ordeal. But his primary concern, he claimed, was that the officers took some of his personal journals and have not returned them.

He filed a complaint against Officer T.D. Phelan for "stealing" the journals, which Gilliam said have information for a book he is writing about his adventures working as an informant for law enforcement agencies when he was a member of a white supremacist group.

Phelan could not be reached for comment.

The complaint has triggered an investigation by the police department.

"In those notebooks I had the names and phone numbers of all the people I've ever worked with," he said.

"I swear to God I saw my notebooks in the bag they had of stuff they seized. All I want are my notebooks back."

On the day of his arrest, Gilliam said he noticed Phelan was holding at least one of his notebooks, which also included story ideas, poems and song lyrics.

La Porte Police Chief Richard Reff said the department has asked Phelan to undergo a polygraph test, but officers, like private citizens, are not required to take polygraph tests.

"When he (Gilliam) said stuff was taken but not returned to him, that initiated an internal affairs investigation for theft," Reff said. "We are now investigating a theft of two spiral notebooks. When we complete that, we will work on the administrative side to look for procedure violations; then we will take the case to the (District Attorney's office) for a public integrity review."

Gilliam and Hensley complained about the incident before City Council this summer. "It was horrible. It was shocking. They stormed the door and about six or eight policemen barged in my house," Hensley said. "They had me so shook up I didn't know what they were doing."

Hensley said the whole situation would not have happened had her family not been feuding.

It was Gilliam's 15-year-old cousin, Clinton Ryan Tully, who stated for the search warrant that Gilliam may be growing marijuana in a backyard shed.

Just days before the arrest, Gilliam and his aunt, Peggy Tellez, had been arguing.

Tellez is Tully's grandmother.

While she alleges he threatened her and told her "to watch her back," Gilliam alleges she told him she would "find a way to get him out of the house.

"I did not tip the police department off (about the marijuana), but he threatened me," she said of the incident at Hensley's house a few days before the arrest.

Gilliam thinks Tellez and Tully cooked up the story about the marijuana to get him out of his grandmother's house.

The warrant specifically stated the officers seeking the warrant had experience identifying marijuana plants.

Reff said he was not embarrassed about the snafu his officers made when misidentifying the plants. "I wouldn't say it's embarrassing, but I was surprised," he said. "There's a lot of things coming out now we're well aware of that we weren't aware of then."

Tellez doubts Gilliam's story about the stolen notebooks. "I don't think the notebooks existed. I've never seen them," Tellez said. "For some reason, my mother believes him."

Gilliam said he is acting as his grandmother's caretaker. As part of the investigation, the police department also would have to establish whether Gilliam is telling the truth.

Gilliam said he would take a lie detector test, if asked.

Reff said all police officers involved in the search and seizure deny taking the notebooks. "You have to prove that something was actually stolen. He says it was stolen and they say it was not. Somehow we have to prove that a theft occurred," Reff said.

In another twist to the story, the La Porte Police Department recently contacted Gilliam to let him know he had a warrant for his arrest because of an unpaid fine on a misdemeanor charge that took place in Austin in the early-1990s. Gilliam paid a fine associated with the warrant. He thinks the department is now trying to retaliate against him.

Gilliam has asked the Harris County District Attorney's office to conduct an investigation of the La Porte Police Department. "This is a sham investigation ... and this investigation needs to be taken out of La Porte's hands," he said.

Reff said he will submit the results of the investigation to the DA's public integrity unit. "They make the call if they need to take it to the grand jury," he said.

La Porte Police now say that the August 14th "Raid" that was carried out at Heavy Fed's house was due to a misidentification of Okra as Marijuana.

The La Porte Police "Raided" his home while Heavy's 87-year-old grandmother was sick in bed with injured back, La Porte's Dog Catcher called her on the phone and ordered her to get up after police could not get her to the door. Heavy's grandmother repeatedly told her she could not get out of bed because of her back injury but La Porte's dog catcher insisted and said, "Get up and open the door now!"

Heavy Fed was stopped and arrested just prior to the "raid" while going to get his grandmother fried chicken for dinner.
After police found a pipe that belonged to Heavy's deceased father out in his father's barn, they still charged and took Heavy to jail anyway on a Class C. Misdemeanor.

Heavy Fed's father owned a "Head Shop" in the late 70's early 80's and after he died some of his belongings which included Paraphernalia catalogs for ordering Paraphernalia and the small pipe were left in his father's barn.

15-20 Officers with Automatic Weapons participated in the August 14th "Raid."

Check out this police officers arrogance in

this warrant below as he describes how many

times he has seen growing marijuana plants

and what an expert he is at identifying them!

Click on image to enlarge!

Actual Warant obtained by La Porte Police

Click on photo to enlarge!

Click on photo to enlarge