Bay Area Houston

Give me liberty or give me meth! — Frank Gallagher, Shameless

There’s a lot of opinions and questions about the felony conviction of La Marque City Councilman Joseph Lowry for possession of methamphetamine and whether he was eligible to run for office. I dug into the court records which was not easy. Here is what I found. The legal documentation can be found at the Superior Court of Washington for King County website, case # 05-1-06568-7.

The Arrest.
On 9/29/2004 Lowry, age 25, was stopped for a traffic violation in Auburn Washington. After determining his identity the police found he had an outstanding warrant. He was arrested and his car searched. The search found a baggy of methamphetamine (meth), a scale, cold medications used for the production of meth, and a glass pipe with residue. You can read the entire document filed in the Superior Court of Washington for King County case 05-C-06568-7 KNT here.

Bail.
The State requested a bail of $10,000 based upon his criminal history of theft in 1997, 1998 drugs possession, 1998 Harassment, 2004 Assault and resisting arrest, a pending telephone harassment, and an outstanding warrant for a racing charge.

Guilty Plea.
On 9/6/2005 Lowry plead guilty to one count of possession of methamphetamine. You can read the entire plea here. Lowry stated in his own words “On September 24, 2004, I did unlawfully and feloniously possess the residue of methamphetamine, a controlled substance, located on the scales found in my car in King County Washington.”

Sentencing. Lowry was sentenced to 97 days in jail with time served. (I assume that means he was in jail for 97 days) He had to complete 12 months of community custody. You can view the sentencing document here.

Vacating the conviction. 16 years later the Washington State Supreme Court in State v. Blake, found the state’s felony drug possession statute unconstitutional. Based upon this ruling Lowry petitioned the court to vacate his conviction. According to google:

 Vacating a conviction is a legal process where a court withdraws or annuls a past guilty plea or judgment, effectively making the conviction void. This is achieved by filing a motion with the court, arguing reasons such as newly discovered evidence of innocence or constitutional violations during the original trial. If successful, you are released from the penalties of the offense and can legally state you were not convicted of the crime, though this does not erase the fact you were initially charged. The specific legal grounds and procedures vary significantly by jurisdiction, so consulting with a qualified attorney is crucial for pursuing this type of post-conviction relief in Texas. 

Applying for City Council.
A few years later Lowry ran for La Marque city council. On his application he checked the box “I have not been finally convicted for a felony”. Whether checking that box instead of the box that states he was convicted but the conviction was vacated, makes him ineligible to run is for someone with legal experience and not a two bit blogger or an Undercover Investigative Journalist.

In Conclusion.
So there you have it. Arrested. Charged. Convicted. Served time. Vacated. I hope this clears up this situation.

Leave it to City Council Member Joseph Lowry. Again.

If you haven’t been keeping up to date with the fiscal situation in La Marque you are missing an unhinged side show orchestrated by Lowry. Last night the Mayor had enough of Lowry’s baseless claims of illegal activity by the Mayor and other Council Members and called him out for his continued spreading of lies. Instead of finding solutions to a very serious problem, Lowry continued his baseless allegations including accusing the Mayor of accepting bribes by developers, a relatively new allegation. As the Mayor said, the only one who is claiming this illegal activity is Lowry, not the police, not the DA, not the Texas Rangers. It is all baseless, made up, allegations.

According to the rules of the Council the Mayor can issue 3 warnings to a Council Member and then have them removed to a nearby room to participate electronically. You can watch as a police officer looms over Lowry as the Mayor verifies the process after giving 2 warnings. Lowry eventually shut his pie hole and the meeting continued.

You can watch the exchange below. It is about 2 minutes long. Kudos to the Council for keeping their cool.

The warning signs are all there.

And they all point to La Marque city councilman Joesph Lowry. La Marque City Councilwoman Kim Yancy held a press conference late Friday evening to address the harrassment of citizens of La Marque, Texas City, and Dickinson by Lowry. On que Lowry arrived spewing his unfounded allegations of illegal activity as he has been doing for years. The video provided by Harvey Freeboard can be viewed here. At 10:30 the press conference starts. At 24:00 Lowry begins his disruption. At 26:34 Lowry is stared down by Mr. Beard.

Lowry is an elected official yet acts like a character from South Park. During the event one of his targets of harrassment towered over his fat ass challenging his continuous lies causing Lowry to sweat like a pig and retreat to his mini van to call his police friends for help. They came and questioned those who were under attack first.

Yancy was right concerning the political violence in La Marque and blaming those who tolerate it, support it, and laugh about it. She questioned why law enforcement has refused to address the multiple complaints against Lowry. Lowry enjoys harassing people. He enjoys the division he creates. He revels in it. He blogs about it on his Lousy News Network as if he is a journalist.

The La Marque police, the Galveston Sheriff, and the DA must get off their racist, lazy assess and stop this harassment before they are held accountable for any political violence.

The signs are there. Do something or shut the fuck up about “stopping political violence”.

From L Marque City Council Member Kim Yancy:

GM. We need your prayers. I am having a press conference outside at 6pm in front of La Marque City hall today (Friday, September 12th) regarding the political turmoil & abusive racist rhetoric being tolerated and protected in our County. Please come. The Press is invited.

I can only guess who this is about.