LIVINGSTON - Law officials with the Office of Inspector General are investigating how death row inmate Richard Tabler was able to obtain a cell phone and use it to call a Houston senator, among others.
Tabler, who was sent to death row after being convicted of capital murder in Bell County, was arrested in his cell about 10:30 a.m. Monday while talking on his cell phone. He surrendered it to investigators without incident.
“Unfortunately, finding cell phones in prison is not new,” said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “We’ll continue to battle this problem.”
Among those whom Tabler, 29, called was state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Whitmire received the first call on Oct. 7 and others as recently as Sunday.
Officials with the Office of Inspector General, the agency that investigates crimes within the Texas prison system, were notified of the phone call by Whitmire’s office on Oct. 8.
Within 48 hours, investigators received telephone subscriber information that confirmed a cell phone tied to the Tabler family was located in the Polunsky Unit, where death row is located.
The investigation uncovered widespread use of that cell phone by other death row inmates. In the past 30 days, Tabler and as many as nine other death row inmates placed some 2,800 calls from that phone.
Whitmire said some of the inmates using the phone had ties to prison gangs, including the Texas Syndicate.
“That scares the hell out of me,” he said.
A report out of Austin said Tabler told Whitmire that he knew Whitmire had daughters and where they lived in Houston, details Tabler said he gleaned from the Internet.
“Whether it’s a citizen or a senator, no one should be contacted by an incarcerated offender who is using an illegal cell phone,” said Oliver J. Bell, chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, the nine-member board that oversees the operations of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “It illustrates the problem that cell phones can present in a penal institution, and why we have been combating them for some time.”
On Oct. 13, investigators confirmed that airtime was being purchased for the phone by Tabler’s mother, Lorraine Tabler.
She was arrested without incident Monday at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Ms. Tabler is being held without bond at Travis County Jail on a felony charge of providing an inmate with a prohibitive substance.
Ms. Tabler had flown with Tabler’s grandmother to Texas from Georgia and was scheduled to visit her son in Livingston this week.
“We gave them a Texas welcome,” Whitmire said.
The phone used by Tabler was purchased out of Waco in September 2007.
Six years ago, the Legislature made it a crime to provide cell phones to inmates.
Investigators have found other cell phones on death row this year. Inspector General John Moriarty, who heads the agency that investigates crimes in prison, said since January his office has conducted 19 different investigations regarding cell phones on death row.
Tabler told Whitmire that he paid $2,100 to get his cell phone on death row. Moriarty said investigations done by his office generally show that cell phones can be smuggled into prison for between $200 and $400. A guard usually does the smuggling, he said.
“It’s a serious security problem,” Moriarty said.
More arrests could follow in this case. Whitmire said he believes there had to be somebody taking the cell phone between cells on death row. He said usually there is little leverage available with death row inmates.
This situation is different, however, because Tabler’s mother is now in custody.
“We have some leverage with him,” Whitmire said.
Cell phones have become a growing problem in Texas prisons in recent years.
Two months ago, more than 60 cell phones were found inside a compressor being taken into the Stiles Unit near Beaumont, according to published reports.
Whitmire said one of the reasons Tabler contacted him was an effort to get more time meeting with his family. His visitations have been more restricted recently for disciplinary reasons and he wanted to make sure he would be able to visit with his grandmother.
Ms. Tabler also called Whitmire on Friday, he said.
Whitmire ordered an emergency meeting of his Senate committee today at 1:30 p.m. for an explanation from prison officials.
“Neither myself or anyone in society should have to put up with this, where inmates have open access from prisons to commit new crimes,” Whitmire said to an Austin newspaper. “This has to end right now.”
Moriarty said the cell phone problem is greater in Texas prisons than anywhere else in the nation because the Texas system is the only one in the country without an inmate phone system. He said that would change over the next few years as a contractor has been selected to install systems statewide.
Ms. Lyons said the state recently purchased six puppies that would be trained to sniff out cell phones. It is possible the state may purchase mature trained dogs, too, she said.
Tabler was sentenced to death for the Nov. 26, 2004, murders of Hatham “Frank” Zayed, 28, and Mohammed Amine Rahmouni, 25. He was received by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on April 5, 2007.
promer@temple-telegram.com
