Financially-strapped Milam County will get a $540,000 windfall after the largest cash seizure by law enforcement in county history—more than $830,000—closed with a plea bargain last week.
Prosecutor Bill Torrey said Rock Eanes, 40, pleaded guilty to a Class B misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charge and was assessed one day in the county jail.
Under the “agreed settlement,” in a civil forfeiture petition linked to the criminal charge, $540,515.95 is forfeited to the county and the remaining $291,047.05 was returned to Eanes’ attorneys.
Torrey said the court determined the $540,515.95 to be “contraband” but the $291,047.05 was “not contraband.”
Eanes also agreed to pay court costs and $60 restitution to the DPS.
CHARGES—Eanes was originally charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon in his arrest March 26, but his April 19 indictment by a Milam County Grand Jury only listed the DWI offense.
Torrey said law enforcement conjectured the cash—seized after the defendant was found asleep in his vehicle on FM 1712 near Rockdale—was related to gambling.
“Surprisingly the gambling charge was only a (Class A) misdemeanor,” Torrey said. “If we had litigated the forfeiture of the entire $831,563 it could have gone on for two to three years easily in the trial and appellate courts.”
“There was no guarantee that we would win, although I believe we had a good case,” he said.
Torrey said his office “surmised” the money was from gambling activity and that became the basis for the civil forfeiture petition.
He said the judgment helps ensure the county “gets a known quantity of funds.”
County Judge Dave Barkemeyer said last week there is a $242 million drop in county values which would be a $1.7-million loss in tax revenue at the current 70-cent rate.
Cash seized by the county in this case would make up for about one-third the anticipated loss.
The prosecutor said the defendant did not talk about how the money was obtained but Sheriff David Greene told him some of the cash bundles had deteriorated rubber bands, indicating the bundles had probably been there for a period of time.
COUNTY MONEY—As per a “standard law enforcement forfeiture agreement,” 70 percent of the $540,000 (about $378,000) will go to the sheriff’s department and 30 percent (about $162,000) goes to the prosecutor’s office for law enforcement purposes.
The sheriff’s department reported March 26 it responded to a call of a vehicle in the road and found the cash along with two weapons and items of what were termed “gambling equipment.”
Runoff early voting starting on Monday
Early voting for May 22 primary runoffs begins Monday and ends May 18.
Milam locations are the Rockdale Juvenile Justice Center, Thorndale Fireman’s Hall (recreational center), Buckholts Community Center and county clerk’s office, 8-to-5 in Cameron, 9-to-4 elsewhere.
There are no local runoffs.
Premier runoff race is for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination where Andrew White and Lupe Valdez are the candidates.
Winner faces incumbent Republican governor Greg Abbott in November.
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