WASHINGTON CO. CRIME STOPPERS CHAIR HELD IN CONTEMPT OF COURT FOR NOT RELEASING TIP INFO
The chairman of Brenham Washington County Crime Stoppers has been held in contempt of court for not releasing details from a tip submitted to his organization.
John Deans received a subpoena from Conroe-based defense attorney Brian Burns in early February to appear today (Thursday) in 21st District Court in Washington County. According to Crime Stoppers, Burns sought information from an anonymous tip to help his client in an upcoming criminal case.
Update @ 12:55 p.m. Friday: According to court records, Burns is representing Terry Dale Stegmann, Jr. of Brenham, who is charged with Sexual Assault of a Child, a second degree felony from May 2020. Stegmann was indicted for the alleged offense on March 23, 2021, and was arrested by Brenham police on April 14, 2021.
Deans has refused to provide any tip content and was found in contempt of court by Judge Carson Campbell, resulting in Deans’ detainment in the Washington County Jail.
Crime Stoppers offers rewards to citizens who submit tips that lead to an arrest or indictment in the investigation of a crime. Crime Stoppers says confidential tips “must be kept anonymous by state law,” and calls this “a blatant attempt to discredit and destroy the Crime Stoppers program.”
KWHI reached out to Scott Ballard, the attorney representing Deans, as well as Burns for comment. Both Ballard and Burns were unavailable to speak to directly, but a member of Ballard’s law office said there would be no comments on this pending case.
It appears there are a lot of “holier than thou” comments here. If I, for one, was accused of a a crime or I were a defendant in a civil case, I would want my attorney to fight for me like this. And I would hope a judge had the fortitude to help uncover what was being hidden from my defense. There are certainly reasons to protect tipster’s identities from defendants, and there are precautions in place to keep that identity from the defendant. But an adequate defense cannot be investigated without proper disclosure to the defendant’s attorney.
Completely agree. Let the judicial system do its job by being fair and unbiased.
Slow down. Wait for ALL the facts. This is only part of the story.
Stay strong John Deans!! You are to be admired for your just and moral beliefs! Anyone who knows you, knows the caliber of person you are.
What has happened to our justice system? We are now putting in jail law biding and law enforcement SUPPORTING individuals instead of the criminals who are taking over our society.
We stand behind you 100% and will not let this go unnoticed.
The Texas Crime Stoppers Council is a legally established body whose members are appointed by the Texas governor.
As of 2019 , According to Texas Crime Stoppers……….
1. The only exception to this protection is if a defense lawyer petitions a judge, saying the tip could exonerate their client. State law then provides that the judge may review the tip and – if it does exonerate the client – the judge then strips out the identifying information of the tipster and releases the rest.
So the Judge must of wanted disclosure of the Tipster for Dean’s to withhold information.
Let me offer an opposing and unpopular opinion. Is it possible that Judge Campbell is allowing this to move forward in this fashion in order to solidify the sanctity of the Crime Stoppers guarantee of anonymity? By allowing it to proceed, the merits of the Crime Stoppers program will be heard, and once again be reaffirmed as protected under Texas law. I stand with Deans on this, but I am not willing to vilify the judge without knowing his reasoning for holding Deans in contempt. Let the process work.
Keep him locked up! If there is evidence that may exonerate a person, then it should be provided to the court.
Some people are always jumping to conclusions. Assumptions?! The article NEVER states that Deans was asked to release the NAME(S) of the confidential informants or tipster. Where did you read that??? Deans was asked and subsequently issued a subpoena for refusing to release ANY information concerning details of the tipster’s tip. Listen folks, good citizens comply with the reasonable and legal requests of their government instead of ALWAYS ASSUMING something nefarious is being done to them. Deans is not required to release the name of the tipster; but, is required to release ANY OTHER INFORMATION that may go towards proving the GUILT or INNOCENCE of parties involved in something illegal. That is why Crime Stoppers exist and if ANY INFORMATION reported CANNOT be released; then to what purpose does Crime Stoppers serve??? Deans is no martyr. As of now he is a rebel who is not cooperating with a legal entity. This is NOT A SMART MOVE on his part. As for everyone else, try hard to NOT BE CRITICAL OF WHAT YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND.
Sounds like John Deans should be running things around here – he does things the right way! Tips are given in confidence that you will have privacy. WHat is so hard to understand about that?!
Well don’t have to worry about this ol boy calling in to report any crimes or trying to do the right thing anymore if our elected officials won’t protect us anymore i’ll just roll on by!!
Really Sad Times
Honestly? You wouldn’t report a crime if you saw it? That is absurd. Just because there was an injustice in this case does not mean that you need to do the wrong thing also. Two wrongs do not make a right!
John Deans boldness for his beliefs puts him in the crosshairs of others who don’t like him. May the truth prevail!
FREE JOHN DEANS!!!!! He is the real deal! This is absolutely ridiculous!!! He will not crumble. He stands up for what he believes in unlike most cowardly people today. Truly disturbing situation. We are all doomed! JD we are behind you 100%!!!!
I would really like to hear Judge Campbell’s explanation for this. I don’t understand why this type of issue hasn’t been resolved before. Crimestoppers has been around for a long time and seems like they would be defending this. It’s terrible to have a volunteer be retained in jail. Seems to be time for a new judge.
I am with you, this judge has lost his mind , who would have thought this would have happened in Washington County , to violate the integrity of Crimestoppers is insane.
Well isn’t he suppose to release the information that was given to him by the tipster! That is why he is held in contempt! Your just not suppose to reveal the tipster name! Folks! This is why the Supreme Court justices don’t have term limits! So they won’t be swayed by public threats!
Texas law says the only information that Crime Stoppers cannot give out, is the identity of the caller. All other information should be released.
Stand your ground John Deans! We are behind you 100%!!
You expect Deans to crumble? Ha!
I can see this being a national story.
A Crime Stoppers manual at gov.Texas.gov includes some relevant information. Crime Stoppers has not been successfully sued to reveal an anonymous tip identity. But perhaps the lawyer argued to satisfy one of these points, copied from the Operational Resource Manual.
“There are three factors under Rovario that are relevant to a determination of the
necessity for disclosure of the name of an informant. Those factors are where the
informer:
1) participated in the offense
2) was present at the time of the offense or arrest, or
3) was otherwise shown to be a material witness to the transaction ar as to
whether the defendant knowingly committed the act as charged”
It appears Judge Campbell will soon be out of a job. You won’t be missed.
I guess common sense isn’t very common anymore. Good job John Deans you have my support.
Perry Ratcliff
Proud of you, Deans, for standing up for your beliefs. Judge Campbell, you’re way out of line on this way and well on your way to getting yourself voted out of office.
This is crazy, why would a judge do something that would compromise the integrity of Crime Stoppers, just because some out of town defense attorney issues a subpoena, a judge should use enough common sense to put a stop to something like this. As voters, we need to remember Judge Carson Campbell the next time he runs for reelection, Crime Stoppers is there to protect us all, and for a judge to endanger that is just wrong.
Ok this is stupid. If he releases the information they want, crime stoppers will be finished. Noone will ever call in again. That judge should be in jail .
With all the things going on I feel disappointed. It seems some public offices are believed to be untrustworthy. We all need to pray for these people to do the right thing and keep everyone informed. I believe he citizens of this city and county are being taken for granted most of the time.
It’s said you can get the true value of a man from the way he treats his superiors,subordinates,spouse,and people that can do nothing for him. Hats off to JD and Crime Stoppers. Hide side sight always 20/20 Judge Carson.
The integrity of John Dean’s is like none other .To bad officials that represent us in other offices that are paid officials needs some training lessons from him.