Beaumont alone reports over 1,000 violent crimes each year
It’s a club none in the room want to belong to – being a survivor of violent crime. Surviving violent crime in Jefferson County is a club, however, that grows every day.
At a gathering of survivors converged in the Jefferson County Courthouse on April 25 in participation of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) – some in attendance now annually for over a decade, others new to the collective – the solemn affair commenced with a call to action: “Elevate. Engage. Effect Change.”
With a goal to “confront and remove barriers to achieving justice for all victims of crime,” NCVRW is a time to celebrate the accomplishments of the victims’ rights movement and call on communities “to amplify the voices of survivors and commit to creating an environment where survivors have the confidence that they will be heard, believed and supported.”
Welcome to the club
Beaumont alone reports over 1,000 violent crimes each year – a trend dating back to at least 2011, according to FBI crime data.
FBI data reveals that, in 2019, the most recent detailed national UCR (Uniform Crime Report) release, Beaumont recorded 1,241 violent crimes. Of the offenses reported to the FBI, there were 19 murders, 97 rapes, 802 aggravated assaults, 950 burglaries, and more than 300 auto thefts. The same year, Port Arthur recorded 344 violent crimes, including nine murders, 29 rapes, more than 100 auto thefts and 222 aggravated assaults. Orange reported 86 violent crimes, including one murder and seven rapes, to the FBI in 2019.
Preliminary UCR data for Beaumont for 2020 and 2021 shows the city continued to post more than 1,000 violent crimes those years, as well. In 2021, there were 1,103 violent crime incidents, and 1,222 offenses, reported to the FBI by the Beaumont Police Department, which began voluntarily submitting National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data to the FBI on Aug. 1, 2020.
Beaumont reports its UCR/NIBRS data monthly – albeit a couple months behind before its open to public scrutiny. January numbers put the city on par with topping more than 1,000 violent crimes reported in the city for the year – yet again. According to the Beaumont crime report, the first month of the year was without a single murder, but still marred by 463 reportable violent criminal incidents, including 17 rapes, 38 auto thefts and 116 aggravated assaults.
“Victims are more than just a label,” a proclamation presented by the city of Beaumont declares of those impacted by violent crime, asserting legal protections afforded to those unwillingly thrust into the legal justice system.
“Victims of crime are afforded certain rights under Texas law,” Texas Department of Criminal Justice advisement informs. “These rights include, but are not limited to, the right to protection, information, notification, to be heard, to participate in the criminal justice system, and to seek financial remedies.”
Pursuant to the Texas Constitution, a crime victim has “the right to be treated with fairness and with respect for the victim’s dignity and privacy throughout the criminal justice process; and the right to be reasonably protected from the accused throughout the criminal justice process.”
Additionally, the Texas Constitution requires “on the request of a crime victim,” certain provisions also be provided to those who ask for it, including the right to notification of court proceedings; the right to be present at all public court proceedings related to the offense, unless the victim is to testify and the court determines that the victim’s testimony would be materially affected if the victim hears other testimony at the trial; the right to confer with a representative of the prosecutor’s office; the right to restitution; and the right to information about the conviction, sentence, imprisonment, and release of the accused.
“A victim or guardian or legal representative of a victim has standing to enforce the rights enumerated in this section but does not have standing to participate as a party in a criminal proceeding or to contest the disposition of any charge, the Texas Constitution further states.
Candles in the wind
One by one, a parade of survivors lit candles from a shared flame next to a collection of memorabilia depicting those lost to violent criminal acts of others at the April 25 vigil.
“It’s got her name on it,” a survivor remembering fallen Beaumont Police Officer Sheena Yarbrough-Powell remarked of the lovingly crafted attire worn to the event that showed off the stats behind a beautiful smile missed by Sheena’s family and friends – her birthdate, and date of a premature death resulting from a night seared into the memory of those left to cherish the memory of a young woman who swore to fight crime, and, while fulfilling her duty, became a victim of one. Situated next to Yarbrough-Powell’s survivors sat those of another fallen Beaumont Police Officer, Bryan Hebert, whose family chose to reflect on the loss of a man who swore to protect and serve the public by offering scholarships to those also pursuing a career in law enforcement.
Shirts declaring victims “Gone, but not forgotten” were co-signed by tears of remembrance that denoted no amount of time would stifle the fact that the violent criminal acts – no matter how long ago undertaken – would ever feel any less new than the day it happened.
“Violent crime is maybe our worst issue we have to address and fix in this country,” Jefferson County Criminal District Court Judge John Stevens admonished multi-count violent offender Barbara Kennerly the following day, just a few feet from where the Crime Victims Vigil was held the previous evening. Kennerly, who stood before Stevens requesting probation, admitted to aggravated assault with use of a deadly weapon, specifically using a box cutter to stab a woman several times in 2020. Kennerly, who had a prior conviction for cutting another victim with bottle, was not going to leave the court with just a paper trail to hold her to good behavior this time, though.
“I’m disappointed ... having to look at photographs of another victim that was stabbed,” Stevens said as he sent the woman to prison for a seven-year enhanced term.
Corie Reed, charged with injury to child and assault family violence dating back to a single incident in 2020, was likewise chastised April 26 for continued violent criminal activity that resulted in harm to a 10-year-old child. Reed’s attorney, T. LeBlanc, pointed to the absence of the victims in court on Wednesday as rationale to set the admitted abuser free.
LeBlanc said the victims, and responding officers, were not included in the PSI (pre sentence investigation) narrative. Judge Stevens refused to accept that the exclusion of victim testimony from the probation report should exclude the charges and evidence collected at the time of the alleged offense.
“She made input on the day of the event,” Stevens stressed of the police report filed by the adult victim on the day of the alleged assaults. Reading from the report, Stevens detailed the scene: The adult female victim was accompanied by three children, of which Reed is father of two. Reed got high on drugs, got in a fight with the mother of his children, “then grabbed her by her throat ... she was in fear for life throughout the attack.”
The child, who was about 10 at the time of the assault, Stevens added, “tried stopping the defendant from assaulting his mother.
“The child was picked up by the neck, as the mom came to the child’s defense.”
Reed allegedly then went to the “knife drawer” as the woman and her children “fled out the window of a bathroom.”
“She has every right to come into this courtroom,” Reed’s attorney argued of his client’s “right” to face the accuser. “She chooses not to do it.”
Prosecutor Jimmy Hamm offered insight to the victim’s role in presenting for court.
“It’s been like pulling teeth to get to the point where we’re standing here today,” the prosecutor said. The victim, Hamm asserted, has been to court many times over the last two years while the defendant, who has since moved out of the area, stalled proceeding after proceeding. “The victim was cooperative – at first – but, over time…
“The way the trend has been lately is people come to court hoping that the witness won’t show. That’s what’s happened here.”
“The court knows the difficulty,” Stevens agreed, of being put through what the victim has. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”
Reed, who was fresh off serving nine years of a 10-year prison sentence when he assaulted a 10-year-old child and the mother of his children, was returned to prison for a term of six years the violent activity exacted against a child.
“You’re a terror,” Stevens said as the defendant shook his head. “This is what makes nightmares for children.”
Caught in his own nightmare in the neighboring courtroom of 252nd District Court Judge Raquel West, proclaimed S.O.G. gang member Kenneth Thibodeaux of Beaumont stood mostly silent as the barely-an-adult defendant admitted to having his little brother in tow when he and a S.O.G. accomplice were stopped by law enforcement officers suspecting the group in a “number” of drive-by shootings throughout the city.
Thibodeaux, in the passenger’s seat, was found in possession of suspected codeine and a stolen handgun on his side of he car, and had his younger brother in the back, also with controlled substance and a stolen firearm, West detailed.
Thibodeaux has a history of gang activity, gun possession, and theft, prosecutor Ashley Molfino advised, adding that Thibodeaux was also an alleged participant in a Nederland and Mid-County police chase where multiple stolen handguns were recovered. At the time of the most recent crime, Thibodeaux was supposed to be on house arrest.
Instead, “You’re in a car, riding around with gangbangers, got your red bandana tied up, black ski mask,” West said of the defendant’s modus operandi from prior offenses. “Now, you’re in a car, with guns, with your little brother.
“You’re just bringing him up in the way of the S.O.G., I guess.”
Pointing out that probation has not been a good fit for the felon in the past, West decided stiffer punishment was necessary – even without a complaining victim in the courtroom gallery.
“We have already worked with you,” the judge dismayed. “There is too may guns, too many shootings. It’s ridiculous what’s going on.
“Today, I’m at least going to protect the community from you for some amount of time.”
Thibodeaux was sentenced to six years in prison for the retaliation charge before the court. As the sentencing was not part of plea deal, Thibodeaux retains some right of appeal.
National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, April 23–29, serves as a method to assure victims they have rights, too.