Former Beaumont ISD electrician has ‘made a mockery’ of felony judgment, probation, prosecutor says
Off-the-cuff math calculations performed in court Feb. 13 revealed it would take thousands of years for former Beaumont ISD contract electrician Calvin Walker to pay back the more than $1 million he defrauded from the district’s students – especially since the convicted felon pays less than $30 a month toward the restitution. During a hearing held in Judge John Stevens’ Jefferson County Criminal District Court the day before Valentine’s Day, prosecutors from the local district attorney’s office further alleged that Walker is sitting on roughly half a million dollars that should be rightfully turned over to the victims of Walker’s criminality.
Walker is set to appear before Stevens’ court again Feb. 28, and report what efforts have been made toward settling his debt with the defrauded school district. As of reports near press time, Walker has made no visible effort to fork over any funds.
Charged and convicted of six cases related to fraud and money laundering funds ill-gotten from the coffers of Beaumont ISD, Walker’s state cases have been on the books since grand jury indictment in 2014. Appeals, set-offs, attorney holidays, etc. allowed the cases against Walker to drag on for years before the matters were heard before a sworn Beaumont area jury. Even after the jury delivered guilty verdicts and allowed for probation and restitution in September 2019, Walker and his attorneys continued in appeals to stall fulfilling restitution requirements for almost another two years.
So, when Stevens heard that only $828 in Walker’s court-ordered restitution has been paid in the past two-and-a-half years, just $27.60 per month, the judge was livid.
“Mr. Walker is sticking out as one of the very few who pays such a small amount,” Stevens said, adding that persons convicted of much less fraud, with much less means to provide, are paying much more than the defendant, who is no stranger to cashing $1 million-plus checks in his past. “I don’t like what I see here. It’s disturbing. It’s an affront to the orders of this court.”
Stevens, reviewing bankruptcy papers Walker filed in federal court at the end of 2024, noted that the defendant was lying to the local court when stating he was unable to pay on the court-ordered debt. Walker, who has claimed the life of a pauper on Social Security, not only performs jobs throughout the community, but he also owns a cache of real and personal property well in excess of $500,000 – in addition to the $350,000 homestead not counted toward cash on-hand.
Numerous properties, including rental properties Walker was prior instructed to sell, were all delineated when prosecutor Pat Knauth addressed the court with the people’s predicament. According to Knauth, Walker was in possession of $996,000 in total assets, of which $550,000 was attributed to numerous properties, vehicles, commercial accoutrement and recreational vehicles.
“From the state’s perspective,” Knauth said, “we’ve had enough.”
“Right now, the amount he’s paid is a mockery of this system,” Knauth added.
According to the probation officer (PO) supervising Walker, the office had requested a copy of the bankruptcy filings, which Walker did not provide. The PO further said she tried to get a copy of property owned by Walker, which the defendant also would not provide. Knauth provided a copy of the bankruptcy property ownership report for the probation department during the Feb. 13 hearing.
The Examiner obtained a copy of the filing from the bankruptcy court. Among the properties Walker attests to owning are his $357,000 homestead on Roland Road, 1520 Park Street ($78,686 value, owned solely by Walker), Lafitte Landing property (claimed by Walker as investment property valued at $92,074, owned solely by Walker) and 4445 Brandon Street (land lot valued at $19,406, owned solely by Walker), Langham Street property (valued at $2,034, owned solely by Walker), as well as three vehicles: a Denali ($30,000), Jeep ($20,000) and Cadillac Escalade ($10,000). Walker reports ownership of $9,000 worth of personal items, and business property valued at $357,000, but allegedly cannot work and lives off $500 a month gifted from family and Social Security, to which he collects $2,059 monthly.
“Those are liquidatable,” Stevens suggested of the excess under Walker’s ownership. “All of that is not exempt from liquidation to pay toward the court-ordered restitution. I don’t understand why that’s not being done.”
“The total is almost $1million worth of value,” Stevens summed up.
Crickets was the only sound from the table of Walker and his attorney, Dick DeGuerrin, until the lawyer broke the silence with little to add to the conversation once challenged to speak by the judge overseeing the proceeding.
“My understanding is they’re jointly owned between him and his wife and he can’t sell,” DeGuerin remarked. The defense theory was quickly debunked, however, as a quick review of the bankruptcy filings denote throughout that the property was under the sole ownership of the defendant. Unless, Walker was lying to the bankruptcy court.
“It is signed under oath,” Knauth interjected.
Bankruptcy crimes, the notice given to filers states, “have serious consequences.”
“If you knowingly and fraudulently conceal assets or make a false oath or statement under penalty of perjury – ether orally or in writing – in connection with a bankruptcy case, you may be fined, imprisoned, or both.”
Why didn’t the defense know about the property and liquidate it properly, the judge continued to ask Walker and his attorney.
“The probation office has asked Mr. Walker to liquidate his assets – and he declined,” the PO stated. To that, Stevens queried a resounding, “Why not?”
“Why didn’t y’all know?” Stevens asked DeGuerin, who repeatedly claimed ignorance of the facts and inability to answer the court’s questions.
“I’m not prepared to answer,” DeGuerin stated. The court will await further sentiments from the defense Feb. 28.
“He hasn’t, at any point of this whole situation, been truthful,” Knauth told the court when asking for the revocation of Walker’s probation for skirting the court’s orders. “He had the ability to pay, and he did not.”
Further proving Walker had access to funds that were not used to pay the debt owed “to the children of the Beaumont Independent School District,” Knauth divulged the excess in which Walker indulged while serving weekends in the county jail to satisfy the 180 days of up-front jail time that accompanied the probation order. The 180 days are now expired but, over the course of the time Walker was in jail, Knauth detailed, the part-time inmate spent more than $800 for rental movies, over $5,000 for blankets, chips and cookies, and more than $2,000 for phone calls.
“It’s an insult to the court order,” Knauth presented, adding that luxe living in jail was an affront to justice.
As of Feb. 13, Walker had paid a total of $828 to the probation department to cover restitution and $60 a month for supervision fees – for a total sum of $2,488. The total restitution still owed was $1,171,828.01. According to Stevens, at the current rate of pay, restitution would be paid in full in 36,000 years.
“That’s just not working,” Stevens said, and ordered Walker to liquidate property, pay towards restitution and report back to court.
“That gives you that period of time to do what should have been done years ago,” Stevens said.
“I expect that to be accomplished immediately – if not yesterday,” Stevens suggested. “Or, do we ask for a motion to revoke probation to be revoked filed?”
“This court just wants those people to be paid,” the judge added.
Feb. 14, Walker was briefly jailed in connection with the state’s motion to revoke probation, but was quickly released to allow the defendant to follow court orders.