Bringing former Beaumont ISD contract electrician Calvin Walker into Jefferson County’s Criminal District Court for a second time in two weeks Feb. 28, Judge John Stevens again pressed the defendant as to what actions are being taken to pay back in excess of $1 million to the victims of his crimes – specifically, the students of the local school district. Walker’s attorney, Dick DeGuerin, continued to argue that the adults in charge at BISD claim there is no victim.
“A jury found differently,” Stevens assured, nonplussed by the defense argument and still intent on recouping restitution. Walker was found guilty of defrauding the school district in 2019; he was ordered to pay restitution in excess of $1 million and serve 180 days of upfront time in jail (served over successive weekends), as well as 10 years’ probation.
According to DeGuerin, Walker placed three properties up for sale since a Feb. 14 motion to revoke the defendant’s probation was filed for failure to pay restitution as ordered: tracts at Lafitte’s Landing in Pleasure Island, and Brandon Street and Langham near Dowlen in Beaumont. Whether any of the property will sell is uncertain; and, county prosecutor Pat Knauth said that the asking price for at least a portion of the property is way out of line with the value Walker previously estimated.
Lafitte’s Landing is currently on the market with Walker asking more than $300,000 for the vacant lots. In sworn bankruptcy filings, Walker estimated the value of the land at a more conservative $92,000. All the properties Walker put on the market are past due on taxes.
Knauth expressed thought that the massively fluctuating values placed on properties Walker should have sold to pay restitution long ago is just another stall tactic to not pay at all.
“He’s just trying to live his normal life and not pay restitution,” Knauth said of the defendant, who has paid just $828 toward restitution in the five years since a jury found him guilty of defrauding the local school district. The motion to revoke Walker’s probation revealed the fraudster to be $266,000 in arrears. Knauth argued that any other defendant would be locked up for flagrantly disobeying court orders.
“So far,” Knauth said of Walker, “everything he’s done is thumbing his nose.”
Beaumont ISD isn’t the only one not getting paid during this time, DeGuerin told the court, requesting some relief for himself in not returning to court on a weekly basis until Walker makes good on paying some restitution.
“I haven’t been paid in a long time,” the veteran attorney shared, adding that his age makes it difficult to drive in from Houston to be at court. For the Feb. 28 proceeding, DeGuerin was two hours late. “I don’t like having to make that drive.”
Stevens ordered the parties to report back on progress, or lack thereof, in late March or early April, but DeGuerin was hesitant to agree to a court date as he expressed other obligations.
“We’ve stalled years,” the judge determined. “This is important.
“I think we have stalled way too long. In the defendant’s hands, I don’t think this property is ever going to move.”
Still, with the prosecutor unwilling to take over the sale of property, Walker was ordered to put good faith effort into selling the properties before again appearing in Stevens’ court.