Static has no excuse for waiting weeks to look at its Tivo-recorded premiere of Jail, except maybe that it seemed like duty rather than entertainment. Wrong-o.
The KDFI/Channel 27 show by the creator of COPS features life inside jails, including ours truly. And, boy, what shenanigans went on at Tarrant County’s lock-up. The first episode featured a buff and effeminate male inmate causing a stir in stir by wearing a super-tight uniform. The lieutenant on duty worried that all that prancing was akin to dangling a pork chop in a lion’s den, so he asked the dude to don baggier garb. The inmate went diva, raging against the blasphemy of concealing his wonderfulness under a frumpy uniform (imagine Madonna being handed a polka-dot muu-muu on tour). Surprisingly, the affable lieutenant was patient as he encouraged Mr. Madonna to make a costume change. After long minutes of negotiation, the inmate agreed, and all was happy again in jail land.
A cynical Static figured the lieutenant was just making nice for the camera and administered the Chinese water torture afterward, but Sheriff Dee Anderson said Lt. William Olds is a genuinely nice guy whose first option is to treat inmates with tolerance. “That story is the perfect example of how we want the jail run,” he said. “We couldn’t let that situation continue, and Lt. Olds, through negotiation and talk and maybe a little begging, he got things done. If we’d gone in and forcibly made that guy change outfits, it might have been a different outcome.”
Wrecking Ball (and Chain)
Hope seemed to have vanished recently for Eastside neighbors trying to keep a historic home on Oak Hill Road – and the 3.5 acres of old post oaks that surround it – from being obliterated for an 18-unit housing development. Last week, developer Antonio Caballero took out a permit to bulldoze the house.
However, all may not be lost. At press time, Caballero had not taken out a permit to remove trees on the lot, as required under the city’s tree protection ordinance. “The urban forestry department has not signed off on the demolition permit,” Harold Pitchford, parks department assistant director, said, and until he gets that OK, Caballero can’t touch the house.
That could take months – good news for neighbors, since Caballero, a recently convicted felon, is due to be sentenced in December for lying to federal housing officials about his criminal record and then getting $400,000 in loans for houses that he illegally sold to undocumented immigrants several years ago. Oddly enough, Caballero didn’t return Static’s call asking whether he can run his newest development from inside a federal prison.
