Greg Travis, Houston City Council Member District G, released a copy of a letter that he sent to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo about her statements on re-prioritizing the $2.5 billion in bonds that Harris County voters approved for flood control.

Click here to view a pdf of the letter.

Good for council member Travis. I’m amazed at the lack of focus on this by Harris County Republicans, the Houston mayor, the current candidates for mayor and many others.

The best part of the letter from my perspective is this (emphasis mine)::

I also noticed in a recent communication from your office the “stakeholders” identified for the meetings and discussions of equity. I noticed groups such as the Houston Organizing Movement for Equity, the League of Women Voters, and the Texas Organizing Project. What I failed to notice were any stakeholders from District G, even though Buffalo Bayou runs through my district from Highway 6 all the way into and past downtown Houston.

Might I suggest you add me and my office to that list so that I get notice along with the following groups:

• Memorial Super Neighborhood #16
• Eldridge/West Oaks Super Neighborhood #17
• Briar Forest Super Neighborhood #18
• Houston West Chamber of Commerce
• Super Neighborhood Alliance
• Residents Against Flooding
• Frostwood Flood Committee
• TIRZ 17
• The Energy Corridor District
• The Westchase District

I am asking you to reconsider your proposal. Let’s do the most good for the most people rather than conducting social engineering to decide which projects should be funded immediately. Failing to do so may lead to the continued deterioration of all property values and to the reduced tax revenue for the City of Houston, Hands County and the flood control district.

After reading the investigative report about the allegations against Harris County Department of Education Board Trustee Mike Wolfe, I think the place is a lost cause and needs to be blown up. It really is an amazing report on the conduct of Wolfe and Trustee Eric Dick as well as an indictment of the way the place is run.

Click here to read it for yourself.

At least the Public Information Request office is well run. They sent me the report less than 24 hours after I requested it. I wish all public agencies responded that quickly.

Now, here are a few quotes directly from the report (but please, do yourself a favor and read the whole thing):

As I learned from my conversations with Mr. Dick, and looking at his marketing materials, while Mr. Dick is pleasant and chatty, he is prone to irony and drama.

The accusation by Mr. Flynn against Mr. Dick as to an underlying motive of political ill will has more credibility. Before I discuss this, I should point out: people often, or even usually, have mixed motives.

11.1. I find Mr. Dick does believe Jane Doe’s story, does believe Mr. Wolfe sexually harassed and retaliated against Jane Doe, and yet also find Mr. Dick was frustrated by Mr. Wolfe’s political stances on terminating a lobbyist contract, abolishing HCDE, favoring Mr. Flynn over Mr. Dick for the presidency of HCDE, and even failing to pay back (or properly disclose) large campaign loans of $28,000 by Mr. Dick to Mr. Wolfe.

“I [Eric Dick] have a friend. She’s in her early 30s. She applied for the position of Board Secretary. Mike, Louis Evans and I were going over resumes. We were the committee. I told Mike and Louis: ‘Full disclosure. She’s my friend.’ We chose seven candidates to interview. She was one of them. She goes over to Chris Daniels’ office. And she says Mike [Wolfe] had her in an office, closed the door, and asked her out on a date.”

14.9. All the Board members confirm this: Messrs. Dick and Wolfe “got two” of their friends or “hand-picked” committee favorites and they all made the final seven, despite not having being the top seven in the objective criteria. One of Mr. Dick’s “picks” was Jane Doe. One of Mr. Wolfe’s picks was Melissa Smith, the eventual hire. Both Ms. Doe and Ms. Smith would not have even made the group of 17 if judged initially on their scores.

For instance, Ms. Doe is one of only 14 in the 45 without a degree, one of 8 without clerical experience, had the third least “total related experience,” and was one of only two without MS Office skills, but got to the finals. Another of Mr. Wolfe’s picks, Jennifer Tashenberg, had the least clerical experience (none) and least technical knowledge out of the entire group, yet made the final seven.

Mr. Evans says it was “not optimal.” He said: “I’m used to doing it the right way. I’ve managed for 30 years.” What did he think should have happened? “A hiring manual. Training. We all need a refresher on the law.”

15.1. Mr. Wolfe (who met me at his lawyer’s office, voluntarily) freely admitted:

“We wanted to bring people in who were more friendly – politically and otherwise – to our philosophy; people we could trust. We all had people we wanted to apply for the position. I had two, Eric had two, Louis had one, one was an existing employee, a black lady in her 50s or 60s, and one was from the outside who just had a resume that looked good. She was the no-show.”

My impression was that Mr. Wolfe did not even know that what he had just told me was a boon to any decent plaintiff’s attorney who might want to accuse HCDE of deviating from their objective criteria to disfavor and discriminate, and that he was oblivious to the law.

Mr. Evans essentially confirmed my impression:

“Mike is a bit less formal than he should be. I did have to tell him not to ask certain questions. Illegal questions. I don’t think he’s ever held a management position.”

Mr. Flynn flat out told me:

“Michael is a child. He doesn’t even know what he is saying. He may be autistic.”

17.1. Mr. Dick invited Mr. Wolfe to the San Jacinto Day Dinner in March of 2017, as a guest at Mr. Dick’s table.

17.2. Mr. Dick wanted to set him up with Ms. Doe, who Mr. Wolfe says “looks half Asian,” after telling Mr. Wolfe for a long time he needed to date an Asian.

17.3. Mr. Dick’s table had prominent local Republicans, including attorney Chris Carmona, a good friend of Ms. Doe.

17.4. Mr. Dick introduced Ms. Doe to Mr. Wolfe, and during the dinner, texted Mr. Wolfe to move to sit by Ms. Doe. Mr Wolfe said it made him angry.

“It ticked me off because Eric told me ‘you need to get an Asian girl’ and then he popped this on me.”

My hunch and Ms. Doe’s fears were correct. Mr. Wolfe has tried to sabotage Ms. Doe.

Jeff Yates, Executive Director of the Harris County Republican Party [see editor’s note at the bottom of the page], told me Mr. Wolfe “blackballed” Ms. Doe when she was applying for a job with state congressman Dennis Paul:

“I know [Jane Doe]. I run campaigns. We were looking for campaign manager. I had an established State Representative, Dennis Paul. My employee and I met with the young woman. She was absolutely a finalist. Not the final two. Top five. I’ve known Michael for 15 years, in Republican circles. He called me and said ‘You do not need to hire her.’ This was July or August of last year. He definitely called me and said that. Unsolicitated. Came out of nowhere. He didn’t have a good impression of her. If she had made the final two, I would’ve asked more details.”

21.1. This is wholly unacceptable, and cannot be minimized with the Flynn approach (“he is a child” or “he’s probably autistic”). Mr. Wolfe has told me, even in the context of an investigation (in the presence of his own lawyer) that Ms. Doe sleeps around to pay her rent, without any factual basis, and is trying to ruin Ms. Doe’s career in her chosen party.

21.2. Ms. Doe is not seeking to sue HCDE, nor does she even want to receive an apology. What Ms. Doe wants is to move on, and be free to pursue employment within the Harris County or Texas Republican “orbit” without fear of Mr. Wolfe and his allies spreading Mr. Wolfe’s brand of disparagement. It was Mr. Wolfe who brought this whole investigation on, with his attempts to cost Ms. Doe a job; Ms. Doe had moved on, but one can understand why she would draw a line at a concerted effort to cut her out of GOP jobs. As Ms. Doe said:

21.3. HCDE has a strong interest in stopping Mr. Wolfe from spreading baseless rumors, and ceasing any efforts to harm Ms. Doe’s career.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Knowing Ms. Doe was seeking a job with HCDE, Mr. Wolfe asked Ms. Doe out on a date after closing the door to his office. She accepted just to leave the office, went down to her boyfriend in the car, cried, and immediately declined, telling Mr. Wolfe she was busy.
• Mr. Wolfe asked Ms. Doe out again, after the interviews, during which—and this is not clear–he was perceived as harsh to her. She declined.
• Mr. Wolfe told a decision-maker for a prospective employer, Jeff Yates, connected to him politically not to hire Ms. Doe.
• Mr. Wolfe made a baseless claim that Ms. Doe sleeps around to pay her rent, during this investigation. When challenged to give a basis for this disparagement, he was unable to do so. He also makes non-credible claims of Ms. Doe “stalking” him.
• Ms. Doe is not seeking money or fame; she is a reluctant witness, who wants only for Mr. Wolfe to cease and desist from interfering with her career.
• In addition to being unwise, putting his own interests ahead of HCDE’s, and exposing HCDE to risk of a lawsuit, Mr. Wolfe’s actions described in Findings 1-5 (and the description in this Report) violate Board Policy BBF (LOCAL), the principles underpinning the Board, Policy DIA (LEGAL), Policy DIA (LOCAL), and the common law governing defamation.
• Mr. Wolfe’s conduct during the process, and thereafter, brings the Department into disrepute. He has made highly disparaging statements about Ms. Doe’s reputation without a shred of knowledge, and tried to sabotage her job hunt elsewhere, whilst even trying one last time to ask her out (after she was rejected by a committee he sat on). For all these things, he should be censured.
• Mr. Dick should have relayed the claims of Ms. Doe to HCDE’s HR Department as soon as he was able, and in a completely confidential way; however, reports do not need to be “immediate” or motivated only by pure goals. Mr. Dick can and should do better, but it is unlikely this exact scenario will play out again. Still, I recommend Mr. Dick not serve on any committee with Mr. Wolfe. It would be a recipe for disaster, as this feud is long from being over.
• The process of hiring the Executive Assistant was tainted by Messrs. Dick and Wolfe. Transparency was sacrificed in the cause of political cronyism. The testing/ranking process was turned into a sham. The way Messrs. Dick and Wolfe, in particular, pushed their less-qualified friends and allies into running for the job of Board Secretary opened HCDE up to charges of favoritism and bias, caused employees to lose faith, and rendered the process arbitrary.
• Mr. Wolfe should not do interviews or recruiting for HCDE any longer, and should be removed from any committee which does this. Further, Mr. Wolfe should have to complete training in effective communications, as a condition of his trusteeship, and to pass the training, should be able to demonstrate awareness of legal risks from his communications.

Well, if you’ve made it this far, congratulations. Unfreaking believable. Burn the place down. I don’t know if the entire report is factually true, particularly when it comes to he said, she said statements but there are enough things in it that are institutionally true to earn anyone’s wrath.

The worst part of all of this? Everyone mentioned in the report is a Republican. Way to go dumb-asses. So much for the old “Harris County Works because of Republicans” campaign.

Mike Wolfe and Eric Dick should both resign from the Harris County Department of Education Board. And then issue an apology to the Harris County Republican Party.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

The report incorrectly identifies Jeff Yates as the Executive Director of the Harris County Republican Party. Actually, Mr. Yates is a former ED of the HCRP and has been a private consultant for many years. Makes you wonder about the overall quality of the report, doesn’t it?

An amazing board meeting today at the Harris County Department of Education. There was a protest, lots of citizen participation, arguing among board members and a vote to censure an elected board member. Hey, it’s Harris County’s own version of a Donald Trump presser!

Protest/press conference

Honestly, I wouldn’t have even been there today if it weren’t for an email that I received via our Contact Page.

I’ve been told that you may be interested in hearing that Gary Pollard is up for consideration for the board attorney for the Harris County Department of Education. Also up for consideration is Briscoe Cain’s firm, Strahan Cain. I’m hosting a press conference at noon at HCDE (6300 Irvington) tomorrow to state a desire for them to keep their current, unbiased education specialist board counsel. Contact me at (xxx) 289-6333 if you have any questions.

That came from Andrea Duhon. I didn’t know her, so I did the Google thing and found out that she ran for the HCDE board last November and narrowly lost to Josh Flynn, who is currently the HCDE Board President. And on Facebook, where I found that she is currently running for Trustee Mike Wolfe’s At-Large Position 5 spot, which is up for election in 2020. It turned out to be more of a protest than a press conference.

That is Ms. Duhon with the bullhorn. Here is an information sheet that they handed out. The three points that she made were:

• Re-hire Hillco to lobby for the HCDE
• Don’t fire the current HCDE attorney
• Save the Department

The funniest parts of the protest to me were the boos at the mention of Rep. Briscoe Cain’s name and saying that Sen. Paul Bettencourt hated education. Clearly these protesters have never met either man.

The meeting wasn’t all that heated

After the protest, I thought that the meeting might get out of control. Fortunately, it didn’t. A few of the citizen speakers did make baseless charges towards the board but as far as meetings go, it was fairly tame. Clearly there was a conspiracy to keep me from speaking. When I signed in and signed up to speak, there was only one person signed in, Colleen Vera of TexasTrashTalk.com. Board President Flynn kept calling names, but not mine! Then he declared that all signed up speakers had had their turn and they were moving on. I was like, hold up! I signed up! For whatever reason, Mr. Flynn didn’t have the original sign in sheets but when another guy said that he too signed up, we were allowed our five minutes of fame.

I won’t bother to go through every agenda item, you can view the video if you wish. I’ll simply give you my thoughts on the interactions of the board and the HCDE employees.

It is clear that board members and staff do not trust and/or like each other. I’ll put part of the blame for this on the Superintendent, James Colbert, Jr. Mr. Colbert’s body language and actual language shows a clear dislike for some of the board members. He comes across as arrogant and smug. A Superintendent needs to build bridges and try to create consensus. After talking to a former HCDE board member after this meeting, I understand that Mr. Colbert, Jr. has had to fight for his job for quite some time. That is no excuse for such a defensive attitude from a leader. Suck it up buttercup and build a team. It can be done, I’ll help you if you want.

But I won’t lay all of the blame on the superintendent. This board clearly has issues. I don’t know the Democrats on the board but I do know four of the five Republicans. They can do better. Much, much better. And frankly, I was impressed by one of the Democrats, Danny Norris. He seemed to be playing the role of peacemaker and spoke with a gentle, yet firm voice. Kudos.

Dick and Wolfe feud

I don’t know what has caused these two former allies to become bitter enemies and I don’t really care. But it isn’t good for the Harris County Department of Education. For the last few weeks, Mr. Dick has been saying things about Mr. Wolfe in various places, including Facebook, his paid air-time radio show and via email. Today there was an agenda item and an executive session about the allegations that Mr. Wolfe sexually harassed an employee of the HCDE.

Prior to the meeting, I asked Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Dick for a quote about the feud. Mr. Wolfe referred me to his attorney, Jared Woodfill, who had this to say:

The allegations are false, manufactured, defamatory, and politically motivated because Mr. Wolfe failed to vote the way Mr. Dick demanded. Mr. Wolfe voted consistent with his values and campaign promises, despite pressure to vote otherwise.

Mr. Dick told me:

The victim called me crying. I just want to know the truth.

I had to leave during the executive session, which lasted about 2 hours. When the meeting resumed, the board voted to censure Mr. Wolfe at a later meeting. Mr. Dick went far beyond that, calling for Mr. Wolfe to resign and calling Mr. Wolfe a pervert. Video of the vote and Mr. Dick’s comments:

You will notice that the vote to censure Mr. Wolfe at a future meeting was 6-0-1, with Wolfe abstaining. Obviously I don’t haven’t read the investigative report and don’t even know who did the investigation. But a unanimous vote to censure Wolfe by several of his friends and allies is not nothing.

I asked Jared Woodfill for a followup comment after the meeting and this is what he provided:

He [Dick] needs to be censured for the false allegations, defamatory Facebook posts, and the political vendetta that is motivating his vicious attacks to destroy a good man’s name.  The Board needs to afford Michael his due process rights and allow him to confront the accusations, challenge the testimony, and test the credibility of the witnesses.  If not, it will be complicit in a political smear job based on Mr. Wolfe voting his conservative values.  Unlike others, Mr. Wolfe voted against using taxpayer dollars to fund big lobby contracts, has pushed to eliminate the Board, and has refused to support people simply based on politics.  Mike Wolfe should be commended, not vilified by some elected officials who have forgotten that it is we the people who elected them to be good stewards of our tax dollars.

Like I said earlier, this board has issues. Mr. Colbert, Jr. needs to step up and help to fix these problems.

Working with state representatives

Here is a suggestion for Mr. Colbert, Jr. – work with the elected officials in Harris County. Build relationships. Tell the HCDE story directly.

I had the impression that the HCDE staff has not reached out to the elected officials that were mentioned by citizens during the open forum period and in the protest prior to the meeting. So I asked Sen. Bettencourt if he had heard from anyone at HCDE. Here is his response:

Not to try and build a relationship, LOL, at all…So No. I believe their former lobbyist firm called Jan. 22nd for a potential appt next day, Jan 23rd, but we had a major Senate finance hearing on Texas Government so it was declined. No further attempted HCDE communication has occurred since then.

Here is Rep. Cain’s response:

I have never been contacted contacted by anyone on the staff of HCDE about anything.

That is what is so frustrating to me as a citizen watching governmental bodies spend taxpayer funds hiring professional lobbyists to go to Austin for them. As I said in the open forum for citizens, it is immoral to use taxpayer funds to wine and dine elected officials when we literally have people starving on our streets. I was stunned at the so-called civil rights groups that protested before the meeting demanding that taxpayer funds be used to pay lobbyists.

HCDE deserves better

The Harris County Department of Education is a great example of a governmental body that actually works to improve the lives of taxpayers. But that doesn’t mean that they cannot improve. We heard today that they are spending $1,000,000 (that’s a million dollars for those of you from Pasadena) a year on one of their schools that has 6 students enrolled. You read that correctly, 6 students, one million dollars. Fortunately the board voted to require Mr. Colbert, Jr. to present a plan at the next board meeting to get that enrollment up to the projected 100 students.

There are countless items like that that can be improved. But it won’t happen if the board continues the infighting and the staff continues to ignore the board’s requests.

Mr. Colbert, Jr. it’s time for you to step up to the plate and do your job. The former board member that I spoke to today had high regard for you and told me that you could do it. So do it.

The January 29 Houston PD drug raid that left two homeowners shot dead and four officers shot, continues to make the news amid cries to ban ‘no knock’ search warrants.

The raid on the Harding Street house did not go well, to say the least.  The occupants of the house, Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, were killed in a shootout with Houston PD narcotics officers, four of whom were wounded by the gunfire.  On top of that, there is evidence that the search warrant affidavit was fabricated by one or more of the raiding officers.

The search warrant obtained by the narcotics officers was a ‘no knock’ warrant.  It allows the cops to smash the door in and enter the premises without any warning to the occupants.  The purpose of such warrants is to protect officers from being shot if the occupants are known to be armed or to prevent the disposal of contraband. 

The protection of officers from getting shot is a legitimate reason for a no knock warrant.  But it can be argued that the disposal of evidence is a bogus concern.  If there is a large quantity of narcotics and packaging materials in the house, those cannot be flushed down the toilet.  Neither can a scale.  I once tried to flush about 8 oz of pot down a toilet.  No matter how many times I flushed, the marijuana continued to float on top of the water.

The problem with a no knock entry is that the occupant may believe he is being attacked by home invaders and will try to defend himself by shooting at who he believes to be burglars.  Although the cops in the Houston raid claim they shouted “police,” Tuttle may not have heard them.  That makes sense because Tuttle, 59, had no criminal record and logic says he would not knowingly have shot at the police.

I question the need for no knock search warrants.  The drug raids I went on in the Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange counties of California were all conducted with ‘knock and announce’ warrants.  And although in most of those raids the occupants of the raided houses were heavily armed, none of them led to a shootout. 

All drug raids are dangerous.  In the war on drugs there will be casualties on both sides regardless of the type of search warrant used.  The safety of both cops and crooks, as well as the avoidance of hitting a wrong target, boils down to meticulous planning, pre-raid orientation of all participants and careful execution of the raid.  

Drug raids are usually carried out late at night or before dawn in the belief that the suspects will be asleep and will be surprised before they can reach for a gun.

There is really little difference between the way no knock warrants and knock and announce warrants are carried out.  In knock and announce warrants, the police have to knock on the door, identify themselves as the police and announce they have a search warrant.  The warrants do not specify how loud the knocks and announcements must be, nor do they specify how long officers must wait before they can kick the door in. 

In the raids I went on, we knocked gently on the door and in a normal voice stated “This is the police, we have a search warrant,” and – crash – the door got kicked in.  So, what is the difference between no knock warrants and knock and announce warrants?  About 10 seconds.         

A knock and announce entry, which is designed to let the occupants know it’s the police that want to enter the premises, doesn’t work unless the cops pound on the door and shout out loud “This is the police, we have a search warrant,” and then wait at least one minute during daylight and two minutes at night before kicking the door in.  Of course, if after knocking on the door, they hear what sounds like the occupants trying to dispose contraband, they can break in immediately.

At a town hall meeting Monday, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told an angry crowd, “The no-knock warrants are going to go away like leaded gasoline in this city.”  He is now bellowing about restricting the use of no knock warrants, but since there is so little difference in the way the two types of warrants are carried out, Acevedo is just blowing more hot air.

There are a few meetings this week that I think would interest Harris County Republicans.

Tuesday, Feb. 19 – Greater Houston Pachyderms hosting Empower Texans representatives – click the link for details

This one is interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, the Texas political press HATES the Empower Texans organization. This editorial from the Waco Tribune-Herald is a very mild example of the overreaction that the press had when this was announced. I do mean very mild, you should see the stuff from individual reporters on Twitter. That should be reason enough to support it.

Second, it doesn’t say who will be representing ET but I’m assuming that Charles Blain will be there. Charles is the ET rep for the area and has been doing a great job in highlighting issues around Harris County. Perhaps you’ll even get to hear from Michael Quinn Sullivan, the guy that is worse than Dick Cheney in the eyes of the Texas political media. Heck, I bet they even think he has control of Cheney’s weather machine. For a treat, follow him on Twitter – he trolls the Texas political media like a fisherman in a bait pond.

While I’m at it, sign up for the Empower Texans morning update called the Texas Minute. It’s informative and at times funny. And you bet it’s biased. And that is refreshing because the Texas political media is so biased the other direction.

Thursday, Feb. 21 – Downtown Houston Pachyderms hosting Jonathon Dunne on American Execptionalism – click the link for details

I don’t know Mr. Dunne but wouldn’t it be nice to hear someone talking about American Exceptionalism instead of running their mouths about how awful America is?

Friday, Feb. 22 – Houston Property Rights Association hosting Big Jolly Time’s own Greg Degeyter with an analysis of the county electorate and how to overcome the negative environment.

• LamBo Restaurant (Chinese and American food)
• 6159 Westheimer Road
• Buffet lunch – 12:00 to 2:00 – Program starts at 12:30 PM

Greg sent me one of the charts he will be using:

So there you go Harris County Republicans! And conservatives! You’ve got some stuff to do this week, if you choose.

In my February 12 BJT article Acevedo Should Be Fired For His Reckless Comments On The Tragic Houston Drug Raid I asked, “Was the search warrant in the Houston raid based on a careless worded or worse, fabricated affidavit?” That question has now been answered and unfortunately the answer is the affidavit was fabricated.

It appears that narcotics officer Gerald Goines, who is still hospitalized, lied about a confidential informant having bought heroin at 7815 Harding Street and that officer Steven Bryant, who has been relieved of duty, likely colluded in the fabrication of the affidavit.

Officers from HPD’s special investigation unit obtained the identity of all informants who ever worked for Goines and each of them denied ever buying any drugs at 7815 Harding Street or from Dennis Tuttle and his wife Rhogena Nicholas, the couple that was killed in a shootout with Goines’ team.

Now Houston police chief Art Acevedo acknowledges that a crime was committed in obtaining the search warrant and says, “We know for a fact that, more than likely, the investigating officer will be charged with a serious crime at some point.”  He asked that HPD not be painted with a ‘broad brush’ and said, “The community will absolutely know the good, the bad and the ugly.”

Ugly this is.  It’s beyond bad!  A lowdown lying officer caused the deaths of two innocent homeowners and almost cost the lives of himself and his fellow officers.

Goines and Bryant, if he colluded in fabricating the affidavit, must be punished to the full extent of the law.  Two counts of murder for Goins and probably two counts of murder for Bryant appear to be appropriate.  If any additional officers participated in the fabrication, the same for them.

HPD has been given a black eye that will linger for some time to come.  Acevedo finally got it right when he asked that HPD not be painted with a broad brush.  The actions of Goins and Bryant should not reflect on the dedicated officers of the Houston Police Department who risk their lives every day while protecting the citizens of this great city.

As for Acevedo, now that he knows the ugly truth, he’s saying all the right things.  But he’s a day late and a dollar short.  Acevedo should still be fired for the reckless misstatements he made during several press briefings on this tragic case.  The city of Houston and its cops deserve better than a leader who discredits HPD by shooting his mouth off without knowing the facts.