[I am conveying this message, for what little help possible, for a Texas woman who has been through more than any one family can endure.]

To: BOC ADMINISTRATOR & BOARD MEMBERS

From: Brenda Pitts Bennett

(Mother of inmate)

701 Meadowdale

Royse City, Texas75189

bbbennett@cebridge.net

972-636-3575 

Dear Mr. Administrator,

Hello and hope you are good?I am faxing you this plea letter regarding my son, Chad Ray Bennett TDCJ # 1282720 who resides at The Byrd Unit in Huntsville where he was sent last week from Middleton Transfer Facility in Abilene? We had been told many times that Chad was on his way home yet he never made it home and we had to cancel the burial a few times.

My problem is that I and a few others in the funeral business have tried to just help us to get my son home for his fathers funeral.

I had to put the funeral off several times now because I would be told by someone at TDCJ and Rockwall County Jail that Chad was on his way to our area yet he never showed up. Chad’s dad has now been passed on now near two weeks in our wait for Chad to get here. This has made it very hard on our family as you can imagine if this was your family. And this death is just adding fire to the damages already in our lives as our 21 year old beautiful, perfect son died last year. My baby sons death happened while Chad was in TDCJ also and Chad and Chip was like twins and best friends and yes TDCJ may have changed employees since that time but we had no problems getting Chad home for his brothers funeral.

My entire family suffers with Lyme Disease which when is not treated properly ( which it is not treated properly in Texas) leaves people with Lyme in tragic health conditions and constantly fighting to hang on to life. I have begged TDCJ to study this disease and they could possibly not contribute to my only son I have left life but still no medical help has been given. My 28 daughter had 2 heart attacks from Lyme Disease and I could go on and on just so you could understand what we have to deal with.

I was told several different stories and one of them was that Chad has not been in TDCJ six months yet therefore he can’t come to his father’s funeral. I had a dear friend in the political arena to look up rules on this for me and I was told that there is no such rule.

But she was the only person who told me this. The others told us other stories such as he was on his way, etc.

But even if this woman’s story was true about the six months time limit, my son has been in TDCJ more than six months and we was told that the many months he spent in the Rockwall County Jail and the Dallas County Jail was both TDCJ time.

I cannot understand “ why “ some of your employees try to make this a hard task to get a son home for his fathers funeral? This is a shame and none of us can get any closure until my son can get home for his dads funeral.

If my son had done something that was so wrong as to be on the top ten list of “ bad crimes” I could even understand this better but my son is in TDCJ only because his girlfriend was evidently a medical assistant and she admits to be hooked on pain killers and not from having a reason to need these medications and she was doing this fraudulently. I can think just off the top of my head of at least 30 people that went to pick her medications up for her as everyone assumed she was truthful and had a disease but my son did not even pick these medications up for her he only took her bags to carry for her as she handed them to Chad.

And some could say that he was aware of his girl doing this illegally so he could have some but this is not true. My son was in TDCJ last year and he was having severe migraines, upchucking, seizures, and many other complicating health issues. WE assumed all this was happening from his Lyme Disease but TDCJ medically neglected him and through all my pleas and many private doctors pleas for TDCJ to just do a MRI were denied.

When Chad was released August 24, 04 his seizures became so… bad that an ambulance had to take him to the Hospital at Baylor Hospital where they did many testing which proved him to have brain and testicle masses and many other diagnosis’s caused from the Lyme Disease.

BaylorHospital gave Chad a lifetime refills of vikoden, Valium, morphine, etc. Another words he had no reason to need someone else’s medications. He had enough strong prescriptions of his own.

My son asked for a Jury Trial for this charge but the DA made strong accusations that Chad should take the plea of 2 years (and we later learned this had 2 paragraphs added to it which means that if my son gets in trouble again even if it is to steal a candy bar which could happen in reality because he has Lyme Disease and will live on SSI which their amount of recourses is about $500.00 a month. I fear Chad will because if he didn’t the Jury would be told by the DA that Chad had been in TDCJ before and the DA promised Chad he would get 20 years and up. My son is 30 years old and he has been incrassated about 10 years of his life for what was a bizarre charge also and you can read more of this on a web site later if you want at:  www.geocities.com/copbrutality

Of course I believe this sort of coaxing from District Attorneys should be a crime for DA’s with bigger sentences than the person who does not know the laws but my son is in jail and for not doing a crime at all and now all this trouble of him not getting to come to his dads funeral is not at all understandable!

We have reset Chad’s dad’s funeral once again for Thursday (tomorrow) at 2:00 PM at Farmersville Texas with just a graveside funeral. There is only one graveyard in Farmersville and I believe it is on Main Street.

They said they have called your office a few times and that he gets the same answer from a woman there saying that it is impossible for Chad to come to his fathers funeral and there is no reason to even send the administrator anything because it will be denied.

A Moratorium named Wilson‘s in GarlandTexas on Forest Lane said they faxed and called ya’ll also but he was given similar answers. Wilson‘s embalmed my kids dad and Rockwall County Indigent paid them for this. I did not know how we could pay for more but thanks be to God there is a contributor that is giving us a graveside funeral and a lot.

I trust that you can please help to get my son home for his fathers funeral? This is more important than a usual circumstance because of losing his brother last year. This is not much for any mom to ask.

Thank you,

Brenda Pitts Bennett

http://www.lymenet.org/SupportGroups/UnitedStates/Texas/LDN.shtml