James E Williams says:

Liberal District Attorney

To Whom It May Concern:

This is Pastor James Williams of New Frontier Fellowship Church, formerly known as Shining Star Baptist Church, located in Independence Heights at 327 Walthall Drive, Houston, Texas 77022. I filed a Civil Rights Complaint against the Houston Police Department on June 14, 2022. The Reference Number is HCR-20. I am contacting this department, because we believe that we received retaliation for our complaint from the Houston Police Department on our church property on Sunday, July 31, 2022, starting around 9:30am. We request that the Civil Rights Office of the Federal Highway Administration investigates the matter described, hereafter.

My church, the owner and landlord of the church property, performed a Commercial Lockout on a commercial tenant that was two months delinquent in its rent payment, as Texas Property Code 93.002 (c)(3), (f) permits. As of June 1, 2022, the Commercial Lease that permitted the commercial tenant the right to utilize the property under contract from June 1, 2020 to June 1, 2022 had expired. As the lease had ended, my church, the landlord, informed the commercial tenant that it had to sign a month-to-month lease and would be considered a month-to-month commercial tenant in order to continue renting the facility. However, the commercial tenant refused to sign a month-to-month lease or even pay rent for the utilization of the church building for those last two months that led up to the Commercial Lockout. So, my church exercised its right as landlord and the listed Harris County Appraisal District Real Property Record Owner to prohibit the commercial tenant’s access to the church building.

My church hired an off-duty constable for our protection during this process, because this commercial tenant, on very many occasions, had been very hostile and even confrontational with our church members. The off-duty constable informed the commercial tenant that it would need a judge-issued writ of reentry to re-enter the church, since the commercial tenant is not the Real Property Record owner of the property and has no right to be on the premises against the owner’s wishes, as Texas Property Code 93.003 (a)-(d) state. The commercial tenant and its members refused to vacate the premises and started to become very confrontational, so at that time, the off-duty constable called the Houston Police Department for assistance. When the four HPD officers arrived, they spent about 20 minutes conversing with each other and the off-duty constable, as well as making several phone calls about the matter at hand. After their conversation amongst one another, they determined that the commercial tenant would have to vacate the premises and would have to file a writ of reentry on Monday, where the commercial tenant may or may not be issued a writ of reentry in compliance with Texas Property Code 93.003 (a)-(d).However, after that time, a Houston Police Department’s police sergeant arrived on the scene. He claimed and informed us all under the supposed authority of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office that supposedly told him via phone that his officers could not enforce the Commercial Lockout, would not be trespassing any individual from the property; he also refused to view the Commercial Lease that stated the commercial tenant would vacate the premises by June 1, 2022, refused to look at the printed copy of the Harris County Appraisal District Real Property Records that I had in my possession, and refused to look at the online HCAD Real Property Records on the HCAD website, which is an independent governmental resource, that would confirm who is listed as the owner of the property in question (I nor any of my members witnessed any phone call between the sergeant and the DA nor was given an official statement to substantiate the sergeant’s claim that the authority to override Texas law was coming from the DA or the DA’s office). He even stated that as long as my church was in litigation with the commercial tenant, he and his officers would not do anything in regards to the commercial tenant breaking the law on our commercial property. I informed the sergeant that the Texas Property Code 92 and 93 does not make any exceptions to the law for pending litigation; so, the only thing that can override the right of a commercial landlord to enforce a Commercial Lockout, preventing the commercial tenant access to the property, as stated in Texas Property Code 93.002 (c)(3), (f), is a judge’s ordered writ of reentry to the premises, as stated in Texas Property Code 93.003 (a)-(d). In regards to the litigation that the police sergeant mentioned, I asked the sergeant if the commercial tenant already obtained a judge-ordered writ of reentry to remain on the premises. He answered, “No.” I then informed him that since the commercial tenant did not have a judge-ordered writ of reentry, then a writ of reentry to re-enter the premises would have to be issued to the commercial tenant by a judge, as Texas Property Code 93.003 (a)-(d) state; also, I informed the sergeant that it is the commercial tenant’s sole responsibility to go before a judge, request and obtain a court ordered writ of reentry, only after proving that the commercial landlord’s Lockout was unlawful. However, he stated that, for reasons that were unknown to my church members and me, and are still unknown to us to this day, this commercial tenant would not be required to abide by Texas Property Code 93.003 (a)-(d). So, despite the information that I provided him, the sergeant made all of these statements and claims, not only in front of my church’s members, but also in front of the commercial tenant and its members, as well. After his statements, which emboldened the commercial tenant and their desired actions to rights that it does not legally have, the commercial tenant took immediate, unlawful action to re-enter the church property.Because of his claims, the commercial tenant broke and cut off the locks that we, the landlord, had newly placed on the building, and then re-entered the building without the court ordered writ of reentry that was supposed to be served by a constable to the landlord, as Texas Property Code 93.003 (a) states. Several officers watched and witnessed the commercial tenant doing so, the act that is called “breaking and entering”. I reiterated, several times, that my church is the landlord and that we were in our legal right to perform the Commercial Lockout for delinquent payment, as stated in Texas Property Code 93.002 (c)(3). But the sergeant and his officers refused to view and acknowledge Texas Property Code Commercial Lockout statutes by which they should have been governed. Instead, the sergeant, when asked, stated that his claim of refusal to execute my church’s claims was made on the authority of the Harris County District Attorney and claimed that the DA said that the Commercial Lockout was not applicable and that the DA would not prosecute the commercial tenant for trespassing nor breaking and entering, if my church, the landlord, filed a police report against the commercial tenant, let alone, uphold the Commercial Lockout. I find it difficult to comprehend that when the commercial tenant’s agents cut off my church’s newly installed door locks, then illegally entered my church building, which is classified as “breaking and entering”, and, in the process, even vandalized my church building, the sergeant, the many officers, and the off-duty constable present, who all witnessed these crimes, chose not protect my church’s property against the commercial tenant’s actions, butTo take matters further, not only did the police not trespass anyone nor arrest anyone for breaking and entering, the sergeant and his officers escorted the commercial tenant’s agent and one of the commercial tenant’s members into the building during my church’s services, who then began to openly and loudly disturb the peace, while we were live-streaming our services. When we asked the officers to remove the commercial tenant’s agent from the building for disturbing our live-streaming services, the officers refused to do anything about the disturbance. Shortly after the disturbance of our church services, the sergeant, HPD officers, and off-duty constable left the premises without there being a resolution to the situation under the claim that there was nothing they could do about upholding the Texas Property Code statutes and that they had no authority to arrest the commercial tenant for breaking and entering nor trespassing anyone that violated the Commercial Lockout Notice on the claims that the District Attorney would not be picking up the charges. Furthermore, when I requested for the HPD sergeant’s and the four HPD officer’s names and badge numbers, they refused to give me their names and badge numbers, and only handed me an Incident Number slip of paper, stating that we could request a police report using the Incident Number. Sometime shortly afterward, they, including our hired off-duty constable, who was hired to patrol the premises for about another 2 hours, vacated the premises without notifying us, after witnessing this holdover commercial tenant breaking and entering, in addition to vandalizing, into our church property, leaving my church congregation in a perplexed state as to how our church does not have the same rights as any other commercial property owner in the state of Texas, as well as how this holdover commercial tenant does not have to abide by the state of Texas law, as it applies to commercial property: Texas Property Code 93.003 (a)-(d). rather remain impartial bystanders.This is a very unsettling matter of the Houston Police Department’s failure to abide by state law of the Texas Commercial Property Code that states that the commercial landlord has the right to perform a Commercial Lockout for a commercial tenant who is delinquent in payment, as well as that the commercial tenant must be granted a writ of reentry from a judge in order to re-enter the property, according to Texas Property Code 93.002 (c)(3), (f) and 93.003 (a)-(d), and that the law does not specify that the laws that govern the Texas Commercial Lockout are not the sole responsibility of one law enforcement agency. So, the Houston Police Department officers and the Harris County constable present were well in their right to uphold the Commercial Property Lockout, as is dictated in the law. In fact, the law only specifies that if the delinquent commercial tenant proves to a judge that it was unlawfully locked out, then a constable would be required to serve the writ of reentry to the commercial landlord- this is the only time in regards to the Commercial Lockout law that specifies a specific law enforcement agency. So, in the state of Texas, it is not the inherent right and responsibility of one law enforcement agency to uphold the enforcement of the Lockout to prevent the commercial tenant from breaking and entering into the commercial property, but it is the responsibility of every law enforcement agency in the state of Texas that serves the public to uphold the Texas Commercial Lockout laws, wherein, the Houston Police Department and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office should be acquainted with this law, since it is one that they should routinely follow and uphold in regards to commercial property and its commercial tenant.

The police’s refusal to abide by the law, has left my church in a very hostile situation with this commercial tenant and its members that have broken and entered into our church building. The sergeant’s and supposed District Attorney’s statements, as well as his, the police officers’, and the off-duty constable’s inactions have, furthermore, given the commercial tenant the wrongful impression that it somehow has co-ownership and rights to our church property that the law has not afforded it. This has created a very dangerous situation. Several of the commercial tenant’s members have threatened my church’s members and even me. In subsequent incidents, we have called the Houston Police Department to the property and informed the police of the commercial tenant agents’ threats of physical violence, but the police said that unless we had their threats on video, they would not do anything about the threats.I am deeply concerned about further altercations with these individuals that have no legal right to be on the property, unless it is given to them by a judge. I am deeply concerned about my church members’ safety, as well of the safety of these trespassers. I am deeply appalled by these HPD officers’ inaction and want to make certain that the Civil Rights Office of the Federal Highway Administration is aware of these officers’ inaction, as well as the Harris County District Attorney’s inaction, which my church and I suspect was retaliation against my church filing the complaint against the Houston Police Department. I am requesting that the Civil Rights Office of the Federal Highway Administration investigates this matter to determine why the Houston Police Department, as well as the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, circumvented the Texas Property Code 93.002 (c)(3), (f) and 93.003 (a)-(d), as well as, why they claim these laws do not apply to my church’s situation, as we feel that our Civil Rights were violated and that we were denied basic property rights that we believe another church congregation would not be denied.

I have included the Texas Property Code 93.002 and 93.003, below, as well as a copy of the Harris County Appraisal District Real Property Records in regards to my church’s property, where it lists my church as the owner.

Thank you,
Pastor James Williams,
New Frontier Fellowship Church.
Telephone number 7136992402 or 8327162230
Email address can.start.today0@gmail.com
Address 503 Glenburnie Dr Houston tx 77022