It’s apparently pretty unpopular in Navarro County to be Ellis County Observer Publisher Joseph Glen “Joey” Dauben, judging from his difficulty in getting a court-appointed lawyer assigned to his sexual assault of a child case.
Dauben, whom the Dallas Observer and D Magazine featured in stories last year about his gonzo style of journalism in coverage of small-town issues and missing child cases, has been sitting in the Navarro County Jail under $200,000 bond since Dec. 19. In a story dated Dec. 20 about Dauben’s arrest and high bond being set in Judge James Lagomarsino’s court, the Corsicana Daily Sun noted that Dauben had declared himself indigent and filled out paperwork requesting a court-appointed attorney.
Dauben, 30, is accused of molesting a 15-year-old male during a church trip four years ago in 2007. The Texas Rangers investigated the allegations of the youth, who is now 19, and filed the charges against Dauben.
In a handwritten letter Dauben sent to me on Feb. 9 from the Navarro County Jail in response to a letter requesting an interview, Dauben said he still had not had the benefit of legal counsel. “As of this letter, on Feb. 9, I have yet to see a lawyer on this case,” Dauben said in the letter.
Dauben goes on to say he filed a request on Dec. 20, as was reported by the Corsicana Daily Sun, and that he refiled it recently after continuing to languish in jail without seeing a lawyer.
Melissa Butler, court coordinator for Judge Lagomarsino, said today that Dauben has been appointed an attorney. “I don’t know who you heard that from, but he has been appointed an attorney,” she said. When asked when the appointment occurred, she admitted that it had just been done Monday. She noted the request had just been filed recently. When advised that Dauben claimed he had filled one out in December, she had no explanation for why it had not been received by the judge. “It did not make it to District Court,” Bulter said. “I don’t know who he filled it out with, but the judge didn’t see it until yesterday.”
Butler said Corsicana attorney Steve Keathley had been appointed to his case, but a call to the attorney’s office revealed yet another surprise. At first, a member of Keathley’s staff said the attorney had refused the appointment. When asked for details, she revised her statement to say the appointment was never received. Finally, she transferred the call to another member of Keathley’s staff who said, “You’ll have to call the court. We decided we couldn’t handle the case” and quickly hung up when asked for her identity.
A follow-up call to the judge’s office failed to get anyone to answer the phone. A message left on voice mail has so far not been returned.
Dauben’s arrest on the sexual assault of a child case has been widely reported by DFW media outlets. WFAA Channel 8 did a brief interview in the jail with Dauben days after his arrest during which he declared his innocence.
Dauben repeated in his four-page letter that he is being falsely accused, but he declined further comment on the sexual assault of a child case because of his pending prosecution on the charges.
Previously, Dauben wrote in a column published on the Ellis County Observer that he expected retribution because of his reporting, and that he viewed the charges to have been manufactured as part of a conspiracy against him. He also claimed the teenager had made similar accusations against others. Dauben’s column was written before his arrest and contained instructions to publish it if authorities served an arrest warrant against him.
Since his arrest, the Ellis County Observer website has gone down, and Dauben said in the letter that former associates had turned on him, lied about him and taken down the website without his permission. He said legal action would be forthcoming in connection with the alleged misappropriation of his website. Dauben said claims by former associates that he was on suicide watch and that he had admitted to sexually assaulting the teenager are “lies.”
“But again, I am not bitter, angry or depressed at any of these legal battles,” Dauben said in his letter. “I rejoice and praise Yahweh for suffering the persecution. I pray for my enemies and false accusers daily, and encourage others to show love to one another, even if they come against you.”
Dauben, who describes himself as a Torah-observant Christian, also asked for the contents of the letter to be shared with the rest of the media either publicly or privately.
Dauben has said in private conversations that he is not gay, but that he is tolerant of LGBT people because he got to know many while working on a political campaign in the Northeast several years ago. The Ellis County Observer was read by many LGBT people living on Cedar Creek Lake and in other parts of East Texas. It occasionally featured LGBT people in its coverage.
This is not Dauben’s first encounter on the wrong side of the law. He previously served 12 days in jail in 2009 after he ran a mug of a police officer in connection with a story he wrote. All of the charges were later dropped.
Last summer, his home office was raided and all of his files were seized in connection with an investigation by Red Oak Police and Ellis County concerning documents he published. An Ellis County grand jury issued an indictment in that case, according to Dauben, who claims the charges have no merit because they would infringe upon his rights as a journalist
Are you kidding me? And this is the only media outlet we can get this kind of information on such a huge story? This seems wrong on so many levels.
I am pretty sure that he is in reference to me so I will clarify…..”Since his arrest, the Ellis County Observer website has gone down, and Dauben said in the letter that former associates had turned on him, lied about him and taken down the website without his permission. He said legal action would be forthcoming in connection with the alleged misappropriation of his website. Dauben said claims by former associates that he was on suicide watch and that he had admitted to sexually assaulting the teenager are “lies.””
I did NOT take down his web site. The hosting renewal fees were up for the year and I did not pay it. He really thinks I am going to pay to renew HIS website after he starts threatening legal action against me over a $75 netbook he gave me over a year ago?
The computer is crashed and the netbook is full of over a year worth of pictures of my kids, my work from home information and hundreds of dollars in mp3s.
He doesn’t care that it had absolutely no information on it that was his, in November he told me he’d sell it to me for $75, I paid him $22 in November via paypal and was to give him the other part in person when we saw each other next. Besides the District Attorney of Ellis County would have seized the damn thing if i hadn’t of had it at my house.
He is being petty and just lashing out because he is in jail and feeling hopeless. The suicide watch story stated this was just information I was being given and it needed to be confirmed and that as long as I have known Joey I would NEVER believe him to be suicidal.
Besides, he is way too arrogant and too much of an egomaniac to kill himself. Also, I don’t recall EVER posting ANYWHERE that he admitted to being guilty of this crime.
He is getting mixed up information from various sources and there is no legal action forthcoming against me. I talked the Freedom of The Press Group LLC attorney and he is not pursing legal action against me. Because there is NOTHING to pursue. Joey is sore I won’t run around declaring his innocence, but I am not running around declaring his guilt either.
Good luck to Dauben with all of his “battles”. Seems to me he has way more important battles to be fighting than against me.
“The Texas Rangers investigated the allegations of the youth, who is now 19, and filed the charges against Dauben.” I know our legal system tends to blame the victim much of the time, but the “youth” decides to wait FOUR YEARS to report the crime? Please. This sounds more like a lover’s quarrel than a sex crime.
https://elliscountytimes.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/joey-dauben-lawyers-lies-and-pure-confusion/
“LGBT?” Aren’t Lesbians gay, too? I guess not. Wonders never cease …
Andy, “LGBT” is an acronym that has been in use for several decades. The world doesn’t always do things the way we want. If you just need something to be concerned about, the AIDS Resource Center and a few other local LGBT charities could probably use some extra help. You could volunteer, then try and get them to change their “LGBT” references to whatever you think it should be. You could then attempt to effect that change throughout the other local LGBT charities, one at a time–and volunteer to help them out in the process. Great idea, isn’t it? (Don’t you wish you had thought of it yourself?)
@James Simmons-EXACTLY what I think and i know Joey personally. People got upset that I was supporting a “rapist” I thought that idea was a pile of bullmess. Sounds JUST like a lover’s quarrel.
Good article. Thanks for the information.
@lulz: I was in a jury pool a few years back for a similar case with an 18 year old boy and his 17 year old girlfriend. They started dating when the boy was 16 and the girl was 15. “It” happened, and the girl’s parents supposedly knew about it. The boy moved on, which devastated the poor jilted girlfriend, so all of a sudden the parents decided a crime had been committed. They certainly didn’t think that while the boy and girl were still dating, though. I’m not saying that’s the case here, or that any type of involvement between the two individuals alters the facts of the case in any way, but please. Four years later? If asked why he waited four years to report the crime, what’s he going to say? “I had a good thing going at the time and I didn’t want to screw it up by filing charges.” Yeah. Right.
joey is not guilty,i know he was trying to bust open a big pedophile ring,,,erica morse bodorff melanie white aka shane crowe,and he has a host of other names he goes by,,they have personal vendettas against him,,,the boy waiting 4 years??? something is not adding up,they have a filthy web site and all they know is to call people cunts,,,its scary,,,,shane crowe by the way has tried to ruin my name,,so payback is mother fucker,you put my kids names on line for all the world to see,and they found SEMEN in YOUR OWN DAUGHTERS DIAPER,,,,and poor little skylar,,she hates you for what youve done,,,i got a lawyer ill have mine contact you as soon as i get a legal address on your ass. you messed with the wrong person,,,,people that web site is horrible,,,and evil,,,and they also feed off of donations from kids.
joey has been framed !!!plain and simple!!!
Is this some Del Shores follow up to Sordid Lies?
Joey aint been framed. He’s guilty as charged IMO! May he spend many years in prison. Karma is a 8ITCH
Just after Joey was arrested, the Ellis County Observer posted e-mail strings, at Joey’s direction, between Joey and his accuser. Joey seemed to believe that the e-mail notes would support his claims of innocence. I actually hoped the string would exonerate Joey. But, as an objective reader, I thought the dialog indicated Joey was stalking the boy – the boy was asking Joey to leave him alone. At any rate, the relationship reflected in the e-mail string was inappropriate between a man of Joey’s age and the boy. There is a reason why there is no statute of limitations on child abuse of this type, it may have taken the boy 4 years to figure out what happened (if it happened) was wrong and/or to find the courage to speak up. Case(s) in point: look at all of the suits filed against the Catholic church – claims of abuse were not made until the victims were adults. WIth respect to the folks that believe Joey was falsely accused because of his “reporting”, the Ellis County Observer posted malicious gossip that was largely ignored by the politicians, police, attorneys, judges, etc, that Joey gossiped about. To believe that Joey was “framed” one would have to believe in a conspiracy that included all the government agencies in 3 counties, in addition to the Texas Rangers. However, there’s little doubt in my mind that because of Joey’s “reporting”, he’s not getting much sympathy from the police, attorneys and judges now. It’s not too surprising that Joey can’t find representation.
I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. 2 months with NO LAWYER while locked up is B.S. No, I don’t think Joey did it. I’ve known him for years and I’ve only seen him date women and “check out” women. He even liked a woman I know. Come to think of it, he probably met her back in 2007.
This is ridiculous and I hope that a very gifted criminal defense attorney will have a heart and come to help Joey. It would probably be a very easy task too. He has the right to good representation under our constitution. All judges, jailers, and police have SWORN an oath to protect his right to a lawyer.
Hi , i;m A person who actually knows Joey, my fiancee used to date him.. the stories we have collectively between the two of us alone, can shed much light to his personality and weirdo-ness.. I have already been on a bunch of websites, telling what i know.. I even found court document online stating the full charges, and I gotta say Joey was out trying to screw with CPS in waxahachie and what not,, and screwing with Kevin;s house (the place they take child molesters after jail) Under the guise of a journalist and activist, and trying to get the people their fired and re staffed or shut down all together.. I know joey to be a lonely guy, full of paranoid delusion, who lived with his family, no place of his own, no real job, and trying to run his own messianic jewish congregation.. He published a website that wanted badly to be a newpaper, but failed, only offering Opinionated edititorial blogging, under the guise of actual reports.. The man ran that website like a hypocrite , claiming free speech rights but shutting down the commenters who said things he disliked or disagreed with, erasing others all together to hide what they said, All in the meanwhile trying to shine lights and point fingers one every body he could find to look dirtier than him to make himself look good for saying how awful they where.. and even did stuff like this to really cool people who just dont deserve that kind of slander ,..Joey was a man in a glass house throwing stones, and got popped.. If he’s innocent i hope he can prove it.. But usually people who are innocent are able to prove it just fine int his country, hell the guilty can prove their innocence all the time in this country too..Me.. im just some jerk who makes music,now has a kid,once knew this guy, and was a victim of childhood sexual abuse, so im biased in this.. and think he is guilty just from knowing the profile of a predator after having to learn all about it after being victimized by it.. ..I’m out to keep predators away from kids and out of the family based american public neighborhoods.. and in their own special containment villages.. preferably somewhere in backwoods arkansas or alabama .. or kentucky..
Im just kidding, I don’t personally know Joey.
In the small towns in Texas he is in a lot of trouble seeing the hate and ignorance they show. I pray he gets out and is ok and moves out of that place ASAP. I would hope the LAMDA Legal would help him out. But i am sure he has been set up and is receiving all their gay hate on him. God help you. Maybe we should all call and complain lets do somthing
I’ve read Joey’s stuff for years. He in no way is tolerant of the LGBT community. Joey has spouted horrible things about the gay community and my belief has always been that he may have been in denial about his own sexuality. Joey has threatened harm on gay people and it would sadden me if LAMDA Legal attempted to help him in anyway. Joey has made his own bed and it’s time for him to lie in it.
I went to school with this guy and I’m not sure about the charges against him but everyone calling this person a journalist is laughable. Journalists report the truth he makes up horrendous lies about people without thing how it affects them or their families and passes it off as reporting. Now he just may be getting a taste of his own medicine because weather it’s true or not his life is ruined, these kind of accusations tend to stay with you for life. So enjoy it Joey kharma’s a bitch.