DPS Confirms Female Staffers Made Up Tale
on Drugging to Mask Other Lies and Infidelity
DPS Report on Date Rape Drug Tale
Capitol Inside
May 25, 2021
A Department of Public Safety investigation has determined that a pair of female aides to an influential Texas House Republican falsely accused a lobbyist of drugging them early last month with a story that one of them fueled and perpetuated while deceiving the other about the events during a drunken night on the town.
The findings are contained in a 62-page report that the DPS plans to make public on Wednesday. The state police probe concludes that the two staffers selectively targeted a member of the powerful lobby firm HillCo Partners based on unsubstantiated gossip about his reputation and use of offensive remarks in the past.
Initial reports on the DPS inquiry circulated at the statehouse on Tuesday night at the same time that the Texas Senate set House Bill 4661 on the intent calendar for Wednesday as a sexual harassment training mandate that the staffers had inspired before lawmakers learned that they'd been played by their own employees.
HB 4661 had been crafted solely for lobbyists before legislators discovered that they'd been bamboozled under the banner of the #MeToo movement. But the House amendend the measure to include statewide leaders and state lawmakers like themselves in a face saving move without acknowledging publicly that they'd been hoodwinked.
The DPS report identifies the accusers as Mackenzie Poston and Jennifer Reeves while naming an aide to another powerful GOP representative as a pivotal witness to the alleged crime. Reeves and Poston worked for State Rep. Brooks Landgraf of Odessa at the time that they made the allegations.
Reeves is an attorney who'd served as the Environmental Regulations Committee clerk that Landgraf has chaired this year as a high-ranking lieutenant on GOP Speaker Dade Phelan's leadership team. Poston is described in the police report as a legislative aide.
While it's a crime to knowingly file a false report to law enforcement officials, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza hasn't indicated any plans to pursue indictments against the two women at the center of the scandal. That's apparently because Poston had thought her concerns about being drugged had been confirmed after Reeves told her that she'd tested positive for GHB - a potion that's been associated with date rape - at a minor emergency clinic.
DPS investigators deemed that to be a lie after discovering that the medical facility in question does not test for GHB. The report quoted Poston as saying that she went to the hospital emergency room after being led to believe that Reeves had a date rape drug in her system.
The report portrays Reeves in a more devious light - saying that she'd been reluctant to talk to police about the complaint that Poston had filed before offering to provide information to help corroborate the other woman's account with statements that the investigating officers found to be inconsistent and deceptive.
more to come ... |
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= dead