OFFICIALS SEARCH FOR WAYS TO KEEP DRUG ABUSE FROM HURTING FAMILY MEMBERS

How does a community change the culture of addiction ravaging its
families and children?

That question is on many minds in the wake of the Candice Alexander
murder case closure Tuesday. It was that day that Johnny and Rebecca
Lee, 54 and 37, guilty of murdering their 15-year-old daughter by
methamphetamine overdose, left the courtroom to begin serving
matching life sentences.

The pair had left Alexander's lifeless body on their living room
floor for hours as they cleaned up remnants of a drug lab before
calling 911. Her sisters, then 13 and 16, both step- and biological
parents and a host of family and friends were so deeply involved in
the violent, physically and sexually-abusive drug world that they
could not, or would not, save her.

She'd wanted something different, to escape the life that trapped
her. But she never made it, Angelina County District Attorney Clyde
Herrington said, pausing Tuesday evening after the trial to reflect
on the case.

Alexander's case had been among the hardest in his 20-plus years in
office, he said. And it had made him take stock. What went wrong?
Every child in society ought to have a chance, he said.

"Candice wanted a better life, and a different life. She was really
special," Herrington said, tears choking his words.

A teacher who'd had Candice as a student described the girl as bright
and capable, he said. Even the few times she was able to attend,
she'd caught up quickly, he said, evidence of a potential never realized.

Her case joins the rising number of violent methamphetamine-related
crimes in Angelina County, Herrington said.

In October 2004, Herrington worked the Bailey Heald capital murder
case. In that case, baby-sitter Felicia Pelzel was sleeping off a
methamphetamine jag when she suffocated 2 1/2-year-old Bailey Heald.
Pelzel is now serving a 57-year prison sentence.

The court system was clogged with cases, Herrington said. And drug
treatment programs, suffering massive funding cuts over the last few
years, were not working.

"What we're doing is not effective," Herrington said.

New programs like Drug Court, an intensive anti drug-addiction course
organized by state District Judge Paul White, were good, Herrington
said. But there is room for much more, he said.

Education is the key, reaching kids young enough before they start
trying drugs, Herrington said.

"And not just schools. Churches, parents, community organizations -
everybody," Herrington said.

Phyllis Grandgeorge, executive director of the Deep East Texas
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council, agreed.

Grandgeorge Wednesday said she was worried the Alexander case would
prejudice the community against methamphetamine users. There was a
whole lot more going on in the Lee family besides drug abuse, she
said. While drugs did play a major role in the case, many addicts -
drug and alcohol abusers alike - are good, functioning members of the
community, holding jobs while fighting their addiction, she said.

A consequence of methamphetamine use in particular is both the child
neglect and sexual perversion seen in the Lee case, Grandgeorge said.

The drug hyper-stimulates the pleasure-sensing areas of the brain,
damaging and impairing those connections. Users will abandon
everything important to them to get the drug, to feel the high.

Angelina County is seeing its second and third generations of
methamphetamine addicts, often within the same families.

"Grandpa was arrested for cooking 20 years ago. He taught it to his
son, who passed it on to grandson," Grandgeorge said.

Entire families are sucked into methamphetamine addiction, different
from the ravaging effects of alcoholism and cocaine abuse on
families, she said.

Angelina County Sheriff's Sgt. Dawn Stripling has seen the
generational effect of methamphetamine firsthand. Frustrated by the
increasing abuse she witnesses in families wracked by drug crime, she
has hopes the Lee's double life sentences will have an impact on the
drug community.

"I hope this sends a pretty strong message to all our methamphetamine
users, for taking their children into these environments," Stripling said.

If anything positive can be taken away from the Alexander case, it
should be a lesson in cooperation between law enforcement agencies,
according to Herrington and Stripling.

Suggestions of the sheriff's office dropping the ball early on in the
case were unfounded, Herrington said firmly, crediting Stripling and
Sheriff Kent Henson for continuing to work the case and provide
information in cooperation with federal, state and local agencies.
The FBI, U.S. Attorney's Office, Texas Rangers, Sheriff's deputies
and Lufkin police detectives all worked the case.

Lufkin Police Sgt. David Campbell, who took the lead in the case,
made the difference, Herrington said. He thanked Lufkin Police Chief
Larry Brazil for allowing Campbell to continue his extensive
involvement on the case.

"What I hope we will foster is a spirit of cooperation between
agencies," Herrington said. "We want to get the job done, and these
are some great folks."

Bringing the Lees to justice was worth the long hours, and learning
to work together, Stripling said.

"I see in the future a good working relationship for us to solve
major crimes that are interrelated between the city and county,
including Huntington, Hudson and Zavalla," Stripling said. "It gave
us contacts all around the board."

There is still a lot of work to do, for all agencies fighting
methamphetamine. Stripling had recently come across a 14-year-old
methamphetamine addict.

"She'd been using since she was 11," Stripling said.

Fighting to get someone out of their drug-dependent environment and
over the first months of recovery is a major part of the battle,
Grandgeorge said. Addicts or family members needing help can contact
ADAC for confidential assistance at 936-634-5753, or toll-free at
1-800-445-8562.

Anyone suspecting a child is being abused can call the Child
Protective Services hotline at 1-800-252-5400 or a local law
enforcement agency. Calls can be confidential.