A Houston Chronicle investigation found that longtime community activist Quanell X has...
Mary Wiltz in her home on June 16 in Beaumont. Wiltz said she paid Quanell X $17,500 for services that would draw media attention to the custody case involving her young grandson, but the services were not provided. In 2018, a Harris County court awarded her a $200,000 judgment against Quanell X. She said she has not been paid.
But a Houston Chronicle investigation — which included a review of hundreds of court documents, copies of contracts and cashed checks, as well as interviews with dozens of individuals and former close allies of Quanell — found the activist repeatedly accepted cash in exchange for advocacy, then didn’t fulfill his promises.
In an examination of court records from 2012 to 2018, at least nine individuals and families sued Quanell for breach of contract and related issues.Petitions filed in civil and justice of the peace courts in Harris County show that plaintiffs sought to recover money they had paid to Quanell. The Chronicle also spoke to others who told a similar story but said they didn’t have resources to file suit to recover money.
Wiltz holds the largest award. In 2018, she was awarded $200,000 under a judgment by George Barnstone, presiding judge in the Harris County Civil Court of Law No. 1. As of August, the judgment reached $330,000, according to a special court-appointed officer. For his part, Quanell said he tried to help Wiltz and other individuals and families. He worked each case to draw attention to injustices, holding town hall meetings, distributing flyers and leading rallies.
“Quanell X is a very skilled debtor,” Berleth said. “He’s been used to running from people trying to collect debts on him for many years.” They both stepped out into the hallway, and the discussion became heated, Lewis said. At one point, Quanell tried to persuade him to accept half the money and receive the other half in the mail. Lewis said he refused and demanded full payment.
“If he is digging his heels in about being honest about his work, and then on top of that mounting debt, it’s not looking good,” said Ziegler, who serves as a race and technology fellow at Stanford University. “I would hope they would come to their senses and maybe try a different route — being honest.”Quanell X, leader of the New Black Panther Party, during a visit to the South Acres street where he grew up on Oct. 26, 2016, in Houston.
“I knew at that moment what I had to do,” he said. “I had to make a difference in these streets and to do something to help stop the killing.” People followed him because he didn’t care where the spotlight needed to shine — he went after causes big and small, said Vincent Dickson, who joined forces with Quanell in 2001 to spur reforms in the criminal justice system.
But as time went on, Dickson said he and others learned some painful truths. Families would tell him that Quanell had charged them for his services. Dickson was at the event at the Shape Community Center on Live Oak Street in Houston, as was Deric Muhammad, a longtime Houston Black activist and criminal justice reformer.After hours of discussion, the leaders decided the community should distance itself from Quanell, Dickson and Muhammad said.
In 2010, the beating of Black teenager Chad Holley by several Houston Police Department officers was caught on surveillance video. The videotaped incident aired to the world a playbook example of police brutality. Still, in 2014, the two men would march side-by-side to protest the death of Alfred Wright, the 28-year-old Jasper man whose body was found weeks after he had disappeared in rural Sabine County.
He said he and Dickson, the former investigator and member of Quanell’s security detail, urged him to pay back the woman. Likewise, a court handed down an $8,000 judgment to Ethel Easter of Katy in a case she filed against Quanell in 2017. She had paid Quanell to find an attorney to file a lawsuit alleging that doctors she was seeing had made racial comments about her because she is Black. She said Quanell gave some media attention to her case, but he didn’t find her an attorney as promised.“Everybody is talking about it, but nobody is making us whole,” Easter said.
Rochelle Long, of Pasadena, holds a copy of a cashed check she made out to Quanell X. In 2018, Long was awarded a $5,000 judgment related to the payment and a contract for services. She said she has not been paid.Quanell said he had a similar experience with Wiltz, the grandmother who hoped to regain guardianship of her grandson.
“I would try to call him on the phone,” she said. “Sometimes he would answer, and sometimes he wouldn’t. He always told me he was in court. I thought this man was about helping people.”
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