| Star-Telegram |
| Arlington Councilman Mel LeBlanc: “I wasn’t a daily user” |
Arlington, Texas City Councilman Mel LeBlanc (not to be confused with Bugs Bunny — that’s Mel Blanc) told police last year that he got drugs, including methamphetamine and marijuana, through prostitutes he hired using online escort services.
LeBlanc, who publicly confessed his “addictions to drugs and alcohol,” declined to comment Tuesday about details in a recently released Arlington Police Department report that outlined his domestic troubles, where he got his dope and his reported relationship with the owner of Flashdancer Cabaret, a strip joint that has, over the years, been targeted by the city as a center for drug sales, prostitution, and “other criminal activity,” reports Susan Schrock at the Arlington Star-Telegram.
The 61-year-old councilman was investigated last year after the cops, responding to a domestic disturbance call, found and seized about a gram of meth and a glass pipe from his home in north Arlington. A group of good old boys, I mean a Tarrant County grand jury, decided not to return an indictment.
“I’m not going to comment any more on this whole issue,” commented LeBlanc. “I’ve already done a radio interview, a television interview, and two newspaper interviews and was completely honest with all questions asked,” said LeBlanc, who seems to have confused “honesty” with “a license to bang whores and snort meth.”
“The grand jury, which had access to all this information, no-billed me,” he bragged. “I have been in recovery since early last year. I have not relapsed.”
| KHOU |
| LeBlanc, incredibly, is now running for reelection. |
The councilman’s wife, Candy LeBlanc, called 911 on July 23, 2011 after finding a foil-wrapped baggie containing meth in a box beneath her husband’s office desk. She reported that LeBlanc, who was fresh out of rehab for less than two weeks, was “acting strangely” and that he admitted smoking K2, a synthetic substance that is a piss-poor substitute for marijuana.
She had confronted him about his clothing smelling like marijuana, according to a police report and a 911 tape obtained by the Star-Telegram on Tuesday.
“My husband was just released from rehab,” Candy told the 911 operator. “He’s using drugs again and I have the drugs. I would like someone to help get him out of the house.
Candy, who apparently has a nursing degree and an attitude, claimed her husband hadn’t shaved or bathed in days, and “did not appear to be acting right.”
| coolchaser |
Mrs. LeBlanc turned the meth and the pipe over to the cops. LeBlanc was not arrested because the items “were not in his possession,” good-old-boy police said.
The case was referred to the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, which took a charge of possession of a controlled substance, under one gram, to a grand jury in December.
LeBlanc has served as the District 1 councilman since 2006, and he seems to have gotten his new campaign off with a (forgive me for this) bang, since he filed for reelection on Monday.
“The legal part has been taken care of,” LeBlanc said. “All the rest of this is piling on. I filed and I plan on running and let the people decide.”
The public copy of the police report obtained from the Tarrant County D.A.’s office by the Star-Telegram includes sections that have been redacted by public officials.
During conversations with investigators, LeBlanc said he had been using meth and marijuana for the past 2.5 years and had last smoked meth on April 22, according to police records. He claimed he “did not recognize” the bag of meth his wife said she found in his office, though he said he “could have” hidden drug stashes around the house before going into rehab.
| Shroomery |
”There were not fingerprints on the baggie, there were not fingerprints on the pipe,” LeBlanc claimed. (Wonder if there are fingerprints on those straws he’s grasping?) “I immediately tested negative for all drugs,” LeBlanc claimed on Tuesday. “The implication that I relapsed or I had knowledge of that drug is wrong.”
But a receipt showed that on July 22 — just one day before his wife called the cops to their home — LeBlanc made a purchase of $125.04 at Smokies House of Pipes. LeBlanc claimed to officers that he “could not remember” what he purchased, and denied smoking K2.
“He went on to defend purchases at any ‘head shops’ in Arlington stating everything they sell is legal,” a police report notes. “He stated all the head shops in Arlington sell only legal items and he was the one who helped make sure K2 was not allowed to be sold at those shops.”
In September 2010, LeBlanc and the rest of the Arlington City Council had voted on a resolution to support a proposed statewide ban against selling K2 to minors. A Texas state law went into effect last September, making it illegal to manufacture, sell or possess K2.
The police report says that LeBlanc “reiterated that he is not ‘a tweeker’ (a street term for a meth addict).” He also referred to the amount of meth found by his wife at their home an “eight-ball,” which is drug-culture slang for an eighty of an ounce of drugs (3.5 grams).
“I wasn’t a daily user,” LeBlanc claimed.
He claimed he really wanted to help the cops investigate drug trafficking in Arlington, but that it would be hard for him because at “four o’clock in the morning the tweeters always thought the guy in a suit is a narc.”
LeBlanc told the police that “the underground world fascinates him and he often thought about going undercover in the drug world.” He also told officers he “might” be able to give them the names of dealers from whom he obtained drugs “if it is for the greater good,” likely meaning “if it saves my sorry ass from suffering real consequences.”
LeBlanc also talked about how he got meth from “single women” in the Northwest Highway part of Dallas.
“He later admitted the drugs came from prostitutes that he would solicit off web-based escort ads on most of the occasions,” according to the police report.
