The other evening while watching the news, a familiar name and somewhat familiar, picture appeared on the screen of a man accused of sexual assault. I was quite surprised and started to do a little investigation because I thought I knew the man that was being accused.
Mark S. Hamilton shared an office in my suite at Texas Southern University for several years. Mark was a plainclothes investigator for the Police Department handling cases from vandalism to murder in a quiet, and unassuming, way. He was quite innovative, and, for a while, when the University got a black Pontiac Gran Prix donated, he cruised the campus undercover in that car and made several arrests that uniformed officers were unable to do. Hamilton was tall and very handsome, soft-spoken and seemed to be well-liked by the police department staff and the rest of the University. Although we were not close friends, we chatted from time to time and he revealed things about himself.
Mark told me that a neighbor's daughter was very beautiful and her father had asked him to watch over her. As a result, I believe he said that he married her when she was 16. He also told me that she became a top model for the Ford agency, got into drugs and all kinds of other trouble, and they divorced. I have no other verification if this was true or not, it's only what Mark told me. He did have a picture of his beautiful second wife in his office, and I believe I saw, children, but he never discussed them with me.
Hamilton had some land on the Trinity River northeast of Houston off Highway 59 that he invited me to come visit. He told me that he had exotic animals like black buck, other antelope and deer, big cats, a zebra (that he said attacked his father), and others. For a while, he took care of the University's mascot, a Bengal tiger with the unlikely name of, "Pretty Baby." I really wanted to get out there and see his place because I wanted a place in the country, too, and liked animals, but my mobility and ability to make the drive all the way out to his place was getting more limited and I never went.
About 2008 when the economy started to tank, Mark told me that he had resigned, cashed in his retirement to save it from the stock market decline and said that he was starting a trucking business. My assumption is that he was going to transport exotic animals like he did hauling the University mascot to football games and other events.
In 2012 or 13 when I visited the campus one day after I retired, I was surprised to see Mark on campus in a police uniform. He had gained weight and lost a great deal of his handsome good looks. He told me that his trucking business had failed and I assume that's why he was back working on campus. Shortly after that, he left campus again. I had no idea that he had worked for as many as eight police departments around the state.
Mark is being held on $1 million bail on allegations of sexual assaults of two women. News stories can be found here:
http://www.khou.com/story/news/crime/2015/09/22/former-sweeny-isd-reserve-officer-charged-sexual-assaults/72638470/
http://www.click2houston.com/news/sweeny-isd-officer-arrested-on-sex-charges/35405030
So far, Mark is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Interesting to see how this turns out.
Best,
Leland
Love ya!
Jane