Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\nPatrick did not respond to a phone call or text message seeking comment. Marta Kang, deputy director of the adult probation department, is serving as acting director, according to the email she sent employees Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease know that my focus will remain on collaboration, communication and ensuring we have what we need to succeed,\u201d Kang wrote.<\/p>\n
In January 2023, Patrick hired Austin-area lobbyist Eric Knustrom to screen and handle vendors doing business with the probation department while the two were also working together in a state advocacy association they created the year prior, emails obtained by The News show.<\/p>\n
During the year of Knustrom\u2019s contract with the probation department, he missed deadlines and did not perform core duties of the agreement, according to his December 2023 termination letter. Knustrom failed to review vendor applications, provide status updates or share outcomes of client complaints, the letter states.<\/p>\n
Records show the probation department issued Knustrom five checks totaling $45,100 in 2023.<\/p>\n
By early 2024, Knustrom had cashed only $12,300 worth of the checks.<\/p>\n
In May 2024, five months after his contract ended, Patrick asked Knustrom if he was going to redeem the outstanding payments, emails show. Knustrom responded by acknowledging he did not perform all the work he was contracted to do and needed to make up for it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to cash the checks (bc I\u2019m poor) but I want to come up with a statement of work that will allow me to provide actual services of actual value equal to that compensation for Dallas County. Sound fair?\u201d Knustrom wrote. <\/p>\n
Patrick encouraged him to cash the checks, even if the work performed wasn\u2019t up to standards. He said the outstanding checks were causing an issue for the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cCash them and then issue the statement before you spend it if that will work,\u201d Patrick wrote. \u201cIf not, I need to cancel them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Knustrom declined to comment on Friday. In a previous interview, Knustrom said the work he performed was not \u201cmy A-game,\u201d but he still fulfilled his duties by reviewing the department\u2019s procurement process and creating a system to receive vendor complaints. <\/p>\n
Patrick said in a previous interview that Knustrom performed work even though it wasn\u2019t up to either of their standards.<\/p>\n
Knustrom\u2019s contract called for him to submit monthly invoices detailing the number of hours worked and a list of assignments completed each month. None of the 11 monthly invoices for $4,100 that Knustrom submitted include any detail about the work he performed.<\/p>\n
Knustrom said his delay in cashing the outstanding checks was an oversight. He said he received one payment of $4,100 in October 2023 via electronic deposit and deposited two checks totaling $8,200 in April 2024 into his personal bank account.<\/p>\n
In summer 2024, Knustrom said he tried to make a larger deposit but had problems setting up a business account at a bank. Then he forgot about the money until earlier this year when he needed a down payment for a car, Knustrom said. By then, the checks were outdated, so the probation department voided them and issued a new check for $32,800 in May, Kevin Camacho, a county auditor supervisor, previously confirmed.<\/p>\n
Patrick and Knustrom\u2019s work together dates back at least to 2021, when Knustrom was a lobbyist for the Texas Probation Association, which represents many of the state\u2019s 123 probation departments.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Patrick and two other probation directors created a spinoff group, East Texas Community Supervision Alliance, with Knustrom as its registered agent. <\/p>\n
While working for Dallas County in 2023, Knustrom provided pro bono assistance to the East Texas alliance during that year\u2019s legislative session. Emails show Knustrom conducted analysis of a bill supported by the alliance that would have required probation departments to return less money to the state every two years. <\/p>\n
Knustrom also emailed a staffer of state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, and unsuccessfully encouraged his office to back the bill. The bill later died in committee.<\/p>\n
Knustrom said he did not register with the Texas Ethics Commission in 2023 to lobby for the alliance because the group did not pay him for his efforts and he did not meet with lawmakers on the alliance\u2019s behalf. He said he was acting as a member of the group rather than its lobbyist.<\/p>\n
By the 2025 legislative session, Knustrom was registered to officially lobby on behalf of the East Texas alliance but said the group still did not pay him.<\/p>\n
At a legislative committee hearing on May 5, Knustrom registered on behalf of the alliance against a bill that passed and changed the approval process for probation departments\u2019 budgets. Patrick was there and testified against the bill. The probation department issued Knustrom a replacement check for the stale 2023 payments the next week, the payment register shows.<\/p>\n
Knustrom said while he was working with Patrick on the alliance\u2019s issues, he also was trying to buy a new car and needed a down payment. That\u2019s when he said he remembered his uncashed check from Dallas County\u2019s probation department and asked Patrick to reissue the stale $32,800 payments from 2023.<\/p>\n
Both Patrick and Knustrom previously said their work together with the East Texas Alliance was unrelated to Knustrom\u2019s contract with Dallas County. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne is not related to the other,\u201d Patrick said, \u201cbut I acknowledge that it does look funny.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas County adult probation director Arnold Patrick \u201chas transitioned out of his role\u201d leading the department, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":444276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,4219,1596,7290,50,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-444275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115711814357957815","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}