South Dallas DTO Member Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison on Drug Distribution Conspiracy and Kidnapping Convictions

DALLAS — Patrick D. Lenard, 34, of Pleasant Grove, South Dallas, was sentenced this afternoon by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 30 years in federal prison following his guilty plea last year to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, heroin and marijuana and one count of kidnapping, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

A federal grand jury indicted Lenard and ten others in November 2014 on various conspiracy, drug trafficking, kidnapping, firearm, witness intimidation/tampering, and records destruction charges stemming from their involvement in a violent drug trafficking organization (DTO) that operated out of both the Pleasant Grove area of South Dallas and the Dallas County Jail.  All eleven defendants have been convicted, and all but two have been sentenced. 

In November 2015, co-defendant Selena Ball, 30, of Desoto, Texas, was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison following her guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine.  She worked for the Dallas County Probation Department, and part of her job involved monitoring inmates, including Lenard, with whom she had a romantic relationship despite her position and the clear conflict the relationship created.  Because of that relationship, Ball changed or purposefully failed to report violations of Lenard’s conditions of release. 

At various times between November 2012 and November 2014, Lenard conducted and managed drug-trafficking activities from his Dallas County Jail cell.  He used jail phones to call co-conspirators and on several of those phone calls, Lenard instructed another co-conspirator to conference in a third co-conspirator so that Lenard could give instructions or obtain information from that individual related to Lenard’s drug-trafficking activities.  On one occasion, in August 2014, Lenard engaged in a phone conversation with Ball, another co-conspirator, and an unindicted co-conspirator, about illegal narcotics transactions, including one planned for that day, and money obtained from these transactions.  These conversations included discussions regarding approximately $66,000 obtained from these transactions. 

Lenard also admitted to his role in a brutal kidnapping in which Lenard and co-conspirators carjacked and kidnapped a victim in broad daylight at a gas station on Stemmons Freeway in Dallas.  They ran over the victim twice, taking him by force and at gunpoint, carried him to another location where he was then beaten and tortured, as Lenard and his crew sought to locate drug money they believed the victim had stolen.  Several surveillance cameras recorded the kidnapping.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Dallas Police Department led the investigation. 

Deputy Criminal Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Calvert and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Errin Martin and P. J. Meitl prosecuted the case.

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