The story that 37-year-old Cliff Katz, nephew of restaurateur and recent mayoral candidate Marc Katz, allegedly solicited a man to kidnap and murder his wife Angela, made lurid late-news visuals and Statesman headlines earlier this week. According to the daily, Cliff Katz, a gas-station cashier, offered a man named John Garza $1,000 to kidnap and kill his wife. (Police have not released any detailed information about Garza.) But the plot was foiled on May 30, the daily reported, after Garza called police. Katz was arrested later that day and has been charged with criminal solicitation, a first-degree felony.
In their June 3 report, the daily led with tabloid melodrama: “Police say Cliff Katz … knew what his wife, Angela, was worth to him: $1,000.” But the daily’s rendition of events, says Katz’s cousin Barry Katz (son of Marc Katz and fellow restaurateur), is just the tip of the iceberg. “The Statesman left out a lot of critical information in their story,” Barry Katz told Naked City. Barry said he is very close to his cousin Cliff, who had lived with his family for a time, and he is distressed by the one-dimensional picture portrayed in the daily.
According to Barry, at 18 months old Cliff was diagnosed not only with mental retardation but also with Klienfelter syndrome — a chromosomal disorder that is also associated with delayed development. Barry said that Cliff had spent several years at Marbridge Ranch, a residential treatment center in Manchaca for people with “cognitive challenges” — including Down syndrome, Alzheimer’s, and cerebral palsy. In fact, Barry said it was at Marbridge that Cliff met his wife Angela, who Barry says is also developmentally disabled. The two married and left Marbridge, Barry said, “to try to make it in a world, in a society, that maybe they weren’t prepared for.” The couple’s lives were more thoroughly complicated five weeks ago when Cliff’s father (and “lifeline — both financially and emotionally,” said Barry) died of brain cancer.
Barry says that while he does not believe Cliff’s disabilities necessarily mean that he should not be held responsible for a crime if, indeed, his cousin has committed one, he wants to see that Cliff is treated fairly — by both the courts and the media. “[Cliff] has had a hard time,” Barry said. “It’s always been a struggle.”
This article appears in June 6 • 2003.