Prosecutor Quashes Charges Against Judge [View All]

[Lasher]

Source: The New York Times

HOUSTON — A grand jury’s bitter backroom struggle to charge a Texas Supreme Court justice and his wife in the burning of their house burst into the open on Friday after a prosecutor who had opposed the indictments went to court and had them quashed.

The grand jury foreman and assistant foreman said political favoritism was behind the decision to drop the day-old charges against the justice, David M. Medina, and his wife, Francisca.

“I felt like a dentist pulling teeth,” said Robert Ryan, 63, the foreman, a real estate broker and a previous grand juror. “The district attorney’s office did not want to prosecute this case.”

Mr. Ryan said his suspicions were aroused early when District Attorney Charles A. Rosenthal Jr. of Harris County said he had assured Justice Medina that the judge was not a target of the investigation. The officials are Republicans.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/us/19texas.html?em&ex=1200891600&en=4ba105c5105f3320&ei=5087%0A