Prosecutor Quashes Charges Against Judge

[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

[sasquatch]

1. Where's the Boondock Saints when we need them?

[kurth]

2. Now, more: "Medina paid himself $57,000 from his campaign funds for mileage reimbursement"

Report raises questions about judge' mileage costs

AUSTIN — Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina paid himself nearly $57,000 from his campaign funds for mileage reimbursement as he commuted between Houston and Austin, possibly violating state law, a newspaper reports.

Medina, appointed to the high court by Gov. Rick Perry in November 2004, paid himself between $1,000 and $3,000 most months in 2005, 2006 and the first half of 2007, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Converting political contributions to personal use is against state law.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5469635.html

[Lasher]

3. Medina says it was a mistake.

You would think a state Supreme Court Justice would know a thing or two about the law.

And did you check out District Attorney Rosenthal in the article I linked in the OP? He's facing pressure to resign over e-mail love notes and sexually explicit, racially charged messages from his office. Boy this story's packed with intrigue.

[dkofos]

4. Not if they were appointed by bush or perry.

[BR_Parkway]

7. He's also the one who argued to protect the anti sodomy laws (Lawerence)

that got overturned, leading to the end of them in the US.

This guy has certainly turned up in alot of interesting places. And for all the wrong reasons, go figure.

[Sam Ervin jret]

8. Ignorance of the LAW is no excuse. Or we'd have no luck prosecuting and Bush people

[Baby Snooks]

6. In Texas?

"Converting political contributions to personal use is against state law."

The Texas Ethics Commission posts its actions on its website. Just as many Democrats are fined for a variety of "unethical" things that really are "illegal" things as Republicans and the fine is the end of it. Occasionally there is a prosecution. But even when the prosecution is not politically motivated, the defense usually is. Finger-pointing is an art form at this point in Texas. The defense by some of Chuck Rosenthal really boils down to "Well, Bill Clinton got away with it, so why shouldn't he get away with it?" That kind of "tit-for-tat" is the reason why everything is such a mess in this country.

If everyone were prosecuted, as they should be, we probably wouldn't have a public official in Texas who wasn't behind bars and would have to start from scratch. Which some believe is probably the only hope for Texas at this point. The entire state is corrupt. Mainly because of the Republicans. But not entirely because of the Republicans. Too many politicians simply believe the law does not apply to them. The campaign finance laws in Texas are so vague that in reality they probably don't. Depends on how a judge decideds to interpret them. The few times a judge is allowed to.

The situation with Chuck Rosenthal has merely illustrated how permeative the corruption is. But is it really different than anywhere else in this country? The rich and the powerful will always have someone somewhere willing to pull strings. Usually with a district attorney or a US Attorney. In Texas, it's not always Republicans protecting Republicans or Democrats protecting Democrats. It's just the "good old boys" protecting each other. Regardless of whether they are Republican or Democrat. And sometimes the "good old girls" are protecting the "good old boys."

And with that, all eyes, as always, turn to Nancy "Off the Table" Pelosi.

[Ian David]

5. The Repuke prosecutor being investigated for (among other things) dirty email exchanges...

has quashed the grand jury indictment of the loyal-Bushie judge.

We should not be surprised.

[QUALAR]

9. STENCH

That smell coming from Texas isn't just cow shit. Bush took a lot of it with him to restore honor to the White House. How's that going, anyway?

[Yavapai]

10. Don't mess with Texas - its messed up enough already !

[Lasher]

12. Oh don't be so hard on Texas.

we've got our own SC scandal going on right now in my state of WV. This one involves a crooked sorta Democrat and the Republicans he is way too much like.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=185x2521

[TXDemGal]

11. If only Molly were alive

She'd have an effin' field day with this one! We miss you, Molly. RIP.