Texas Senate Bill Moves Public Integrity Cases Out of Travis County

Breitbart.com ^ | 2015-04-10 | Lana Shadwick

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Texas State Senate passed a bill on Thursday that would move pubic integrity cases out of Travis County. The bill passed 20-11 on partisan lines.

Senate Bill 10, authored by Republican Senator Joan Huffman (R-Houston), places the state’s Public Integrity Unit investigation with the Texas Rangers. If the Rangers find wrongdoing, they would forward the case to the district attorney’s office in the county where the official is from. The Senate Bill was passed as amended.

The Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office has been the source of criticism by Republicans who say the unit has been used to further partisan motivated criminal indictments. Indictments of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and Governor Rick Perry, have been the source of this criticism.

[fwdude]

Who wants the SodomCisco of Texas to make decisions.

[Timocrat]

Well past time, the district attorneys office in Austin has been a disgrace for years.

[Ben Ficklin]

The better question would be “who wants a lawyer to make the decision?” or “who wants a high school graduate to make the decision?”

[smokingfrog]

good

[RayChuang88]

Didn't the infamous Rathergate debacle start in Travis County--the infamous "letters" were sent from a copy store in the Austin, TX area?

[TexasGator]

“Didn’t the infamous Rathergate debacle start in Travis County—the infamous “letters” were sent from a copy store in the Austin, TX area? “

DR was raised in TX and currently maintains a home in Austin.

[ontap]

This has been needed for decades....Travis county is nothing but a Democrat political propaganda and liberal enforcement bureau designed to take out any republican deemed electable.

[OrangeHoof]

Great idea. This way, Republican governors are no longer the subject of liberal witch hunts and fishing expeditions.

[OrangeHoof]

Point of fact. The Bush ANG fake papers came out of a Kinko’s in Taylor County (Abilene) rather than Travis County (Austin). Easy to confuse, I know.

[House Atreides]

Has this long needed bill gotten out of Texas House of Representatives (with its corrupt RINO Speaker of the House Joe Straus) yet?

[SmokingJoe]

What took them so long? They should have passed a bill like that right after the Ton Delay case.

[Defiant]

The law enforcement person responsible for investigating public ethics should not be an elected DA. A system that allows for the appointment of special prosecutors might be better, but Dems have abused that in the past at the national level. Maybe would be best to simply have a governor-appointed and state senate approved person who serves the entire state as watchdog. In cases involving the governor's office, that person would apply to a court (located in an area away from Austin) for appointment of someone else, and would have discretion to determine that the action had no merit (like the one against Rick Perry, which should have never even been pursued from the beginning).

Glad to see they are finally doing something about it. Should have done it after the DeLay fiasco.

[TexasBarak]

They were forged by a guy living in Baird, Texas (about 7 miles east of me), and sent in to CBS from the Kinkos in Abilene, Texas (about 12 miles west of me). Don’t know if I’ve met the guy who did it, but I’ve done business in that Kinkos many times. Next time I go in there, I’ll have to ask the employees if they are aware of that.