Posted on 11/04/2005 1:13:37 AM PST by flattorney
The judicial carousel in U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's conspiracy case almost spun out of control Thursday as the search for a judge beyond the hint of any political taint reached the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, a Republican, named Pat Priest, a retired Democratic judge from his hometown of San Antonio, to hear the case — but not before Jefferson's own multiple ties to DeLay's political operation were questioned.
Jefferson waved off questions about those ties Thursday afternoon as he searched for a judge to hear the biggest political trial in Texas for this generation. He tapped Priest just minutes before prosecutors filed a motion questioning the perception that Jefferson has too many ties to DeLay's committee and co-defendants to be impartial. Jefferson shared the same campaign treasurer and a consultant as DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority. One of his largest campaign donations — $25,000 — was from the arm of the Republican National Committee that is at the center of the allegation that DeLay and his co-defendants laundered corporate money into political donations in 2002.
The justice also traveled in 2002 on a campaign swing with one DeLay co-defendant, John Colyandro, on a plane provided by a law partner of a lawyer representing another DeLay co-defendant, Jim Ellis. He also attended a Houston fundraiser with the chairman of the Republican National Committee at the house of a board member of Texans for a Republican Majority. Finally, DeLay's political action committee endorsed Jefferson.
"So what?" said DeLay's lawyer Dick DeGuerin. "Is (Travis County District Attorney) Ronnie Earle saying he (Jefferson) appointed the wrong judge? It's a done deal. It's over." Earle, who is prosecuting DeLay, did not comment Thursday night beyond his written legal motions. But the prosecutor's only recourse might be to challenge Priest if there is a reason to question his impartiality. A search of state and federal databases late Thursday showed Priest gave $150 each to three Democratic state representatives from San Antonio in 2004.
Choice is telling - - For three days, Earle and DeGuerin had been playing a kind of judicial roulette that exposed the challenges of trying a highly political case in a state where all judges run in political elections and have close ties to other candidates. First, DeGuerin won a hearing Tuesday to get state District Judge Bob Perkins, an Austin Democrat, removed from the case because he gave money to Democratic candidates and causes, particularly the Internet-based organization MoveOn.org. Taking a page from that playbook, Earle on Thursday filed a motion that forced regional presiding Judge B.B. Schraub, a Seguin Republican who was supposed to name Perkins' replacement, to withdraw because of his political donations to Republicans.
Schraub asked Jefferson to name a trial judge for the former U.S. House majority leader. Quickly the ties between Jefferson and Texans for a Republican Majority surfaced.
Texans for Public Justice, (Dems-Soros~Shadow Party-Earle Front Operation - TAB) a group tracking campaign donations, disclosed that public campaign records show that Jefferson has paid Austin consultant Susan Lilly $115,779 since 2001. He also had Bill Ceverha, the treasurer for DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority, as his campaign treasurer. A judge already has ruled in a separate civil lawsuit that Ceverha broke state law by not reporting the corporate donations that DeLay's committee spent during the 2002 elections.
"Where does it stop?" DeGuerin said when first told the news. Yet he insisted Jefferson could appoint a fair judge despite the apparent conflicts — and, by law, he is the last one who can. "This is just an administrative task, not a judicial one," DeGuerin said. "Like it not, Ronnie (Earle) is stuck with it." Jefferson declined to comment to reporters about the appearance of conflicts Thursday afternoon as he raced to find a trial judge. At the same time, Earle's staff was racing to challenge Jefferson's impartiality. Jefferson apparently won the race.
At first blush, University of Texas law professor Steve Bickerstaff said, "I think it would be a mistake if the chief justice didn't recuse himself." Yet Bickerstaff said Jefferson's role ultimately will be judged by the quality of the trial judge he named. "If the chief justice picks someone who's perceived as having partiality, it would subject himself and the whole process to questions about its integrity," Bickerstaff said. "If he picks someone both sides agree is the best person, you'd have a good result." DeGuerin endorsed Priest: "By reputation, he's a fair judge."
Judge choice key - - Priest is a former judge for the 187th District Court in San Antonio. He also is a former adjunct professor of law at St. Mary's University School of Law and a founding member of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. In 1994, he lost a race for the 4th Court of Appeals in which his opponent took to the airwaves to criticize Priest as "soft on crime" because he reduced $1 million bail set by other judges for two murder suspects. Priest's prominent cases included a 1984 trial of Genene Jones, a nurse suspected of killing an unknown number of babies by injection. In 1990, Priest ordered a television reporter jailed because he would not turn over his notes that would reveal who helped arrange a telephone interview with an inmate accused in the shooting death of a San Antonio police officer. The reporter was released two weeks later when he surrendered his notes.
The decision over which judge should preside at DeLay's trial could have a bearing on an array of pretrial issues, particularly whether DeLay could get a fair trial in heavily Democratic Travis County. DeLay successfully lobbied to have the county split into three congressional districts in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.
DeLay, along with the two co-defendants, is accused of conspiring to violate a law barring corporate money being spent on campaigns and laundering $190,000 of corporate money into political donations to Texas candidates during the 2002 elections. Specifically, the indictment accuses DeLay, Colyandro, who lives in Austin, and Ellis, who lives in Washington, D.C., of exchanging $190,000 of corporate money for the same amount in noncorporate money from an arm of the Republican National Committee. The defendants have denied wrongdoing.
Their lawyers have argued that the corporate money ban is vague, that the law doesn't prohibit sending corporate money out of Texas and that the Republican National Committee donations were legally raised in other states. They also claim that Earle's investigation is a political vendetta for DeLay's role in congressional redistricting.
In Thursday's motion, Earle argued that Schraub, the regional presiding judge, should step aside for the same reasons that Perkins was removed from the case. According to Earle's motion, Schraub has given $5,600 — roughly the same amount as Perkins — to Republican candidates, including President Bush, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Gov. Rick Perry, state Sen. Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio and state Rep. Ed Kuempel of Seguin.
In court Tuesday, Earle argued that taking the unprecedented step of reassigning judges because of political donations in a state where judges are elected as partisans would be as divisive as "Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds."
On Thursday, DeGuerin said, "Relax, Chicken Little. The sky is not falling."
If I was a bettin' man, I'd wager Ten Bears knows "chock". And his horses, too.
Seriesly, Ronnie Earle lacks the scruples to hold public office. He's the "Smedley Whiplash" of "Blazing Indictments".
This is such a mess, the only solution is to call in the UN to fix it.
Yeah, right.
Leni
If Earle tries to drop these charges (exactly as he did with Hutchinson), and DeLay wants his day in court to expose Earle and his hack cronies, can DeLay insist on having the trial anyway? I think that's the only way the leftists will be exposed for their hypocrisy and extreme partisanship. And Earle's malice against DeLay (and Bush) needs to be exposed for what it IS.
The fax machine does a good job of "serial killer pasting", that's for sure.
There would still be a chance, however slight, that he could wind up with an OJ jury.
"If he thinks he's a Hammer
Send him to the slammer"
Leni
A dismissal with prejudice can be appealed. If it becomes final, the matter cannot be re-filed.
I love DeLay's attorney.
But quart-er horses drink less.
If the judge is a Priest, Perp's conviction you must resist!
;-) Those are the best horses around. They leave more for you and for me. And they don't fall off their barstools.
Sadly, yes, he shot a box of corn flakes...
Actually, under the criminal law in Texas, if the case is dismissed, it can be re-filed, as long as it is within the statute of limitations.
I ran across Choc on either my assignment to KS or OK....just can't remember which.
That may be what I was "trying" to say..
I was thinking of the other TX witch hunt..
Kay Bailey Hutchinson of TX was also charged with a similar set of charges, ( by Earle? ) and it was allowed to go to court in order to insure that the prosecutor wouldn't be able to do it again..
I believe that case was dismissed, with prejudice.
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