FORGING GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS IN TEXAS IS A FELONY

http://mostlydeadarmadillos.blogspot.com/ ^ | Wednesday September 22, 2004 | Stephen Johnson

[CHAROM]

Forging government documents is a Third Degree Felony. It looks as if Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wants to make a case, he has the goods to do it.

[Redbob]

It'd be tough to cnvince most judges or juries that what was supposed to be one individual's "memos to file" were government documents.

Ronnie Earle might give it a try, though, if it involved the GOP...

[airborne]

Do you think Burkett and his lawyer will turn states' evidence in exchange for immunity?

[DJ Frisat]

Don't hold your breath. If there's one thing I've learned since 1992, (from watching the Clinton escapades) it's that points of law that appear to be crystal clear are often ignored or spun out of reality.

Laws are for little people and Republicans.

[ez2muz]

First, one must prove these are actually "Government Documents."

[republicanbob1]

I heard on the radio this morning that in the new york times there was an article about how it is against the law for someone to forge a document and feed it to the media in order to sway an election.

[seastay]

Isn't it also a felony for those million or so in Texas who using social security numbers fraudulently as well?

[MoralSense]

Right. I can't see purported private CYA memos being considered government documents, even if typed on-base. And they weren't on TANG stationery, as I understand.

Now, forging the signature of a federal officer (Killian), that might work.

[toomanygrasshoppers]

Exactly. If this involved the GOP, Earle would be all over it.

[Mike Fieschko]

The statute does not only apply to government documents. (Which make sense, because wills, checks, notes, contracts, etc. aren't government documents.)

Quoting from staute:

(1) "Forge" means: (A) to alter, make, complete, execute, or authenticate any writing so that it purports:

(i) to be the act of another who did not authorize that act;

(ii) to have been executed at a time or place or in a numbered sequence other than was in fact the case; or

(iii) to be a copy of an original when no such original existed;

(B) to issue, transfer, register the transfer of, pass, publish, or otherwise utter a writing that is forged within the meaning of Paragraph (A); or

(C) to possess a writing that is forged within the meaning of Paragraph (A) with intent to utter it in a manner specified in Paragraph (B).

[end quote]

'Utter' doesn't mean 'speak words' here, it has to do with checks, etc., I think.

[ez2muz]

Or... maybe Safire has a good angle here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1224594/posts

[spacejunkie2001]

"Do you think Burkett and his lawyer will turn states' evidence in exchange for immunity?"


This is really what will 'move this case forward' to quasi quote Lockhart. Having Burkett turn on CBS and ALSO having Rather turn on Mapes. He's now claiming that he was 'hands off', basically throwing her right under the bus. If she gets canned (and I hope to hell she does) she'll be very likely to turn on him too.

This thing is far from over.

[MoralSense]

Right, and thanks for the statute. "Utter" means "cause to be produced," I believe, or "circulate with meaning."

[muawiyah]

You are probably ahead in this game of using federal law by going at them with the Mail Fraud statutes.

After all, these documents were "letters" even though they were transported outside the mail.

The Private Express statues might even apply since there were various intermediaries used who failed to pay the requisite postage, or other fee for express services.

People have been busted for less ~ not too many years ago a teacher's union in the Chicago area had to pay a serious deficiency for this sort of thing. Then there was the store-front mosque ~ USPS spent thousands of dollars collecting a $25 deficiency.

Former Maryland Governor Marvin Mandel was sent to prison over a couple of letters.

The list of vicious Mail Fraud statute violators is long and famous ~ best possible law to nail someone when the other laws don't quite seem to fit!

[lyingisbetter]

Is passing a counterfeit bill that you did not create illegal, if you knew it was counterfeit and you tried to pass it anyway?

[Pilsner]

In Texas the Attorney General has no responsibility for criminal prosecutions, except in cases where he either assists local prosecutors (at their request) or is appointed to represent the State when the local prosecutor is disqualified.

[Just mythoughts]

Won't they have to prove that the forgery took place in Texas???

[Richard Kimball]

I agree with you that Ronnie Earle is, and has always been, nothing but a third rate Rat hack.

Any memo written by personnel that includes the name and address of the unit and the name and rank of the officer writing it that is composed entirely of information about company business is considered official correspondence, IE, a government document. This includes memos to file or self.

[Pan_Yan]

According to CBS "Power Puff Girls" stationary was available in 1971 and was often used by the Texas Air National Guard.