LOSER earle the squirrel ping.....
Posted on 04/02/2005 6:56:34 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
Jurisdiction issues make it hard for Austin prosecutors to pursue DeLay
By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, April 02, 2005
In last month's edition, Esquire magazine asked, "Who the hell is Ronnie Earle?" Texas Monthly named the Travis County district attorney the second most powerful Texan. And CBS' "60 Minutes" pitted Earle, a Democrat, against another powerful Texan, U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, in a piece entitled, "The DA and Tom DeLay."
That comes with the territory when a prosecutor has been investigating DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority for more than two years.
There is no such national fame for John Healey Jr., the Republican district attorney for Fort Bend County, DeLay's home base, even though Healey — not Earle — has jursidiction if DeLay were to be charged with violating election laws three years ago. To make a case against DeLay, Earle would have to look outside the election code, and Healey has little interest in the DeLay flap.
"Nobody has brought any matter of wrongdoing about Tom DeLay to me," said Healey, who added that he knows DeLay only casually. "If there was a crime, where the venue is, I don't know." Healey said he has not phoned his Austin counterpart to determine what all the fuss is about.
The intensity of interest in DeLay's 2002 election activities drops off markedly from Austin to Sugar Land, just as interest in everything about DeLay is magnified in the nation's capital, where the former bug exterminator is the second most powerful Texan among Washington's elected elite.
In recent weeks, DeLay has been trying to rebut questions about his overseas trips, relationships with lobbyists under federal investigation and his role in getting Congress to intervene in the Terri Schiavo controversy. The national scrutiny has shifted to whether the majority leader's activities in Washington will land him in trouble instead of whether Earle somehow might indict DeLay.
Last September, a Travis County grand jury indicted three DeLay associates — John Colyandro of Austin and Jim Ellis and Warren Robold, both of the Washington area — in connection with their duties for Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee that spent about $600,000 in corporate money during the 2002 election.
State law generally prohibits spending corporate money on campaigns. But Earle always has faced a high hurdle, due to the jurisdictional issues within state law, in trying to indict DeLay. He cannot just accuse him of accepting or giving corporate money as campaign donations as he did Robold and Colyandro.
The election code gives the authority to prosecute campaign-related crimes to local prosecutors where the defendant lives, not to Earle's Public Integrity Unit. Earle has jurisdiction only over suspects living in Travis County or outside Texas.
To make a case against DeLay, Travis County prosecutors would have to look outside the election code, to the criminal code.
They did that when the grand jury indicted Colyandro and Ellis on charges of money laundering.
Colyandro, who directed Texans for a Republican Majority from Austin, and Ellis, who was DeLay's Washington-based eyes and ears for the Texas committee, are accused of exchanging $190,000 of corporate money for the same amount of money from individuals that could be legally given to Texas candidates.
Under Earle's theory, the Republican National Committee acted as a banker that washed the money.
Lawyers for the committee, as well as Colyandro and Ellis, say the transaction was legal and routine.
The prosecution of the money-laundering case will be more complex and difficult than just pursuing charges of accepting or making illegal campaign donations. In essence, prosecutors will have to prove two points: that Colyandro and Ellis laundered money and that the cash was illegal corporate campaign donations.
Austin lawyer Bill White, a former prosecutor under Earle who represents DeLay, first raised the jurisdictional issue last summer as part of DeLay's efforts to convince the national media that he would not be indicted.
White acknowledges the jurisdictional issue is not a free pass for his client.
"There are a whole lot of possibilities out there having nothing to do with the election code," he said.
White said the money-laundering charges against Ellis and Colyandro are trumped up and DeLay was nowhere near the transactions.
"He doesn't play down at this level," White said. "He's way too busy a man. His fingers aren't really in every pie."
White insists that DeLay will never be indicted for anything he did in the 2002 elections.
"I know that Ronnie Earle, whom I've known for 25 years, if he had evidence against Tom DeLay, he'd indict him," White said. "And he hasn't."
Of course, Earle has not cleared DeLay, either. Earle, who declined to comment for this story, routinely refuses to speculate about where his investigation might end.
White does not question Earle's motives.
"I don't think it's a political prosecution," he said. "He believes in what he's doing."
But White also said Earle had to show some results after putting so much effort into investigating the Republicans.
"If you spend taxpayer money for two or three years, you have to indict somebody," he said. "You'd look like a fool if you didn't."
He noted that the grand jury indicted eight corporations on charges of making illegal donations and Earle has dismissed charges against three of them in return for their cooperation.
"He's called them criminals, then he dismissed the charges," White said. "He's left the impression there is something there."
Regarding DeLay, White said there is nothing there but that DeLay will remain in the mix until the end for reasons that have nothing to do with the law: "Tom DeLay is the news."
Looks like ronnie the Squirrel DA of Travis county may have had his power chopped off at the knees.
LOSER earle the squirrel ping.....
The forces of evil is attacking Tom Delay, because they want to stop him from investigating the real evil that happen with Terri. Tom, God will protect you. Please continue doing God works, and hold hearings on Terri story.
Shine the light of truth onto those demons from Hell. Don't fear them
More compelling reason to stifle the Dim's efforts to load the Judiciary...
thanks for a good post
"It is simply a family fight..."
No, it is a fight between Good and Evil, and it effected a entire nation. The Congress and White House were made fools by one county Judge, and they need to investigate this, and regain respect and control, so this does-not happen again...
This was about LOVE of a family who love there child, and to see your child murdered(kill) slowly for 13 days without WATER and FOOD is _______!
Tom Delay is a HERO in my eyes, and 79% of the American people agree that this was a Horrorable act(recent polls), and entire Nation and World needs to know the truth...
Put yourself in Mother Mary shoes , seeing your baby(daughter) starve and dehydrate to death, and seeing your baby eyes looking at yours saying MOMMY HELP ME, and they prevent it.....This hurts alot of people, and the truth must be told....
vet out
And another thing. We currently make fun of leftists who keep telling us that Bush stole the presidency by having the court appoint him to be president. We say get a life. The court spoke, and give it a rest. Now that this lady is resting in a better place, let us accept the court decision, even it seemed BARBARIC.
Had he taken the 1 million he would have lost control of the 1.6 million estate Terri left.
The 1.2 million minus legal fees won in the malpractice suit is believed to have grown to about 1.6 million dollars. Had Michael taken the 1 million he would have lost the 1.5 million. Michail and his lawyer would never reveal how much of the 1.2 million was left. They tried to imply that half of it had been spent on legal fees. But they never mentioned that the money way more than doubled over the 10 or 12 years they had it invested. Plus damages are not income. But taking 1 million to walk away is taxable imcome. He would have netted about a half million had he taken the deal.
Turning down one million to get 1.6 million is what every innocent man does. Plus he would have had to give up over half of the one million in income taxes.
I wonder how many people guilty or innocent would turn down 1.6 million to get one million? Would You?
April 2, 2005, 12:35AM
A senator fires back at DeLay remarks
Democrat says statements about the Schiavo case were threats that violated the law
on the TX board and wanted to ping you to this article in case you hadn't see it yet.
"Her husband wanted to honor her wishes." Are you referring to Michael Schiavo, the adulterer and polygamist, who is openly living with another woman and has had two children by that woman.
Ronnie Earle:The A-hole DA from the A-hole Liberal Capitol of Texas (Austin).
FYI, a former(???)Dem lawyer has announced he is going to run against District Attorney John Healey in two years in Fort Bend County.
Since the tabloid wasted the national collective time with Scott Peterson, and Terri Schiavo, I keep wondering if our collective anger would have been better spent on these issues than on the killing of one or two or three people. The life of all humans are precious, however the inability of the right to get ANGRY over real issues beside this abortion thing is a shame and waste of effort. Do you remember during President Reagan 8 years in office, he and the right wasted so much time on "prayer in schools". It is now 25 years later, and we still do not have prayer in schools. Do you suppose if we had focused then on energy Independence, or curbing illegal immigration, or spying on the underground Muslim fanatics, we would have been better of today as a nation?
YES!
Yes why should you care if a judge can kill an innocent person .. including you. I wouldn't care a bit if a judge ordered you put in a hospice where food and water would be denied you. It would be great if cops arrested anyone who tried to bring you water or food. Once a judge has ordered you to get no water, we couldn't have someone prove that you could drink from a cup. That might prove the judge wrong. You must agree that proving judges wrong terrible and if you have to die to prevent people knowing a judge was wrong... than that is avery good use of your life...
I agree with you it would not matter if you tried to tell people you wanted to live. It would only be important that a judge said you wanted to die. At no time should a judge have to talk to you to find out. Who would care just as long as the Judge found you too mentally damaged to live. It would n't bother me. No judge should have to listen you you try to tell him you were mentally alive.
I know you are mentally damaged. A huge factor in proving severe mental illness is a subject's willness to give others the power to kill him for no reason except someone else wants 1.6 million or in your case a $1.98.
Wouldn't one have to be mentally damaged to think that money, oil supply, electricity, and terrorism are more important than their own life?
Why should anyone care if Judge Greer could order you killed... What is really important is will congress keep the rest of us from getting all the cheap electricity we want.
The judge could ask the pro death doctor, "Are you sure conservlib is in a vegitative state?" And the Doctor could reply, "Well he said he wasn't!. But you can't believe anything that conservlib says."
I would have to agree. I don't believe anything you say either.
We wasted 25 years under the simpleton "born again" crowd crying over abortion, and prayer in schools. We accomplished ZERO!
Because the stupid joe-six-packs, the right wing media, and the churches we will continue spinning our wheels for another quarter of a century, and get nothing. As a nation, we should all be concerned about the big issues. As 250 million stupid Americans were all preoccupied over the death of a vegetable woman (as sad as it may), non was upset about the disproportionate escalation of medical cost, the rise of oil, the disproportionate rise in CEOs salaries, the 8 billion dollars "unaccounted for" in Iraq, Sleeper Muslim cells all over the US, and their infiltration through Mexico. I can go on and on about real issues. The hillbillies rather think about abortion, and only abortion. Good for you, but I refuse to be dragged into a simpleton way of thinking
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