Posted on 10/04/2005 12:16:19 PM PDT by anymouse
"Apparently, no one cracked a book before they issued that first indictment," DeGuerin said. "This is a mess. This looks like Keystone Kops."
Earle offered little comment or explanation of the new indictments, and refused to take calls from the Houston Chronicle.
DeGuerin said the new indictment was returned after he filed a motion to dismiss the original indictment against DeLay. The original indictment alleged DeLay was involved in a conspiracy to violate state election laws in a scheme to convert corporate money into cash that was available for 2002 Republican state House candidates.
DeGuerin said the problem with that indictment was state law was not changed to make the conspiracy indictment apply to the state election laws until 2003 — a year after the supposed violation. He said the quick turnaround with a new grand jury showed Earle's case against DeLay was improvised.
"It proves a district attorney can lead a grand jury around like a bull with a ring through its nose," DeGuerin said.
"Ronnie Earle has stooped to a new low with his brand of prosecutorial abuse," DeLay's statement said. "He is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a 'do-over' since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week were totally manufactured and illegitimate."
Wood agreed with Dix that the conspiracy charge already was covered by the penal code in 2002 but also noted that all nine members of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which would review any convictions, are Republicans.
The question I have is whether an indictment by a grand jury that did not hear any testimony or see any evidence can be thrown out.
The MSM is about to learn something we Texans have known for years: don't hang the hero mantle on Ronnie Earle. He's like Boss Hogg: he's basically a self-aggrandizing buffoon with a title, and if he weren't as entrenched as a tick in his own county, he'd be in jail himself.
"It was the third grand jury to hear the case."
Sounds like Grand Jury shopping to me. I think that should be added to the list of charges that Earle will face when he loses.
"The Grand jury that couldn't indict straight"
Well...
"There also probably will be a fight over whether the three-year deadline for indicting DeLay has expired.
In a letter to Earle, DeGuerin said DeLay is withdrawing his waiver of the statute of limitations to investigate him. Last month DeLay signed that waiver in an attempt to head off an indictment. The date on the $190,000 check to the committee is Sept. 13, 2002. The committee checks cut to candidates were dated Oct. 4, 2002."
Source: The Austin American Statesman.
When the Republicans were going to change their rule about a leader having to step down if indicted and the Dems raised such a rumpus (though they have no such rule for themselves), I really hoped they'd do something in-your-face like amend the rule to " . . . unless the indictment is brought by Ronnie Earle." ;-)
LOL! The new grand jury was impaneled at noon, and had the indictments ready by the end of the day.
Did they even bother sitting down?
Mr. Delay was also indicted for allegedly failing to keep his peas separate from his mashed potatoes during dinner.
The former majority leader has repeatedly denied charges of mixing his peas into his mashed potatoes in order to eat them with a knife.
Culinary conniving is punishable in Texas with a three-zillion-dollar fine and/or twenty years at hard labor gutting armadillos in Amarillo.
I have been told all of my life that the wheels of justice turn slowly. Apparently that is not always true. In fact, it would seem that a grand jury does not have to waste any time considering the evidence before returning an indictment.
Apparently, the same is true as to the 2nd indictment. Even if every allegation in the indictment is true, those allegations do not fit the crime of 'money laundering' because the original source of the money was not illegal.
"Ham sandwiches" all around, LMAO.
Mark Levin is gonna ruin his day, see breaking newz, woo hoo.
***"It was the third grand jury to hear the case."
Sounds like Grand Jury shopping to me. I think that should be added to the list of charges that Earle will face when he loses.***
IIRC, Seventh GJ to hear the case.
Has DeLay been accused of ripping tags off mattresses?
Or has he been accused of having an upaid parking ticket when he was in college?
Landmark Legal has asked for a FOIR to Earle, his staff, from 2001 - 2005 about any DNC etc. communications, a and phone records from August 2005 - October 2005.
Wonder what they know?
You didn't expect the Comical to actually get the facts right did you? :)
The fact that the Comical isn't calling for DeLay to be drawn and quartered and dipped in boiling oil shows that they are dubious of the legitimacy and sticking power of Earle's case.
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