SCOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DeLay's hopes dashed for quick end to case
Judge dismisses one felony indictment but upholds another
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN — A senior district judge today dismissed one felony indictment but upheld another against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, dashing DeLay's hopes for a speedy resolution to his case.
A quick ruling in DeLay's favor from Senior District Judge Pat Priest throwing the case out of court was crucial to the Sugar Land Republican's efforts to regain his post as U.S. House majority leader. He was forced to step down when he was indicted in September.
Priest had told DeLay's lawyers last month that if he upheld either of the indictments, he would be unable to hold a trial for DeLay before early next year.
House Republicans have indicated they wanted to hold a leadership election in January if DeLay was not cleared by then.
DeLay and two associates — John Colyandro of Austin and Jim Ellis of Washington, D.C. — were indicted on charges of conspiracy to violate the Texas election code, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection to 2002 legislative races.
Indictments returned in September and October accuse DeLay, Colyandro and Ellis of being involved in a scheme to flow allegedly illegal corporate money into 2002 Texas House races. The money laundering charges accuse them of running $190,000 in illegal corporate funds through the Republican National Committee.
Lawyers for the three argued that it was legal for the DeLay-founded Texans for a Republican Majority to raise corporate money so long as the money was not donated to candidates. They said there was no trade of funds with the Republican National Committee.
DeLay's legal team, headed by Dick DeGuerin of Houston, had challenged the indictments on numerous legal issues, but DeGuerin called two the "silver bullets."
Those points were that the state conspiracy law did not apply to the election code until a year after the 2002 elections.
The other was that the definition of money laundering did not include checks until 2005. TRMPAC transferred the $190,000 in corporate money to the RNC by using a check.
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle brought the case against Delay as the statute of limitations was running out on 2002 election code violations. The indictments brought a wild legal ride.
After Earle learned there might be "technical" problems with a Sept. 28 indictment on conspiracy to violate the election code, he went to a second grand jury to seek the money laundering charges. The first grand jury had expired, and the second grand jury returned a no bill.
Then on Oct. 3, Earle asked a newly impaneled grand jury to indict Delay, Colyandro and Ellis on money laundering charges, and it did.
DeGuerin had asked to have the indictments dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct. Priest said he would hear that motion only if he upheld the indictments against the legal challenges.