Morales holed up in a cell all alone

Austin American Statesman ^ | June 28, 2003 | David Pasztor

[Bubba_Leroy]

Morales holed up in a cell all alone

Jail seeks to protect ex-top lawyer; papers hint at financial woes

MORE ON THIS STORY   Read past coverage and more information on Dan Morales at statesman.com/morales

By David Pasztor

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Saturday, June 28, 2003

Former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales was placed in an isolated cell after being booked into the Caldwell County Jail and is being kept away from other inmates, Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel Law said Friday.

Law said Morales, ordered to jail by a federal judge while awaiting trial on various fraud charges, is being kept in administrative segregation for his own safety. Some of the jail's other 140 inmates might have a grudge against the state's one-time top law enforcement official, Law said.

"He is being housed no differently than any other high-profile defendant," Law said.

Meanwhile, court exhibits made public Friday underscore prosecutors' claims that Morales is in desperate financial straits.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks revoked Morales' personal recognizance bond and ordered him to jail after hearing from prosecutors that Morales might have committed felonies by lying on loan applications to buy two luxury vehicles.

Morales already has been indicted on 12 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, tax fraud and lying on a loan application, and is scheduled for an October trial on those charges. Prosecutors would not say if they plan to file additional charges against him.

The new allegations stem from car purchases Morales made while he was free awaiting trial.

Although he had told the court that he had no income when applying for a court-appointed attorney in April, Morales filled out loan applications days later stating his monthly income was about $20,000.

According to the loan documents, Morales was turned down four times -- including twice by one bank -- for loans to buy a 2000 Mercedes convertible from Apple Sport Imports in Austin in late April.

Reasons given for denying the loan applications included "excessive obligations" and "insufficient income."

Compass Bank eventually agreed to finance $39,506.09 for the car. Morales traded in a 1999 Lexus sport-utility vehicle worth $24,000, but did not apply most of the trade-in value to the Mercedes purchase, instead taking $19,500 in cash away from the deal.

Days later, Morales went to the Red McCombs dealership in his hometown of San Antonio and bought the 2000 version of the same Lexus he had traded in.

The Security Service Federal Credit Union of San Antonio agreed to finance the full $36,242.30 sales price for the replacement Lexus if Morales would join the credit union. He did.

Prosecutors estimate that Morales has about $1 million in debt and said he has no apparent source of income.

dpasztor@statesman.com; 445-3631

On statesman.com: Notices of loan rejections for Dan Morales are available at statesman.com/morales.

Find this article at:
http://www.statesman.com/asection/content/auto/epaper/editions/saturday/news_e3dfd35901aae0840084.html

[martin_fierro]

O tempora!

O Morales!

[wimpycat]

D or R?

[steplock]

Attorney

That says it all!

[demkicker]

Well looky here, another Rat poster boy!

[martin_fierro]

D, naturally.

[auboy]

Since the article does not say, I'd guess D. If he was an R it would be in bold print.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Since the article does not say, I'd guess D. If he was an R it would be in bold print.

DING, DING, DING! We have a winner!

You are correct. If he were a Republican, it would be in the headline of the article. Since he is a democRAT, his party affiliation is never even mentioned in the article.

[FreePaul]

Morales is a criminal and should be in jail. Also, the attorneys who bought an interest in the state tobacco lawsuit should be in jail along with him. Instead they are sharing their cut of the billions which is the result of their "investment" in the former Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales.

[SwinneySwitch]

He ran for governor in the Texas demonrat primary last year, was defeated by Tony Sanchez. Morales then endorsed Republican Gov. Rick Perry in the fall!

[txzman]

This is one sick puppy. Facing millions in fines, bankrupt and $130,000 in credit card debt, he stops by his local Lexus and Mercedes dealers to lie on loan applications.

I want to know what the judge is asking - Morales' monthly requirements are almost $11,000 a month - which he made through May - yet he claims he has no income and no savings.

Hmmmmmm.

[Brandybux]

What's interesting (to those of us in Texas) is how far Morales has fallen. It's almost like a Greek tradgedy, watching a Democratic Hispanic figure like Morales transform himself from a golden boy, the hope of Dems and lib Hispanics across the state, into this venal and clearly stupid klutz who (though he clearly knows better) performs one idiotic stunt after another.

There was a time when a lot of us Texans (conservative Repubs included) thought he had what it would take to get elected governor -- decent boyish good looks (great for the TV, dontcha know), suave and sophisticated manner, a Hispanic background (and Hispanics are a growing, potent voting power block in Texas).

Then Tony Sanchez came along, with $65 million of his own money, and trashed him out of the primary.

The only thing odd about the Morales saga is how his political failures and the political failures of the Texas Democrats remind one of what used to be (and still is in many places) Republican fumblebuttedness in politics. They didn't call the Republicans "the stupid party" for nothing. And, as I said, in many places Republicans are still the stupid party.

But, in Texas, it looks like the mantle of stupidity has lifted from the Republicans and settled on the Dems. Wow! What a difference GWB made!

Now, if GWB could just figure out a way to make the same thing happen on a national scale as has happened in Texas in the past decade ... please, please.

[Tacis]

I've always believed that Morales didn't become a crook as a result of the tobacco settlement. He started long before.

I believe he started or, at least, perfected his technique, on the AOL class action settlement. In the mid-(late?) 1990s, a bunch of states sued AOL (don't remember why, but it might have been the billing switch from cost/minute to flat monthly rate) and won.

There were press conferences and talk of big money. Individual class members got little or nothing and I recall thinking and talking about what might have happened to all the cash.

If the judge, here, wants to know about Morales' finances, he might start by searching for pools of untaxed cash that originated from the AOL settlement.

[Dog Gone]

Morales didn't siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars from the tobacco settlement to give to his friends who had little to do with the case out of the goodness of his heart.

I want to know if his kickback is in a bank in the Cayman Islands or in the Bahamas.

[shiva]

Morales,(a Dem) lost to Sanchez(a Dem) then turned 'redcoat' and sided with the Reps. to elect the now Gov. of Texas Rick Perry (a Rep). Could a lot of this be coming from the Dem camp? Retaliation for a 'traitor'?

[Brandybux]

Morales,(a Dem) lost to Sanchez(a Dem) then turned 'redcoat' and sided with the Reps. to elect the now Gov. of Texas Rick Perry (a Rep). Could a lot of this be coming from the Dem camp? Retaliation for a 'traitor'?

Morales' endorsement of Perry is interestingly hard to explain. On one hand, it could have been Morales' payback for the way Sanchez savaged him in the primary. Or, it could be one of those nuggets of "Texas patriotism" in Morales -- i.e. he honestly believed that Sanchez would be so bad for the state that he endorsed a Republican rather than see Sanchez do to Texas what he had done to Morales.

Either scenario by itself explains the facts; and, perhaps, both of them are correct.

As to Morales' woes being the result of a general Demo payback to Morales for endorsing Perry -- I don't think so. Really! If Morales can tell the court that he's broke, and then claim thousands a month in income on a loan application, then drive two luxury vehicles, etc. etc. ... well, that's just plain ol' dumb and dumber.

I'd chalk that up to a kind of hubris common to politicians of any party or ideology, when they think they are so hoity toity that they can get away with just about damn near anything.

Remember -- Morales had been Texas' attorney general for long enough to nurture that kind of hubris. After all, he had been telling others in state government for years what was legal and what not, what complied with the Texas constitution and what didn't. Kinda makes you feel like a little legal god. If a man is turned a certain way, that kind of experience corrupts his judgment and his morals.

[Holden Magroin]

If it weren't for Morales, the governor of Texas would be Tony Sanchez. Morales threw a monkey wrench into the Democrats' "rainbow ticket" when he entered the primary and proceeded to harass Sanchez.