We'll overlook it this time, anon.
March 21, 2006, 7:35AM
DeLay case may once again face bias issue
Several judges have conflicts similar to those of 2 jurists who had to step down
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - The appearance of possible bias forced two judges out of the criminal case against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay last year, and similar issues could taint some judges on two appeals panels that are now considering the charges against the former majority leader.
The two three-judge panels on the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin are considering appeals that could effectively end the DeLay prosecution. One panel is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case Wednesday.
Several judges on the panels have possible conflicts that are reminiscent of the ones that got state District Judge Bob Perkins, a Democrat, and Administrative Judge B.B. Schraub, a Republican, removed from the case.
Texas law does not require a judge to be biased for or against a defendant to be removed. The judge only has to have conflicts that can create the appearance of possible bias.
While Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle could use that law to challenge some of the judges on the two panels, he has not done so. Earle on Monday declined to comment.
On Wednesday, one 3rd Court of Appeals panel will hear Earle's appeal of a district judge's ruling throwing out charges against DeLay, R-Sugar Land, of conspiring to violate the state's election code.
There are still charges pending against DeLay on money laundering that accuse him of participating in a scheme to convert illegal corporate cash into money Republican candidates could use in 2002 Texas House races. DeLay denies any wrongdoing in the case.
Two cases, similar issues
The other 3rd Court panel is reviewing an appeal brought by DeLay's co-defendants, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro. It challenges the legal theory of Earle's original money laundering indictment brought against the men.
The issues are so similar to the charges against DeLay, that if Colyandro and Ellis win, the case against DeLay could evaporate.
One 3rd Court judge who serves on both panels, Justice Alan Waldrop, was a paid lobbyist for Texans for Lawsuit Reform, or TLR, in 2002, according to Texas Ethics Commission records.
That political committee worked closely with the DeLay-founded Texans for a Republican Majority, TRMPAC, in affecting the outcome of the elections for the Texas House that year.
And during the 2003 legislative session, Waldrop worked with TLR consultant Chuck McDonald in coaching Republican House members on how to pass major tort reform legislation. McDonald has been a grand jury witness in the case involving DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro.
Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, chairman of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, temporarily blocked the tort reform bill under House rules because of Waldrop's coaching. Gallego said Waldrop is "brilliant and a good jurist" but said Waldrop's ties to TLR make it inappropriate for him to be hearing anything related to TRMPAC.
"There should be the same sort of discussion about Judge Waldrop as there was about Judge Perkins," Gallego said.
Another judge who is serving on the Wednesday panel hearing Earle's appeal, Justice David Puryear, gave $250 in 1996 to a Republican candidate who was seeking to oust Earle. At that time, Puryear was an elected Republican county court-at-law judge in Austin.
The candidate, Shane Phelps, had been recruited by the GOP to run against Earle after the prosecutor failed in his effort to convict U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of misuse of office.
Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin represented Hutchison in that case. Now, DeGuerin is defending DeLay against charges Earle brought against him.
Perkins was removed from the case primarily because he made a $200 donation to a national political organization that opposed DeLay in Congress. DeGuerin contended that donation and others would make the public believe Perkins was prejudiced against Delay.
DeGuerin sees a difference
DeGuerin on Monday said Perkins' situation was unique because he was making political donations while sitting on the court. DeGuerin said the actions of the 3rd Court justices all occurred before they took the oath of office as a judge.
"Everybody who becomes a judge has done something in their past. They've represented one side or another," DeGuerin said. "If they took the oath of office and believe in the oath and impartially administer justice, that's all you can ask for."
Puryear also was the target of accusations of partisan judicial favoritism from the Texas Democratic Party in 1997.
Puryear, then a Travis County court-at-law judge, sentenced then state-Sen. Drew Nixon to 180 days in jail on a prostitution charge, but allowed him to serve his time on weekends only.
Democrats complained that the weekend sentencing was preferential treatment for a Republican lawmaker by a Republican judge.
Additionally, Waldrop, Puryear and Justice Bob Pemberton, who is on the panel considering the Ellis and Colyandro appeal, all have one issue similar to the one that got Schraub to remove himself from the case: They originally were appointed by Gov. Rick Perry.
Schraub recused himself from naming Perkins' successor last year after Earle formally raised bias questions because Schraub was appointed by Perry, a DeLay ally on congressional redistricting. Senior District Judge Pat Priest, a San Antonio Democrat, was assigned to take over the case by Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson.
Judges decline to comment
Priest dismissed the charges that are subject to Wednesday's hearing.
Waldrop and Puryear are both facing election challenges from Democrats this year. Pemberton, a former deputy general counsel to Perry, was elected to his position in 2004. All three declined to comment when contacted by the Houston Chronicle.
The third judge hearing Earle's appeal on Wednesday is Justice Bea Ann Smith, an appointee of former Gov. Ann Richards. Smith is not seeking re-election.
The third judge in the Ellis and Colyandro appeal is Chief Justice Kenneth Law. Law is a Republican who won his seat in 2002 with raising or spending any campaign contributions.
The only judge not assigned to either panel is Justice Jan Patterson, a Democrat who first won election to the office in 1998 by defeating Puryear.
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - Prosecutors on Wednesday asked an appeals court to reinstate charges of conspiracy to violate the election code against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.
DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin of Houston, told the three-judge panel of the 3rd Court of Appeals that Senior District Judge Pat Priest was correct in throwing out the charges last December. He said DeLay is anxious for the court to rule quickly so his case can go to trial.
"Justice delayed is justice denied in this case," DeGuerin told the court.
The court heard an appeal that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle brought contesting Priest's December decision to throw out two criminal charges against DeLay. Priest let stand money laundering charges against DeLay.
Earle's appeal of Priest's ruling brought DeLay's trial to a halt, and before Wednesday's hearing, 107 days had passed without action.
The appeals court typically rules six to eight weeks after holding a hearing. If DeLay wins this decision, Earle is expected to appeal the case to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
DeLay and DeGuerin have accused Earle of running a politically motivated investigation of the Sugar Land Republican and of slowing down his trial to hurt him politically.
After being indicted last year, DeLay had to step down as U.S. House majority leader. When he did not get his case resolved by January, House Republicans permanently replaced him in the job.
The gates of the prison are unlocked and beckoning, evermore.
It gets more and more interesting..
Newsweek story about Delay aide and the "non profit" they ran and got rich from.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11968007/
Some highlights ...
Quote:A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records.
DeLay's former chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, who helped create the group while still in DeLay's employ, and his wife, Wendy, were the principal beneficiaries of the group's $3.02 million in revenue, collecting payments totaling $1,022,729 during a five-year period ending in 2001, public and private records show.....
During this latter period, Buckham and his wife, Wendy, acting through their consulting firm, made monthly payments averaging $3,200-$3,400 apiece to DeLay's wife, Christine, for three of the years in which he collected money from the USFN and some other clients.
Quote:In the version of the group's official, typewritten ledgers, supplied to the FBI last month under subpoena, several of its most unusual expenditures are partially crossed out and relabeled in ink. The $20,100 purchase of a vase in October 1999 from a Royal Doulton dealer in Miami was relabeled "office equipment," and the $62,375 purchase in January 1999 of a collection of Salvador Dali and Peter Max prints was relabeled "office fixtures."
And then a pattern we see from Delay, laundering money to commit campaign violations.
Quote:The following year, the National Republican Congressional Committee gave the USFN a $500,000 check to finance additional radio ads in the districts of vulnerable Democrats. Buckham told the FEC he solicited the check, and others told FEC investigators it was paid over the objections of the NRCC's director and chief counsel.
Of the $500,000, USFN gave just $300,000 to another nonprofit group for the ads. In his deposition, Buckham explained that he retained a portion of the Republican Party's check as a commission. "If I raise money, I get a portion," Buckham said. "It is in my contract."
The NRCC in 2004 paid the eighth-highest fine in FEC history to settle allegations that some of its officials colluded with USFN on the ads in violation of campaign finance laws.
DeLay fights to get his gun license back
Author of bill that requires the suspension for those indicted wants law tossed
By ERIC HANSON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
RICHMOND - U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, a gun rights supporter under indictment on charges of laundering campaign money, is fighting to regain his Texas concealed handgun license, which was suspended because he is accused of a felony.
Under a Texas law passed in 1995, a license may be suspended if the holder is charged with a Class A or Class B misdemeanor or indicted on felony charges.
The Sugar Land Republican's license was suspended by Fort Bend County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Jim Richard in January.
The suspension came after DeLay, a strong supporter of gun rights, was indicted last year by a Travis County grand jury on charges of conspiring to violate state election law and on money laundering charges.
The election law indictments were later dismissed by a judge. The money laundering indictment remains.
The author of the original bill, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who was a state senator, said the section of law calling for suspension of licenses of people under indictment should probably be removed from the statute.
"It is clearly not rational, not called for, but it was one of those things we did to make somebody say, 'OK, I'll vote for it,' " Patterson said Monday.
Patterson said several provisions were put in the bill by backers in order to garner support from other lawmakers who were leery about the law.
Patterson said since the bill's passage more than a decade ago, legislators have amended the statute and removed some of the parts he called "onerous."
"There is a presumption of innocence. Would we take away his First Amendment right to free speech?" Patterson said.
The notice of the appeal was received at Judge Richard's court last month from Austin-based Steve Brittain who said DeLay would appeal the ruling and asked a judge to reconsider the matter.
DeLay spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty declined to say why DeLay obtained the handgun permit.
"It is his right, and he has been practicing that right," Flaherty said Monday.
No-show at hearing
Calls to DeLay's attorney, Brittain, were not returned.
However, Flaherty said in a written statement that Brittain was unable to appear at the original court hearing.
Flaherty would not say if DeLay has been carrying a handgun.
"As for whether or not he carries it. That's the point of having a CHL in Texas, potential criminals should assume everyone is."
The case has been assigned to County Court At-Law No. 4 of Judge R.H. "Sandy" Bielstein, but a hearing date has not been set.
State officials began proceedings to have the license suspended after the indictments were issued last year.
According to court documents, a hearing was held Jan. 26 in Judge Richard's Sugar Land courtroom regarding the state's request to suspend the license. Neither DeLay or Brittain appeared at the hearing, and Judge Richard granted the state's request.
"They had proved by the preponderance of the evidence that he had been indicted and therefore his concealed handgun license was suspended," Richard wrote in his decision.
State to contest
Richard declined to discuss the DeLay case.
"These types of cases will come back before this court, therefore I can't comment on this case or other cases," Richard said Monday.
On March 1, Brittain notified Fort Bend County Clerk Dianne Wilson that DeLay planned to appeal the suspension and one week later sent the filing fee of $197 to the county.
Steve Moninger, the attorney for the Department of Public Safety, which administers the handgun licensing law, said the state will contest the appeal.
"We are going to keep going. Our function is to enforce the statute," he said.
Moninger said the law clearly states people charged with Class A or Class B misdemeanors or a felony are ineligible to hold a concealed handgun permit.
Moninger said if charges against DeLay are dropped, or if he is acquitted, the handgun license suspension would be lifted.
Case continues
But, in the event of a conviction, the state would revoke the license.
Meanwhile, the case in Travis County against DeLay continues. Last week, prosecutors asked an appeals court to reinstate charges of conspiracy to violate the election code.
DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, told the three-judge panel of the 3rd Court of Appeals that Senior District Judge Pat Priest was correct in throwing out the charges in December. He said DeLay is anxious for the court to rule quickly so his case can go to trial.
March 31, 2006, 2:46PM
Ex-DeLay aide pleads guilty in lobbyist fraud probe
By MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Tony Rudy, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy this morning in connection with an influence-peddling scheme that for the first time brought the Sugar Land lawmaker into the federal investigation.
Rudy described getting a House member named in court documents as ``Representative 2'' to sign a letter that benefitted disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's clients. The unnamed representative was identifiable as DeLay by details in the court papers, such as the years Rudy worked for DeLay.
Rudy also described coordinating efforts by the staff of "Representative 2'' to push legislation on behalf of Abramoff clients, after receiving gifts and money indirectly from Abramoff.
The plea from Rudy, who served as DeLay's deputy chief of staff, is part of a sprawling federal investigation into the activities of Abramoff, whom DeLay once called "one of my closest and dearest friends.''
Earlier this week, Abramoff was sentenced to 70 months in prison for fraud in connection with the purchase of a casino-boat company in Miami. Abramoff is still under investigation in Washington, where he has also pleaded guilty to fraud charges relating to bribery activities on Capitol Hill.
Former DeLay spokesman Michael Scanlon, who was an Abramoff business partner, has also pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the case.
Justice Department officials have declined to comment on DeLay's status in the wide-ranging probe into whether Abramoff or his associates got favors in return for contributing money to lawmakers' campaigns and arranging foreign trips for the lawmakers.
DeLay has denied knowledge of his former employees' activities. DeLay attorney Richard Cullen has said that the Justice Department has not approached the lawmaker seeking information or cooperation.
But Rudy's plea brings DeLay into the federal case in two different ways.
First, Rudy pleaded to getting Representative 2 to sign a letter opposing a postal rate increase, as sought by Abramoff's magazine company clients.
Second, Rudy admitted to coordinating activities with the staff of Representative 2, after Rudy had left to become a lobbyist, that would have accomplished legislative goals of Abramoff's clients.
Rudy violated the one-year ban on lobbying that is imposed on former government workers.
In court documents released in January, Rudy was described as "Staffer A," who helped Abramoff stop legislation that would have hurt his clients. One bill opposed by Indian gaming interests would have banned Internet gambling; another, opposed by magazine publishers, would have raised postal rates.
In return, Abramoff funneled $50,000 to the political consulting firm of Rudy's wife, Lisa, prosecutors said in court documents. The money was "obtained from (Abramoff's) clients who would and did benefit from Staffer A's official actions," the prosecutors said. Rudy then left Congress to work directly for Abramoff.
Rudy, 39, a tall man dressed Friday in charcoal gray suit, said very little throughout the court proceedings and answered the judge's questions with a simple yes or no.
When asked at the end of the proceeding how he was pleading to the charge, Rudy's voice seemed to thicken as he said, "Guilty, your Honor.''
Rudy's guilt plea to the single felony conspiracy count was in exchange for a promise by federal prosecutors not to pursue other charges against him or his wife.
Rudy faces up to five years in prison, but under federal sentencing guidelines, will likely receive a two-or three-year sentence.
As Rudy was leaving the courtroom, his lawyer was asked whether Rudy had been talking to prosecutors about DeLay. The lawyer, with a tight smile, said "I have nothing to say.'' Rudy was silent.
They then left the federal courthouse through a side door, avoiding the television cameras waiting at the front door, got into a black sedan and rode away.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Tom DeLay will drop out of his re-election race, two Republican congressional sources told CNN Monday.
DeLay was forced to step down as House majority leader last year after being indicted in his home state of Texas.
DeLay told Time magazine Monday that he and his wife, Christine, had been prepared for an election battle, but that he decided Wednesday to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come.
"This had become a referendum on me," he told the magazine. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district."
BBB
Tom DeLay is toast! Now we can wait for the perp walk.
BBB
The polls would be the only thing, to my mind, could make him quit. Of course the compounding bad news had to help.
I wonder, what took him so long to wise up?
I mean, what was the delay?
