Ronnie Earle: Abuser of the judicial system
A Travis County grand jury last week refused to indict former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as prosecutors raced to salvage their felony case against the Sugar Land Republican.
In a written statement Tuesday, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle acknowledged that prosecutors presented their case to three grand juries — not just the two they had discussed — and one grand jury refused to indict DeLay. When questions arose about whether the state’s conspiracy statute applied to the first indictment returned last Wednesday, prosecutors presented a new money-laundering charge to second grand jury on Friday because the term of the initial grand jury had expired.
Working on its last day Friday, the second grand jury refused to indict DeLay. Normally, a "no-bill" document is available at the courthouse after such a decision. No such document was released Tuesday.
Earle’s statement on Tuesday said he took money-laundering and conspiracy charges to a third grand jury on Monday after prosecutors learned of new evidence over the weekend.
So much for an impartial grand jury, too (all caps theirs):
THE FOREMAN OF THE TRAVIS COUNTY GRAND JURY THAT INDICTED CONGRESSMAN TOM DELAY SAYS HE FELT THERE WAS ILLEGAL ACTIVITY SURROUNDING DELAY, THE PAC TEXANS FOR A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY AND THE TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS LONG BEFORE HE WAS TAPPED TO SERVE ON THE GRAND JURY. WILLIAM GIBSON TOLD THE NEWSRADIO 590 KLBJ MORNING SHOW HE HIMSELF HAD QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ADS CONCERNING THE TEXAS LEGISLATIVE RACES IN 2002.
The foreman’s name is William Gibson. He told Austin’s KLBJ:
All this came out way before I was on the grand jury, these (ads) were in your paper, in Austin paper, everyone else’s paper, they was flooding the market around here. But those were way before i ever went on the grand jury and my decision was based upon those, not what might have happened in the grand jury room.
(Hat tip for the foreman info: Neal Boortz, who has more [thanks to ST reader Fat Tone for the link])
I know many conservatives like myself don’t enjoy being put in the position of defending a politician they don’t particularly care for. I’m not a big fan of DeLay, but I’m even less of a fan of people like Ronnie Earle, clearly a partisan Democrat (despite what the news mediots report about him prosecuting more D’s than R’s) who is blantantly abusing an already clogged up judicial system in order to satisfy a personal agenda. This man is a disgrace to the legal profession.
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