Delay Turns Himself Into Harris County Officials

[Nbadan]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/images/delay_mugshot.jpg

Mugshot from Smoking gun (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1020051delay1.html)


DeLay turns himself in
01:07 PM CDT on Thursday, October 20, 2005
Associated Press


HOUSTON - U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on Thursday turned himself in at the Harris County sheriff's bonding office, where he was photographed, fingerprinted and released on bond on state conspiracy and money laundering charges.

“He posted $10,000 bond and they have left the bonding office,” Lt. John Martin with the sheriff's department said.

DeLay, accompanied by his attorney, Dick DeGuerin, showed up about 12:15 p.m., appeared before a judge and was gone in less than 30 minutes, Martin said.

Dallas News (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102105dntswdelay.1125d01a5.html)

:hat

[gtownspur]

way to go! do it with a smile. i guess this screws up any chance of the democrats wanting to use his mug shot as a symbol of republicn criminality in 06.

But this picture just says " i'm gonna be free!! cocksuckers!"

[Nbadan]

Delay's political career is over. If Ronnie Earle doesn't get him the Abraham investigation by the FEDS eventually will.

[Nbadan]

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a348/TwistUUp/smileymugs8ww.jpg

[JoeChalupa]

http://www.chrisduel.com/DeLayMugShot.jpg

Tom picked the better picture.

[Yonivore]

I'm betting Ronnie Earle's mug shot won't be as chipper. Travis County still uses the measurement lines and booking slate, I believe.

[xrayzebra]

Delay's political career is over. If Ronnie Earle doesn't get him the Abraham investigation by the FEDS eventually will.

Ronnie has opened a bucket of worms, I would bet he wished he hadn't by now. He obviously was judge shopping too (Earle) from what I am hearing on the news this morning. Seems his hand picked judge has contributed to moveon.org and every other Demo. cause. Earle just keeps showing his true colors. More and more. Guess Hutchinson burnt him so bad he has just got to have a repub somehow or other. And he chose "other".

[mookie2001]

I've asked this before
but do yall understand the nature of a grand jury?





Delay is a victim!
he's being persecuted for his beliefs!

[xrayzebra]

I've asked this before
but do yall understand the nature of a grand jury?





Delay is a victim!
he's being persecuted for his beliefs!

Completely understand the nature of a grand jury. Guilt is not implied only that there may be enough evidence to convict someone of a crime as presented by the prosecutor. No defense is offered or given. It is the only jury that can ask questions themselves and if feels like it can even throw the prosecutor out of the jury room. The jury is in charge of the whole proceedings, supposedly, but the prosecutor can/does lead the jury in most cases down the road he wants. Of course Earle got slapped down by one grand jury and threw a temper fit for not getting his way.

[Marcus Bryant]

Do you understand the nature of a grand jury in Austin, Texas?


Prosecutor: "Hey, here's a Republican and we think he did some bad shit."

Grand Jury: "Ok, man, sounds good to me."


Beyond that, it's not like this particular prosecutor hasn't gone on a witch hunt after a GOP politician before. Earle's case is so thin he's even had to shop around for a grand jury to indict DeLay.

[Marcus Bryant]

Delay's political career is over. If Ronnie Earle doesn't get him the Abraham investigation by the FEDS eventually will.


Wishful thinking.

[Extra Stout]

Do you understand the nature of a grand jury in Austin, Texas?


Prosecutor: "Hey, here's a Republican and we think he did some bad shit."

Grand Jury: "Ok, man, sounds good to me."


Beyond that, it's not like this particular prosecutor hasn't gone on a witch hunt after a GOP politician before. Earle's case is so thin he's even had to shop around for a grand jury to indict DeLay.The foreman of the grand jury that indicted him even said as much. He didn't support indictment because he thought DeLay had committed a crime based upon the evidence. he supported indictment because DeLay is a Republican, and he thought his campaign commercials were mean.

And I don't say this as a DeLay supporter. If they had a real case against him, I'd just as soon he be sent up the river. But Earle clearly is doing a partisan hack job here.

[mookie2001]

The foreman of the grand jury that indicted him even said as much. He didn't support indictment because he thought DeLay had committed a crime based upon the evidence. he supported indictment because DeLay is a Republican
link?
not from Patriot Freedom Eagle American GodBless USA Blog

[Extra Stout]

link?
not from Patriot Freedom Eagle American GodBless USA Blog

Here's the transcript from KLBJ radio:

TRANSCRIPT:

KLBJ host: The Texas Association Business ads.

Grand Jury Foreman William Gibson: All this all came out way before I was on the grand jury, these mailers were in your paper, in Austin paper, everyone else's paper, they flooding the market around here. But those were way before I ever went on the the grand jury and my decision was based on upon those (the TAB ads,) not what might have happened in the grand jury room...

KLBJ host: Oh, ok, Your mind was made up after you learned about the ads.

William Gibson: Right, those ads, way back. telling people how, so-called freedom of the speech deal, and I looked at it and they are just telling people go vote for that person, go vote for that person,

KLBJ host: So they didn't have to persuade you in the grand jury with any evidence, you already..

William Gibson: That was already public knowledge there and way back (unintelligible)...they stated their positions and I could state my position by say I don't like that.

[Yonivore]

Hell, I was listening to KLBJ when he said it.

[Nbadan]

I posted this before in the original Delay thread:


Gibson, after congratulating Ronnie Earle's work, said, "We were provided with documentations, we had witnesses. I cannot go into what was said and everything, but I feel that the grand jury acted properly and I would have not put my name on that indictment had I not felt there was sufficient evidence to proceed on with this."

Clearly, Gibson was trying to be careful. But he appears perilously close to the line. The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 19.34, requires all grand jurors take an oath to "keep secret" their proceeding. And Article 20.02 is rather blunt in describing this secrecy: "The proceedings of the grand jury shall be secret."

And Gibson was not alone. Veronica Dixon, who sat on the jury that returned the first indictment, told the Houston Chronicle that the "only thing the grand jury bases its decisions on is the evidence presented to us. " "We had quite a lot of evidence," she said. Dixon, a state employee who said she voted Democratic in the last elections, added, "My decisions had nothing to do with what party I belonged to."

The Chronicle found a public copy of the list of the grand jurors' names, before it was sealed by a judge, and determined that seven of the 12 grand jurors had voted in Democratic primaries in recent years. One grand juror had voted in a Republican primary. Four of the grand jurors had no history or could not be fully identified by the Chronicle.

John Dean, Findlaw (http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20051007.html)

[Marcus Bryant]

Yeah, the grand jury was comprised of the best Democrats they could find.

[Nbadan]

The third Grand Jury had no trouble indicting Delay on money laundering and conspiracy charges. Lawyers who have seen some of the evidence contend that Ronnie Earle has done his home-work in this case, but we are supposed to believe MB and Yonivore instead, right?

[Marcus Bryant]

Of course, the 3rd group of nonpartisan Democrats that Earle and his film crew could find had no trouble indiciting DeLay.

Earle did his homework with Kay Bailey too.

Hey, if we are supposed to believe a quarter of the bullshit you throw around in here, anyone's believable, including Ronnie Earle.

[Nbadan]

Like you actually know what happened in the Kay Bailey case that isn't just Partisan spin.

:rolleyes

[Dos]

NbaDan spin this..

Corzine's Charitable Donations Questioned
By DONNA DE LA CRUZ, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 19 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine (news, bio, voting record), a former Wall Street executive with a portfolio worth $261 million, has been giving some of his money to black churches, raising questions about whether it's generosity or politics.

The Democrat, who is in a tight race for governor, donated or loaned more than $2.5 million last year to black churches. He has received the endorsement of more than two dozen black ministers.

"Blatant quid pro quo-ism," said Democrat Walter Fields, Jr., former political director of New Jersey's NAACP. "We have always had wealthy candidates running for office. What we have never had is that individual wealth being used in such a direct way, and somehow we're supposed to look the other way."

Corzine, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, has defended his giving and cited the millions he has given to other organizations as well, including Planned Parenthood and The Vaccine Fund, which finances immunization.

"There are people who work those fields every day who need resources. Some are Catholic charities, some are Jewish charities, some are Protestant and some are African-American. I go where the need is," he said.

The Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council and pastor of St. Matthew's AME Church in Orange, N.J., said black ministers have been making personal endorsements of candidates since 1981. The council does not make endorsements.

Jackson's church has received thousands of dollars from Corzine over several years, including a $50,000 loan last year.

In their endorsement of Corzine last month, Jackson said the black ministers chose the Democrat because he "will be a leader of a state at two extremes — at one end the wealthiest state in the nation and at the other end one of the poorest states in the nation."

Doug Forrester, the Republican candidate, made millions with his prescription drug management company, BeneCard Services Inc. He has donated $1,000 to one black church, and he wrote a $5,000 check to another for Hurricane Katrina relief.

Blacks make up 11 percent of the electorate in New Jersey.

Rick Cohen, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, said private foundations are not closely monitored.

"While Corzine may be doing nothing legally wrong, there are real questions about not only the grant making that goes to entities whose political endorsements or support are of interest to the senator, but grants to entities that are remarkably sizable," Cohen said.

Jackson, the official with the Black Ministers Council, said the scrutiny of Corzine's donations was because of Ed Rollins, who managed Republican Christie Whitman's successful 1993 gubernatorial campaign. Rollins said then that campaign used $500,000 in "street money" payments to black ministers to keep them and their congregations from voting on Election Day.

Rollins, now a political commentator, later said he had made up the story.

[ChumpDumper]

Indict him!

Oh wait, there's no law broken.

Pass a law then.

[Nbadan]

Esquire: Who The Hell is Ronnie Earle? (http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2005/050928_mfe_earle_1.html)

For Anyone who is interested and has some SPARE time this weekend, this is the best article to-date capturing the essence of Prosecutor Ronnie Earle, how he got to be the way he is, his journey into TX politics, and his reasoning for prosecuting Tom Delay for violating TX campaign finance laws.

Here are some excerpts...


So Earle gathered his political-corruption team and started studying the law—and it quickly all seemed as clear as mud. According to a 1976 Supreme Court decision called Buckley v. Valeo, money spent on elections is a form of free speech that must be regulated. That means that corporations can spend money on political campaigns as long as they don't practice "express advocacy" by using "magic words" like Elect John Smith or Vote for John Smith. But at that moment the new McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law was going into effect and there were other rulings working their way through the system, like a decision out in California that suggested replacing the magic-words test with a "reasonable person" test—if something looked like a campaign ad and sounded like a campaign ad then it probably was a campaign ad.

More:


Then the DA job opened up and he read the job description:

The duty of the prosecutor is not to convict but to see that justice is done.

Now that sounded like a helluva job, he thought. I wouldn't have to sell. I wouldn't have to buy. I'd get paid to do the right thing every day.

That was 1976. Before long, Earle was pioneering a series of innovative liberal programs like drug courts, victims' assistance, and community prosecutors who worked neighborhoods like beat cops. He was so popular he won election after election. Most years the Republicans didn't even bother to field a candidate against him. And he loved the job so much that aside from one halfhearted try for an open Senate seat, he never aimed higher. Homer McGinnis remembers trying to talk him into aiming for attorney general or governor. "I was president of the Texas Oil Marketers Association, and I offered to help him any way I could. But I don't think he ever seriously entertained it. He seemed to think his job wasn't finished."

Here is the real story of Ronnie Earle Versus Kay Bailey Hutchison - no spin!


Then, in 1993, he indicted his first important Republican, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. It was the typical thing, using state telephones for campaign purposes. But Hutchison had a political consultant named Karl Rove, and soon it was Earle who was in for the fight of his life. Bumper stickers appeared all over Texas denouncing the Earle of Injustice. Republicans began accusing him of everything from conflict of interest to leaking to the press to "Gestapo-like tactics." For weeks they kept up a wave of hostile press releases and telephone calls, even pushing the legal limit by contacting every single member of his grand jury. One Republican called it a "scorched-earth policy."

But it worked. Having stirred up so much publicity, Hutchison claimed there was too much publicity and got the case moved to a Republican district near Fort Worth. When the new judge made an order that would have resulted in Earle having to go through a separate hearing on each piece of evidence—and there were hundreds of pieces of evidence—he lost hope and dropped the case. His friends were puzzled. His enemies crowed: Bizarre! Flaky!

It was the low point of his career.

[Nbadan]

On CBS Evening News, they covered Tom Delay's little scene that was made in the courtroom on Friday. Then they moved on to his tirade out in the parking lot of the Texas statehouse, where he condemned Ronnie Earle, naming him no less than eight times in a four minute statement.

THEN they switched to an interview with Beverly Carter, Republican (precinct chairwoman) of his home district.

Here's what she had to say,

"I've not heard of any Republicans that are supporting Tom at this point. Win, lose, or draw, whether he's guilty or not guilty, they've kind of had it with him."

She ended the interview with:

"Pigs get fatter but hogs get slaughtered and Tom's been a hog!"

CBS News (http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?channel=eveningnews)

[Murphy]

it makes me laugh to see the liberals fume over the fact that he was smiling in his mugshot!

[Marcus Bryant]

Here is the real story of Ronnie Earle Versus Kay Bailey Hutchison - no spin!

Actually, here is the real story on Earle v. Hutchinson. (http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/10/2kay.html) Though it is from that right-wing, 'Neocon' paper known as the Austin American-Statesman.

[SpursWoman]

Though it is from that right-wing, 'Neocon' paper known as the Austin American-Statesman.


:lol

[Cant_Be_Faded]

Do you understand the nature of a grand jury in Austin, Texas?


Prosecutor: "Hey, here's a Republican and we think he did some bad shit."

Grand Jury: "Ok, man, sounds good to me."


Beyond that, it's not like this particular prosecutor hasn't gone on a witch hunt after a GOP politician before. Earle's case is so thin he's even had to shop around for a grand jury to indict DeLay.


Are you insinuating that Austin is known for prosecuting Republicans?

[Nbadan]

I don't see how Marcus Bryant can claim that the Austin American Statesman article he linked disputes any of the statements about Ronnie Earle in the article that I posted, in fact, they seem to jibe...


Earle, who unsuccessfully opposed Hutchison's bid to move the case out of Democrat-heavy Travis County, said a judge's refusal to rule before trial on the admissibility of evidence raised worries that the evidence wouldn't be accepted at all. The ultimate risk, he said, was that a loss could send a message to officeholders that they could abuse their workers with impunity.

Roy Minton, an Austin lawyer well-versed in defending public figures, ranks among the head-shakers at Earle's move.

"I don't know what was on his mind, but he wasn't thinking," Minton said, suggesting that Earle should have proceeded. He said the judge, John Onion Jr., probably would have admitted the documents at issue.

Earle "would have been much better off if he did it that way rather than dismiss it," Minton said. "It would have destroyed (Hutchison) for the moment anyway."

Austin lawyer Buck Wood, an Earle supporter, suggested that even if Onion had spurned the documents, which were gathered from the state treasury using a grand jury subpoena instead of a search warrant, Earle could have absorbed the loss knowing he'd presented witnesses including former Hutchison aides "who could have talked about how she operated her office, how she treated her people, and testified to their knowledge of her using them for things other than official business."

"He could have dirtied her up as bad as possible," Wood said. "He could have seriously damaged her. But he didn't do that. He's not partisan; he's not mean."

Onion, handling the case in a Fort Worth courtroom, reacted to Earle's refusal to proceed by swearing in the jury and directing the acquittal of Hutchison.

Onion, former presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, said last week that Earle's justification for not going to trial is "still a mystery to me."

Hutchison, who had approached the trial amid speculation that the party might need a candidate to take her place in its March primary, emerged exultant.

"I always knew that right would win," she said at the time. "The people of Texas stood with me, and right has won."

The former TV reporter and Texas House member subsequently sailed to the GOP nomination and election to her first full six-year Senate term, which was followed in 2000 by another victory. If she wins next year, she could vie for the GOP vice-presidential nod in 2008.

How it began

Hutchison's entanglement with Travis County authorities started in April 1992, when The Houston Post reported that a state aide to Hutchison had been keeping campaign fundraising records and thank-you letters to contributors on a state computer.

The aide later resigned after apologizing and giving up two vacation days and paying $45.86 for his use of the equipment.

In November 1992, Earle's office said that the facts did not warrant criminal investigation because the "misuse of state property was an isolated incident involving a very small monetary loss to the state."

Prosecutors said later that they were unaware then that three days after the newspaper report, an agency deputy oversaw the removal of computer files belonging to 10 aides from department backup tapes. Hut- chison's advocates called the act a security measure; prosecutors said it looked like criminal alteration of a state record.

In January 1993, Hutchison declared her candidacy to serve out the Senate term of Lloyd Bentsen, who had resigned to join President Clin- ton's cabinet. She out-polled 23 opponents, including, in a runoff, Bob Krueger. The New Braunfels Democrat had been appointed by Gov. Ann Richards to temporarily fill Bentsen's slot.

The Senate campaign was marked by allegations of wrongdoing, including charges from three former treasury employees that Hutchison routinely required them to perform personal and political chores on state time.

One former aide said Hutchison hit her repeatedly with a notebook one day in anger. Hutchison said any employees who did nonstate work were instructed to make up that time.

Five days after her June 1993 victory, Travis County authorities raided the state treasury headquarters, ordering employees to turn over voluminous records. Earle said the raid, which Hutchison called "outrageous," stemmed from information his office had received that records were being destroyed.

Grand jurors indicted Hutchison in September 1993. After court squabbles, the indictments were redrafted twice before Onion granted her motion to move the case from Austin.

Joe Cutbirth, then a statehouse newspaper reporter, said Earle was overwhelmed by the legal and public relations team aiding Hutchison.

Hutchison "had a legal dream team when O.J. (Simpson) was still running through airports for Hertz," Cutbirth said.

Learning from the past

At trial, she was represented by Dick DeGuerin of Houston, DeLay's lawyer now, as well as Michael Tigar, perhaps best known for defending Black Panther activist Angela Davis and Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols, and Ron Wood, a former federal prosecutor.

In her appeals for public support, Hutchison counted on GOP consultant Karl Rove; Beckwith, former spokesman for Vice President Dan Quayle; and Karen Hughes, executive director of the Republican Party of Texas. The same year, Rove and Hughes helped George W. Bush win election as governor.

Cutbirth, a former Democratic activist who is now an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism, said Earle wouldn't be "human if he wasn't still smarting from the loss he took from Kay. I can't imagine he's not prepared" for a similar legal and media-savvy onslaught. "It's clearly the biggest case of his life."

After Hutchison's acquittal, DeGuerin called Earle "a desperate man whose career is going down the tubes because he's been exposed for this politically motivated prosecution."

So Hutchison was acquitted not because she had proven her innocence beyond a reasonable doubt, but because Karl Rove's dirty tricks against Ronnie Earle and the Travis County D.A's office muddied up the waters in the County enough that it got the case moved to a more 'Republican friendly' court where Earle would have had to fight to present hundreds of pieces of evidence he had accumulated against Hutch. He could have nailed Hutchison, no one disputes this, but he chose not to be a bitter partisan instead.

[Spam]

Rove can't do squat right now.