4.26.2022

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts





And it happened in Tennessee. You know, I think there's a greater chance of getting away with it today than there was back then.

  • This is awful out of Parker County. "DPS investigators say a group of young children got off the bus when it stopped on Copper Canyon Circle [near Brock, Texas]. As the driver of the bus began to pull away, a 6-year-old girl was struck. Police say she was pronounced deceased at the scene by paramedics."

    Entrance to Copper Canyon subdivision

  • On the first day of early voting in the school and city elections, there's an abnormal interest out of Bridgeport.  I'm guessing that's because of one particular Bridgeport School Board seat race. Voters need to pay attention over there.

  • Of all things to spend $48 billion on, this guy decided to buy a website. I still can't believe it. 

    • Flashback: 

  • The Court of Criminal Appeals decided that a last second appeal by death row inmate Melissa Lucio should be explored and sent the case to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing on her claims (i.e. State withheld evidence, actual innocence, and whether new scientific evidence exists).
    • For everyone saying this is the equivalent of a new trial being ordered, you need to tap the brakes.  This process needs a sympathetic district court judge, and I don't know if that's true at all. We do know that the D.A. will probably fight the ordering of a new trial at the hearing.
    • In fact, there is a pending Motion to Recuse the trial judge, Gabriela Garcia, filed because "Judge Garcia’s court administrator, Irma Gilman, worked on Ms. Lucio’s defense in this case when Mrs. Gilman was the paralegal for Ms. Lucio’s lead defense counsel, Peter Gilman." I don't think that will work. 

    • If the trial court, after that hearing, thinks that a new trial should be granted, the case will then go back to the nine member Court of Criminal Appeals who will then have to agree to it as well. This is far from a done deal.
    • Showboat Rep. Jeff Leach got to be the one to call Lucio yesterday to tell her about the stay of execution. (You can hear the phone call here.) He told her that "the order was very strong and that it appears you are going to get a new trial at the very least."  Man, that's really overselling what happened. 

  • In Gov. Abbott's press release yesterday about this man's body being found, he didn't say anything about those who he was attempting to save were initially claimed to be drug traffickers. That omission is glaring to me. 


    • I was trying to find out if Abbott promoted the drug trafficking claim anywhere yesterday, and found that he was on some spare Fox News radio show called the "Guy Benson Show". In his interview, Abbott at first didn't say anything about the drug connection at all just saying the Guardsman tried "to save someone else's life"  Then Benson asked him directly to "confirm" (at 21:30) they were drug traffickers and Abbott said, "That's what I've been told by by the Director of the Department of Public Safety." He then curiously said he was also told they "were arrested" but then said they "will be arrested" if that were the case. (So were they or weren't they arrested? I don't know.) He then pivoted and oddly said "everyone" trying to cross the border is being "helped" by the drug cartels. So is that the drug connection? They weren't transporting drugs but were just "probably" be helped by the cartels for a fee? Is that the connection? I'm telling you: Something is very off about that initial drug trafficking story line.  
  • We learned yesterday that QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene texted Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows urging him to have Trump declare "Marshall Law" in order to execute the coup and overthrow the election. Not only is the overt act of treason shocking, but the date is eye-opening as well: This was two weeks after the January 6th Insurrection at the Capitol. 


    • I definitely know what this guy is not spending money on. (See above.)

  • Topic suggested to me yesterday: Encourage the Messenger to publish a list of salaries of every principal in every school in Wise County. 
  • I'll say it again, I don't understand why Johnny Depp has filed the defamation suit. It's a bad look. Especially after yesterday.

at 8:32 AM

4.25.2022

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




I consider that to be a prediction of the acquittal which eventually happened.  (I had to look up exactly who I was talking about, and it turned out to be a special prosecutor appointed by the governor. The local prosecutor, who had originally filed the case and obtained the indictment, abruptly recused himself because he wanted to "tone down the rhetoric."  He must have seen the acquittal coming, too, and decided to jump ship.)

  • Oh, my. (From Friday.)

     

  • From all the rumblings this morning, this might just happen. I'll still be surprised, but some people are saying it's a done deal.   

  • The testimony of Marjorie Taylor Greene was unproductive on Friday because the lawyer cross-examining her didn't know what he was doing. She would give speeches instead of answering the question, and then the lawyer took it upon himself to admonish her. That's not the way do it. You get the judge involved. Cut her off and object as nonresponsive the second she begins to ramble. Then the judge will shut her up and instruct her to answer only the question. If she does it again, then it is the judge, who is now invested in it, who will get pissed off that she ignored his instructions.

  • Congressman Madison Cawthorn, who got in trouble with leadership about his drugs and orgies comment, had to explain these photographs of him wearing lingerie. He said they were just "goofy vacation photos." 

  • That was some ripping off of a lot of hard working employees by a BBQ place in Roanoke.

  • Here's another example from Friday of DPS serving as a campaign pawn for Gov. Abbott.  The $300,000 man was by his side. 

  • Keep an eye on the "illegal drugs" aspect of the case.  DPS is dedicated to promoting Abbott's "Operation Lone Star" and to claim that drugs were involved in this story, even if that isn't true, serves that narrative. Hey, maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but DPS' credibility when it comes to the border is now an issue. (The Rangers are part of DPS and were just called out for jumping to a conclusion in the foster home abuse case that also served the governor's purpose.) 

     

  • I bet they recommend clemency be granted. Today we will find out.  

  • Legal nerdy stuff #1: The Fort Worth Court of Appeals reversed a case last Thursday because the Young County Sheriff's Office "misplaced" a laptop of the defendant in a sexual abuse case and didn't figure it out until the second day of trial. Then the DA's office refused to turn it over to the defense despite the judge's order. It sounds like a cluster. 
    • Here is something strange about the case: Because of COVID, appellate courts have had a lot of time on their hands. That is, because of the lack of  trials in 2020 to 2021, there were few appeals.  Despite this, for some unexplained reason the Fort Worth court had retired judge Lee Ann Dauphinot assigned to this case who ended up authoring the opinion. Why?  Does this have anything to do with the fact they would be reversing the conviction of an alleged child sex offender and none of the sitting judges wanted to be the author?  Have things gotten that bad politically? 
  • Legal nerdy stuff #2:  I was curious why what looked like an Intoxication Manslaughter case in Wichita Falls was being tried as a Murder case. I got my answer, and I should have figured it out. Since there was someone under 15 in the car while the lady was committing DWI, she was committing a felony (a State Jail Felony of DWI With Child < 15 years old) before the car wreck. Once someone died in that wreck while she was committing that particular felony, however, they were able to charge her with Murder under the Felony-Murder Rule. That law allows even unintended deaths to classified as murder if they occur during the commission of a felony and if the death were the result of "an act clearly dangerous to human life." She was convicted of murder as charged on Friday despite the defense asking for a lesser Intoxication Manslaughter conviction.

  • Well look what topic CBS Sunday Morning had yesterday. (For those new around here, I mentioned a few years back that the richest guy I know told me that this was how he was making money. Since then, they seem to have exploded.): 

  • OU Spring game. Where's Waldo?:

  • Former TCU coach Gary Patterson at UT's Spring game. That seems so strange. 

  • I told you it would turn into a bunch of SuperPACs.

  • I just have a gift, I guess. #SportsGenius. From Friday:


at 8:31 AM

4.22.2022

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




Ten years ago I was down at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and, once done, walked around the Capitol.  I saw this hanging in a window. I still don't know what that symbol is. Edit: I just got an answer from a faithful reader.

  •  You might remember the case of a 14 year old girl from Bedford who went missing and then her body was found in an Arlington landfill. Yesterday, another teenager, who had to be certified as an adult in the criminal case, pled guilty but only received 10 years in prison. 

    • So why only 10 years? I think I found the answer in paragraph within a press release by the Tarrant County DA's office about the plea. 

  • The Wise County Grand Jury met yesterday. Indictment list here.
  • And the hiding by government officials in the Self Induced Abortion Indictment case begins. 

    • I haven't thought about it, but this article is exactly right.

    • And I keep looking for news for someone to corner the DA in Starr County to make him explain exactly what happened in that case, but he is still in hiding the best I can tell. But I did notice that the County Attorney down there, who is responsible for misdemeanor prosecutions, abruptly resigned effective immediately after 15 years on the job. He didn't say why. That's very weird. 

  • Twelve years in prison seems a little harsh.  By definition, a hit and run case has nothing to do with being at fault in the accident. From my reading of the story, there was no allegation of reckless driving or intoxication being involved. Sure, you should stop. But 12 years? The accident was at 6:00 in the morning at I-20 and Beltline Road in Grand Prairie.

  • Two scammers who duped the most gullible among us to donate to a private "Build the Wall" fund, and who promised to not take a penny but later stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, pled guilty to doing exactly that yesterday. They will be sentenced later. But the real news is that this is the same case where the third ring leader in the scam, Steve Bannon, won't receive any punishment because Trump issued him a pardon. Grifters stick together. 




  • The Wise County Messenger today has printed the school and city candidates answers to a three part questionnaire. I'm proud to announce not a single candidate mentioned the silliness of CRT or book banning. 
    • I'm surprised by the number of candidates who ignored the Messenger's request. I counted 14 of them who didn't reply at all.  It's free advertising! Why ignore that? 
    • I've also heard that a local political group is trying to bait the candidates on those straw man issues in its online questionnaire by directly asking them:


  • Weatherford College pitcher, Owen Woodward, who attacked the batter during a home run trot, is "no longer with the team" according to the school.

  • So news broke yesterday afternoon that a new book is to be released which will claim that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told colleagues on January 10th that he was fed up with Trump and would urged him to resign the presidency in light of the January 6th Insurrection.  The report also said there was an audio tape. So what was McCarthy's response? His office released a press statement saying the report was "totally false and wrong."  So then the authors released the tape. 

  • For years I've asked questions about the Crime Stoppers fund in Wise County. Every single person who has been placed on probation for at least the last 20 years has been forced to donate $50 to the fund, but I never really hear about any payments. Now the fund in Houston is finally getting scrutiny and it has been revealed they are donating to political causes and actually paying its "Chief Executive" the amount of $238,000. It also has a $10 million building!

  • This will interest some of you: Marjorie Taylor Green will be testifying live in a case about her role in January 6th beginning at 8:30 a.m.  (CSPAN should have it here.) The case is pending and brought by a group who says she is disqualified from holding office because the 14th Amendment which says a person cannot serve if they "engaged in insurrection" against the United States or "given aid or comfort" to its "enemies." 

  • Hot sports prediction: Luka comes back for Game 4 but the Mavericks lose. 
  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 1,022 days.
  • Messenger: Above the Fold



at 8:31 AM
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