Thursday, January 17, 2008

Texas Supreme Court Justice Indicted

A bit off topic, but here's some bizarre political-legal news:

KHOU is reporting that Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife "have been indicted in connection with the arson fire that destroyed their Houston-area home last summer. ... The investigation was fueled by a substantial trail of financial troubles for his family, including foreclosure proceedings and tax liens against the fire-ravaged home, according to court records and other documents"

Medina is a former Harris County state district judge appointed to the state Supreme Court by Gov. Rick Perry to fill a 2004 vacancy. The Supreme Court in Texas only hears civil, not criminal cases.

UPDATE: DA Chuck Rosenthal has declined to pursue the case, even though it was his office who presented the information to the grand jury! Earlier his office intervened to try to prevent the indictment. The grand jury foreman has cried foul.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's on topic. He's going to PMITA prison.

elvez1975 said...

Another Perry appointee strikes again....

(To make this case even stranger, Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal (who has basically emailed his way out of a job) released a statement saying he would move to dismiss the indictment for lack of evidence. Which makes no sense seeing as his office made the decision to present the case to a GJ in the first place.)

Michael said...

I'm with Elvez. If Rosenthal is seeking to throw out the indictment, who filed it in the first place? (I.e., which soon-to-be-unemployed ADA in Harris County?)

PDiddie said...

And the grand jury's assistant foreman is screaming coverup, according to Harvey Kronberg.

Anonymous said...

And you thought this was off topic. Crimes committed, indictments thrown out, Rosenthal personally involved...

Rosenthal's policy when prosecuting Andrea Yates (and hundreds of others) was to let the jury decide. That was his exact quote when prosecuting C.O. Bradford, his former opponent. Now he says there's not enough evidence and that Medina was never a suspect despite the fact that he's been indicted?

If there wasn't enough evidence, don't take it to the grand jury in the first place.