Court of Criminal Appeals Wants Criminals to Destroy Evidence

by: Matt Glazer

Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 08:30 PM CDT

Travis County DA Ronnie Earle sent the following statement around after the ruling.

Today a sharply divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that individuals can be involved in an ongoing conspiracy to commit certain felony crimes and their conspiracy is perfectly legal

Criminal conspiracy means three things. It means a person intends to commit a felony. It means that the person agrees that he or his co-conspirators will engage in conduct would constitute the crime. And it means one of them performs some act in pursuit of the crime.

Under the rationale of today’s majority opinion, the Legislature has blessed these criminal conspiracies as long as the felony they agree to commit is not in the Penal Code. There are many felony crimes that are contained in parts of the law other than the Penal Code.

Of course, it is illegal for them to actually commit the crime, but they can legally conspire to do it all they want.

This is a tortured result.

The public policy considerations surrounding this decision are larger than this one case. Criminal conspiracy prosecutions allow for the prevention of crime before it occurs. Under the Court’s opinion today, law enforcement is powerless to intercept certain felonies before they are actually committed.

For example, under the Court’s opinion, it is legal for people to:

• agree to falsify records related to pollution of our water because that felony crime is in the Water Code.


• agree to conceal and destroy bank records because that felony crime is in the Finance Code.


• agree to generate unlawful oil and gas “waste” because that felony crime is in the Natural Resources Code.
• agree to lie on motor vehicle tax forms because that felony crime is in the Tax Code.


• agree to tamper with vehicle serial numbers because that felony crime is in the Transportation Code.
• These crimes are felonies; they are just contained in different books.

Because of the important policy considerations involved in protecting the public from felony criminal conspiracies of all kinds, we will seek a rehearing of this matter before the Court.

Earle Goes After TAB Once More

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Sat Nov 18, 2006 at 06:10 PM CST

A Travis County grand jury on Wednesday re-indicted the Texas Association of Business on charges that it illegally spent corporate money on campaign advertising and, in effect, acted as a de facto political action committee.

Ronnie Earle District attorney aims to address concerns of judge who threw out charges.

The re-indictments are an attempt to fix objections by State District Judge Mike Lynch, who in June dismissed a similar indictment and threw into question Earle's four-year prosecution of the business association.

Lynch concluded that the business association's mailers did not expressly advocate the election or defeat of candidates under the Texas election code, which he called "an archaic, cumbersome, confusing, poorly written document in need of serious legislative overhaul."

Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick refused last year to back attempts in the Legislature to clean up the election code. The one effort to change the law died in a rowdy floor fight that became a referendum on Craddick as House leader. (Craddick was investigated, but never indicted, on similar campaign finance allegations.)

In his ruling, Lynch further wrote that the prosecution's legal theory that the business group coordinated its efforts with other political groups is a "convoluted maze" that did not give defendants adequate notice of what they were charged with.

The Devils in the Details

by: Matt Glazer

Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 01:54 PM CDT

After pressure from Democratic Leaders, the details were given out. Ceverha had accepted $100,000 from Republican mega-donor and homebuilder Bob Perry after Ceverha had served as treasurer of the Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee.

Today, the TEC was faced with a decision to allow elected officials to simply write the word “cash”, “gift”, or “check” and not be required to write the full value down.

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle said, "Its kind of like reporting you just received a wheelbarrow without having to mention it is filled with cash. Legally speaking, that's absurd." 

At the hearing Earle, along with 19 House Democrats, and Craig McDonald, the Executive Director of the non-partisan Texans for Public Justice all submitted testimony stating the law is clear and the only way to describe a monetary gift is to put its value.

Two commissioners, Nicholas Taylor and Tom Harrison agreed.

“It would be an absurd result for the Commission to say that gift does not include value,” Harrison said.

Taylor followed up saying, “The only way to describe money is to write the value, we cannot put down, ‘three green pieces of paper’ and expect that to fulfill the spirit of the law.”

Two Commissioners disagreed with the legislature and their colleagues-- Commissioner Ross Fischer and Vice- Chair Raymond “Tripp” Davenport.

At one point in the hearing, Davenport referred to District Attorney Earle and his letter of concern as no more important than a second year law student throwing a piece of paper at him.

The Commission eventually tabled the motion until after the election. Sadly, because of the indefensible actions of certain members, the Commission abdicated its responsibility to enforce meaningful discloser until after the election.

Texas Round-Up

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu Apr 20, 2006 at 00:38 AM CDT

• The 3rd Court of Appeals sided with DeLay in an effort by Travis County DA Ronnie Earle to bring back a conspiracy indictment. But the language of their ruling is almost conciliatory to Earle saying that their ruling is only in line with what they may believe to be flawed higher level court rulings, leaving open the possibility of appeal to the 100% Republican state Court of Appeals.

  A state court handed U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay a legal victory Wednesday, but in language that almost seemed to urge Travis County prosecutors to second-guess it with an appeal.

  ...

  "The court of criminal appeals may want to revisit its opinion in Baker. But until that time, Baker is the law and we are not free to disregard it."



• Texas Monthly gives a sneak peak of their cover story on Tom DeLay. Check it out here for a limited time only!


• Pete Sessions Subject of DOJ Bribery Investigation Request Gotta love a headline like that, check out more from the Lone Star Project.


• Last night Sen. Russ Feingold gave us a sneak peak of what has now launched publicly for his Progressive Patriots Fund. That being a new online video which was well received by the liberal crowd in South Austin yesterday. Check it out (it may resize your window).


• Matt keeps me from forgetting that Scotty McClellan has resigned as Press Secretary (does he come back to work for One Tough Mamma?) and Karl Rove gets a bit of a new job description (is he getting prepped for a different kind of leave from his duties?). And don't forget that Andy Card is gone and so is Scooter Libby. Is there anyone left?