Her law license was suspended, so she worked as a paralegal and started building a mediation and trial consulting business. He said he had gotten a grand jury subpoena requesting records related to the vacation home she had purchased several years before her election. Wooten planned to change all that. Corrupt Police Corruption scandals have emerged in most of the 14 border counties between Brownsville and El Paso. (LogOut/ Stacy Cary was convicted by a jury in June 2012. In April 2010, the FBI opened an investigation into potential corruption in the DAs office. Milner wasnt the only one talking that way. Greg Abbott is the incumbent Republican governor, up for reelection on November 8. Suzanne Wooten Stacy did appeal, but the panel of judges hearing it upheld her conviction. Charged with nine felony counts that included bribery, conspiracy to engage in organized criminal activity, and money laundering, Wooten could be sentenced to anything from five years to life in prison. Enjoy unlimited access to all of our incredible journalism, in print and digital. Dave also hired Spencer. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 100 days in jail and 10 years probation. Then Huntsville. She remembers the woman charged with felony theft for an unpaid bill with a furniture rental company. Between 2015 and 2021, the Texas Rangers completed investigations into more than 560 public integrity and corruption complaints, including allegations of theft, bribery, abuse of office, sexual. Otherwise, I would not have even been on the ballot. Who bribed who what? Doesnt bribery involve you getting money or someone paying money or something? Weird stuff kept happening. Her lowest point came the night before the verdict. But Milner figured he could cut the police department out of the equation on high-profile cases, doing his own investigations within the confines of the grand jury so no one would know what they were up to. Corruption Index Score: 11.44 And for the place where people prefer a slower-paced lifestyle, This Is the Laziest State in America. He saw Roach and Milner as bullies, routinely threatening lawyers and judgesanyone, really, who got in their waywith criminal prosecution. And thats when I was told the allegation was bribery. Spencer pled guilty. Even so, Dave called Wootens office to request signs, which he posted at his office in Collin County. But since the State Commission on Judicial Conduct never removed her, she technically remained the elected judge on the 380th until the end of December 2012. She was found guilty by a jury and agreed to a sentence of 10 years probation and to step down from the bench. Even though hes not a lobbyist and has never been to college, he says he has an effective network of people to help him if he doesnt have the answer. Shortly thereafter, when she stopped by her bank, they told her they were going to have to close her account because they had received grand jury subpoenas for her bank records. It was because the jurors couldnt believe the way judges are elected in Texas. In fact, he was so concerned that they might miss the statute of limitationsit wasnt clear based on the facts if they had one or two yearsthat he brought in Sean Cox, an appellate lawyer, to help with the drafting. Even by Texas standards, Williamson County is known for its rampant political corruption. And then you have a split decision. The email said that prosecutors should only conduct bench trials in Wootens court if they didnt care about the outcome and it was the only way to reasonably dispose of the case. How do you end up with a scenario where it takes Dave Cary to free everyone else? I spent six months conducting interviews and reviewing hundreds of pages of records trying to understand what happened to Suzanne Wooten. They werent stupid. This advocacy was his passion, something he did free of charge for his own personal ends. But Palmer was familiar with how Milner ran the Special Crimes Unit. Corruption in a Small Texas Town Investigation Dismantles Family-Run Criminal Operation Public corruption arrests and convictions in major metropolitan areas usually garner a great deal of. He knew the prosecutors were acting like cops, and there was Supreme Court case law that said if you act like a cop, you get qualified immunity like a cop. But Spencer confirmed what her law partners had already told her: to run in Collin County as anything other than a Republican would be futile. Suzanne Wooten was the first to go to trial, in November 2011. These six checks would later constitute the six bribery counts in Dave, Stacy, and Wootens criminal court cases. Prior to Daves trial, in 2010, a new judgewho had been assigned to his custody case after Wooten recused herselfdetermined that the sanctions Sandoval had awarded Jennifer were improper. Spencer, who had heard from the chairman of the Collin County Democratic Party that Wooten was running, knew his first order of business was to talk her into switching teams. But in the end, I will discover that no matter how hard people try to distort it, the truth tends to be clear at its core. After the loss of the twins from their home and the hefty financial loss in court, Stacy and Dave decided to take their fight to Austin. He was focused specifically on limiting third-party rightsgrandparents, extended family members, and others he viewed as interfering with the rights of parents. Greg Willis has been the Collin County District Attorney since January 1, 2011. In February 2019, during his State of the Judiciary address to the 86th Legislature, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht (a Republican) addressed this issue: Historic as was the blow Hurricane Harvey dealt the Texas Judiciary, so was the blow from the November election, he said. I felt like that was the right thing to do, she says, not to put him in jail so that when he gets out he reoffends because he has nothing, hes getting no tools, hes not getting any help., The whispers about Wootens sentences made their way back to her. Palmer wasnt able to convince the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to let him go after all of the named parties, however. Although he told the Carys about Wooten at some point, Spencer says he also told them he didnt want them involved in her campaign. I thought we had checks and balances. Blow the whi If it wasnt a political contribution, then there was no crime because there was no actual bribe. They saw only a small piece of it, the rest obscured by evidence withheld by the judge or by the vagaries of criminal trials, where defendants often dont testify in each others cases, and maybe not even their own. EDINBURG, Texas - When it comes to corrupt public officials aiding the smugglers of drugs and illegal immigrants, this is the dirtiest town, in the most crooked county, in the most bribable state along the U.S.-Mexico border, court records show. I want to be cystal clear about this, Spencer says. Theres another legal issue mentioned in Whites sentencing document, however, that cuts to the heart of the matter. The laws werent terrible, per se. Justice in Collin County was hard to come by if you werent part of the club. After all, shes the one who wrote the checks. Dave Cary went to trial in April 2013. 2 Constable Kelly Smith-A man (and I use that term very loosely here) who has been in law enforcement for almost 25 years and has managed to climb ALL THE WAY DOWN the law enforcement ladder from county cop to police chief to now being just one rung above a WalMart security guard as a constable. The data also highlights the extent of the problem across all 50 states and the District of Columbia . 07-01-2019, 03:09 AM augiedogie : Location: Northern Wisconsin . They celebrated until 2 in the morning. What followed is the unbelievable, epic tale of the craziest case in the history of jurisprudence. In August 2014, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas affirmed the jurys finding of guilt 2 to 1. Mr. But when it deals with allegations of political contributionsand political contributions is a broad termany money associated with a campaign must be done under section 36.02(a)(4) [of the Texas Penal Code], which requires the prosecution to show direct evidence of an express agreement. Poinsett said hed put him in touch with a guy who was just as passionate about protecting families from government intervention as Dave was but who had a whole lot more experience. Suzanne didnt do anything wrong. Enjoy!!!! Who bribed who what? Doesnt bribery involve you getting money or someone paying money or something? And it was the best thing that ever happened in my career. Harris County Democrats (Houston) have been using the same ballot corruption playbook George Soros owned Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is. (Not to be confused with his son, Judge John Roach Jr., who currently presides over the 296th District Court in Collin County. 402n District Judge Brad McCampbell-A man who got his job only because the people of Wood County were fed up with the CORRUPTION of his predecessor former District Judge Jeff Fletcher, so they gave him a chance by electing him to replace Fletcher and he has done nothing but slap those citizens in the face at every chance he gets by doing whatever immoral deed Brandon Baade tells him to do. Yes, that is the university that was founded by Pat Robertson, who believes strange shit like that people can get demon possessed by buying used shirts at yard sales that are already demon possessed. But they let the others off the hook, finding their involvement in investigative functions was more limited. She also refused to sign off on routine asset forfeiture requests from the DAs office until after a conviction. By law, each county in the state must be served by at least one, which, for small rural counties, can be shared. Stacy appealed her conviction first. The FBI is cracking down on rampant corruption in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. From 2015 to 2020, the Texas Rangers completed more than 560 public corruption case investigations, but only 67 of those cases have been prosecuted, according to DPS data analyzed by the. The perfect storm, where youve got this political opponent who is sorry about losing. With respect to legal corruption, Kentucky is the most corrupt state followed by Illinois and Nevada while Massachusetts is the least corrupt state followed Michigan, Oregon, and Vermont. Assistant Attorney General | 2003 2015, Peter Schulte . In an interview with the FBI, she stated that the grand jury was like a reunion. During voir dire, when the attorneys and the judge went into chambers, he says he found himself alone in a room of 100 or more potential jurors. The Addison-based criminal defense attorney thrives on the challenge and plays to win. Enjoy!!! His clients run the gamut: crypto, natural gas, medical device inventions, nutritional supplements, vertical farming, cybersecurity, edge computing, bottled water. After the fourth grand jury declined to indict and a fifth was convened, Wooten and Schulte took matters into their own hands and went to the FBI. I was at a judicial conference in San Francisco when they indicted me, Wooten says. As for Sandoval, he was running against Judge Betty Caton for the newly created 380th seat. First he approached Michael Puhl, a McKinney attorney who had run and lost in 2006. Youre supposed to be raising your children. Plus, they warned, getting lawyers to donate to a judicial campaign against a Republican incumbent in a blood-red county, when their donations are a matter of public record, would be tough. During Wootens trial, Judge Russell refused to admit any evidence about the political motivations underlying the case: neither the communications between Sandoval and the DAs office that started the whole thing nor the half-dozen grand juries it took to get an indictment. The process invites abuse, and Walker's reporting led to an audit that uncovered corruption. We dug a lot of dry holes, Stacy says of the research. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Governor Orders Major Election Investigation on Most Corrupt County in Texas. And then not only that, prosecute two, three other people? In practice this has not held true for politicians, especially in Texas. He says he agreed to do consulting work on behalf of both Stacy and Dave for pay and that any advice he gave them with regard to parental rights he was glad to provide for free. I gave them my filing fee and my application, and they said, What are you doing? And I said, Well, Im going to run for judge.. There will be many other names that will come up as being involved in the public corruption, Wood County Sheriff Kelly Cole, District Attorney Investigator Jerry Hirsch, District Clerk Suzy Wright, County Clerk Kelley Price, Assistant District Attorney Shauna Key, Attorney Cliff Thomas, etc., but Ill get to them as their names come up. Per capita, Louisiana is the most corrupt state, followed by Mississippi. Attempting to behave professionally and not accede to political influence . (LogOut/ She says notes like this pop up all the time in places they shouldnt, like in her car insurance folder. As far as I know, everybody had Wootens back. The hard part, she thought, was over. Texas . They talked over the next few days, and Stacy agreed to pay him $150 per hour up to $250,000 for his services. One way Ive tried to just explain it to people who dont get itlawyers dont get it eitherits like I was charged with walking my dog to my mailbox to get the mail when they knew for a fact that not only did I not walk to the mailbox, but it would not have been a crime. Given the timing of the next-to-the-last campaign finance report, and the time those ads began, I believe her reports are false. Her readily accessible credit, available on credit cards and through a line of credit, never totaled less than $150,000 during the course of her campaign. To say she needed Stacys money to win simply isnt true. Nearly a year later, while a fourth grand jury was investigating Wooten, Schulte, her lawyer, was finally able to arrange a meeting with Milner to try to find out what was going on. It was all about power and preserving the status quo. Texas Ranger John Vance-A CORRUPT Texas Ranger, who in 30 years or so of investigating public corruption has never found a law enforcement officer guilty of wrongdoing (a statistical impossibility), but was instrumental in the FAKE sexual harassment investigation that led to Brandon Baade taking over the Wood County DAs office under the name of Angela Albers. Suzanne Wooten had 10 minutes to decide her own fate. Suzanne Wooten had 10 minutes to decide her own fate. I can help people write appeal bonds. He made his fortune when the Irving-based business went public in the late 1990s, going from a $1 million operation to a $5 billion behemoth with Dave as CFO. It had numerous replies. Wooten became alarmed. His fee would be $7,500, and the rest would mostly go to cover signs, mailers, and print and radio ads. It was still a gut punch, though, when she saw the verdict form. I dont think this set of facts has ever happened, he says. I couldnt tell you. The final tally was 19,700 to 14,734, 57 percent to 43 percent. An expert audit conducted for trial showed that $108,000 of that total was spent by Spencer and his wife on personal expenditures between January and April 2008. She wanted to move fast; the family already had several offers on the table for the oil business. In the following days, the DAs office would begin to use the existing grand jury to start issuing subpoenas for records related to Wooten. Wooten noticed an assistant DA, Christopher Milner, sitting in the back of her courtroom during hearings he wasnt involved in. It was just crazy. She found the woman not guilty. And a member of Roachs staff now holds Wootens former bench in the 380th District Court. But before the agency could conclude its investigation, Milner got what he had been after. Montgomery County Texas Watchdog. Spencer and Wooten had achieved the impossible. Of course, those are some of the most populated states in the . Wootens criminaldefense attorney. He tried reaching out to people he knew in the Collin County DAs office, but they were tight-lipped about the secret grand jury proceedings. Im like, Bribery? She didnt do anything wrong, Palmer says. Judge of the 429th | 2009 present, Greg Willis, (husband of Jill Willis) ), One day, Wooten received a call at the courthouse from a drug rep. And that brings us to the crime. In a daze, she followed her lawyers, Peter Schulte and Toby Shook, to the attorney-client conference room for a 10-minute break before sentencing. Since the first district court was established in Collin County in 1846, no one had challenged an incumbent judge, whether in a primary or general election. Advertisment. Schulte started as a police officer in McKinney before getting his law license and going into private practice. Hes just a very intelligent guy. She waives her right to appeal. He saw Roach and Milner as bullies, routinely threatening lawyers and judgesanyone, really, who got in their waywith criminal prosecution. Terms run for four years, and there are no term limits. The grandparents later alleged that their daughter and son-in-law moved to Utah with the girls without telling them. The bigger problem was the inconsistent way judges enforced them. The Collin County Republican Party had cashed her filing check, but they had reported Sandovals seat as unopposed. First, as Schulte noted, it is entirely legal for a law firm to write a check for $30,000 to a sitting judge at a cocktail fundraiser for his or her reelection campaign on Friday night and then have one or more of its lawyers appear before said judge for a hearing on Monday morning. Over the following few months, Spencer would investigate options, discuss his findings with Stacy, and then bill her. 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