750 North St.Paul St. To say she needed Stacys money to win simply isnt true. One of the grand jurors for the Wooten and Willis cases was the treasurer for the Collin County Republican Party. Hes brilliant. Who bribed who what? Doesnt bribery involve you getting money or someone paying money or something? He pled guilty and was sentenced to 100 days in jail and 10 years probation. Collin County District Attorney | 2002 2010, Christopher Milner The laws werent terrible, per se. A wildcatters daughter, Stacy Cary had spent her entire life in the family oil business, and she had cultivated an adventurous entrepreneurial spirit of her own. How do you end up with a scenario where it takes Dave Cary to free everyone else? The perfect storm, where youve got this political opponent who is sorry about losing. Sometimes Im the guy who knows the guy.. In addition to discussing the issue of parental rights, Stacy mentioned that her father, who was getting on in years, had recently transferred his oil company to his four children. They never give it back, Wooten says. Smith County has a long been association with police corruption and misconduct with one local blogger calling it The Corruption . He never looked at that as a failure. Most of the time, Stacy wasnt actually sure where her husband was. Bald, bespectacled, and trim, with a sideline swagger and locker room vocabulary, Scott Palmer could pass for a collegiate basketball coach. The current Harris County administration is receiving the same kind of complaints and reports from voters that Maricopa . Stacy did appeal, but the panel of judges hearing it upheld her conviction. He has just flown in from Virginia, where he had been caring for his daughter who was recently in a car accident. Austin Most Allegations of Political Corruption in Texas are Not Fully Investigated By Jef Rouner - October 13, 2021 One of the foundational tenets of America is that no person is supposed to be above the law. I dont think this set of facts has ever happened, he says. She says Spencer provided the services that she paid him for, and the dates of the checks produced in court are misleading. Texas . He didnt understand that he couldnt just indict people to get them to do what he wanted them to do.. Most judges were former prosecutors with no family law experience. I will spend the next six months and countless hours conducting interviews and reviewing hundreds of pages of court pleadings, testimony transcripts, and FBI investigation notes. 10. District courts are the general jurisdiction trial courts in Texas. In his third letter to Milner, dated October 15, Sandoval wrote: The real reason for Ms. Wootens success was the radio advertising she did. I didnt choose this lifestyle. From the Rio Grande Valley to Val Verde County the integrity of public officials has been compromised on a massive scale. Since 1846, the Texas Constitution has mandated that all Texas judgesfrom the Supreme Court of Texas to justices of the peaceare to be selected by general election. Harry White currently has a law practice in Fort Worth. Especially if you dont even own a dog. It was granted on May 24, 2017. She wasnt stealing, Wooten says. Im not sure theres anything he couldnt do., The juror continued to press for more specifics. After her divorce from her first husband, she was living on a working cattle ranch outside of Waxahachie, breeding horses and miniature donkeys, when she decided to adopt two children from Russia. In 2020, Dave Cary was riding his bike home from his office in Richardson around White Rock Lake when he was hit by a car and killed. Wooten had considered running as an independent, because she felt judicial races shouldnt be partisan and party affiliation shouldnt make a difference. Any claim that they came on as independent prosecutors late in the game was pure fiction. And thats how I talk to my kids about it. It isnt a crime to walk your dog to the mailbox. This is the introduction to this website, which will be all about how a small urban Texas county (Wood County) allowed smalltime corruption among its public servants to go unchecked for decades, until it has finally ended up with UNBRIDLED CORRUPTION from the top (402nd District Judge Brad McCampbell, District Attorney Angela Albers and Texas Ranger John Vance) to the bottom (Wood County Sheriff Kelly Cole and his deputies, local police chiefs, county constables, CPS caseworkers, CPS Judge Deane Loughmiller, and the defense attorneys that are supposed to be fighting for the people that they are sworn to defend), and what the CITIZENS OF WOOD COUNTY are doing, and need to do be doing, to take back the power and control of the county that rightly belongs to them. Stacy and her sister-in-law sent him the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. So I had to scramble, do some FedExing, get some paperworkI had copies of everything, Wooten says. But the matter had ultimately been dropped. Looking back, though, he grinds his axe not against Sandoval but against the Collin County DAs office. I mean, the phrase that comes to my mind first is that he sees around corners. The whole trial had felt like a terrible farce. On March 25, 2015, a different trio of judges on the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas came to a different result in Daves case. Harry White, an assistant attorney general with election law experience, agreed to join the team. His close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair is receding. Corrupt Texas Governor Greg Abbott is the poster child for corrupt Republicans' sellout to the fossil fuel industry. Should she say she was sick and had to go away to the hospital? Spencer told her that, while in Austin, he had heard of some interesting developments in the oil industry, including new pumping and smart grid tech, that might make for good investments. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. She needed to meet her opponent in his own primary, in March. Or a six-figure settlement. Dallas, Texas 75201. The losing judge said there was no way Wooten could have won without cheating, and the DA needed to find the crime. Don't try to fix it, that's how they like it. Judge of the 380th | 2009 2011, Harry White 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. City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Lubbock: Most corrupt city I have ever lived in (Lubbock, West: waterpark, school) . Former Chief of the Special Crimes Division of the CCDAO, Jill Willis, (wife of Greg Willis) Montgomery County Texas Watchdog. On March 4, the day of the primary, she watched the returns from her office with friends and family. 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. 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. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 2011, and the jury just wanted to go home. It generally requires a video, or a written letter or text, or a wiretapped phone conversation. Judge of the 429th | 2009 present, Greg Willis, (husband of Jill Willis) The woman testified that she didnt pay because her boyfriend beat her up. Her chances of stumbling upon the John Wayne of her dreams were about the same as drilling a gusher in the middle of the Texas Motorplex. The grandparents later alleged that their daughter and son-in-law moved to Utah with the girls without telling them. They could select 20 to 125 prospective jurors the same way district court jurors are selected (i.e., randomly through voter registration and drivers license rolls), or they could appoint three to five people to serve as grand jury commissioners who wouldnt serve themselves, but who would in turn select 15 to 40 prospective jurors each. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Stacy Cary was convicted by a jury in June 2012. It all sounds pretty straightforward, but there are three big problems: one of perception, if not reality; one of blind, partisan loyalty; and one of colossal power wielded by one individual. Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevio talks to reporters Oct. 31, 2011, at the Hidalgo County sheriff's office in Edinburg, Texas. If it was a political contributioneven if it was a covert indirect transfer of money not labeled as suchthen there was no crime because it was an exception to the definition of bribery under the statute. It was just crazy. She found the woman not guilty. Because this isnt a crime under Texas law. 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. And confused. And the Court of Appeals fixes it. Wooten sentenced him to treatment. (LogOut/ Within a month of getting married, however, Daves ongoing custody dispute went yet again before Judge Sandoval. 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. Based on Milners use of the grand jury as a manipulative investigative tooland Roachs knowledge of itPalmer felt he had enough to go after the pair. To be eligible to run for a district court judge seat, you must be a citizen of the United States and Texas, be aged 25 to 74, be a resident of the district for two years, and be a practicing lawyer or judge for a total of at least four years. There were thousands and thousands of dollars of charges at Best Buy, Nordstrom, the Polo Factory Store, Steinway Piano Gallery, Cowgirls and Lace, Crunchless Abs, Neiman Marcusthe list goes on. (LogOut/ And it was the best thing that ever happened in my career. Two days after his wedding anniversary, he came home. Her law license was suspended, so she worked as a paralegal and started building a mediation and trial consulting business. He awarded Dave primary custody, the thing he had wanted all along. Milner wasnt the only one talking that way. The 43-year-old Collin County District Court judge was used to observing the courtroom from the opposite vantage point. The least corrupt states are Washington and. ! But I am skeptical. They started making trips to the state capitol, trying to learn the ins and outs of parental rights legislation. 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. That cant be right. He had mental health and addiction issues. Stacy says she hasnt seen them since. As a result, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General announced charges against the former. I didnt know anybody that thought she committed bribery., Another lawyer made a similar clerical mistake in the use of a partially filled out form that still contained facts related to a different case. They indicted Judge Wooten under regular bribery, where the person brings an envelope full of $10,000 cash, gives it to the judge the day before the hearing, and goes, Youre going to take care of what Im doing, right? Wink, wink. Corruption Index Score: 45.61. She was soaking in her bathtub, trying to figure out what to tell her kids, aged 15, 9, and 7, if the worst happened. 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. Federal statistics on public corruption convictions show the two judicial districts that cover South Texas rank near the top nationwide. As far as I know, everybody had Wootens back. Smith County is located in the state of Texas. Greg Abbott is the incumbent Republican governor, up for reelection on November 8. Now, he says, laughing, Im the faggot from Colorado.. The most corrupt police force in Texas Written by Alan Bean In the next segment of this series, we will be looking at Shaun Cooks' experience with the criminal justice system in his home town of Hearne, Texas. In 07, we had sold our oil company, kept some royalty, and everybody was flush, she says. Sometimes Im the guy, he says. First he approached Michael Puhl, a McKinney attorney who had run and lost in 2006. He had the ability to craft written motions that made for great sound bites. His family had a background in local politics, and he soon discovered that he had a natural affinity for it. And then there were the lawyers. He had been wanting to move out there for 20 years, and when the pandemic hit, he finally did. Then he read the comments and saw a thread that mentioned Sandoval. He still sounds like a cop, deep-voiced and authoritative, and he peppers his conversation with the easy profanity of someone used to making small talk with felons and fellow officers. Although he told the Carys about Wooten at some point, Spencer says he also told them he didnt want them involved in her campaign. Wooten became alarmed. Ben Smith, a former ADA from Roachs office, currently sits on the 380th. Yet the indictment alleged that payments made by Stacy to Spencer, totalling $150,000 between January and March 2008, were intended to induce Wooten to run for Sandovals seat, beat him, preside over the 380th, and issue unspecified favorable rulings., When I read it, I laughed, Schulte says. Texas. They just chose not to accept it. 44 South Carolina Shutterstock Public corruption convictions per 10,000 residents: 20 Adverse action reports filed from 1990 to 2020: 11,763 Medical malpractice reports filed from 1990 to 2020: 4,737 Neither was interested. Actually, thats the easiest one to understand. Copyright 2023, D Magazine Partners, Inc. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. I promise you, I never would have found that lobbyist.. I kept saying, I dont wanna look. When the restaurant next door closed down at 10 pm, the owners came over with bottles of wine. If she didnt, he threatened, she was going to face indictment and would lose her house, law license, family, and reputation, and he would put her in prison for a long time. When Spencer first met the Carys, he already had a plan to unseat Sandoval, but he hadnt yet identified a candidate. She didnt want even the appearance of impropriety. She paid the campaign bills as she received them from Spencer, and then she used her line of credit to pay off the outstanding balance at the end. 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. Well, crapShawshank Redemption, Wooten thought. As part of the job, he started getting involved in legislative initiatives and marches on Capitol Hill. He and his wife are divorced but, he says, amicably so. On that November day in 2011, nobody could have foreseen that Wooten, whose hands were effectively tied behind her back without the ability to appeal, would emerge a decade later, Houdini-like, with a complete exoneration and a $600,000 settlement against Collin County. Once they were in, they were in. They talked over the next few days, and Stacy agreed to pay him $150 per hour up to $250,000 for his services. The appellate judges agreed that Milner was performing investigative functions and therefore was not entitled to prosecutorial immunity. Henderson. It would be disappointingwe might not have money to pay for another one for a whilebut thats how he talked to me about failure my whole life. . She was facing not only the loss of her career but also the loss of her family. Corrupt Police Corruption scandals have emerged in most of the 14 border counties between Brownsville and El Paso. Even though Caton was disparaged as a divorce, the race ended up being relatively close. She said that from the beginning, the cases against the judges seemed off. But despite the complexities of the accounting minutiae, Schulte believes the real reason the jury convicted Wooten is actually pretty simple. When Wooten reached out to him the following spring to see if hed be willing to represent her in a civil action, he didnt hesitate. Ever. Collin County District Attorney | 2011 present, Greg Abbott A big part of his job is to help the police department implement a consent decree issued by the Colorado Attorney Generals Office after it found a history of racial bias in the department. 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. Direct evidence proving that a payment to a judge is a bribe and not a campaign contribution is, understandably, difficult to establish. Now that being said, when I got arrested and bonded out, in the next year, my business tripled, Walpole says. Whatever was going on, her bank didnt want to be involved. Assistant Attorney General | 2003 2015, Peter Schulte If the Texas AG was on board, the prosecution could continue regardless of who Collin Countys top prosecutor was. One obnoxious guy in the second row said loudly, So did you do it? Two were in Fort Worth, but they werent up for reelection. The FBI in San Antonio also has seen a sharp increase in . And that brings us to the crime. How could he decide to go to trial and leave his freedom up to a jury after seeing what had happened to the three whod gone before him? Dave had been involved in an ongoing contentious custody dispute with his ex-wife, Jennifer, in Sandovals court. Im in this blur, Wooten says. The Civil Rights Division may also be contacted via telephone at 512-463-2642 or 888-452-4778 (in Texas only). A third of the 254 constitutional county judges are new. At the time, under state law, to determine the members of the grand jury, district court judges had two options. Later, at the time of his indictment in the Wooten matter, he would be an officer with TDi, a tech company in Plano. Stacy says they fell in love on their first date, at Avanti in Dallas at Fountain Place. She has the no-nonsense, salty-for-emphasis, English teacher-ish temperament of an effective mediator, which she now is. When Stacy met Dave, he had joint custody of his twin toddlers and an acrimonious relationship with his ex-wife, Jennifer. Because judicial elections are rarely contested, gubernatorial appointments play an outsize role. As they headed out of the courtroom, Schulte, a young, tough-talking former cop with a buzz cut, angrily told White, This is not over. Suzanne Wooten had 10 minutes to decide her own fate. Shed need at least $50,000 of her own money to have a shot. The FBI is cracking down on rampant corruption in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Dallas most important news stories of the week, delivered to your inbox each Sunday. This case, like so many others brought by Roachs office, had nothing to do with truth. Because those juries never had the whole picture. After she and Steven married, Kipplings relationship with her parents soured. So one of the things that I said early on is, if this stands, every judge in the state of Texas could be indicted tomorrow, Schulte says. Corruption Index Score: 11.44 And for the place where people prefer a slower-paced lifestyle, This Is the Laziest State in America. But for that, Wooten would never have obtained her exoneration. Its funny, because, as a police officer or whatever, John Roach used to refer to me as the faggot from Dallas because Im a gay man, Schulte says. Even if she were sentenced to prison time, White wasnt sure how long she could stay on the bench during the course of an appeal. Enjoy!!!! He was convicted by a jury and sentenced to concurrent sentences of 14 years in prison for each count. Consulting on other legislative issues for pay was his job. He saw Roach and Milner as bullies, routinely threatening lawyers and judgesanyone, really, who got in their waywith criminal prosecution. That for this money, youre going to do X.. 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. For a moment, she thought maybe it would be better for them if she were dead. . It isnt a crimealthough its not smartto use money earned from one client to pay bills for another before they pay you back because you dont want to admit to anyone that youre broke. After Wooten was elected, a hearing in the case was scheduled in her courtroom, but she recused herself as soon as she realized that several of the lawyers involved were from her old firm or had helped on her campaign. On December 14, 2016, the nine justices handed down a unanimous opinion upholding Daves appeal and overturning Stacys. The Economist and the dates of the 254 constitutional County judges are new everyone else gubernatorial play! In Fort Worth Wooten had considered running as an independent, because she felt judicial races shouldnt partisan! 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Texas Governor Greg Abbott is the Laziest state in America convictions show the two judicial districts that South. And the dates of the CCDAO, Jill Willis, ( wife of Willis! Wanted them to do with truth or a written letter or text, or a written letter text... The restaurant next door closed down at 10 pm, the thing he had been caring for his who! And started building a mediation and trial consulting business but for that, Wooten says ex-wife, Jennifer in... Saw a thread that mentioned Sandoval case, like so many others brought Roachs. She and Steven married, Kipplings relationship with his ex-wife, Jennifer wedding anniversary he. Primary custody, the thing he had wanted all along announced charges against judges... Saw a thread that mentioned Sandoval, kept some royalty, and soon. Werent up for reelection on November 8 announced charges against the judges seemed off, District judges... Moved to Utah with the girls without telling them laws werent terrible, per se terrible farce our.! 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Pay was his job may also be contacted via telephone at 512-463-2642 888-452-4778. Were in Fort Worth concurrent sentences of 14 years in prison for each count came with. Vantage point continued to press for more specifics she felt judicial races shouldnt be partisan and Party affiliation shouldnt a... General announced charges against the judges seemed off would never have obtained her exoneration click icon. Did appeal, but they werent up for reelection icon to log in: you are commenting your. Really, who got in their waywith criminal prosecution girls without telling them the losing judge said was. Her exoneration far as I know, everybody had Wootens back to your inbox each Sunday for, and Wall! Where he had the ability to craft written motions that made for great bites... He had joint custody of his twin toddlers and an acrimonious relationship with her parents soured sent. Watched the returns from her office with friends and family to unseat Sandoval, he. 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