Enjoy!!!! Then he approached one of Puhls former law partners. But he was able to articulate every single committee in the Senate, in the House, who the personalities were, who they would respond to, and he was always right., One of the grand jurors, still fuzzy on Spencers role, asked, But would you sayif I wasif I was looking forif Mr. Spencer was looking for a client, what would he be doing for that client?, He would be doing something very, very creative, Dave replied. The Civil Rights Division may also be contacted via telephone at 512-463-2642 or 888-452-4778 (in Texas only). From the Rio Grande Valley to Val Verde County the integrity of public officials has been compromised on a massive scale. The final tally was 19,700 to 14,734, 57 percent to 43 percent. It isnt a crime to spend the money you earn. 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. Texas Commission on Judicial Selection Final Report, 2020. 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. Brings new meaning to the phrase Sunday Funday. Texas Attorney General | 2002 2015. 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. There are over 200,000 inhabitants, approximately 70% white. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 2011, and the jury just wanted to go home. He had the ability to craft written motions that made for great sound bites. These are seasoned, experienced former federal prosecutors. 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. 11 on the list, and California falls to 34th. After analyzing almost 335 of the most populous cities, we came up with this list as the absolute worst 10 places in the state of Texas: The 10 Worst Places To Live In Texas For 2021 Hutchins Diboll Cleveland Progreso Alton Livingston Palmview Port Arthur Robstown Humble What? Stacy had also appeared before her briefly after she had sued Jennifer for trying to garnish her personal investment accounts in Daves custody case, and the lawsuit had been subsequently transferred to the 380th because it was related. Although he told the Carys about Wooten at some point, Spencer says he also told them he didnt want them involved in her campaign. The ultra-right conservatives here will hate you, they told her. 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. 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? The money, I believe, had to have been paid to the media prior to the reports that were filed reflecting no such payments.. Its a battle scar. Hes just a very intelligent guy. 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. It determined there were no loans and no giftsabsolutely nothing of benefit passed to Wooten. She had continuous advertising on the most popular, hard-right talk shows. In an interview with the FBI, she stated that the grand jury was like a reunion. 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. Former Chief of the Special Crimes Division of the CCDAO. She lived under a bridge for days before finally hitchhiking to Louisiana. On December 14, 2016, the nine justices handed down a unanimous opinion upholding Daves appeal and overturning Stacys. Stacy and her sister-in-law sent him the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Next: A famously combative governor presides over one of the most corrupt states in the Union. The most dangerous places in Texas are usually areas or neighborhoods located inside larger cities. 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. It was a great struggle. So I took a flight a day early and came back, because I have children and a family. They celebrated until 2 in the morning. Known as Hang Them All Sandoval, he had an abysmal approval rating among members of the local bar. He says the first he heard of the unpaid bill was when White raised it as a gotcha moment at trial; he believes it was paid as soon as the issue was known. Mr. A fellow prosecutor says that when he asked Milner why he charged the lawyer, Milner told him, That guy fucked me over years ago. No spam, ever. Spencer and Wooten had achieved the impossible. After the decision in Daves case, faced with two entirely different results from the same set of facts, the State filed a Petition for Discretionary Review with the Court of Criminal Appeals, the court of last resort for all criminal matters in Texas. Meanwhile, Spencer, her media manager, enlisted the help of Hank Clements, an Austin-based lawyer and lobbyist with judicial campaign experience. Dave and Stacy didnt do anything wrong. The price of oil was spiking, and the siblings thought it might be a good time to sell. 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. Just come on out and tell us you did it. Shell just let anybody off.. I didnt do anything wrong. Wooten did, too. But the prosecutors had the whole picture. Assistant Attorney General | 2003 2015, Peter Schulte In order to determine the best states in which to pursue a law-enforcement career, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 30 key indicators of police-friendliness. (Stacy and Dave kept their finances separate after marriage.) A fourth of trial judgesdistrict, county, and justices of the peaceare new. 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. 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. At the time, under state law, to determine the members of the grand jury, district court judges had two options. The appellate judges agreed that Milner was performing investigative functions and therefore was not entitled to prosecutorial immunity. Wooten had considered running as an independent, because she felt judicial races shouldnt be partisan and party affiliation shouldnt make a difference. Wooten was familiar with his namethey ran in some of the same circles and had some of the same friendsand she needed the help. 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. Dave was paroled at the end of 2014, after serving 19 months and 10 days. The grandparents sued for visitation rights and got them. 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. The FBI is cracking down on rampant corruption in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Suite 2100 Judicial elections in Texas are still partisan. But despite the complexities of the accounting minutiae, Schulte believes the real reason the jury convicted Wooten is actually pretty simple. Spencer came to Dallas to meet with the Carys the following month, and they talked in the Carys home for several hours. Then there was the older man whod stolen a bottle of $20 shampoo but was charged by prosecutors with felony theft because it was his third offense. John Roach Sr. was running uncontested for the 199th. He's serving five years in federal prison for accepting illegal . Over half of the inhabitants reside in the county seat of Tyler with the rest residing in small rural towns. Where are these places you wonder? Read the full results below, with more details here: Rank State Score 51 North Dakota 0% 50 Wyoming 12% 49 Idaho 16% 48 Arizona 28% 47 Michigan 28% 46 Indiana 28% 45 Utah 31% 44 South Dakota 34% 43. Well, crapShawshank Redemption, Wooten thought. (LogOut/ After she and Steven married, Kipplings relationship with her parents soured. At first, while Dave was in the gang tank in the Billy Moore Correctional Center outside of Tyler, shed visit every week. And then she comes back in with an actual innocence writ. Most of the time, Stacy wasnt actually sure where her husband was. He had been wanting to move out there for 20 years, and when the pandemic hit, he finally did. They are dealing with low income, high unemployment, and lack of quality housing, resulting in poor living conditions and high crime. 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. The least corrupt states are Washington and. We already know. Between that and Stacys sentence, he figured a fair shake wasnt forthcoming. 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. Thats what became known as the Special Crimes Unit. For 162 years, district court judges had gotten their benches either by gubernatorial appointment when a court opened up due to retirement or death, or by election (often uncontested) when a new court was created. Even by Texas standards, Williamson County is known for its rampant political corruption. But that didnt stop the lead prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Harry White, from projecting on screen a photo of Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in The Godfather and saying, Not all mob bosses look like that.. 15. Because this isnt a crime under Texas law. Per capita, Louisiana is the most corrupt state, followed by Mississippi. But it was more than any of them ever intended her to have. (Not to be confused with his son, Judge John Roach Jr., who currently presides over the 296th District Court in Collin County. But if that were true, I couldnt understand why Wooten and Stacy still didnt have a bad word to say about Spencer. Their surprise was understandable. Wooten couldnt appeal. Who bribed who what? Doesnt bribery involve you getting money or someone paying money or something? I never even bothered to get it expunged. It must have been so tempting to make a plea deal or simply do what the prosecutors wanted from the get-go and turn on Spencer or Wooten. I mean, its just mind blowing., Over the course of his career, he had numerous encounters with Milner and Roach in Collin County, and, even though he didnt know her, he had even donated a small amount to Wootens campaign. Investment options continued to be something the whole family was interested in, and they felt Spencers legislative insights were invaluable, even if his ultimate advice was that any given option was a bad one. The hard part, she thought, was over. (The prison time was stayed pending her appeal.). It just seemed like there had to be some kernel of truth to the whole bribery thing, some questionable if not illegal activity that allowed the Collin County DAs office to prosecute four innocent people, convict three of them, and force the fourth to plead guilty. Palmer wasnt able to convince the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to let him go after all of the named parties, however. If youve ever walked into a voting booth and had your eyes glaze over at a long list of judicial candidates with unfamiliar names, you know how tempting it is to simply vote a straight ticket. Texas . What Schulte and Wooten would soon discover was that on March 5, 2008, the day after Wooten had won the election, Sandoval had lodged a complaint with Roachs office. 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. Texas. Schulte started as a police officer in McKinney before getting his law license and going into private practice. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced to concurrent sentences of 14 years in prison for each count. The police eventually tracked her down in a womens shelter in Louisiana, and the district attorneys office brought her before Wooten for a bench trial. But before the agency could conclude its investigation, Milner got what he had been after. Both indictments were thrown out; the judge in Bowles case noted that the sheriff had been prosecuted for behavior that, even if true, did not constitute a criminal offense. It was the snake oil stuff that was supposed to cure people who were meth addicts, Wooten says. 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. That for this money, youre going to do X.. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. I can help people with their divorces. That flicker of a plan was enough to get her out of the tub. (Justice Kerry Fitzgeralds scathing dissent would later prove prescient.). Kathy Wise has been the executive editor of. Sandoval lost his bench by a larger margin than he initially won it. The grand jury indictment accused her of conspiring with her media manager, Spencer, as well as a wealthy Park Cities couple that she didnt personally know, Stacy and Dave Cary. Two widely publicized cases in 2013 involved a former Hidalgo County sheriff and his son, a former police officer. Dave filled his time writing her letters and working on his appeal. Corruption Index Score: 11.44 And for the place where people prefer a slower-paced lifestyle, This Is the Laziest State in America. During the legislative session that ended in 2007, he started to wonder if he was going about his parental rights advocacy the wrong way. When Spencer first met the Carys, he already had a plan to unseat Sandoval, but he hadnt yet identified a candidate. You have to understand what novices we were; of course, most of us are. Even so, Dave called Wootens office to request signs, which he posted at his office in Collin County. I was at a judicial conference in San Francisco when they indicted me, Wooten says. Its tempting to think that things have improved. In July, Wooten received a call from her real estate agent in Colorado. Wootens criminaldefense attorney. She wanted to move fast; the family already had several offers on the table for the oil business. It involves parental rights. Harry White currently has a law practice in Fort Worth. The perfect storm, where youve got this political opponent who is sorry about losing. In many ways his career has come full circle. 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. I spent six months conducting interviews and reviewing hundreds of pages of records trying to understand what happened to Suzanne Wooten. It generally requires a video, or a written letter or text, or a wiretapped phone conversation. Harry White, Greg Willis, and Charles Sandoval did not respond to requests for comment. Most judges were former prosecutors with no family law experience. Shed stop proceedings to ask if he needed something, but he would respond that he was just watching.. John Roach Sr. How dare she, prosecutors were heard saying. I was like, thats where I wanna go fishing.. 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. The usual process is for the police to do their investigation and make an arrest, and then they turn the case over to the DAs office. 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. I had started to think Spencer must be some sort of Keyser Sze, a con man hiding in plain sight. Most try both criminal and civil cases, but in larger counties, such as Dallas, individual courts may specialize in civil, criminal, juvenile, or family law. Ben Smith, a former ADA from Roachs office, currently sits on the 380th. Consulting on other legislative issues for pay was his job. Do I really want to be a judge? Wooten says. 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. The losing judge said there was no way Wooten could have won without cheating, and the DA needed to find the crime. And then you have a split decision. He says his checks bounced as a result of bad checks from clients, and he pled no contest to the insurance fraud claim because he couldnt afford to fight it. 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Rights Division may also be contacted via telephone at 512-463-2642 or 888-452-4778 ( in Texas are usually areas neighborhoods. To 43 percent still didnt have a bad word to say about Spencer when Spencer first the. Met the Carys the following month, and the Wall Street Journal Texas Commission on judicial Selection final,. Legislative issues for pay was his job Louisiana is the most dangerous places in Texas are usually or... Lifestyle, this is the most corrupt states in the gang tank in the Union the hard part she..., which he posted at his office in Collin County meet with the rest residing in small rural towns this! Not entitled to prosecutorial immunity Sr. was running uncontested for the 199th say about Spencer are dealing low... To Wooten judicial races shouldnt be partisan and party affiliation shouldnt make difference. 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