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Judge tosses DeLay case subpoenas
A state appeals court today threw out more than 30 subpoenas requested by Travis County prosecutors building a criminal case against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, saying the investigation should have stopped in December when a district judge halted proceedings in his court.District Attorney Ronnie Earle has been issuing the subpoenas ever since Senior District Judge Pat Priest dismissed all or part of three indictments against DeLay, R-Sugar Land. Earle appealed Priest's ruling, and the judge stayed the case pending a ruling by the Third Court of Appeals. Most of the subpoenas involved political fund-raising controversies that have involved DeLay, some dating back to 1996. After Earle subpoenaed records from DeLay's wife, Christine, DeLay's legal team asked Priest to quash the subpoenas. Priest told DeLay lawyer Dick DeGuerin that the case was stayed while on appeal, so he would neither halt Earle from issuing subpoenas nor would he enforce them. DeGuerin then asked the appeals court to intervene. "Because the state has obtained a stay in the proceedings ... we hold that subpoenas may not issue compelling witnesses to testify and produce documents at the stayed proceedings," the order by a three-judge panel said. The panel, which is scheduled to hear Earle's appeal on March 22, said Earle may not issue any more subpoenas while the stay is in effect; ruled all the ones issued after the stay are "null and void;" and any subpoenas issued before the stay are suspended while the appeal is pending. The unsigned order was issued by Judges Bea A. Smith, David Puryear and Alan Waldrop. Smith is a Democrat. Puryear and Waldrop are Republicans who are up for re-election this year. DeGuerin was not immediately available for comment, but his law partner Matt Hennessy called it a victory in stopping Earle from running a "political" investigation. "Congressman DeLay doesn't have anything to fear from whatever evidence might have been produced," Hennessy said. "The point here is Ronnie Earle is abusing his office ... to have a court declare that Ronnie Earle was abusing his office, and that is in effect what the Third Court said." Earle's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DeLay originally was indicted last year on charges of conspiring to violate the state's election code in connection with how a political committee he founded raised and spent corporate money. A second pair of indictments was issued the following week restating the election code conspiracy charge and added charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering. DeLay has denied all the charges and accused Earle of conducting an investigation just to knock DeLay out of the U.S. House majority leader's position. Judge Priest in December dismissed all the charges involving conspiracy to violate the election code. Priest said that was not against the law until 2003, a year after the alleged misconduct by the DeLay-related committee, Texans for a Republican Majority. Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-03-14 |
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