DA raises specter of judicial wrongdoing

[douglas9]

Source: Associated Press

AUSTIN — Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has raised the specter of judicial corruption in asking an appeals court to reconsider an opinion in a money-laundering case against two associates of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

"The dark shadow of corruption of our system of justice looms over this case," Earle wrote in a brief. "Every lawyer has a duty to raise questions of corruption that go to the heart of our judicial system, and it is in the discharge of that duty that the State pursues this effort."

Without naming names, Earle aimed his remarks Monday at a panel of three Republican judges who last month upheld the constitutionality of a law used to indict DeLay and associates Jim Ellis and John Colyandro on money-laundering charges dating from 2002 legislative elections.

In that ruling in the cases against Ellis and Colyandro, the judicial panel volunteered that the state's money-laundering statute in 2002 did not cover checks. That prompted DeLay's lawyers to declare victory because the three men are accused of laundering $190,000 in corporate donations, which are generally banned from state campaigns, into legal political donations — all by check.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6017493.html

[badgervan]

1. Special Private Room in Hell.....

... awaits the tiny bugkiller for what he has done to our country... especially our politics.