Cheney's Prosecutor Not Showing Up Today Was A Good Thing!**UPDATES**

[tekisui]

(snip)

At least a dozen defense lawyers did show up, armed with motions to have Monday’s grand jury indictments thrown out as baseless.

But presiding District Judge Manuel Bañales said that without the prosecutor present he could not hear those motions.

Bañales set arraignments for tomorrow morning, and with the district clerk among those indicted, appointed an interim district clerk to start calling jurors for trial.

Guerra says he’s prepared to crack a nationwide scandal involving privately run prisons, thanks to a years-long investigation he dubs “Operation Goliath.”

All of the indicted — which include Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the GEO Group, Inc. prison company, state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., and others — are expected to waive Friday’s arraignment.

Guerra says he’ll be there.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/DA_in_Cheney_case_explains_failure_to_appear.html

[tekisui]

1. More here:

Lawyers for Vice President Dick Cheney and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were bewildered Wednesday when the prosecutor in a slew of indictments against them failed to appear in court.

Willacy County prosecutor Juan Angel Guerra's no-show ruined hopes their motions would quickly quash cases against their clients and stumped the presiding judge as well.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/34787454.html

[Soylent Brice]

10. clever sonofabitch.

well played.

[tekisui]

15. They tried to sneak it past Guerra:

Guerra told The Brownsville Herald he did not receive any kind of notice regarding Wednesday's court proceedings.

"I heard rumors (that something would be held), but I don't go by rumors. I go by the dockets," he said.

The district attorney said state laws call for 72-hours notice for court proceedings and he doesn't understand why a 72-hour notice is not being provided.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/guerra_92005___article.html/hearings_willacy.html

[pacalo]

2. So he's still alive -- whew!

And he didn't dance to their tune, which was their disregarding the docket procedure of giving 3 days' notice.

He seems to know what he's dealing with & knows how to call their bluff. :)

[tekisui]

3. He forced the arraignment tomorrow morning.

He does seem to know what he is doing.

[pepperbear]

4. so what do you think? is this like capone getting popped for tax evasion? n/t

[tekisui]

7. Potentially.

We'll have to see where it goes.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

22. I wish it was January 21, 2009 and this was happening

NM

[tekisui]

24. I wish this to be the first in a lifetime of indictments

for the War Crimes Administration. We will get them. If not today, one day.

[tekisui]

5. RICO charges in indictment. Could this be a first pull of the thread?

http://www.huntingtonnews.net/political/081120-rutherford-politicalcheney.html

[pacalo]

9. This sentence cracks me up:

According to reports, attorneys for several high profile defendants --- including prosecutors --- claim that the grand jury presentation was tainted by a prosecutor presenting evidence against political enemies.

What reports?

Evidence against political enemies? Even with politics aside, Cheney is well regarded as being guilty of a lot of things that are crying out for prosecution by the Justice system.

[tekisui]

6. Read Indictment of Cheney and Gonzo here:

http://video.onset.freedom.com/brownsville/kalqlr-thestateoftxvs.richardcheneyalbertogonzalez.pdf

[tekisui]

8. The charges involve Cheney and Gonzo profiting from abuses that lead to at

leas one death. He influenced ICE, which funded the Prison system that he held stock in, and practiced civil rights abuses resulting in at least one death.

[pacalo]

12. Cheney has invested *$85 million* into the Vanguard Group -- that alone buys a lot of influence.

And Gonzo stopped investigations into wrongdoings at the prison.

These facts tell me that, yes, the grand jury did the right thing in indicting them both.

[tekisui]

11. Cheney and other indicted officials ordered to appear in court (video)

WILLACY COUNTY - Vice President Dick Cheney and all other officials indicted by a Willacy County grand jury have been ordered to appear in court by the end of the week.

A visiting judge from Corpus Christi presided over today's hearing after Judge Migdalia Lopez removed herself from the case because she was also indicted.


http://www.newschannel5.tv/2008/11/19/1001487/Willacy-Co--Indictment-Hearings

[seemslikeadream]

13. Guerra himself was under indictment for more than a year and half

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_re_us/cheney_indicted


U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, left, and Vice President Dick Cheney are AP – U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, left, and Vice President Dick Cheney are shown in this 2006 file …

McALLEN, Texas – Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on state charges involving federal prisons in a South Texas county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles under the outgoing prosecutor.

The indictment returned Monday has not yet been signed by the presiding judge, and no action can be taken until that happens.

The seven indictments made public in Willacy County on Tuesday included one naming state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and some targeting public officials connected to District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra's own legal battles.

Regarding the indictments targeting the public officials, Guerra said, "the grand jury is the one that made those decisions, not me."

Guerra himself was under indictment for more than a year and half until a judge dismissed the indictments last month. Guerra's tenure ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.

Guerra said the prison-related charges against Cheney and Gonzales are a national issue and experts from across the country testified to the grand jury.

Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.

Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment on Tuesday, saying that the vice president had not yet received a copy of the indictment.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately-run prisons.

Gonzales' attorney, George Terwilliger III, said in a written statement, "This is obviously a bogus charge on its face, as any good prosecutor can recognize." He said he hoped Texas authorities would take steps to stop "this abuse of the criminal justice system."

Another indictment released Tuesday accuses Lucio of profiting from his public office by accepting honoraria from prison management companies. Guerra announced his intention to investigate Lucio's prison consulting early last year.

Lucio's attorney, Michael Cowen, released a scathing statement accusing Guerra of settling political scores in his final weeks in office.

"Senator Lucio is completely innocent and has done nothing wrong," Cowen said, adding that he would file a motion to quash the indictment this week.

Willacy County has become a prison hub with county, state and federal lockups. Guerra has gone after the prison-politician nexus before, extracting guilty pleas from three former Willacy and Webb county commissioners after investigating bribery related to federal prison contacts.

Last month, a Willacy County grand jury indicted The GEO Group, a Florida private prison company, on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release. The three-count indictment alleged The GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. The death happened in 2001 at the Raymondville facility.

In 2006, a jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment. The Cheney-Gonzales indictment makes reference to the de la Rosa case.

None of the indictments released Tuesday had been signed by Presiding Judge Manuel Banales of the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region.

Last month, Banales dismissed indictments that charged Guerra with extorting money from a bail bond company and using his office for personal business. An appeals court had earlier ruled that a special prosecutor was improperly appointed to investigate Guerra.

After Guerra's office was raided as part of the investigation early last year, he camped outside the courthouse in a borrowed camper with a horse, three goats and a rooster. He threatened to dismiss hundreds of cases because he believed local law enforcement had aided the investigation against him.

The indictments were first reported by KRGV-TV.

___

Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed to this report.






This will get interesting, looks like SOMEONE tried to silence Guerra

[tekisui]

14. This is an interesting article. Guerra investigated this case in secrecy.

His staff didn't even know.

When Guerra as indicted, he responded by camping in front of the courthouse with farm animals. Charges were dropped.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6123795.html

McALLEN, Texas — The South Texas prosecutor who won indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a state senator and others said Thursday he developed the case secretly so as not to alert political enemies.

The vice president is the highest public official that Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra has pursued, but he has made a career — now ending after losing the Democratic primary in March — of passing over routine county crimes in favor of public corruption.

It was Guerra's interest in the contracts to build and run a federal immigrant detention center that led to some of his biggest successes — three guilty pleas on bribery charges from former county commissioners. But Guerra also believes it was the motivation for his own legal battles ever since.

Guerra was arrested last year on theft charges that were later dropped. He responded by camping in front of the courthouse with farm animals. He continued working for more than a year under indictment on charges of extorting a bail bond company and personal use of his office until Banales dismissed the indictment last month.

But Guerra ran the investigation with a siege mentality. He worked it from his home, dubbed it "Operation Goliath," and kept it secret from his staff, he said. He gave all the witnesses biblical pseudonyms — his was "David" — and when necessary gave false reasons for witnesses appearances so as not to raise suspicion in a courthouse he believed to be filled with political enemies. The district clerk and district judge who share the building were among those indicted Monday.

Guerra said Thursday that Presiding Judge Manuel Banales was not properly handling the high-level indictments handed up by a grand jury Monday.

"He's not following the norms of how we usually indict people," Guerra said from Houston, where he had flown for a television interview. "Why are these people getting special treatment?"

Banales set a hearing for Friday to allow attorneys for Cheney, Gonzales and state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville and others, to argue against the indictments. Guerra said that should not have been done for weeks.

A Willacy County grand jury indicted Cheney, Gonzales, Lucio and The GEO Corp., a private prison operator, on charges related to alleged abuse in a federal immigrant detention center and in Lucio's case, of illegally profiting from prison consulting fees.

The indictment alleges that Cheney's personal investment in the Vanguard Group, which invests in private prison companies, gives him culpability in alleged prisoner abuse.

Another batch of five indictments charged two district judges, two special prosecutors and the Willacy County district clerk with abusing their powers in investigating Guerra's office.

more...

[WolverineDG]

23. Oh I remember that

he showed up with a goat in the parking lot one day. :rofl:

dg

[tekisui]

16. "I don't need any educating," Hearing set for 10:30 AM Friday.

"I don't need any educating," Bañales(judge) told Canales(cheney's lawyer}. Later the judge told Canales, "That's enough."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/read_91979___article.html/brownsville_onset.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. I knew there was something stinky about those prisons.

But when it comes to Cheney, everything is stinky.

[bertman]

18. I nominate Guerra for a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Could I get a second to the motion?

[tekisui]

19. Seconded!

:thumbsup:

[jeff30997]

20. K&R

I really hope that those tugs will get what they deserve.

[Joe Chi Minh]

21. Tackling that scandal of America's privatized gulag is a tremendous step forward,

with so many poor people unjustly imprisoned, and even after leaving, battened on by various private professonals and agencies, for whose "services" they have to pay, from whatever meagre funds they can acquire with a prison record, at a time when there is so much unemployment.

I was expecting it be a low priority, but the fact that the investigation began a good while ago is magnificent. You've still got some mighty judges. If you haven't read Joe Bageant's article on it, do so. It will make your hair stand on end.

The whole concept of people profiting, indeed, profiteering, from other people's misery (most prisoners would be from very disadvantaged backgrounds) is utterly repugnant, and in this context has overtones of slavery. NuLab(c) were moving in that direction until quite recently.

[bluesmail]

25. That's one pissed off and determined prosecutor.

Really. I mean it, really.

[tekisui]

26. He is not messing around.

Here's to another hundred like him!

[formercia]

27. I hope Guerra doesn't get killed

trying to escape from protective custody.......

[pleah]

28. K&R This is getting more interesting every minute.

Hope it doesn't get buried.

[w4rma]

29. Guerra is my new hero. That guy is awesome. (nt)

[rhett o rick]

30. Are these federal charges or state charges? Can Cheney and Berto be pardoned by Bush for these c

crimes??

[Twitch14]

32. Federal crimes only, according to this:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Participating-Political-Process-2149/Presidential-pardons.htm

[KoKo]

31. Thanks for the update on this... Fingers crossed it goes somewhere...

I almost have my hopes up after figuring this story was another "no go" in trying to get Cheney & Gonzo for something.