Judge Removes Prosecutor of Cheney-Gonzales in Texas - 5 of 9 cases (pdf of indicement)

[autorank]

(The indictment of CHeney-Gonzales was delayed Friday when this prosecutor insisted that the Judge
be removed from the case. The indictment is attached below. The arraignment will be continued next week.)

http://www.raymondvillechroniclenews.com/news/2008/1119/Front_page/000a.html

LATE BREAKING NEWS: Judge removes Guerra as prosecutor for 5 of 9 criminal cases involving Vice President Cheney and Texas State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr.

Texas Rangers to escort Guerra to court Friday morning after having been found in Mexico

ROBERT WILCOX Editor/Reporter

After being AWOL from the job and violating sections of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct - Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel "Johnny Guerra" has been replaced in five (5) of the nine (9) criminal cases he convinced a grand jury to file against Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former U.S. Attorney Mervyn Mosbacker, state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., District Judges Migdalia Lopez and Janet Leal, former Willacy D.A. Gustavo "Gus" Garza, and District Clerk Gilbert Lozano, along with GEO Corp., and former warden David Forrest.

Presiding District Judge J.Manuel Banales has appointed Asst. Cameron County to Alfredo Padilla to handle the cases for Mosbacker, Lopez, Leal, Garza, and Lozano due to Guerra being absent from court.

The judge found Guerra violated Section 3.08 of the rules of professional conduct, in that a victim (Guerra) can't prosecute five of the cases, where he could be called as a wtiness.



Guerra has telephoned in from Mexico and Houston to selected Texas media outlets claiming he did not know he was supposed to be in court yesterday afternoon.

INDICTMENT http://electionfraudnews.com/News/State_of_Texas_v_Cheney_&_Gonzales.pdf

[tritsofme]

1. Surprised that this prosecutor is batshit crazy?

No.

[autorank]

2. Guy was there 20 years, why now.

His behavior has been odd, it seems, but I'm not believing anything until there's more thorough coverage.

[seemslikeadream]

5. I think his behavior is such

because he did not know who to trust. Would you like to be the one bring indictments against Cheney?





IN TEXAS!

[nc4bo]

3. What in the hell is going on with this case?! Bizarre and I don't get it. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Yeah. Just one of those times that calls for scratching

whatever it is you scratch when you're totally confused and waiting for something or someone to come along and make sense of the world again for you.

[Fleshdancer]

6. Guerra blamed the judge of giving special treatment to high-profile defendants

Guerra wanted judge Banales to be recused from the case, but instead, the judge removes Guerra as prosecutor for 5 of 9 criminal cases.



Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra, who is accusing the public officials of culpability in the alleged abuse of prisoners in a federal detention center, asked Presiding Judge Manuel Banales to recuse himself. Guerra has complained about Banales' handling of the case.

Attorneys for the vice president and other defendants leaped to their feet in objection, as Guerra pounded the table and accused Banales of giving the defendants special treatment in allowing motions to quash the indictments to be heard before the defendants were arraigned.

"Now, all of a sudden there is urgency," Guerra shouted. "Eighteen months you kept me indicted through the election."

Guerra was referring to his own indictment on charges of extorting money from a bail bond company and using his office for personal business until Banales dismissed the indictment last month. Guerra lost re-election in the March Democratic primary.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/11/22/1122indictments.html

Something strange is going on here.

[goforit]

7. I will not be surprised is this all falls flat on its face. As does every crime Cheney

is in volved in.

So sad to see cheney above the law.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. This brings to mind an old Orson Welles movie called "Touch of Evil"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052311/

Mexico's chief narcotics officer, Mike Vargas, is in a border town on a quick honeymoon with his U.S. wife. Soon he must testify against Grande, a drug lord whose brother and sons are tracking him, hoping to scare his wife and back him off the case. When a car bomb kills a rich U.S. developer, Vargas embroils himself in the investigation, putting his wife in harm's way. After Vargas catches local legendary U.S. cop, Hank Quinlan, planting evidence against a Mexican national suspected in the bombing, Quinlan joins forces with the Grande family to impugn Vargas's character. Local political lackeys, a hard-edged whore, pachucos, and a nervous motel clerk also figure in the plot.

[XOKCowboy]

9. Dammit where's Molly Ivins to give us the scoop on "The Lege"

She so loved Texas politics...

[kansasblue]

10. I heard a Guerra interview.

He said the judge scheduled the hearing very rapidly and didn't notify him. The judge is now using the fact he missed the hearing to take him off part of the case.

Let's make sure we know the facts before we make Guerra look bad. Seems like Guerra is the hero here and MSM and Cheney are trying to bring him down.

[Peace Patriot]

11. Reading between the lines on this one, I think we have a filthy corrupt private prison

system, with locals involved, and others including a state senator, a U.S. attorney, on up the chain to Alberto Gonzales and Dick Cheney (big investor in the private prison system). The locals have been trying to shut Mr. Guerra up, and shut down his investigation/prosecution and that of the grand jury. They filed false charges against him, which Judge Banales dismissed on all counts. (I'm pretty sure it was the same judge.) While this was happening, they raided Guerra's house. Mr. Guerra parked a camper at the courthouse, complete with a horse, two goats and a rooster--to mock their phony raid and charges. Now, what seems to be happening is that Guerra feels that the court proceedings on the indictments that the grand jury brought are being fast-tracked along with other accommodations to the likes of Cheney. He said that he had not received notice of Friday's hearing, and that there is normally a 72 hour time-frame, which was violated. Cheney and Gonzo lawyers were rushing to get a dismissal.

Judge Banales has a point, I think, with regard to Guerra/the grand jury's indictments of the local D.A., etc. These were the same people who filed false charges against him and raided his house. Note: This grand jury investigation was highly secret. There were code names for everybody. And Guerra was holding a lot of info at his house, as I understand it. That's probably why the bad guys filed the baseless charges--to have an excuse to raid his files. (I don't know if they got anything.)

Anyway, that's how I'm seeing it--from reading various news stories. Guerra lost his recent election and has only the same time left in office as Cheney. But he has certainly made his point, as has the grand jury, in exposing this corrupt prison system to national view. I don't know what the situation is as to who might take over the case when he leaves office in January. He continues as the prosecutor of the Cheney/Gonzo part of the case until that time, and I am fairly certain that if he was a "nut" or doing anything improper, Judge Banales would have removed him from the entire case. He did not. So we have a grand jury that corroborates his charges against those operating and profiting from this prison system (including Cheney and Gonzo), and a judge who protected him from false prosecution, and may be protecting the case against the locals by removing Guerra from it, so it has no taint. I'm not positive of the latter--that Judge Banales has the right motives--but that's what it's looking like right now.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. That is most assuredly the only coherent attempt at explaining this business

that I have yet seen. Maybe you ought to expand it into an OP and also get it onto Kos and some similar sites.

[Gman]

12. You may want to check this post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4517455

I was going to post this as a reply to your OP but decided to make another OP about it because I've been following this ongoing saga with Guerra for almost 2 years now.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. That thread certainly gives a very different picture from that of Peace Patriot above.

It will be interesting to see if it ever becomes clearer. Somehow, just because of what we have seen the Rove crowd do to their enemies in the past, I can't help but wonder it they're not "Hatfielding" Guerra here.