402n District Judge Brad McCampbell-A man who got his job only because the people of Wood County were fed up with the CORRUPTION of his predecessor former District Judge Jeff Fletcher, so they gave him a chance by electing him to replace Fletcher and he has done nothing but slap those citizens in the face at every chance he gets by doing whatever immoral deed Brandon Baade tells him to do. (Not to be confused with his son, Judge John Roach Jr., who currently presides over the 296th District Court in Collin County. Yet the witch hunt continued for years.. It was just crazy. She found the woman not guilty. With the help of James Roberts, the head of the firms civil rights section, they turned the whole thing around in a month and filed the lawsuit on May 18, 2018, with less than a week to spare. Civil penalties can be assessed for violations of up to three times the amount of the political contributions accepted in violation of the section. Blow the whi Well, crapShawshank Redemption, Wooten thought. If there was, every judge in the state of Texas could be indicted as well. Given the timing of the next-to-the-last campaign finance report, and the time those ads began, I believe her reports are false. Her bangs are now tinged with gray, but her diamond stud earrings match the intensity of her bright blue eyes. They never give it back, Wooten says. She didnt do anything wrong, Palmer says. Who bribed who what? Doesnt bribery involve you getting money or someone paying money or something? Everyone knew someone else, and they almost all had a tie to the Collin County Republican Party. Then someone anonymously placed a copy of an email from First Assistant DA Greg Davis to Roach in her mailbox. Here is the cast of characters that you will be reading the most about: First Assistant District Attorney Brandon Baade-A man whose physical unattractiveness is only surpassed by his lack of intelligence and moral bankruptcy, but has somehow tricked the people in the courthouse that he is brilliant and that they have to heed every bit of horrible advice that he gives, even though it took him 3 years to pass the bar exam after graduating law school from the LESS THAN PRESTIGIOUS Regent University Law School. One obnoxious guy in the second row said loudly, So did you do it? And then you have a split decision. No spam, ever. Over the last couple of centuries, almost every state has tried partisan elections for judges at some point, but Texas is one of only six that continues to do so for judges at all levels. Sometimes Im the guy, he says. After Wooten was elected, a hearing in the case was scheduled in her courtroom, but she recused herself as soon as she realized that several of the lawyers involved were from her old firm or had helped on her campaign. Wooten sentenced him to treatment. Don't try to fix it, that's how they like it. There would be no opponent in November. From 2015 to 2020, the Texas Rangers completed more than 560 public corruption case investigations, but only 67 of those cases have been prosecuted, according to DPS data analyzed by the. I kept saying, I dont wanna look. When the restaurant next door closed down at 10 pm, the owners came over with bottles of wine. When Stacy met Dave, he had joint custody of his twin toddlers and an acrimonious relationship with his ex-wife, Jennifer. Also: Texas is an insanely terrible place to do business: It has corrupt public officials law-enforcement officers on the cartel dime, judges selling verdicts, members of a drug task force. 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. Corruption, of course, exists in big cities across the country, too, and Richard Durbin, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said the dollar amounts involved in Texas cases. But election fraud is now a national rallying cry. In addition to discussing the issue of parental rights, Stacy mentioned that her father, who was getting on in years, had recently transferred his oil company to his four children. The whole thing was a Catch-22. He wanted them all held accountable. John Roach Sr. For the State to prove its case under the general bribery statute, the appellate court said, it had to prove that Stacys payment was not a political contribution. The allegation was that two years prior he had mistakenly filed a document that hadnt yet been notarized; when the clerk had caught the error, hed had the document notarized after the fact. In the following days, the DAs office would begin to use the existing grand jury to start issuing subpoenas for records related to Wooten. It had numerous replies. When she was running, I had similar feelings that Judge Wooten did, that Charles Sandoval was a complete moron and an asshole and needed to be removed, he says. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. He seemed to believe that they must have cost an exorbitant amount, and he suggested that they were paid for with secret funds paid to Spencer, her media consultant, by an unidentified third party. 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. For district courts where the population is more than 1 million, individual contributions are limited to $5,000, law firm and their member contributions are limited to $30,000, and PAC contributions are limited to $52,500 per court. It involves parental rights. (LogOut/ As a result, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General announced charges against the former. It was granted on May 24, 2017. She paid the campaign bills as she received them from Spencer, and then she used her line of credit to pay off the outstanding balance at the end. (Stacy and Dave kept their finances separate after marriage.) It was my mailbox, but I didnt even own a dog.. Its tempting to think that things have improved. Corrupt Police Corruption scandals have emerged in most of the 14 border counties between Brownsville and El Paso. And he had 162 years of history proving that his 464-vote margin entitled him to what was essentially a lifetime appointment. Her law license was suspended, so she worked as a paralegal and started building a mediation and trial consulting business. 217 likes. She managed to raise $79,000 in campaign donations, leaving her with $33,000 in out-of-pocket expenses. (LogOut/ From 2015 to 2020, the Texas Rangers completed more than 560 public corruption case investigations, but only 67 of those cases have been prosecuted, according to DPS data analyzed by . Montgomery County Texas Watchdog. I will lose myself in the crazy, corrupt, centuries-old history of the Collin County court system. You might get acquitted. I can help people write appeal bonds. In April 2010, the FBI opened an investigation into potential corruption in the DAs office. Her lowest point came the night before the verdict. These are seasoned, experienced former federal prosecutors. After all, shes the one who wrote the checks. (Although you cant run after you turn 75.). Yet the indictment alleged that payments made by Stacy to Spencer, totalling $150,000 between January and March 2008, were intended to induce Wooten to run for Sandovals seat, beat him, preside over the 380th, and issue unspecified favorable rulings., When I read it, I laughed, Schulte says. Known as Hang Them All Sandoval, he had an abysmal approval rating among members of the local bar. Instead of the usual assistant district attorney who presented cases to the grand jury, Assistant District Attorneys Greg Davis and Christopher Milner presented the cases against Wooten and Willis. My experience is completely different from Wootens. I didnt do anything wrong. If it wasnt a political contribution, then there was no crime because there was no actual bribe. How did you all fuck this up and continue to prosecute her? The AGs office missed it, too. I could be at a judges fundraiser Saturday night writing him up to a $2,500 check and then appear in his courtroom on Monday arguing a motion. He never looked at that as a failure. Bald, bespectacled, and trim, with a sideline swagger and locker room vocabulary, Scott Palmer could pass for a collegiate basketball coach. Direct evidence proving that a payment to a judge is a bribe and not a campaign contribution is, understandably, difficult to establish. She said that from the beginning, the cases against the judges seemed off. Federal statistics on public corruption convictions show the two judicial districts that cover South Texas rank near the top nationwide. 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. She has the no-nonsense, salty-for-emphasis, English teacher-ish temperament of an effective mediator, which she now is. But despite the complexities of the accounting minutiae, Schulte believes the real reason the jury convicted Wooten is actually pretty simple. Even though filing paperwork to run for judge isnt illegal, and supporting a candidate who shares your political and social ideals in the hope that the person will be elected and rule in your favor isnt illegal, and there was no allegation of an explicit agreementin fact, there was absolutely no evidence of money ever making its way from the Carys to Wootenthe case was allowed to proceed. The DAO has acted with seeming disregard for the personal, emotional, and financial costs to the individuals concerned., They also pointed out that Roach had been absent for at least one-third of the days normally worked by others in the courthouse, and that he was present at the seating of the grand jury and declined, in open court, to challenge any member of it as unfit.. He saw Roach and Milner as bullies, routinely threatening lawyers and judgesanyone, really, who got in their waywith criminal prosecution. With that in mind, Best Life set out to determine the most corrupt state in America. He knew unseating a Democratic judge in Texas wouldnt get attention; he needed to challenge a Republican. Collin County District Attorney | 2002 2010, Christopher Milner It isnt a crime to spend the money you earn. We just pissed some people off.. 1 in overall corruption convictions, followed by California, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas. Wooten and Jill Willis, who were friends, were also outsiders: they were rare examples of Collin County jurists who had not taken the bench via the DAs office. Schulte started as a police officer in McKinney before getting his law license and going into private practice. How do you end up with a scenario where it takes Dave Cary to free everyone else? So she climbed out a window and fled. Wooten had considered running as an independent, because she felt judicial races shouldnt be partisan and party affiliation shouldnt make a difference. And he was actually out of jail on parole when he did it. Should she say she was sick and had to go away to the hospital? The most corrupt police force in Texas Written by Alan Bean In the next segment of this series, we will be looking at Shaun Cooks' experience with the criminal justice system in his home town of Hearne, Texas. Then Huntsville. In Collin County, where courts utilized the second pick-a-pal method, it was possible to end up with a grand jury made up entirely of strategic, political appointees. Dave had been involved in an ongoing contentious custody dispute with his ex-wife, Jennifer, in Sandovals court. Case in point: while Milner was convening multiple grand juries to investigate Wooten, he was also convening multiple grand juries to investigate Judge Greg Willis, who, at the time, was campaigning to be the next Collin County DA. Because those juries never had the whole picture. That didnt pan out, but Spencer was able to help with other company matters that he found useful. Otherwise, I would not have even been on the ballot. 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. I gave them my filing fee and my application, and they said, What are you doing? And I said, Well, Im going to run for judge.. Looking back, though, he grinds his axe not against Sandoval but against the Collin County DAs office. His wife, Judge Jill Willis, still sits on the 429th. I didnt know anybody that thought she committed bribery., Another lawyer made a similar clerical mistake in the use of a partially filled out form that still contained facts related to a different case. But they let the others off the hook, finding their involvement in investigative functions was more limited. There are currently 485 district courts in the state. Thats got to be illegal.. He says he agreed to do consulting work on behalf of both Stacy and Dave for pay and that any advice he gave them with regard to parental rights he was glad to provide for free. Suite 2100 Dave Cary had already seen a series of judges do 180s in his child custody case. After analyzing federal corruption convictions, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review bestowed a new title on Edinburg: the dirtiest town, in the most crooked county, in the most bribable state. Except, it turned out, for Judge Kerry Russell, the visiting judge from Tyler assigned to the case. His fee would be $7,500, and the rest would mostly go to cover signs, mailers, and print and radio ads. The 43-year-old Collin County District Court judge was used to observing the courtroom from the opposite vantage point. The Texas Rangers' Public Integrity Unit and Public Corruption Unit are tasked with investigating crimes committed by state officers and state employees, as well as allegations of public corruption. This advocacy was his passion, something he did free of charge for his own personal ends. Texas Crime Statistics. I want to be cystal clear about this, Spencer says. Spencer, who had heard from the chairman of the Collin County Democratic Party that Wooten was running, knew his first order of business was to talk her into switching teams. Judge of the 429th | 2009 present, Greg Willis, (husband of Jill Willis) It was the snake oil stuff that was supposed to cure people who were meth addicts, Wooten says. 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