Monday, April 1, 2013

It Takes Assassination Of A Prosecutor And His Wife For Texans To Recognize A Crisis In Justice System


The home of Texas prosecutor
Mike McLelland
Based on the comments of Texas law-enforcement officials over the weekend, the state's justice system officially went into crisis mode on Saturday.

That's when the bullet-riddled bodies of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were discovered at their home about 20 miles outside of Dallas. The slayings came less than two months after Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was killed in a parking lot a block from his courthouse office. Authorities apparently have no solid leads in either case, although they suspect the killings might be connected.

A quick search on the Web reveals that the Texas justice system has been in crisis for years, especially if you are a citizen who has seen your constitutional rights trampled or your tax dollars wasted because of public corruption. But that reality apparently did not hit home to elites in the justice system until some of their own started turning up dead.

Consider this report from The Dallas Morning News, quoting Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes:

Authorities had worked frantically Saturday night to confirm that other officials were safe, and sources confirmed that security was being provided at the homes of others who authorities feared might be targets.

However, Byrnes repeatedly declined to discuss specific concerns about security, though he acknowledged “taking precautions to protect other elected officials. . . . ”

And though he would not discuss what protection for officials may be in place, he acknowledged the slayings of the McLellands and Hasse were worrisome.

“It’s unnerving to the law enforcement community and the community at large, which is why we’re striving to ensure the community we are providing public safety,” he said. “We’re meeting all our duties, plus our investigative duties.”

So Sheriff Byrnes finds the assassinations of two prosecutors and one spouse to be "worrisome," and the law-enforcement community finds it "unnerving." That's understandable, of course, but have Byrnes and his colleagues been unnerved about the following headlines I pulled off the Web in about five minutes' time?

* Texas gets near failing grade for corruption risk (March 20, 2012)

* Corrupt Texas judges going to jail this month (April 27, 2011)

* Judge, DA, and lawyer accused in Texas corruption case (September 7, 2012)

* Texas sheriff arrested, charged in corruption investigation (March 6, 2013)

I found those cases of Texas-sized sleaze, plus several others, in a Web search of less than five minutes--covering only the past couple of years. Geez, what if I had searched for 10 minutes and gone back, say, to 2005? I probably still would be sorting through all the material.

The point, however, seems clear. Texas' justice system is a cesspool of corruption, but as long as it affects regular citizens, elites like Sheriff Byrnes don't much seem to care. In fact, you don't hear a peep out of them--and that's because sheriffs, judges, DAs, and lawyers are the ones benefiting from that criminal activity.

What happens when a criminal turns the table, and heaps suffering upon the elites? It's time to yell, "Sweet Jesus, we got a crisis on our hands!"

I can imagine such a reaction if similar events transpired here in Alabama. Let's consider the following scenario:

Over the course of five weeks, five lawyers from large Birmingham firms turn up dead, their corpses filled with bullet holes. These slayings occur at a rate of one per week, and authorities quickly pick up on a pattern. One lawyer is gunned down while he works in his yard. Another dies while having sex with his mistress. One is killed while checking under the hood of his Mercedes. One dies in a hail of gun fire while cleaning debris from his pool. Finally, one is slain while having sex with his wife. (This, of course, is an unmistakable sign that our scenario is fictional.)

I can hear the howls of alarm and concern from the usual high-profile lawyers who tend to be quoted in the local press. Doug Jones of Haskell Slaughter, Matt Lembke of Bradley Arant, and Drayton Nabers of Maynard Cooper Gale would be among the local lawyers fretting over "a crisis in our justice system."

"Something must be done," they would screech. "Someone is trying to keep the wheels of justice from turning."

Jones, Lembke, and Nabers, of course, are well aware that Alabama's justice system has been marked for years by corruption--in both state and federal courts. In fact, Jones, Lembke, and Nabers are just three of many lawyers who have helped create our dysfunctional justice system.

But you never hear them raise a concern as long as everyday Alabamians are the ones suffering at the hands of corrupt judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and the like. But let a few members of the justice elite experience some suffering and . . . well, Jones and Co. would be in panic mode, just like the one now gripping justice elites in Texas.

The killings in Texas are unmistakably alarming, and they have all the trappings of a terror campaign. One prosecutor was killed near his office, and another (plus his wife) was killed at his house. That seems to send this message to certain authorities: "You are not safe at work, you are not safe in your homes, and your loved ones aren't safe either."

Was the messenger wronged by someone in the Kaufman County criminal-justice system? Does the messenger perceive that he was wronged, even though his issues were handled correctly under the law? Is the messenger a madman who has decided to target officials in one county for no apparent reason? Could the messenger be affiliated with a white supremacist group called the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, as reported in The New York Times?

Perhaps we will learn the answers to those questions before too long. But for now, justice elites in Texas are in a state of siege, and they are feeling terrorized. That's ironic because that's exactly how it feels to be on the receiving end of a court-related cheat job.

My wife and I know that from 12 years' worth of personal experience. I know it from reporting on cases involving fellow Alabamians--some well known, others relatively unknown. I'm talking about people like Sherry Carroll Rollins, Don Siegelman, Bonnie Wyatt, Richard Scrushy, Angela Drees, Sue Schmitz, and more. I know it from reporting on cases next door in Mississippi, involving people like Paul Minor, Wes Teel, John Whitfield, and Oliver Diaz.

A great philosopher once said, "Karma's a bitch." Someone seems to be driving that point home right now for justice elites in Texas. Perhaps their brethren in other states would  be wise to pay attention.

27 comments:

  1. Wow, blowing away a sheriff in his own home? That takes some balls--or this was a professional hit.

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  2. I would get a hearty laugh if it did happen in Alabama.

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  3. Reminds me of that quote from a wise man:

    "The only people who have faith in our justice system are those who have no experience with it."

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  4. It's heating up in Texas right now! Tomorrow at 1:30 there is a state senate hearing regarding judicial corruption for which Texas is riddled with! I would think if this was a mad man he wouldn't have the balls to enter the home. Good job LS!

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  5. I'm surprised we don't read about this kind of stuff once a week.

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  6. LS, I think your scenario would make a good movie. Maybe Grisham will make a come back!

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  7. Good Lord, I totally missed this over the weekend. Watching too much college hoops, I guess. Thanks for spreading the word.

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  8. Please don't tell us this is your idea for April fools day?

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  9. Oh, no, it really happened, unfortunately.

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  10. Makes me think of that judge who beat his special needs daughter for illegally downloading music.

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  11. I'm not a Second Amendment whack job, but you do have to admit: Guns are the great equalizer. Someone with a few firearms certainly got the attention of the sheriffs and DAs out in Texas.

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  12. This actually make me think this DA may have been a good guy. Be interested to know what his record looks like. Maybe an inside job with the asses on the line out there right now. Must say though, I hope he wasn't a good guy and from what I hear from people in Texas about the high level of corruption, I doubt he was!

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  13. One article I found today quotes an official saying he thinks this is connected to the methamphetamine business in that part of Texas. Evidently Kaufman County is prime territory for meth operations.

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  14. Here is the section, from a Dallas Morning News article, about possible ties to meth:


    But Oliver “Buck” Revell, a security consultant and former head of the Dallas FBI office, which includes Kaufman County, said he thinks a methamphetamine organization could be behind the violence.

    The Aryan Brotherhood has been involved in lucrative methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution throughout Texas.

    “It’s been known for quite some time that Kaufman County has a huge problem in the drug area and methamphetamine in particular,” said Revell, who acknowledged he is not involved in the current investigation. “This bears the marks of an organized criminal enterprise, and I think the bottom of it is going to be methamphetamine.”

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  15. Yeah meth heads would certainly be a convenient deterant from a corrupt system trying to exterminate a threat headed their way. If an official said they believe it was tied to meth then I definitely think now it was not! Maybe he ws a good guy.

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  16. I had to spew spit on the computer screen "Lawyer having sex with wife, that makes this story fictional! Good post..

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  17. watch the propaganda, "meth" is a controlled substance, not by the little fries, nope, only the BIG "wise guys," CIA? get to be part of the gang dopers global inc.

    setting up the scene, but of course. new stuff on author Marshall, "Bamboozle," and it is same story - assassinations under "Obama's watch," have and continue to, increase.

    "news" carefully, NOT Legal Schnauzer's moral integrity for the dignity of true information, anyway, news is set-up.

    Alabama ~versus southern corrupted judges,
    are people enough in the count, non-
    fraudulent, non-ultra-conservative, non-

    extremists ~versus “Justice” Fuller-Siegelman,
    a roving wild beast packed political, idiocracy
    blowing, whose-forlorn-horns, religions

    congresses ~versus endless digital congregations,
    dust to dust imposters circle drains, violently
    resisting, make-believe-pretend, not.

    Porn Pom

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  18. " TEXAS SENATE NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

    Committee: Jurisprudence
    Time & Date: 1:30 pm, April 2,2013
    Place: 2E.20 (Betty King Cmte Rm)
    Chair: Senator Royce West

    SB209 Huffman I et al
    Relating to the functions and operations of State Commission on Judicial Conduct

    Senate Bill 209; Reference to Jurisprudence

    House Bill 1885; Reference to Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence

    Both bills exactly the same."

    I just find it very strange that this happend over the weekend when this hearing is set for tomorrow with MANY witnesses who have been destroyed, terrorized and abused by this corrupt Texas system!
    For "an official" to come out blaming meth heads just sounds like BS.

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  19. Slain Texas Lawman Had Pledged to Hunt Down ‘Scum’

    ***

    What scum is he talking about?

    FBI scum:

    http://hamptonroads.com/node/189481

    Lawyer scum:

    http://www.kaufmanandcanoles.com/attorneys/hunter_w._sims_jr..htm

    http://www.willcoxandsavage.com/attorneys/view/conrad-m.-shumadine

    David Wayne Bouchard, Esq.
    Member at Large

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  20. Does anyone else find it apropos that this occurred in George Bush's Texas?

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  21. And Karl Rove's Texas. It is curious, to be sure. And how Rovian to pin blame on white supremacists or meth dealers?

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  22. George and Turd Blossom, it is said are quite the duo in charge at this time in so many places and with virtual reality, auto-pilot.

    Sending the necessary mechanics to do the jobs necessary.

    Obama signed an order and we see how serious this business is.

    Black-ops.

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  23. Or big fat bald head scum:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031400519_2.html

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  24. Too bad. This reminds me of another crime in California in 1997. Hope everything goes well soon.

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  25. Wow, good morning. I just woke up, grabbed the computer and went straight to Legal Schnauzer, as usual. What an awakening. Sheriffs, judges, lawyers being killed in Texas? Is this what it takes to get the attention of the DOJ in America? Is this the beginning of Obama taking an interest in what is going on in the deep dark cesspools of justice in the court systems here? Will this mark the beginning of the clean-up in Alabama courts too? Where are the hazmat suits, where are the bullet proof vests we need to put on; roll up the white sleeved, cuff linked shirt sleeves of the local bar association and get involved in setting our legal, justice peddling court system back on its proper axis. Hallelujuah, it's a NEW DAY. There's HOPE after all.

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  26. Those ion power still haven't recognized the real nature of their crisis; they appear to be determined to use the same tactics that didn't work the first time and try to address only the symptoms of their problems.

    If they want to really solve their crisis they have to address all the injustices you mentioned and more that could be quickly exposed with research and they have to address the fact that violence tends to escalate starting with early injustices often targeting children that are abused. When these children are taught that the only way to address problems is through retaliation that involves violence that is what they do.

    If the really wanted to solve this they would adress economic injustice and child abuse not just try to stop the next murder barely before it happens.

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