October 23, 2008

Earlier this week the Texas Association of Business and Texas' Travis Country District Attorney Ronnie Earle came to a plea agreement in the final two charges against the pro-business group stemming from the 2002 elections that shifted state political control from the Democrats to Republicans. After six years of investigations, charges, appeals, more charges, charges being dismissed, more investigations, accusations -- Ronnie Earle got one misdemeanor conviction and a $10,000 fine. Earle has spent millions of dollars of taxpayer money on this case to get one misdemeanor.

Defenders of TAB and those of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has similar pending charges against him, have each consistently claimed that Earle's charges against them were politically motivated and are not based in law. Numerous charges against TAB have already been dismissed with the trial judge and subsequent apellate courts saying TAB was simply exercising their 1st Amendment right to free speech.

Back in 2002, TAB sent out mailers to voters that were paid for by corporate donations. Since they did not expressively advocate for or against a particular candidate and only mentioned the issues, then it was protected under the U.S. Constitution regardless what the Texas constitution says about banning corporate dollars in political campaigns. Corporate money is mostly prohibited in candidate campaigns in Texas except for administrative use. It has long been disputed in Texas what exactly is administrative use. Some argue for example that staff salaries could be considered administrative and therefore could be paid for by corporate money.

Here in lies TAB's misdemeanor conviction. A portion of TAB's president and lobbyist was paid for by corporate money while they were working for their own political action committee which did support candidates running for office. TAB's president Bill Hammond said it was simply an accounting error, that the PAC was supposed to reimburse TAB's corporate account for Hammond's travel expenses and for the portion of time he was actually on the ground supporting candidates. Apparently this did not get done so the misdemeanor was for failing to make an accurate campaign expenditure disclosure. Hardly worth a felony conviction which was what Earle was seeking.

So after dragging Hammond's name through the mud for the last six years, convicting him and TAB in the press and in the court of public opinion, while spending hundred's of thousands of taxpayer money, Earle got one misdemeanor. He is either what his critics say, a corrupt, politically motivated prosecutor, or he is incredibly incompetent.

Here are just a few examples Earle's pre-trial bias.

"Finally, Earle recounted Mussolini's definition of fascism as the merger of state and corporate power, and suggested that T.A.B. would contribute to a similar merger in Texas unless stopped in its tracks."
(Austin Chronicle, April 11, 2003)

"Any reasonable person would conclude that the TAB ads mailed to thousands of Texas voters clearly advocated electing or defeating candidates. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle made that point in court last week when he quoted from several of them."
(Austin American Statesman editorial, April 10, 2003)

"A judge in Travis County, for a second time, has thrown out an indictment accusing the Texas Association of Business of breaking state election law during the 2002 legislative campaigns. State District Judge Mike Lynch's opinion Friday echoed his ruling last year that said the business group's corporate-funded ads did not expressly advocate the election or defeat of candidates. Lynch also dismissed prosecutors' attempts to sidestep the association's free-speech defense by arguing that the business group acted as a de facto political committee by coordinating its 2002 efforts with other political groups.'You simply cannot make a silk purse out of this sow's ear,' wrote Lynch, lifting a line from last year's ruling.The ruling is a major setback for Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who said he would appeal.Two similar indictments from the same events are pending, and Earle's appeal would ensure that the state's highest courts decide the matter.'TAB broke the law, then bragged about it, and should have to answer like everyone else,' Earle said."
(Austin American Statesman, September 7, 2007)

The felony indictments that were thrown out were upheld by the Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest apellate court in Texas.

Ronnie Earle is probably best known for his disasterous case against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison who Earle charged for illegally using her government office for political use. The case was completely flimsy and when it finally went to trial Earle tried to get it delayed because he had no evidence. The judge denied the delay saying Earle had plenty of time for his investigation. With no evidence to back up Earle's charges, Senator Hutchison was completely exonerated. This case in particular does support what Earle's critics claim -- that Earle was motivated to take down Hutchison, a Republican, because of her politics not because there was evidence of wrongdoing.

Last July Earle told an assembled group of left-wing bloggers at NetRoots Nation that “the law does not define justice, the law does not define justice, anywhere, so I had to come up with my own definition” . Enough said.

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