Report Public Corruption. I remember going home thinking, What did I do? And they were women. In a daze, she followed her lawyers, Peter Schulte and Toby Shook, to the attorney-client conference room for a 10-minute break before sentencing. I was like, thats where I wanna go fishing.. And a member of Roachs staff now holds Wootens former bench in the 380th District Court. Corruption and incompetence. Since the first district court was established in Collin County in 1846, no one had challenged an incumbent judge, whether in a primary or general election. So on January 2, 2008, the last possible day to file, she walked over to the Collin County Republican Party headquarters. Advertisment. If you don't know who Shaun is, you can find earlier segments here . It had been that way for more than 160 years. He didnt understand that he couldnt just indict people to get them to do what he wanted them to do.. The border has been a hotbed of corrupt activity. On the appellate and district courts alone, the Texas Judiciary in the last election lost seven centuries of judicial experience at a single stroke.. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. He looks like a middle-aged dad, which he is. Hes in Dallas on business. The woman testified that she didnt pay because her boyfriend beat her up. 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. At the time, she was 34 and visibly pregnant with her youngest child. The appellate judges agreed that Milner was performing investigative functions and therefore was not entitled to prosecutorial immunity. Texas Attorney General | 2002 2015. What followed is the unbelievable, epic tale of the craziest case in the history of jurisprudence. Spencer arrives for our meeting at the coffee shop in the Hilton Anatole dressed in a black zip-up polo, jeans, and gray loafers. In an interview with the FBI, she stated that the grand jury was like a reunion. Federal statistics on public corruption convictions show the two judicial districts that cover South Texas rank near the top nationwide. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 100 days in jail and 10 years probation. The usual process is for the police to do their investigation and make an arrest, and then they turn the case over to the DAs office. Wooten had considered running as an independent, because she felt judicial races shouldnt be partisan and party affiliation shouldnt make a difference. But during the trial, when the jury stopped making eye contact with her, Wooten knew she was in trouble. I didnt choose this lifestyle. This was particularly cynical given the fact that Ms. Wooten was active in the Democratic party two years prior to this race. During voir dire, when the attorneys and the judge went into chambers, he says he found himself alone in a room of 100 or more potential jurors. 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. But election fraud is now a national rallying cry. I felt like that was the right thing to do, she says, not to put him in jail so that when he gets out he reoffends because he has nothing, hes getting no tools, hes not getting any help., The whispers about Wootens sentences made their way back to her. Over the following few months, Spencer would investigate options, discuss his findings with Stacy, and then bill her. I sat there and I thought, OK, you have to have intent when you steal. One of the grand jurors for the Wooten and Willis cases was the treasurer for the Collin County Republican Party. Most of the time, Stacy wasnt actually sure where her husband was. Suzanne Wooten had 10 minutes to decide her own fate. 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. Of the 80 intermediate appellate justices, 2835 percentare new. Yet the only evidence of a benefit that the State proved was that Stacy paid Spencer, and Spencer used the money to pay campaign expenditures before he was reimbursed by Wooten. They have original jurisdiction over matters such as felony criminal cases, divorce and child custody disputes, and civil claims of $200 or more. Sometimes Im the guy who knows the guy.. We just pissed some people off.. Stacy says they fell in love on their first date, at Avanti in Dallas at Fountain Place. So my attention was drawn to Collin County, because its the reddest county in the reddest state, Spencer says. 15. There will be many other names that will come up as being involved in the public corruption, Wood County Sheriff Kelly Cole, District Attorney Investigator Jerry Hirsch, District Clerk Suzy Wright, County Clerk Kelley Price, Assistant District Attorney Shauna Key, Attorney Cliff Thomas, etc., but Ill get to them as their names come up. He awarded Dave primary custody, the thing he had wanted all along. Next: A famously combative governor presides over one of the most corrupt states in the Union. Her first cases are still fixed in her memory. In addition to arguing that the Collin County District Attorneys Office was plagued by a pattern of abuse of power and malicious prosecution for political gain, Palmer and Cox also argued that Milner and Roach had grossly abused the grand jury process as part of their prosecutor-led investigation. Her readily accessible credit, available on credit cards and through a line of credit, never totaled less than $150,000 during the course of her campaign. Between 2015 and 2021, the Texas Rangers completed investigations into more than 560 public integrity and corruption complaints, including allegations of theft, bribery, abuse of office, sexual. The grandparents sued for visitation rights and got them. With only two months to win the primary, she started attending every meeting she couldJunior League, Rotary Club, political party, chamber of commerce. They talked over the next few days, and Stacy agreed to pay him $150 per hour up to $250,000 for his services. They are dealing with low income, high unemployment, and lack of quality housing, resulting in poor living conditions and high crime. Palmer wasnt able to convince the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to let him go after all of the named parties, however. And that brings us to the crime. So when he offered his services as a turnkey media manager for her campaign, even though hed never managed a judicial campaign before, she agreed. But when it deals with allegations of political contributionsand political contributions is a broad termany money associated with a campaign must be done under section 36.02(a)(4) [of the Texas Penal Code], which requires the prosecution to show direct evidence of an express agreement. Hes brilliant. She says someone in the purchasing department told her he tried to use up the wardrobe budget so she couldnt order a robe, and he packed her first months docket with more than 100 jury trials. Spencer, after all, was the fulcrum between Wooten and the Carys. 11 on the list, and California falls to 34th. First, as Schulte noted, it is entirely legal for a law firm to write a check for $30,000 to a sitting judge at a cocktail fundraiser for his or her reelection campaign on Friday night and then have one or more of its lawyers appear before said judge for a hearing on Monday morning. Later, at the time of his indictment in the Wooten matter, he would be an officer with TDi, a tech company in Plano. And he had 162 years of history proving that his 464-vote margin entitled him to what was essentially a lifetime appointment. He and Roach were concerned that if Greg Willis became the new DA, hed drop the charges against Wooten. The bigger problem was the inconsistent way judges enforced them. On December 14, 2016, the nine justices handed down a unanimous opinion upholding Daves appeal and overturning Stacys. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison probated and 30 days in jail. New York drops to No. I thought we had checks and balances. Corrupt Texas Governor Greg Abbott is the poster child for corrupt Republicans' sellout to the fossil fuel industry. (LogOut/ Attempts to improve things or to bring your department into compliance with the law will be frowned upon. Her lowest point came the night before the verdict. Mr. That cant be right. She waives her right to appeal. Corruption in a Small Texas Town Investigation Dismantles Family-Run Criminal Operation Public corruption arrests and convictions in major metropolitan areas usually garner a great deal of. His name was Steve Spencer. This advocacy was his passion, something he did free of charge for his own personal ends. The data also highlights the extent of the problem across all 50 states and the District of Columbia . Shortly after the settlement was announced in January of this year, I drive up to McKinney to meet with her in her law office, which is on the second floor of a building just off the historic town square, to find out how she was able to magically free herself through no action of her own. I can help people with their divorces. That flicker of a plan was enough to get her out of the tub. Wooten sentenced him to treatment. Now, he says, laughing, Im the faggot from Colorado.. She says she used Spencers services before and long after the dates at issue. Her bangs are now tinged with gray, but her diamond stud earrings match the intensity of her bright blue eyes. But for that, Wooten would never have obtained her exoneration. And then not only that, prosecute two, three other people? Milner indicted the attorney and had him arrested, but he was acquitted at trial. I had started to think Spencer must be some sort of Keyser Sze, a con man hiding in plain sight. Just come on out and tell us you did it. The whole trial had felt like a terrible farce. Im not sure theres anything he couldnt do., The juror continued to press for more specifics. 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. Even so, Dave called Wootens office to request signs, which he posted at his office in Collin County. He knew the prosecutors were acting like cops, and there was Supreme Court case law that said if you act like a cop, you get qualified immunity like a cop. A recent poll on a parental rights website had identified some of the worst judges in the country. She didnt even know he was suffering from thrombosis until she discovered theyd moved him to the medical unit in Galveston. Montgomery County Texas Watchdog. The laws werent terrible, per se. As for the military claim, Spencer says the allegation was never substantiated, and the military actually entered into a confidential settlement agreement with him over it. Suzanne Wooten The police eventually tracked her down in a womens shelter in Louisiana, and the district attorneys office brought her before Wooten for a bench trial. 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. It determined there were no loans and no giftsabsolutely nothing of benefit passed to Wooten. Stacy and her sister-in-law sent him the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Wooten noticed an assistant DA, Christopher Milner, sitting in the back of her courtroom during hearings he wasnt involved in. That didnt pan out, but Spencer was able to help with other company matters that he found useful. 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 . What followed is the unbelievable, epic tale of. Stacy says she hasnt seen them since. In August 2014, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas affirmed the jurys finding of guilt 2 to 1. The process invites abuse, and Walker's reporting led to an audit that uncovered corruption. Stacy appealed her conviction first. Texas. After the loss of the twins from their home and the hefty financial loss in court, Stacy and Dave decided to take their fight to Austin. He never looked at that as a failure. Dave Cary had already seen a series of judges do 180s in his child custody case. She lived under a bridge for days before finally hitchhiking to Louisiana. It generally requires a video, or a written letter or text, or a wiretapped phone conversation. He asked if she planned to continue running Prometas drug treatment protocol for felony offenders, a program Sandoval had piloted. Judicial elections in Texas are still partisan. It isnt a crime to walk your dog to the mailbox. Suzanne Wooten was the first to go to trial, in November 2011. In July, Wooten received a call from her real estate agent in Colorado. He had been wanting to move out there for 20 years, and when the pandemic hit, he finally did. Yes, that is the university that was founded by Pat Robertson, who believes strange shit like that people can get demon possessed by buying used shirts at yard sales that are already demon possessed. So she decided to sit out the race and spend the next four years getting ready. (LogOut/ She had continuous advertising on the most popular, hard-right talk shows. They all say the city sucks, but I for one would still pick it over most of West Texas/ panhandle. You might get acquitted. Dave was paroled at the end of 2014, after serving 19 months and 10 days. His wife, Judge Jill Willis, still sits on the 429th. Because this isnt a crime under Texas law. They just chose not to accept it. (LogOut/ Texas . But that didnt stop the lead prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Harry White, from projecting on screen a photo of Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in The Godfather and saying, Not all mob bosses look like that.. So when he saw the report of her exoneration in the Dallas Morning News, his one thought was, Geez, sue the shit out of these people.. Greg Willis has been the Collin County District Attorney since January 1, 2011. Lindsay Lohan used it. Shortly thereafter, when she stopped by her bank, they told her they were going to have to close her account because they had received grand jury subpoenas for her bank records. Willis, who had taken her bench at the same time Wooten had, was presumably also a target because her husband, Judge Greg Willis, was planning to run for Roachs job as DA. Civil penalties can be assessed for violations of up to three times the amount of the political contributions accepted in violation of the section. Thats when we discovered I won in the early voting 60 to 40 [percent], she says. From the Rio Grande Valley to Val Verde County the integrity of public officials has been compromised on a massive scale. He tried reaching out to people he knew in the Collin County DAs office, but they were tight-lipped about the secret grand jury proceedings. I can help people write appeal bonds. Dad used to say if you dig a dry hole, that gives you more information of where to drill next time. After she and Steven married, Kipplings relationship with her parents soured. No spam, ever. The Most Lawless County in Texas Suzanne Wooten did the impossible and became the first candidate to defeat a sitting judge in Collin County. He has just flown in from Virginia, where he had been caring for his daughter who was recently in a car accident. Dave also hired Spencer. Even though hes not a lobbyist and has never been to college, he says he has an effective network of people to help him if he doesnt have the answer. After serving in the Air Force, Spencer went into the healthcare field, managing a region for a home health company. Shed stop proceedings to ask if he needed something, but he would respond that he was just watching.. With his Gregory Peck eyeglass frames and awkwardly oversize pinstripe suit, White resembled Atticus Finch if Atticus Finch were in the Federalist Society. After the fourth grand jury declined to indict and a fifth was convened, Wooten and Schulte took matters into their own hands and went to the FBI. Justice in Collin County was hard to come by if you werent part of the club. Well, crapShawshank Redemption, Wooten thought. The whole thing was a Catch-22. I couldnt tell you. 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. 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. 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.. Starting in July 2008, Sandoval sent a flurry of correspondence on judicial letterhead to Milner in the DAs office, alleging that something was fishy with Wootens expenditures for radio advertising. Most try both criminal and civil cases, but in larger counties, such as Dallas, individual courts may specialize in civil, criminal, juvenile, or family law. He still sounds like a cop, deep-voiced and authoritative, and he peppers his conversation with the easy profanity of someone used to making small talk with felons and fellow officers. New York does come up in No. He became passionate about criminal justice reform and started working with Doug Deason and his eponymous criminal justice reform center at SMU. Stacy Cary was convicted by a jury in June 2012. She remembers the woman charged with felony theft for an unpaid bill with a furniture rental company. And thats when I was told the allegation was bribery. Harris County Democrats (Houston) have been using the same ballot corruption playbook George Soros owned Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is. Its tempting to think that things have improved. Sandoval and Roach have retired. The email said that prosecutors should only conduct bench trials in Wootens court if they didnt care about the outcome and it was the only way to reasonably dispose of the case. But I am skeptical. It all sounds pretty straightforward, but there are three big problems: one of perception, if not reality; one of blind, partisan loyalty; and one of colossal power wielded by one individual. I want to be cystal clear about this, Spencer says. And Milner and White, their henchmen, have moved on to private practice. He didnt want anything to jeopardize Wooten (who knew nothing about his dealings with the Carys). Since 1846, the Texas Constitution has mandated that all Texas judgesfrom the Supreme Court of Texas to justices of the peaceare to be selected by general election. 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. The laws regarding selecting grand juries have changed. 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. 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. This is the introduction to this website, which will be all about how a small urban Texas county (Wood County) allowed smalltime corruption among its public servants to go unchecked for decades, until it has finally ended up with UNBRIDLED CORRUPTION from the top (402nd District Judge Brad McCampbell, District Attorney Angela Albers and Texas Ranger John Vance) to the bottom (Wood County Sheriff Kelly Cole and his deputies, local police chiefs, county constables, CPS caseworkers, CPS Judge Deane Loughmiller, and the defense attorneys that are supposed to be fighting for the people that they are sworn to defend), and what the CITIZENS OF WOOD COUNTY are doing, and need to do be doing, to take back the power and control of the county that rightly belongs to them. Dave and Stacy didnt do anything wrong. How do you end up with a scenario where it takes Dave Cary to free everyone else? So she went online. Then he killed her dog, put it in her bed, and told her he was going to kill her. 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. It isnt a crime to spend the money you earn. 750 North St.Paul St. Shed need at least $50,000 of her own money to have a shot. (The prison time was stayed pending her appeal.). There will be many other names that will come up as being involved in the public corruption, Wood County Sheriff Kelly Cole, District Attorney Investigator Jerry Hirsch, District Clerk Suzy Wright, County Clerk Kelley Price, Assistant District Attorney Shauna Key, Attorney Cliff Thomas, etc., but I'll get to them as their names come up. Neither was interested. She said, Do you want to be right or do you want to be free? Wooten knew that if she were sentenced to more than 10 years, she would not be entitled to an appeal bond; she would go straight to prison without seeing her kids. I mean, the phrase that comes to my mind first is that he sees around corners. Even though Caton was disparaged as a divorce, the race ended up being relatively close. Spencer pled guilty. District courts are the general jurisdiction trial courts in Texas. And then they stayed as long as they wanted, or at least until they turned 75 and aged out by law. The Collin County trials, however, ended when Wooten was elected. But when her first financial report was due in mid-January, the Secretary of States office told her they didnt have her listed as a candidate. 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. Wooten had been a trial attorney for nearly a decade when, in 2003, she decided to challenge the 59-year-old jurist for his seat on the 380th District Court. 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. A third of the 254 constitutional county judges are new. She didnt want even the appearance of impropriety. As for White and Abbott, he believed, they were involved from the very start. Ever. Milner told Schulte that Wooten had one week to resign. She was facing not only the loss of her career but also the loss of her family. Then Huntsville. Should she say she was sick and had to go away to the hospital? In 07, we had sold our oil company, kept some royalty, and everybody was flush, she says. And then you have a split decision. Bald, bespectacled, and trim, with a sideline swagger and locker room vocabulary, Scott Palmer could pass for a collegiate basketball coach. Most people who arent lawyers or involved in the justice system go, How can they do that? On March 25, 2015, a different trio of judges on the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas came to a different result in Daves case. (Stacy and Dave kept their finances separate after marriage.) But what got me to my decision was one of my dear friends who was there. Investment options continued to be something the whole family was interested in, and they felt Spencers legislative insights were invaluable, even if his ultimate advice was that any given option was a bad one. The perfect storm, where youve got this political opponent who is sorry about losing. We dug a lot of dry holes, Stacy says of the research. She was found guilty by a jury and agreed to a sentence of 10 years probation and to step down from the bench. Im like, Bribery? If he could unseat one who had taken a bad position on parental rights, he thought, maybe he could finally get some traction. Corruption Index Score: 11.44 And for the place where people prefer a slower-paced lifestyle, This Is the Laziest State in America. It was followed by Los Angeles with 1,547 and New York's Southern Judicial District with 1,360. Her law license was suspended, so she worked as a paralegal and started building a mediation and trial consulting business. Normally you cant sue prosecutors, because they are entitled to absolute immunity. McKinney attorney Deric Walpole says that after accusing the DAs office of prosecutorial misconduct in a case on a Friday, he received a grand jury summons the following Monday. Now, she was seated at the defense table, dressed not in a robe but in a conservative pantsuit, her blond hair pulled back in a basic bun.