ARRAIGNMENTS SET: Judge rules DA's indictments may proceed against officials
Read the indictments handed down by a Willacy County grand jury:
READ: St. Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. indictment
READ: GEO, formerly Wackenhut Correction Corp. indictment
READ: Gilbert Lozano indictment
READ: Gustavo Garza indictment
READ: Mervyn Mosbacker Jr. indictment
READ: 197th District Judge Migdalia Lopez indictment
READ: Vice President Richard Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez indictment
READ: 103rd District Judge Janet Leal indictment
READ: St. Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. statement
State District Judge J. Manuel Bañales decided Wednesday to continue processing indictments brought against several high-profile public officials despite pleas from defense attorneys to dismiss the charges.
Bañales, who presides over the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region, set arraignment hearings for Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and several others after they were indicted by a Willacy County grand jury on Monday.
The hearings are set to begin at 10:30 a.m. on Friday.
The grand jury also indicted Judge Janet Leal of the 103rd Judicial District, Judge Migdalia Lopez of the 197th Judicial District, former Willacy County special prosecutors Mervyn Mosbacker Jr. and Gustavo Garza, and Willacy County District Clerk Gilbert Lozano.
The defense lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the indictments because proper legal procedure was not followed. There are questions about who served on the grand jury, who signed the indictments and why they were not presented to a judge in open court.
Bañales insisted that he wanted to have all parties present before hearing any motions they had filed. Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra failed to appear at Wednesday's proceedings.
"At the very least, I expected the district attorney to be here," said Bañales, who had been ready to review the indictments, set bail and set arraignments for the defendants.
Tony Canales, attorney for Cheney, Gonzalez, and GEO Corp. (formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp.), urged Bañales to hold Guerra in contempt of court and to sanction him for his absence.
Eduardo Rodriguez, who represents Lopez, also argued that a special prosecutor should be appointed because Guerra alleges he is the victim in several of the indictments.
Rodriguez also urged the court not to proceed with arraignments, contending that the indictments were defective and that proper procedures of "guarding" the indictments were not followed.
Bañales told defense attorneys that their clients did not have to attend the arraignment and that he would not order the issuance of arrest warrants. He said that they would also not have to post bonds.
"I trust that each of the named defendants will appear in court (for trial)," Bañales said.
"He (Bañales) was really going out of his way to be fair," said Lucio's attorney Michael Cowen after the hearing.
Cowen understands that Lucio and other officials will not be booked in jail or fingerprinted.
"I hope that they are not," he said
Cowen told Bañales that if the indictment against Lucio progresses to trial, his client wants the trial to be held this year to avoid allegations of impropriety since a new DA would take office in January. Bañales set Lucio's trial date for the week of Dec. 8 barring earlier developments.
Cowen also alerted Bañales that the grand jury meets again Dec. 12, expressing concern that if the present indictment is found defective, another could be returned against his client.
Canales also expressed concern that the arraignment of his clients would be held before a motion to set aside the allegedly defective indictments is heard and he offered to "educate the court."
"I don't need any educating," Bañales told Canales. Later the judge told Canales, "That's enough."
Cheney's White House spokeswoman Megan Mitchell was not able to say much Wednesday night, two days after the vice-president's indictment.
"I still haven't seen the indictment. I can't comment on something that I haven't seen," Mitchell told The Brownsville Herald.
Defense lawyers told the judge that Guerra is mocking the judicial system because, even though notices were not sent out announcing Wednesday's hearing, Guerra was available to comment about the indictments to television crews on Tuesday and was fully aware of the situation.
If Guerra does not show up on Friday, Bañales said that he would appoint a district attorney pro-tem.
"Are you concerned for his safety?" he asked Guerra's office manager Hilda Ramirez who said she had not been able to contact Guerra all day.
"I wouldn't know how to answer that question," she said.
The judge asked two Texas Rangers who accompanied him to the proceeding to make sure that Guerra was all right and to notify him of Friday's hearing: "I am giving notice to the state/">state, each defendant and the entire world . . ."
