Willacy County Indictments: Hearing reset for Dec. 1
Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson has appointed District Judge Michael Peden to determine if District Judge J. Manuel Bañales should be disqualified from hearing the criminal cases against Vice-President Richard B. Cheney and other high-profile public officials.
Peden, a St. Mary's University alumni that the Texas State Bar licensed in October 1975, presides over the 285th Civil District Court in Bexar County, public records show.
The hearing is slated for 10 a.m. on Dec. 1 at the Willacy County Courthouse in Raymondville. It initially had been slated for this Wednesday.
"I am ready," District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra said on Monday.
Defense attorney David Oliveira was not surprised that the hearing was rescheduled in view of the holidays.
"Everyone is eager to go on Dec. 1," Oliveira, who represents the GEO Group, Inc., formerly Wackenhut Corp., and David Forrest, said.
The hearing comes after Bañales rejected Guerra's request to disqualify himself.
". . . I decline to recuse myself from each and every cause . . .," Bañales wrote in his order of referral to the Texas Supreme Court on Friday.
Guerra alleges that "there is no way" that the state would receive a fair trial under Bañales based on personal experience. ". . . It is apparent that he is trying to ambush the State . . .," Guerra wrote in an affidavit presented to the court Friday.
Guerra was indicted in March of 2007 for allegedly using county property for personal use, but Bañales dismissed the charges last month for lack of evidence, according to Valley Freedom Newspapers archives. Guerra attributed his re-election loss in the March Democratic Primary to the pending indictment.
Other high-profile officials that the Willacy County grand jury indicted last Monday include 103rd District Judge Janet Leal, 197th District Judge Migdalia Lopez, former Willacy County special prosecutors Mervyn Mosbacker Jr. and Gustavo Garza, and Willacy County District Clerk Gilbert Lozano.
Oliveira said he had been surprised at last Friday's hearing, however.
"Everybody was kind of shocked of the ranting and raving of Mr. Guerra. I was a little surprised to the extent that he did it. He made a lot of accusations that he is going to have a hard time backing up. I was surprised by his tirade," Oliveira said, referring to Guerra's outcry in court while seeking Bañales' recusal and objecting to the appointing of District Attorney Pro-Tem Alfredo Padilla for five of the cases.
Oliveira wouldn't have been surprised if he walked in Guerra's shoes, the embattled DA said.
"To be arrested twice and humiliated in front of colleagues, to be put in jail and paraded around town; once they experience it, then they would understand," Guerra said.
Eperez-trevino@brownsvilleherald.com
