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Attorney asks for dismissal for Wooten's conspirator
By Danny Gallagher, dgallagher@acnpapers.com
Defense attorneys asked a Collin County district judge to quash an indictment for a man accused of bribing another Collin County judge during her election campaign.
Keith Gore, defense attorney for David Cary who faces a felony indictment of engaging in organized criminal activity for providing funds to 380th District Judge Suzanne Wooten's campaign in exchange for a favorable civil court ruling, claims the indictment doesn't specify any illegal activity and must be quashed, according to a motion filed in the 366th District Court last Thursday.
A Collin County grand jury indicted Wooten along with her former campaign manager James Stephen Spencer and two alleged donors, David and Stacy Cary, in October of 2010 each on one first-degree felony count of engaging in organized criminal activity and six counts of bribery, according to Collin County court records.
The indictments claim that Spencer held a "series of meetings and communications" with the Carys as far back as Sept. 19, 2007, to "intentionally or knowingly solicit, accept and agree to accept from another a benefit, which was not a political contribution."
Mrs. Cary signed six checks from Jan. 4 to March 14, 2008, ranging in value from $10,000 and $50,000 and made them payable in Spencer's name. The indictments said that these checks were "as consideration for (Wooten's) decision, opinion, recommendation, vote or other exercise of discretion as a public servant."
Gore's motion claims that the indictments do not meet the necessary standards for a proper criminal indictment.
"An indictment must allege, in plain and intelligible language, all the facts and circumstances necessary to establish all the material elements of the offense charged," Gore wrote in his motion. "An indictment must also convey sufficient notice to allow the accused to prepare his defense. Additionally, an indictment must allege on its face facts necessary to bar a subsequent prosecution for the same offense."
The indictments filed against Mr. Cary claim no criminal offenses and did not provide any proper notice or "facts" of his alleged criminal actions. Gore said the fact that the Carys gave money to Wooten's campaign does not automatically make it a criminal act.
"The problem with this theory of prosecution is that this action on the part of the Defendant (Mr. Cary), even if absolutely true, is not illegal," Gore said in the motion. "The loser of this election (Sandoval) from which this controversy arose complained in a memorandum that money won the election. Maybe it did, but it is not illegal for someone to give money to any qualified individual to enable that individual to proceed with a campaign against an incumbent."
Sandoval sent a series of memos to the DA's office following his loss raising "strong suspicions" about the monies that Wooten raised for her campaign, claiming that a series of radio advertisements were not paid for until well after the campaign. Defense attorneys entered the memos into Wooten's case as evidence back in February.
"Given the timing of the next-to-the-last campaign finance report and the time those ads began, I believe her reports are false," Sandoval wrote in the memo. "Those ads require front money in order to be run and those ads take time to prepare and line up for broadcast. The money, I believe, had to have been paid to the media prior to the reports that were filed reflecting no such payments."
The "conspiracy" that the indictment alleges also does not constitute illegal activity, Gore said.
"It is perfectly permissible for a person to agree with two others to look for, fund and support a candidate for public office who shares political and social ideals with the giver and with the hope that the person selected will adhere to his or her stated positions and rule in accordance with them," Gore wrote. "It only becomes illegal when there is a speciic agreement, not pled in this indictment, for the money to be used for illegal purposes."
Gore said the indictment doesn't offer a tight enough case to merit a bribery or organized criminal charge.
"It is not illegal to give otherwise qualified individuals money to run for office, to file the necessary documents or to fill out the appropriate paperwork," Gore write. "It is likewise not illegal to give money to otherwise qualified candidates in the hope they might rule differently than the person currently on the bench And this is the indictment in the case at bar alleges."
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