A blow against corruption in Williamson County

[Seeker]

Sometimes justice prevails. Amazingly Michael Morton shows no bitterness toward those that sent him down the river for 25 years.

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/Ken-A...231138241.html

[Gentleman]

It prevails sometimes without the general public knowing about it also: Tom Nielson, former Round Rock city councilman and mayor pro-tem lost his law license for 5 years a few years ago. Seems like he tried to screw the wrong person...

[carpenter]

I know I would have been one sore SOB, but my hat's off to Mr. Morton who showed amazing class. However, Wilco is still no place to get into trouble, may not be as bad as the Old Days, when Ken and his cronies were in power but compared to Travis it ain't the county you want tempt fate. Just the other day I saw two teenage boys pulled over with 4 backup squad cars at the scene, I can only assume that these were some really bad actors. LOL If you want to play Travis is a better choice.

[Seeker]

I didn't know about Tom Nielson. Apparently the judgement also requires a review of all of Judge Anderson's cases (who just resigned a couple weeks ago). My hat is off to the Innocence Project who is exposing these scumbags.

[sue_nami]

it is shameful he got off with a slap on the hand, as he is guilty of a lot more instances of similar illegal behavior and they indicated they are going to continue to investigate all his cases with a fine toothed comb looking for more misdeeds. . that county and the folks who live there aren't even ashamed of his abuses of power as far as I can tell. They revel in their strong arms cops and courts. I boycott Williamson county and refuse to shop there or eat out there and support their tax base.

[GneissGuy]

Let's see:

Prosecutor who put fraudulently put innocent man in jail:

$500 fine and 10 days in jail.

It's part of a deal that they won't prosecute him for his other crimes as a DA.

Innocent man:

Sentenced to life. Spent over 20 years in jail.


This is an old scam the judges and lawyers use for one of their buddies. Have a sham prosecution, find the guy guilty and give him a slap on the wrist. Once convicted and punished, he's off the hook for further prosecution of the same fine.

I've heard the military used to do this. If someone on guard duty shot someone, and they wanted to protect him, they'd find him guilty of murder in a quick trial, then fine them $1 and give them a carton of cigarettes.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by sue_nami

it is shameful he got off with a slap on the hand, as he is guilty of a lot more instances of similar illegal behavior and they indicated they are going to continue to investigate all his cases with a fine toothed comb looking for more misdeeds. . that county and the folks who live there aren't even ashamed of his abuses of power as far as I can tell. They revel in their strong arms cops and courts. I boycott Williamson county and refuse to shop there or eat out there and support their tax base.

Sue I agree, and Wm County keeps voting him in. It's a mystery to me.

[endurance]

Yup the preemptive sweet deal has been made. (kind of like the banks now, take some token legal arrows just before the statute of limitations is up so they can say the system works)

This story of justice finally being served is pretty much just a reinforcement of the message that they are gods in their domain. Even premeditated stealing 1/3 of someone's life in their prime results in a minuscule punishment. Watch them allow house arrest for time served.

As someone that moved to texas not too long ago it's one of the sadder findings. I'm in Lakeway "call for some backup, there's a jay walker at 1 oclock". Police states are bad enough, and then when they are corrupt...

[Jessie Austin]

Originally Posted by GneissGuy

Let's see:

Prosecutor who put fraudulently put innocent man in jail:

$500 fine and 10 days in jail.

It's part of a deal that they won't prosecute him for his other crimes as a DA.

Innocent man:

Sentenced to life. Spent over 20 years in jail.


This is an old scam the judges and lawyers use for one of their buddies. Have a sham prosecution, find the guy guilty and give him a slap on the wrist. Once convicted and punished, he's off the hook for further prosecution of the same fine.

I've heard the military used to do this. If someone on guard duty shot someone, and they wanted to protect him, they'd find him guilty of murder in a quick trial, then fine them $1 and give them a carton of cigarettes.

They won't prosecute other crimes perpetrated while he was in office? Why are they auditing the case files then? I thought they let him go because they were planning future prosecution? That doesn't make any sense! The AG should do something.

[GneissGuy]

Originally Posted by Jessie Austin

They won't prosecute other crimes perpetrated while he was in office? Why are they auditing the case files then? I thought they let him go because they were planning future prosecution? That doesn't make any sense! The AG should do something.

My impression was the were implying the auditing was to look for other innocent people who may need their convictions reviewed, not necessarily to further go after the prosecutor.

Note that the mention of the "audit" is by the Innocence Project, a "yankee liberal" independent organization with limited funds. It said, "According to Innocent Project attorney Barry Scheck, the "more" will be an independent audit into every case prosecuted by Anderson as well as former Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley."

There was no indication that the government itself was looking for further misconduct. Williamson County is probably checking all their old records and evidence lockers for any possibly incriminating evidence they can legally destroy or at least conveniently "lose." They may have changed the law now, but it used to be that as long as there were no legal proceedings in process, the police and prosecutors didn't have to keep all the evidence.

It's about time for them to have a convenient fire in some facility used to store evidence. "Oh, gee, sorry, that evidence must have been lost in the great fire of 2014."

A few years back, the government agencies were making a big push to clean out any DNA from their evidence lockers from old cases once a conviction was achieved and there were no appeals in process.

[h0rnd0g]

Originally Posted by Seeker

Sue I agree, and Wm County keeps voting him in. It's a mystery to me.

Actually Ken Anderson was not voted in as a judge, he was in an appointed position.

http://judgepedia.org/index.php/Ken_Anderson

He was only voted in as a District Attorney repeatedly before it was known that he was a crook. I doubt he win an election to be a janitor at this point, because his name is mud.

The punishment
$500 Fine is a joke
500hr Service is a joke
10 days in jail is a joke
Being disbarred and loosing his highly coveted judgeship is no joke. That probably stung a bit.

It would have been better that he served some serious time, but our legal system protects those who practice it.

[GneissGuy]

Originally Posted by h0rnd0g

Being disbarred and loosing his highly coveted judgeship is no joke. That probably stung a bit.

A bit, but he's been on the bar since 1976. He's probably sitting pretty with a taxpayer funded pension and other ill gotten gains from his long career.

[h0rnd0g]

I agree, he needed to lose more than his job.

I wonder if he resigned in order to keep any type of retirement he may have been due, in lieu of being fired and losing that too.

Damn lawyers...


"...Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony."

[GneissGuy]

Unfortunately, it's also really hard for the victims to get civil damage awards against "civil" servants for this kind of misconduct. They seem to be very well shielded from this, and the victim usually ends up either getting nothing financial or getting paid by the "government," i.e. the taxpayers.

[Seeker]

As Mr. Moore has stated, it's not about punishment for Judge Anderson, but stopping this from happening to others. Especially in this state which jails and executes more people than anywhere else in the western world.