A blow against corruption in Williamson County

[GneissGuy]

Originally Posted by 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.

Unless Anderson gets punished severely, what's the incentive for the next DA not to do the same thing?

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by GneissGuy

Unless Anderson gets punished severely, what's the incentive for the next DA not to do the same thing?

Changes in the law for one. Anderson and others succeeded for years in blocking any new and original evidence to brought forward.

[GneissGuy]

Originally Posted by Seeker

Changes in the law for one. Anderson and others succeeded for years in blocking any new and original evidence to brought forward.

Have there actually been any changes in the law in this area?

[Guest021414]

Williamson County is a piece of shit always has been corrupt and always will be


I mean realistically they can take you to jail if your insurance and drivers license addresses don't match wtf!!
& how they say you will be judged by a group of your peers haha A group of your peers you've never met before that know nothing about you what a crock of shit

It sucks that man had to spend so long in prison and it really sucks what they accused him of doing that he was innocent of it's really sad for his children they lost their mother and father . I believe Williamson County should have to pay for that and we all know they have the money to do it!!! Unfortunately the one thing we can't get back in life is time lost no matter what the price is!

[nativetexan2708]

And don't forget while Michael Morton was sitting in jail, the scumbag that killed his wife beat another woman to death. Anderson got off way to light on this one! He was getting old and not far from retirement anyway. He'll get to go sit on his ass and still collect his pension.

[chuckles]

I'm 100% with Daddyslilslut.
Williamson County is a corrupt shithole with a bunch of pussy cops and judges bullying the public, especially those without money, all the while cringing behind the badge of authority. My wish is that during his brief stay in jail, Mr Anderson gets his already gigantic asshole further enlarged by being the engineer pulling a very long Greek train.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by GneissGuy

Have there actually been any changes in the law in this area?

Michael Moore Act
http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/...gned-into-law/

The bill, written by Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, requires prosecutors to give lawyers representing the accused any evidence that is relevant to the defense’s case. The intent of the bill, Ellis has said, is to ensure that key facts that could affect the trial aren’t hidden.

It's a start. Personally I'd like to see Anderson rot in jail.

[carpenter]

Which is the very reason that anything in WILCO should be kept UTR. And the idiots here who continue to be like old hens and recounting their experiences at an establishment in WILCO are just putting it in grave danger. WILCO is the war zone, so loose lips sink ships. KEEP IT PRIVATE. Like it once was said "the more things change the more they stay the same". And Wilco is not Travis County so think before you speak.

[Seeker]

You must be kidding... Nothing will change in Williamson County unless its exposed and the people that are responsible are brought to justice.

[carpenter]

So like I said before, why chance the hassle, or why put someone in danger by playing and talking in WILCO. The only change will come when the demographics of WIlliamson county change, and voters elect officals with a different mentality than exists now. If you live in WILCO you walk the straight and narrow and no amount of idealistic dialogue will change that.

[Seeker]

The Williamson County Sheriff released Anderson from jail after serving half of his 10 day sentence.
For good behavior.
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/l...ty-jail/nbtKN/

[Advocate]

I hate that place. First, they are one of the few counties in Texas that doesn't simply have an open file policy. It looks like that may change, but that is just bringing Wilco up to where most counties have been for decades, it's not actual progress.

Here's an example of how they are simply in the business of fucking defendants instead of doing justice. Take a bad stop/search on a drug case, say that (these are real examples) the warrant was more than a week stale, or they had no articulable suspicion of illegal activity going on other than the car was a older Caddy with "those" blue lights underneath it. Normally, one can have a hearing weeks/months before on just the motion to suppress, get a fair hearing, and then decide about trial based on its outcome. This is the design and it saves both the defendant and the county a ton of time and money.

But up there, all of those district judges makes one "carry it," meaning no hearing on the motion until the evidence is adduced at trial. If your client can afford a trial, that is. Then they overrule it every time. As the suppression issue is often the only contested issue in a drug case, the defendant is now going to be convicted and sentenced. Again there is more cost to the defendant for an appellate lawyer. The appellate court then has to do any actual suppression through the veil of giving the prosecuting, err, trial judge all of the deference to his opinion that appellate review requires, which is quite a bit. If the defendant could afford an appellate bond, he could be free during this time, but in Wilco they deny those regularly. So even winning with a slam-dunk motion to suppress, the client might still spend at least 6-9 months in the Wilco jail. Total those months up and see a lot more years of wrongful imprisonment.

Could this happen in every county? Yes. The check is supposed to be 1) wise judges and 2) the effect of all of this wasted litigation effort on county budgets. But up there they will pass bond referendum after bond referendum to pay for it. The justification is essentially we don't like drugs in Wilco and that the suppression of otherwise good evidence as a Fourth Amendment remedy is really bullshit anyway (which is the actual "considered" opinion of Ken Anderson's long-term 1st Assistant DA who has been on the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Supreme Court in Texas for criminal cases since Bradley took over as DA).

Or how about the offers of lowered prison time but with concurrent max deferred adjudication probation, often for the same offense pleaded just differently enough to perhaps avoid a double-jeopardy claim so that they can throw them back in for even one technical violation for the full 20 again after they get out of prison for the initial 6 or 7. Only had to see one defendant get screwed over to learn that trick. The gay court probation officer who got off on watching his supervisees pee in a cup, insisting that he has to "see the stream"--which I heard him say one afternoon in the public men's room with a look on his face that I have when I see one of our ladies about to slip off her panties--clued me into that bit. They view that the 20-year max on a lot of sex offenses is not enough. Like my at the time 18-yr-old Mexican national who slept with his almost-14-yr-old girlfriend, who looked like she was fully grown with at least C-cups, had her mother's explicit approval, and was planning a wedding as soon as she turned 14, but got busted because he got her pregnant before they were married. That such behavior is the norm in Mexico as well as within the undocumented community here, or that they gotten married, meant nothing. Nor did that he had only missed three out of 104 meetings over a year because his mother's car broke down and he couldn't walk across the county.

I could give more, but at least the worst one is leaving the bench. And by that I do not mean Anderson, I mean Carnes. He was by far the biggest jackass they had.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Advocate

I hate that place. First, they are one of the few counties in Texas that doesn't simply have an open file policy. It looks like that may change, but that is just bringing Wilco up to where most counties have been for decades, it's not actual progress.

Here's an example of how they are simply in the business of fucking defendants instead of doing justice. Take a bad stop/search on a drug case, say that (these are real examples) the warrant was more than a week stale, or they had no articulable suspicion of illegal activity going on other than the car was a older Caddy with "those" blue lights underneath it. Normally, one can have a hearing weeks/months before on just the motion to suppress, get a fair hearing, and then decide about trial based on its outcome. This is the design and it saves both the defendant and the county a ton of time and money.

But up there, all of those district judges makes one "carry it," meaning no hearing on the motion until the evidence is adduced at trial. If your client can afford a trial, that is. Then they overrule it every time. As the suppression issue is often the only contested issue in a drug case, the defendant is now going to be convicted and sentenced. Again there is more cost to the defendant for an appellate lawyer. The appellate court then has to do any actual suppression through the veil of giving the prosecuting, err, trial judge all of the deference to his opinion that appellate review requires, which is quite a bit. If the defendant could afford an appellate bond, he could be free during this time, but in Wilco they deny those regularly. So even winning with a slam-dunk motion to suppress, the client might still spend at least 6-9 months in the Wilco jail. Total those months up and see a lot more years of wrongful imprisonment.

Could this happen in every county? Yes. The check is supposed to be 1) wise judges and 2) the effect of all of this wasted litigation effort on county budgets. But up there they will pass bond referendum after bond referendum to pay for it. The justification is essentially we don't like drugs in Wilco and that the suppression of otherwise good evidence as a Fourth Amendment remedy is really bullshit anyway (which is the actual "considered" opinion of Ken Anderson's long-term 1st Assistant DA who has been on the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Supreme Court in Texas for criminal cases since Bradley took over as DA).

Or how about the offers of lowered prison time but with concurrent max deferred adjudication probation, often for the same offense pleaded just differently enough to perhaps avoid a double-jeopardy claim so that they can throw them back in for even one technical violation for the full 20 again after they get out of prison for the initial 6 or 7. Only had to see one defendant get screwed over to learn that trick. The gay court probation officer who got off on watching his supervisees pee in a cup, insisting that he has to "see the stream"--which I heard him say one afternoon in the public men's room with a look on his face that I have when I see one of our ladies about to slip off her panties--clued me into that bit. They view that the 20-year max on a lot of sex offenses is not enough. Like my at the time 18-yr-old Mexican national who slept with his almost-14-yr-old girlfriend, who looked like she was fully grown with at least C-cups, had her mother's explicit approval, and was planning a wedding as soon as she turned 14, but got busted because he got her pregnant before they were married. That such behavior is the norm in Mexico as well as within the undocumented community here, or that they gotten married, meant nothing. Nor did that he had only missed three out of 104 meetings over a year because his mother's car broke down and he couldn't walk across the county.

I could give more, but at least the worst one is leaving the bench. And by that I do not mean Anderson, I mean Carnes. He was by far the biggest jackass they had.

Great report Advocate. So what's the Austin metro citizen supposed to do about Wilco craziness? Get involved...or lay low and and wait for demographics to change as some have suggested.