D

Are All Texas Marriages After 2005 Illegal?

This is a good one. Lawyer Barbara Ann Radnofsky, the Democrat running for Atty General, took a close look at recent constitutional amendments, including the anti-gay marriage amendment passed five years ago and — whoops! 

Here’s the wording:

“This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

So anything approximating marriage in this state is not recognized as of 2005?  I love lawyers.

Judge Carlos Cortez Writes Nasty Notes

About other judges. Of course, the really sad thing is that what he writes is probably true.

Does the Health-Care Bill Undo Texas Tort Reform?

David Frum thinks so, citing Section 2531(4)b of the bill. This is one of many provisions that cannot be allowed to make it through the Senate. That brings us to an interesting point: what’s the best strategy for eliminating it?

The Republicans seem to be intent on stonewalling, as they did in the House. The danger is that the Democrats only need to peel off one or two votes to get their 60 supermajority. If that happens, all we can do is hope that tort reform is a bargaining chip. But with so many giant flaws in the House version to be fixed, the senator peeling off (hello, Olympia Snowe) could — and does — have other priorities.  But what if 5 or so Republicans said, we’ll vote for your bill if you change these 10, 15, or 20 things — and they were serious, not just posturing (as Republicans tend to do).

They’d get what they wanted. Section 2541(4)b would be history.

Rookie Dallas Police Officer Makes Up an Offense, Charges Awesomely Named Lady With It, Ctd.

UPDATE: It’s an epidemic.

Rookie Dallas Police Officer Makes Up An Offense, Charges Awesomely Named Lady With It

The charge: being a non-English speaking driver.

The lady: 48-year-old Ernestina Mondragon.

University Park Treehouse Gets the Shaft

In July, the good people at Overheard brought our attention to the story of the UP family with a treehouse in their front yard. Apparently, a neighbor complained about said structure because its placement is against UP ordinance.

Last night, the Johnson family got the verdict: the house must come down.

More Media Love For Craig Watkins

The Dallas County district attorney is named one of 27 “Brave Thinkers” in the November issue of The Atlantic. The whole list is here.

Bomb Suspect’s Brother Ordered Into Federal Custody

Hussein Smadi, 18, is now in federal custody as a material witness in the case against his brother, Hosam. His deportation to Jordan has also, obviously, been stayed. He might have had a chance had he not been so insistent on rocking that bandanna/white sunglasses combo.

Texas Senators Want Sarah Saldana as U.S. Attorney

As an assistant U.S. Attorney, she played a major role in the prosecution of Don Hill, et al. After a bipartisan commission studied the possible candidates, senators John Cornyn and Kay Hutchison selected her from the list (by tradition, senators approve U.S. attorneys for their states). But there’s a hitch. Oddly, it’s from Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Austin, who seems to think that if there’s a Democratic White House, Democrats like him ought to have the prerogative of making recommendations, not the state’s two senators, who happen to be Republicans. What makes that odd is that Saldana is a Democrat, and, judging by the verdict in the Hill case, an able and effective one at that. I’ve known Doggett since he was at UT, and this is the kind of game he loves. Fortunately for Saldana, I can also report that, like Tim with golf, as much as Doggett loves the game, he is not often very good at it.

(I tried to get the inside scoop on this dogfight from a really, really, really good source, but he wisely has neglected to return my phone calls — as I would ,too, if my wife’s appointmet was the bone over which the dogs were fighting.)

Leading Off (9/8/09)

1. Dallas County DA Craig Watkins will face a Republican challenger in his re-election effort. Dallas lawyer Phillip Linder has retained Allyn Media to run his campaign against the controversial Watkins, who says Linder is just the next challenge in a series of them he has faced. A preview of a Democrat whipping Republicans can be seen at tonight’s Allyn Media fantasy football draft, where I am scheduled to begin a season-long domination of those poor fools.

2. Parents of weak-minded children will see Leader Obama assimilate their offspring today in a national hypnomindpower event. Resistance is futile. Bwaaahaahaahaaahaahaahaahaaaaa!

3. Three Dallas law firms are planning to sue energy companies associated with the Barnett Shale over leasing agreements. Without reading the story, I can tell you the reasons are as follows: a) said energy companies are swimming in Barnett Shale cash, and b) lawyers gotta sue sumthin.

Judge Sandoval Overturned Again on Appeal

Last Friday, the 5th Court of Appeals overturned the 2006 murder conviction of Peruvian nanny Ada Betty Cuadros-Fernandez. The reason was judicial error.  The judge was Charles Sandoval, who — thrown out of office by Collin County voters in 2008 — somehow recently got Judge John Ovard to appoint him a visiting judge in Dallas County. The Collin County Observer does an excellent reporting job on the case. One commenter to that post asserts that Sandoval has been appealed more times than all other Collin County judges combined. Have fun with that, Dallas County attorneys.

Stanford Financial Lawyers Make Bank

Dallas attorney Ralph Janvey was appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in February as the receiver in the Stanford Financial fraud.

The American Lawyer has some questions about how Janvey is running his operation:

The choice triggered some surprise in legal circles; Janvey had worked on only a handful of other receiverships, none close to the scope of Stanford.

But he billed like an old pro. For the first eight weeks of work, Janvey requested nearly $6 million for Baker Botts, his main outside firm, for the services of 101 attorneys, representing an eighth of the firm’s lawyers. He asked for nearly $2 million for Thompson & Knight, another firm he tapped, for some 66 timekeepers. Millions more were designated for firms in Canada, Switzerland, Britain, Antigua, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and for other professional services.

In August, Janvey requested another $7.6 million in fees for seven more weeks of work by 14 professional services firms. He has recovered about $81 million, meaning that the fees requested are equal to 34 percent of the recovery.

Texas’s Disturbing Rise of Special Police Forces

A FrontBurnervian alerts me to an excellent report by Eric Dexheimer in the Austin American-Statesman.  The nut paragraph:

In recent years, the peace officer designation has spread far beyond its original constitutional definition of constables, sheriffs, marshals and police officers. Since 1965, legislators have amended the state’s Code of Criminal Procedure, which sets out who can designate their own police department, nearly 50 times.

The result: Today there are three dozen types of agencies, institutions, boards, commissions and political subdivisions that can appoint their own law enforcement agents. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, which licenses police officers, keeps tabs on 2,615 separate law enforcement agencies.

These are not just hobby cops.

Read the whole thing.

Confessed and Convicted Killer Apparently Wants To Be An Architect, Ctd.

James Broadnax is officially not getting a chance to pursue his theoretical dream, as he has been given the death penalty.

Second Dumbest Email, This Time To Pegasus

Sarah Blaskovich wrote a story over on Pegasus News about how TxDot has set up a Twitter account to warn drivers of traffic and closures everywhere in Texas — except here. Seems they had a problem with technology.

So Pegasus founder Mike Orren did what he does. He set up Twitter accounts to connect to TxDot and provide what it couldn’t. And what happened? TxDot accuses him of forgery (for some reason in governmentese, that becomes Forgery: capitalized, the word seems more portentous, I guess) and impersonating a public servant. For doing what it couldn’t do!

Good luck with that one, TxDot. But the larger question is: what are they teaching at law schools? Did Associate General Counsel Juliet U. King also attend the University of Tulsa College of Law (hello there, C. Bruce Willis!). Does nobody go to class anymore? Are there any courses in constitutional law? Has somebody slipped stupidity into the water supply?

I’m looking at you, Deirdre Delisi.

The Dumbest Threatening Email Of The Month, Ctd.

By popular demand, here is the offending photograph, from “Driving Ambition: How 5 Dallas CEOs Feed Their Need for Speed,” in the current issue of D CEO. The Bentley looks good, don’t you think?

This is the absolute last post on this subject. I hope.

The Dumbest Threatening Email of the Month, Ctd.

Wow. Please, please. Quiet down out there. Just because I let C. Bruce Willis have the last word does not mean that I was acquiescing to him. I was merely being polite. Perhaps that is such rare behavior on my part that I was misapprehended. So, to satisfy all you journalism- and law-practicing FrontBurnervians who have written in outrage at Mr. Willis’s arguments, here are your rebuttals (necessarily consolidated):

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The Dumbest Threatening Email of the Month, Ctd.

Several FrontBurnervians have sent me the Facebook photo (left) of Aircorp General Counsel C. Bruce Willis II, accompanied by various snarky remarks. Let us desist from these sorts of ad hominems. A magazine that serves the 5th largest metro area in the United States is not in a good position to cast aspersions on others’ maturity when its executive editor runs a Facebook photo in a wig.

So let’s get back to the issue. As one might expect, Mr. Willis disagrees with my arguments yesterday, which is fine.  However, he still seems to be incapable of making a point without making a threat. But let’s just mark that down to an overly aggressive law instructor and let him have the final word:

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Dumbest Threatening Email Of The Month

The month isn’t over yet, but I think it’s fair to say that this one will win the prize [contact information redacted]:

From: C. Bruce Willis II
To: Glenn Hunter
Subject: CEO D-Magazine

Dear Mr. Hunter:

I represent Aircorp, Inc., who owns the 727 aircraft photographed in D-Magazine’s latest CEO Edition.  The specific page of the aircraft is located on page 53, concerning Frederick Merril.  This aircraft was used in your magazine for a commercial use without any prior written or oral consent and without any acknowledgment in the magazine of aircraft ownership. To avoid any judicial intervention and to resolve the matter amicably, we would like printed acknowledgment concerning this aircraft in your next issue.  Please give me a call if you have any questions. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

 C. Bruce Willis, II
General Counsel, Aircorp
Dallas, Texas

(1) The aircraft was not “used for a commercial purpose.” It was in the background of an editorial photograph. Mr. Willis apparently missed that class in law school.  (2) It was parked at Dallas Love Field, which is public property. (3) We are not obliged to list the owners of every object included in every photograph in our magazines.  Under Mr. Willis’ novel legal theory, every photo of the Dallas skyline would be required to list the owners of every building pictured. (4) What kind of “judicial intervention” does Mr. Willis have in mind? Is he going to rush down to the courthouse to try to keep us from publishing a magazine that has already been published? (5) If the objective of Mr. Willis’s letter was to obtain a public mention of Aircorp, Inc., the objective has now been achieved. 

I assume that resolves the matter amicably. Let’s shake hands.

Leading Off (8/18/09)

1. A Dallas County sheriff’s deputy was fired, and 14 other deputies were disciplined, for working at strip clubs in their off hours. The deputy who was fired also had been disciplined before, once for not reporting his phone number had changed and once for being untruthful. The lesson: I could never be a Dallas County sheriff’s deputy.

2. Police arrested a man and his son for the assault of a Southlake woman in a Chik-fil-A drive-through lane. The woman had honked at the men when she was ready to leave, because they were blocking her exit. Yes, I, too, hope the other inmates hear that they beat up a woman. I think they’ll treat those boys real nice.

3. Can’t improve on the lead from this story from the Star-T:

A man suspected of driving drunk is accused of ramming three cars early Sunday on a service road and a parking lot, making a U-turn on the road, and attacking one car with his pickup truck, police said today. Police arrested the driver after his truck became disabled and he got out of it, punched himself in the face, and sat down.

Texas Judge Not Amused By Microsoft Lawyers

He not only banned the selling of Microsoft Word in the U.S. and enforced a $200 million jury award against the company, he added a $50 million fine for “willful misconduct” by its attorneys. Morale: Do not mess with Judge Leonard Davis.

Michael Crabtree Maybe Shouldn’t Be Listening To His Cousin’s Advice

At the very least, before the former Texas Tech/Carter High wideout does listen to his cousin David Wells and hold out for the entire 2009 season and re-enter the draft, he should maybe read this lengthy profile written by the Dallas Observer’s Tom Korosec back in 2002. It is eyebrow-raising, to say the least. Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky breaks it down like a fraction:

A partial list of curious episodes before and during Wells’s time as head of David’s Bail Bonds:

•Arrested for stealing boxing gloves from the Dallas Police Athletic League.

•Banned for life by USA Boxing over allegations of misuse of funds.

•Served as the omnipresent bodyguard shoving reporters out of the way for Michael Irvin after his arrest for possession.

•Indicted for serving as a private investigator with a license that had lapsed four years earlier, but exonerated after a dubious receipt appeared showing he had renewed it.

•Let off the hook for $50,000 when one of his clients skipped town, after a dubious document appeared showing he had warned the county.

•Started a security company with a court bailiff, which is illegal due to conflict-of-interest rules.

Leading Off (8/7/09)

1. A TABC investigation found fault with the officers responsible for a June raid on a gay bar in Fort Worth that resulted in one man suffering a serious head injury. They were faulted for several things, but mostly for acting like TABC agents. Also, the U.S. attorney’s office told the Star-Telegram it would not conduct a special investigation into the Rainbow Lounge raid, presumably concluding, “Hey, they acted like TABC agents. Whadya want us to do about it?”

2. A 13-year-old girl police thought was 17 was mistakenly held for nearly two weeks in the Dallas County Jail with adult inmates. Police are now trying to determine how they didn’t know she was that young, especially since she claimed to be 14, then 17. Also, I should point out, she was caught stealing clothes and candy. I’d call that a clue.

3. To save money, Dallas will probably reduce its trash pickup schedule to once a week. The person most upset about this? Glenn Arbery.

Again, We Implore You To Follow Jim Schutze’s Continuing Coverage of the Don Hill Corruption Trial

It’s good stuff, and it’s right here. A sample:

[Defense lawyer Victor] Vital got [Housing Department director Jerry] Killingsworth to concede there is a preference for projects that use these bonds, because it makes money for the DHFC. He finally got him to say that [Brian] Potashnik’s projects were more desirable because he used these local bonds. So now Vital has established a basis on which to argue that [Laura] Miller, who received fat campaign contributions from Potashnik, paid back by putting Potashnik on this task force thing and putting him in a position to give himself a competitive edge over Fisher, his former employee who had become his main competitor.

All of that goes to the defense’s argument: How come all these black guys are on trial when the rich white lady who was mayor was taking money from the same guy, Potashnik, who is the accused briber in this case?

University Park City Council: No Public Comments on the UP Pool

Park Cities People reporter Sarah Scott has the scoop on why UP Mayor Blackie Holmes, on advice from UP City Attorney Rob Dillard, may have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act when he  prohibited residents from addressing the council about proposed construction at the Curtis Park Pool.