What a mess this is
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The Waller County District Attorney has tried to conduct a new criminal investigation into the controversial Highway 6 landfill plan, but he has been stonewalled. Tonight, the bizarre legal issues keeping the public from getting the whole truth.
Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis believed he had a conflict when the criminal allegations first surfaced in 2013. Mathis asked District Judge Jeff Steinhauser to appoint Special Prosecutors After conferring with Fort Bend DA John Healy, two Fort Bend prosecutors were chosen. The rest is history. The Prosecutors didn’t call a single public official to the grand jury, but did issue a rebuke to the county officials about the secret way they were conducting public business.
Earlier this year, Elton Mathis asked for the investigative file of Special Prosecutors on the landfill case. There were specific reasons. During a civil trial over the landfill in late 2014, evidence of violations of state transparency laws were put into evidence. Sworn testimony raised questions of possible perjury by at least one public official.
On April 28, 2015 the special prosecutors wrote back, “Your request for our file is denied.” Not very neighborly, although they did send best wishes along with their rejection.
The letter obtained by Dolcefino Consulting states the Fort Bend special prosecutors have “exclusive jurisdiction as to criminal matters related to the landfill matters.” In other words, Waller DA butt out.
The Special Prosecutors may have been appointed by one judge, but now they are under the jurisdiction of Waller County Judge Buddy Mccaig because of a reshuffling of the courts.
And that raises new troubling questions.
Judge McCaig recused himself in the civil trial challenging the Waller County Commissioners landfill votes. The Judge didn’t say why, but it came right after he criticized the Dolcefino Consulting investigation that exposed secret communications between commissioners and the landfill bosses.
Now it looks like Judge McCaig retains control over the special prosecutors, not Steinhauser, whose Waller County court docket was transferred to McCaig. So is a judge who claimed he had a conflict of interest in the landfill case now the only person who can free the District Attorney to investigate the landfill case?
“Judge McCaig should immediately take steps to figure this out one way or the other, have the special prosecutors release their files to the Waller County District Attorney and let the sunshine in,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting.
Hempstead is a small town, but tonight it has a big legal mess on its doorstep.
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