Fort Bend DA’s embarrassing landfill game
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In recent months, the Fort Bend DA’s office has been accused of prosecutorial misconduct. The District Attorney John Healey has denied other accusations he solicited campaign contributions from the family of a suspect.
Now, Healey’s office is playing games with the Texas Public Information Act and the Texas Attorney General. And Dolcefino Consulting is going to tell Ken Paxton how.
For months, special prosecutors from Healey’s office have tried to keep their closed investigation of the proposed Hempstead landfill a secret. In July, Dolcefino Consulting accused Healey’s office of stonewalling the truth.
Now here’s the real question. Are the prosecutors even telling the truth?
The special prosecutors in Healey’s office have asked the Texas Attorney General to help them keep their investigative file secret. They claim the Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis sent them an e-mail in September asking for the files and they consider that a request under the Texas Public Information Act. Under that law, the prosecutors had ten days to ask for a legal opinion. Their request cites grand jury secrecy.
But John Healy’s office didn’t tell the Attorney General the whole story. That’s outrageous and the Fort Bend District Attorney should have to explain the deception.
Last December, a Waller County Jury found former county commissioners conspired to violate transparency laws on the land deal. The sworn testimony raised allegations of possible perjury. The Waller County District Attorney originally had a conflict on the landfill case, but in January the new commissioners’ court waived his conflict. Mathis was ready to launch a new investigation, but needed the files.
If you read the letter to the Texas Attorney General, it looks like Mathis made his request for the records on September 3rd. We have documents proving otherwise. On April 28th a letter from those very special prosecutors denied a request from the Waller County District Attorney for those files.
On July 28th, the very State District Judge who appointed the special prosecutors dismissed them and asked them to return their files to the Waller County District Attorney. Judge Buddy McCaig asked them to return the documents at their earliest convenience.
John Healey’s office didn’t turn the files over. But on September 3rd they sent an e-mail to Mathis asking him which records he wanted. Mathis asked for the entire box. Healey’s prosecutors are using that response to play the Public Information Act game.
“Every voter in Fort Bend County should be looking at this deal. The landfill may be in Hempstead, but the conduct of the special prosecutors in this case should be rejected by the people in Fort Bend County,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting.
John Healey’s office didn’t tell the Texas Attorney General the whole story. Now he knows it.
READ: LANDFILL DOCUMENTS 9.21.15
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