Cow paddies for sale
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I read today that Dolcefino Consulting has the Waller County District Attorney all in a lather.
On Tuesday we told you Elton Mathis would abandon the landfill probe.
Mathis then hurriedly launched his brave attack on Facebook, telling you I wasn’t authorized to speak for his office. Well, he’s right about that. If I was the spokesman for the District Attorney I would have a hard time explaining why in the four and a half years since county officials got all buddy-buddy with a landfill company, Mathis hasn’t taken one county official before the grand jury for a chat under oath.
Of course Mathis knew about the secret trip to the landfill in March of 2011. He knew about the secret meetings with the landfill company, later ruled illegal by a jury. If he had stopped it then, taxpayers might still have their three quarters of a million dollars in legal fees in their pockets, and better yet, they could have acted before the landfill company even filed for a permit to save themselves this expensive fight. Oh how history complicates things for Mr. Mathis.
So let’s keeping jogging memories. There was no criminal investigation at all, until Dolcefino Consulting filed a criminal complaint in 2013. We had already looked at the cell phone records Mathis could have looked at, to find out the landfill deal was intentionally kept from the voters.
Boy facts sure get in the way of a D.A. looking for cover.
By then Mathis had claimed he had a conflict of interest because his folks lived close to the landfill site.
It’s funny how D.A.’s can find a conflict when they need one.
So the case was assigned to the crack prosecutors who worked for Fort Bend County District, attorney John Healey. In 2014 they concluded their investigation with a big ‘we can’t prove nothing,’ but threw the locals a bone. Waller County Commissioners were told to stop doing business as usual.
In December of 2014 a jury of regular folks figured out what Healey’s office never did. The Waller County Commissioners had trampled transparency laws, while Elton Mathis was not only the D.A., but also the county attorney. Landfill opponents believed there was evidence of perjury.
So let’s see. It’s been thirteen months. Mathis whines about having to look through all these records, but he knew back then the statute of limitations had run out on transparency crimes. He knew months ago the Texas Rangers never finished their report.
Did he ever ask them for it?
He did ask for the Special Prosecutors report, and then let them drag out the process for getting it.
He could have gone to court to compel them to release it. So why didn’t he?
Mathis finally got the report last month, but already knew the investigation was sloppy at best, and at worst, a whitewash. After reviewing it, he let me look at what I wanted to see, and that was simple.
1. Proving there was no Texas Rangers report
2. Proving there were no subpoenas issued or sworn testimony given by a single public official
3. Learning there was no documentation that my testimony to the grand jury was kept.
You don’t need a college degree or a private investigators license to figure that out quickly.
Mathis shared that Former Commissioner Odis Styers had even offered to testify if he got immunity. How noble. The special prosecutors said no.
On January 11, 2016, I sent Mathis this e-mail:
“Just wanted to double check that you are not going to revive the landfill investigation criminally.. or take action civil wise. Know you said you weren’t.”
Mathis responded:
“My review of the criminal statutes at issue show that prosecution would now be barred by the statutes of limitation and civil remedies would have needed to have been pursued in the civil action. I am still reviewing my options at this point.”
At our meeting I asked about a perjury investigation. Mathis responded, “You can’t make a perjury case out of, ‘I don’t know.’” That was a familiar answer from the Beckendorff, Kitzman, Pokluda crowd, along with “I don’t remember.”
It has been thirteen months since the trial. Mathis has had the affidavits, depositions, and courtroom testimony for months and months.
So cow paddies are now for sale at the Waller County Courthouse.
If Elton Mathis thinks my prediction is wrong, he should prove it. Mr. Mathis, have the courage to do what people in Waller County have been asking you to do since 2011.
If you don’t know the facts by now, you never will. Issue grand jury subpoenas. Get testimony about missing e-mails and computer viruses, and secret meetings and all the stuff that you’ve known about for years.
Until then, the facts are on my side.
READ IT:
Elton Mathis email
