Election Reflection
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The flurry of Dolcefino investigations during the primary campaign have come to an end. It’s time to reflect as we get ready to expose more politicians in the months ahead.
The March primaries are now in the history books.
We were asked to investigate one of the candidates in the race for Fort Bend County Sheriff.
And sure enough, we found plenty of evidence that Pete Luna didn’t live in Fort Bend County, he lived in Harris County, yet voter records show he had voted at least three times in Fort Bend.
What’s worse is the Democratic Party knew.
“He’s a voter in Fort Bend County. I still could not reject him based on that information I may have heard in the wind,” said Cynthia Ginyard.
“I want to take a minute to address the video released last week questioning my qualifications to run for Fort Bend County Sheriff,” Pete Luna said.
Luna refused to drop out and came up with an excuse we hadn’t heard before.
“So, to clear up any confusion about that video, I want everyone to know I have a dual residency,” Luna said.
Election lawyers called it nonsense.
“You have to register where you live,” attorney Sonya Aston said.
The Fort Bend County District Attorney’s office recused itself, but a criminal investigation is now underway by the Dallas County DA’s office.
In a case with a lot of similarities, we busted Dan Mathews, the guy running against incumbent Gary Gates in Fort Bend County.
Surveillance footage proved this politician wannabe actually lived in District 27, but he was running in District 28.
Mathews lost the primary with less than forty percent of the vote.
In a widely contested race for Texas Supreme Court, Justice John Devine eked out a victory against Fort Worth Appeals Court Judge Brian Walker.
Devine had been blasted online for his record of absences from Supreme Court hearings, as well as not recusing from a sex abuse case where he had close ties to the defendants.
“You have an individual who has had a long history of violating judicial ethics rules, violating the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, he’s been sanctioned by the commission on judicial conduct for ethics violations, and now we have him just doing it once more,” Justice Brian Walker said in an interview.
We questioned Justice Devine’s involvement in the guardianship case of a close friend, Elvie Kingston, a former Tea Party official who sadly got dementia.
His wife became her guardian and Devine became the guy guarding her trust.
It appeared to violate ethics rules.
Even lawyers for Elvie Kingston tried to get him to quit.
He wouldn’t.
“Isn’t that a violation of the ethics rule?” Wayne Dolcefino asked.
“No, because I’m family,” John Devine replied.
“Well, she’s not a member of your family,” said Dolcefino.
“She’s held me out to be her son for 30 years, Wayne,” said Devine.
In Angelina County northeast of Houston, commissioner candidate, Rodney Paulette, made fixing the horrible roads the heart of his campaign.
“The voters, and we, have not gotten what we voted for,” Paulette said in a campaign ad.
But, he lost to Lufkin City Councilman, Rocky Thigpen, to be the next commissioner for Precinct 1.
“I’m a lifelong resident of Angelina County,” Thigpen said in a candidate forum.
Voters apparently wanted status quo.
Thigpen told the Lufkin Daily News, “the court is doing really well. They’re doing a good job.”
“I have nothing to hide and if I did, I wouldn’t be running,” Paulette said in an interview.
Paulette had an uphill battle because he was running while under criminal indictment.
We think the indictment was bogus, part of a campaign of retaliation by the now former DA Janet Cassels.
“Let’s get it on. Either drop the charges or let’s have a trial,” Paulette said.
Back in Houston, our stories on campaign cash from family lawyers may have helped oust Judge Julia Maldonado.
But, we had spent a lot more time questioning the ethics of Judge Brittany Morris and her relationship with controversial real estate developer, Ali Choudhri.
Choudhri’s lawyers helped bankroll Morris’s campaign, but emails and texts, later leaked by a whistleblower, got her in trouble with the Judicial Conduct Commission—exposing her close relationship with the guy dubbed The Real Estate Racketeer.
Stay tuned, November is only eight months away.
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