The Fix Was In
NEW VIDEO! Governor Greg Abbott has the power to appoint new state district judges when one resigns or retires. Our investigation that started with the alleged coverup of a bar fight involving cops has now exposed serious questions about the way one judge was chosen. Clint Davis owes taxpayers some transparency and so does the governor’s office, because it sure looks like THE FIX WAS IN.
The Fix Was In
“I just hate back room political deals, and I suspect you’re not a fan of them either. They must think we are stupid, but we are not, we see what’s going on, and I love just calling it out,” Wayne Dolcefino told the camera.
And that’s why we are in Athens, Texas, investigating how the new state district judge was chosen.
“The judge is crying about what we’ve uncovered, says we were hired by his opponent, well that’s true. That’s what we do here, we investigate allegations of corruption, fraud, and injustice no matter where they come from. And in this case, we’re about to show you how the fix was in,” Dolcefino told the camera.
The guy on the losing end of this fight outside an Athens bar never got the justice he rightfully deserved.
“Are you unhappy that they never prosecuted that case?” Andrea Palacio said.
“Absolutely,” Jason Jones said.
But after Jason Jones saw our investigative report on social media, years after this beating happened, he finally knew why the guys who assaulted him got away with it.
They were both cops. The police chief in Trinidad, Texas, and his son, a deputy sheriff.
The Athens Police Department did their job. They issued arrest warrants, but, for some reason, no one ever got arrested.
It turns out the county attorney in Henderson was an old friend, told the Athens cops to drop it, they were pissed off. That county attorney was Clint Davis.
And it was pretty clear to us that Davis ignored the ethics rules that say he should have recused himself.
“He caters to his personal relationships in his decision making. In some very serious matters. And that, that’s one reason he shouldn’t be a judge,” James Owen said.
“While we were investigating this case of good old boy justice, Clint Davis got a gift from the governor,” Dolcefino told the camera.
He was appointed to replace the retiring judge in the 173rd District Court late last year, no one else even applied for the job.
And it was just weeks before we found and disclosed this troubling surveillance camera video.
“I don’t know which case you’re referring to,” Clint Davis said.
Guess he forgot, but we think how Clint Davis got appointed is a story in itself. A story Henderson County voters should see.
“I filed my application around the first of September when the vacancy occurred in the judges’ bench,” Clint Davis said.
That judge was Dan Moore, who was supposed to be on the bench until the next election in November, but he decided to retire instead.
“We asked Judge Moore for a copy of his resignation letter, it’s clearly a public record, but he said ‘get s, kind of a jerk too,” Dolcefino told the camera.
We finally got it from the governor’s office. Look at the date, September 9th.
Now look at when Clint Davis applied to be appointed to replace Judge Moore, September 2nd. Seven days before the judge even announced his retirement.
So it’s pretty clear Clint Davis knew to apply for a judge job when there was no public knowledge to anyone else that there was a bench opening up.
“I don’t know how it would be really a surprise that I got it. I’m sorry that some people don’t agree that I’m qualified, but I can’t fix that, you know,” Clint Davis said.
This is another good old boy deal.
There’s Davis at Moore talking about his close ties to Judge Moore and his family. They’re buddies.
Moore even helped Davis get into law school.
When Moore became the judge in the 173rd, Davis moved into Moore’s old law office.
That’s nice.
“The fix was in,” James Owen said.
James Owen used to be the Henderson County attorney too.
He filed to be a candidate for the 173rd district bench last July. So imagine his surprise that in the middle of the political campaign, Davis gets appointed to the bench.
“The sitting judge wasn’t leaving the bench until September 30th. And he had not even disclosed that publicly, but apparently he had disclosed it to Mr. Davis,” James Owen said.
Davis asked Governor Abbott to appoint him to the bench when he hadn’t even declared himself a candidate. And we know why.
Had he declared, Davis would have had to resign as county attorney.
But Davis was clearly already working on his application before he filed.
“He didn’t do that in a day. He would have already been working on that in August,” James Owen said.
There is no requirement to post that applications are being accepted for a open judge’s job, but that makes it convenient, Davis was the only applicant.
“I think I’ve had a pretty good practice and a pretty good career. I’ve got a civil litigation background. I’ve been the county attorney now for 17 years,’ Clint Davis sais
“He’s not qualified. He has not tried a criminal case that we can find any record of in the last 16 years since he took the county attorney position,” James Owen said.
“It’s a question we asked too. And believe it or not, the county attorney’s office couldn’t name a single case, not one, that Clint Davis had actually ever argued in court,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“I don’t know how many. I would say less than five off the top of my head. I think your request asked how many times that I made an appearance in a courtroom. And as we tried our best to explain in our response, that’s just not a data metric we’d capture,” Clint Davis said.
OK, maybe it’s five cases when you’ve been the county attorney 17 years and you can’t remember one?
This is a story that’s not just about Clint Davis, because Davis is boasting about the exhaustive and rigorous process he claims happened before his appointment, says it covered his whole life, good and bad.
But what is the bad stuff?
Now the governor’s office wants to hide information from his application to be a judge.
“The governor redacted several responses,” James Owen said.
That’s right, the governor’s office is hiding some Davis’s answers about possible delinquent taxes, loan defaults, bankruptcies, and delinquent child support payments.
We are allowed to see that when Davis was 21 he was cited for making alcohol available to someone underage, that’s not a job killer.
But there’s a question asked that we should have a right to know the answer.
Does Davis have a drinking problem?
“One that’s really of concern to me is this health information questions at the end of the appointment process application, within the last 10 years,” James Owen said.
The state’s hiding Davis’s answers about possible drug or alcohol addiction in the last 10 years, and if he’s ever been treated or suffered from any mental illness.
“And get this, the governor’s office is even hiding the answers to the questions of whether or not he has a physical or mental illness that could prevent him from being able to carry out his duties as a judge. Really? Voters deserve the answers to questions like this,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“There’s several like that that cause concern, that he may could be compromised,” James Owen said.
“Maybe Davis said no, nothing to see here, but if he did, why the redaction? Voters in Texas should have a right to see every damn word on a job application for jobs that you pay for,” Dolcefino told the camera.
The director of the governor’s appointment office is Peggy Venable.
“Hello. Peggy Venable here. Please leave your name and phone number and I’ll be back in touch with you.”
She has ignored our calls.
The judge has gone on Facebook to complain we got hired last year to dig up dirt on him.
“Guess we found it, so judge, here’s a challenge since you like social media so much, go back on Facebook page and post the unredacted application, let the voters know the full truth, we’re about transparency,” Dolcefino told the camera.
And now that Davis is out of the county attorney’s office, Jason Jones wants the charges of assault against him reinstated.
“Absolutely, I’m looking into that right now,” James Jones said.
Just like a jury should have been allowed to decide if crimes were committed here, Henderson County voters should be allowed to decide who should become the judge in the 173rd in a vote, without the influence of the governor’s appointment. It made Davis the incumbent in the Republican primary fight.
The politicians know what that can mean. Take this recent campaign ad for Davis, it says reelect Judge Davis. You can’t re-elect someone who wasn’t elected to the job in the first place.
Even Henderson County commissioners knew better not to appoint a new county attorney successor because of the upcoming election.
“And I didn’t want to look like we were trying to influence in any way, you know, the election in March,” Charles McHam said.
“We get hired to investigate politicians all the time. Judge Davis should stop whining, but this case highlights the games politicians play to try and stack the deck for their buddies, but you’ve got the power, use it to send a message,” Dolcefino told the camera.
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