From The New York Times, 1/19/08:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/us/19texas.html?em&ex=1200891600&en=4ba105c5105f3320&ei=5087%0A
Prosecutor Quashes Charges Against Judge
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
HOUSTON —
A grand jury’s bitter backroom struggle to charge a Texas Supreme
Court justice and his wife in the burning of their house burst into
the open on Friday after a prosecutor who had opposed the indictments
went to court and had them quashed.
The grand jury foreman and assistant foreman said political favoritism
was behind the decision to drop the day-old charges against the
justice, David M. Medina, and his wife, Francisca.
“I felt like a dentist pulling teeth,” said Robert Ryan, 63, the
foreman, a real estate broker and a previous grand juror.
“The district attorney’s office did not want to prosecute this case.”
Mr. Ryan said his suspicions were aroused early when District Attorney
Charles A. Rosenthal Jr. of Harris County said he had assured Justice
Medina that the judge was not a target of the investigation.
The officials are Republicans.
“My hope,” Mr. Ryan said, “is that early next week the grand jury will
be reconvened and subpoena more documents and witnesses to back up
what we obviously feel is probable cause, and let the chips fall where
they may.”
Mr. Rosenthal, who is facing pressure to resign over e-mail love notes
and sexually explicit and racially charged messages from his office,
referred questions to his prosecutor in the case, Vic Wisner, who
said, “Any claim that I stonewalled is not true.”
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Harry
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