Criminal Justice
DA in Cheney-Gonzales Case Shouts at Judge, Who Seeks Higher-Court Backup
Posted Nov 21, 2008 6:01 PM CST
By Martha Neil
An unusual case in which a South Texas district attorney has obtained indictments of the vice president of the U.S., a former U.S. attorney general, two state court judges and a former federal prosecutor, among others, sparked new courtroom drama today.
As Presiding Judge Manuel Banales sought to hold a hearing, giving the defendants a chance to seek to quash their indictments, Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra pounded the table and shouted at the judge. That sent lawyers for the defendants leaping to their feet with objections, reports the Associated Press.
At one point, "Banales called a recess so he could try to contact the chief justice of the state supreme court for suggestions on how to proceed, and ordered Guerra, who had slipped out once during the hearing, to remain in the courthouse," the news agency recounts. Guerra finally agreed to stay—if the judge respectfully asked him to do so.
When the judge returned, he tentatively scheduled another hearing for Wednesday. He is sending documents concerning a recusal motion by Banales to the chief justice for review, the AP reports.
Professor T. Gerald Treece of the South Texas College of Law in Houston questions whether Guerra has jurisdiction, as a state prosecutor, to pursue federal officials, according to an earlier AP article. And, even if Guerra does, they have a qualified privilege to act within the scope of their jobs, he points out.
The indictments concern alleged prisoner abuse at federal prisons.
Earlier ABAJournal.com coverage:
"After Indicting Cheney & Ex-AG Gonzales, DA is No-Show in Court Today"
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- Nasty Attitude to Co-Worker, Naughty Word in E-Mail Cost 2 Their Jobs
Should Supreme Court Justices Be Able to Review News Accounts Before Publication?
Comments
silencedogood
Nov 25, 2008 6:49 AM CST
Never heard of a judge allowing himself to be shouted down in his own court before. Judge Banales needs to exert a little authority and get the D.A. back on the leash, fast.
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H.P.
Nov 25, 2008 8:47 AM CST
This guy is kind of like Dr. Kevorkian—right message, wrong messanger. Definitely need to address abuses at private prisons; not sure the way to do it is through an unhinged, table-pounding local DA.
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depressant
Nov 25, 2008 9:42 AM CST
The judge should have tossed that DA into jail for contempt. That would be a proper conclusion to his little power trip.
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Walter
Nov 25, 2008 10:55 AM CST
May it be, that what we facilitate and condone in our lower courts, practices and neighborhoods ever eventually percolates into thee more Noble, Enlightened and Esteemed branches of Civil Government?
This is not the first time that Public Officials have postured in Use (or is that misuse) of Our honorable courts for abusive practices.
In fact, in many NOW more Enlightened and Liberated realms, it can provide grand “dividends.”
Bank of America, JP Morgan, Policy Studies Inc., Maximus, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman . . . even our lower courts today now recognize the many “virtues” of such clever maneuvers of “finesse.”
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R
Nov 25, 2008 11:11 AM CST
We have a culture in which a Vice President has no apologies about saying “Go f*** yourself” to a Senator, on the floor of the Senate.
We have a culture in which lawyers are “taught,” through ridiculous TV shows as well as braggadocio by other lawyers, that it’s OK to behave like a jerk in the courtroom.
We have a culture in which judges as a whole have lost respect because of the actions of some of them: their own power trips, wearing penis pumps in the courtroom, watching porn in their chambers, etc. etc.
And then there’s individual jerkiness, of which this DA appears to have plenty. I’m amazed and disappointed that this judge didn’t IMMEDIATELY hold him in contempt and throw him in jail to cool off.
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W.Buchmaier
Nov 25, 2008 11:29 AM CST
Sounds simply a little unbelievable and consequently is probably part of the campaign to discredit Juan Angel Guerra as a nutcase. A legal writer basing an article about a trial solely on selective hearsay from news agency reporting should be a red flag. After all ABA endorsed Gonzales as AG. A qualified privilege to commit crimes while acting within the scope of a federal office is a rather novel concept in law which must be particular to Texas. The rule of law Texas style is always refreshing.
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JFK
Nov 25, 2008 12:04 PM CST
Walter, are you trying to be the new Ellen?
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Walter
Nov 25, 2008 12:48 PM CST
Ellen? Hellen? Stellen? Stolen? What?
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Andy the lawyer
Nov 25, 2008 1:05 PM CST
Any proceeding that has some potential for requiring Dick Cheney to be cuffed and frog-marched into court for any reason has my approval.
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Stone
Nov 25, 2008 1:29 PM CST
I saw a local Illinois judge do the same thing once. It had been a contentious fight about personal jurisdiction that had gone on for two years. There were massive discovery requests, CDs full of exhibits and even a successful motion to reconsider after the case had finally been dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction.
Then one fine day my boss and opposing counsel were up and arguing once again. The judge lost control, my boss said for the 1000th time “your honor, just tell them to file in their home state,” and the judge put down his file and said “I recuse myself.” It was rather surprising and did not reflect well on the judge.
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Jesse
Nov 25, 2008 1:32 PM CST
This article doesn’t explain much. Can anyone direct to an article with more information? Did Guerra really “pound” the table as dramatically as I would envision it from this “article”? What inspired such a reaction? These ABA “articles” are never much more than a slightly expanded headline. It’s OK to give us the whole story. We’re mostly lawyers in here, and I doubt that a little bit of legal jargon would go over anyone’s head. I want to see more articles like the Heller v DC articles from awhile back. At least one of those was an actual “article”. Instead we’re just left to speculate. Obviously most comments here criticize Guerra since, as framed above, the actual events are left completely to our imaginations. In my imagination, Guerra sure sounds like a charged up loony too. I’ll bet the real events are somewhere closer to the gray area. Please ABA, tell us about the gray area and let us draw our own conclusions and in the future.
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Robert DiGrazia
Nov 25, 2008 1:45 PM CST
Jesse’s right. The reoprt is spare, and leaves us wondering what really happened. What provoked Guerra? Why did the judge not cite him? Only those who were there know. Personally, I say kudos to Guerra; he’s annoyed about something, and he knows what to do about it.
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Jball65
Nov 25, 2008 3:49 PM CST
I live and work about an hour from Willacy County where DA Guerra works. This guy has some screws loose for sure. They showed the hearing on the news down here and Guerra was screaming and pointing at the Judge. DA Guerra was on the verge of tears he was so upset. The whole problem here is that the local judges that were indicted by Guerra are the same judges that approved the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into allegations against Guerra and also approved some search warrants against him. And the judge overseeing the current hearings is the same judge that refused to dismiss the indictments that ended up being brought against DA Guerra last year. Eventually the charges were dropped. But DA Guerra is claiming that the judge is biased against him and is basically in cahoots with the two local judges to do him in. Should be interesting.
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Curtis Bonner
Nov 26, 2008 9:54 AM CST
Juan Angel Guerra has cost the citizens of Willacy County nearly $1M in attorney fees defending pubic officials against him. The cases were all dismissed. You can read more on this by looking at valleystar.com or the San Antonio Express News. He was beat in the democratic primary and so will be out of office on 12/31/08.
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john
Nov 26, 2008 2:47 PM CST
Another illustration of the need to reform the grand jury system. That this DA was able to obtain a grand jury indictment of these sorts of charges reminds one of the abuses of Michael Nifong, who secured indictments of the Duke lacrosse players with absolutely no credible evidence. Weren’t grand juries supposed to provide protection of the citizenry against this type of prosecutorial abuse ?
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JCO
Nov 29, 2008 5:02 PM CST
I wonder if there’s a “good” reason for Guerra’s outburst. The judge did request to recuse himself which means there’s probably much more to the story. Though nothing excuses such behavior, there might just be some interesting tidbits that puts Guerra in a more positive light.
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JCO
Nov 29, 2008 5:06 PM CST
See this article for more info: http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/guerra_39675___article.html/cheney_indicted.html
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