TPJ Files Complaint Against Justice Waldrop in TRMPAC Case
| For Immediate Release: | For More Information Contact: |
| October 14, 2008 | Craig McDonald, 512-472-9770 |
Texans for Public Justice filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct today alleging that Third Court of Appeals Justice Alan Waldrop should not have written an opinion in the criminal case against Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC) because his impartiality is questionable.
“Justice Waldrop’s August 22 TRMPAC opinion reads like a ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card’ for Tom DeLay and his cronies,” said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald. “As counsel for Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) in related civil litigation, Waldrop announced his bias in this matter years ago, dismissing the civil suit as ‘politically motivated.’ Waldrop should not have participated in this case.”
Waldrop’s TRMPAC opinion upheld the constitutionality of the indictments against two DeLay associates who are charged with laundering corporate money into the 2002 Texas elections. Yet Waldrop also tackled an issue that was not before his court when he wrote that state money-laundering laws did not apply to checks at the time of the alleged TRMPAC crimes. These money-laundering allegations are central to the TRMPAC case.
Given Waldrop’s ties to the case, judicial ethics expert Robert Schuwerk of the University of Houston Law School told the Austin American-Statesman that “the judge shouldn’t have written that opinion.”
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle petitioned Justice Waldrop to recuse himself from further participation in the TRMPAC case on September 23. The Third Court of Appeals rejected this motion without comment on October 10.
Read the TPJ complaint
Access a copy of Waldrop's TLR civil filing
