Smell Test

11/18/9 The DA is stirring up a big stink.

To say the DA's latest scandal doesn't pass the smell test is a major understatement. How did this man ever pass the bar? Why did Democrats pick him as their nominee?

What's got me on a tear? 7 Dallas judges hire DA's wife as campaign consultant (JENNIFER EMILY and GROMER JEFFERS JR. / The Dallas Morning News, 11/18/9). This is unbelievable. It's wrong on so many levels that it boggles the mind. Mrs. Bail Bondsman has no political experience other than her husband's campaigns, but 7 Dallas judges hire her as a campaign consultant? Mrs. Bail Bondsman's husband appears in front of some of these judges, but there's no conflict of interest?

This is coming from the same team that has run an illegal title company without the State Bar doing its job and yanking the Bail Bondsman's license to practice law. She's been running a title company without a license to practice law, when state law requires it, and or the Bail Bondsman has been illegally using his law license to run the business when state law prohibits him doing so while holding office as Dallas County District Attorney.

This is coming from the same guy who's hell bent to protect two like-minded constables from public scrutiny. Watkins seeks court order to halt Dallas County constable investigation (KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News 11/5/9). If Cortes and Evans are not doing anything wrong, what's Watkins trying to hide? There's a rumor around the County Courthouse that the DA might not want us knowing someone in particular who may have been seen driving one of those wrongfully confiscated cars.

... The relationship between Tanya Watkins' Grass Root Strategies and the judges has the blessing of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. But others see it as a murky union that at the very least looks bad and at worst could invite favoritism and political favors.

Unlike many other Texas counties, where judges hear a mix of criminal, civil and family cases, Dallas County has specialized courts. Judges who hear criminal cases here don't preside over other types of cases. So Craig Watkins is technically a lawyer in cases heard by the seven judges who hired his wife.

"The relationship poses a conflict of interest. That conflict is broader than Mr. Watkins himself. It applies to his whole office," said Craig McDonald, head of the nonprofit watchdog group Texans for Public Justice. "There may not be a problem in the eyes of the law. But there may be a problem in the eyes of the general public." ...

There's a huge problem in the eyes of the general public. It's embarrassing and frightening. Who does the public trust when our District Attorney is so short on integrity? Nothing like this has ever happened in my memory of local government. It is so bad that even Democrats are not rushing to his or Mrs. Bail Bondsman's defense.

... Craig and Tanya Watkins said in separate interviews that there is nothing unseemly about the owner of a political consulting firm with almost two dozen judicial clients being married to the district attorney, who has endorsed at least three of those clients.

"I'm the DA, which has nothing to do with her job," Craig Watkins said. "It has nothing to do with how I'm going to prosecute a case."

... She said she contacted the state's judicial ethics commission before starting her business and was told it was not illegal for her to work as a consultant for judges, even though her husband is the sitting district attorney.

"It's not a package deal," she said. "It's not you get Craig, you get Tanya."

Still, the county's chief public defender, Lynn Pride Richardson, said the arrangement seems unethical.

"I think it is a conflict of interest," she said. "It's the appearance of a conflict that presents a problem. It appears that they have hired her to get them access to the minority community, including going to churches on a regular basis. It just doesn't smell right to me." ...

It not only doesn't smell right -- it just stinks. Ms. Richardson has the cojones to call it what it is -- a conflict of interest. Watkins practices in front of these judges, who are showing the same lack of ethics as the DA. Again, who does the public trust when our District Attorney and several criminal court judges are hooked up together?

... Tanya Watkins dismissed concerns over her consulting role with judges as simple ranting from political opponents. She said that few people question the ethics of defense lawyers who give campaign dollars to sitting judges.

"That's a weak point," she said. "Why would people think I would jeopardize everything Craig and I have worked hard for to get a few dollars?" ...

Oh, please. This woman and her husband have shown us over and over for the past 3 years that there is no level too low for them to stoop for a few dollars. Speaking of dollars, the Bail Bondsman DA leaves no doubt that he is not only ethically challenged, but really shortchanged cerebrally.

... Commissioner John Wiley Price said he would like to see a resign-to-run policy apply to all departments, although he acknowledged the Commissioners' Court can't tell other elected officials what to do.

Watkins said he enacted such a policy for his office about six months ago to eliminate influence peddling at the Frank Crowley criminal courthouse downtown.

Watkins said that before he was DA, he remembers seeing defense attorneys negotiating plea deals with prosecutors who were judge candidates and then handing them envelopes with campaign contributions. ...

If Watkins saw money exchanged between defense attorneys and prosecutors before he was a DA and did not report it as an "officer of the court", he should be investigated by the State Bar. If you believe that Watkins saw money or anything else exchanged in the Courthouse before he was a DA, there's a ramp to a bridge over the Trinity that needs funding. The guy was a bail bondsman.

This guy is knee deep in this mess with the two constables. There's no other explanation for his fighting the Commissioners' investigation. Just which other elected official or officials is also part of the stinky remains to be seen.