Willacy County: Indictments Fly
A Willacy County grand jury indicted several high-profile public officials on Monday including Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr.
The indictment charges Cheney with illegally profiting, by virtue of his office, from $85 million in investments in the Vanguard Group. The group invests in companies that house federal detainees. He also is charged with exerting pressure on how much prisons are paid to house detainees.
For now, Cheney's office did not comment. "I haven't seen the indictment," Cheney's spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said Tuesday, indicating that it would be reviewed.
The indictment further alleges that Gonzales used his position to stop investigations into assaults committed in the private prison managed by the GEO Group in Willacy County.
The GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp., was also indicted on murder charges involving the 2001 death of an inmate killed in a Raymondville prison. The indictment accuses GEO of allowing inmates to beat Gregorio De La Rosa Jr., 33, of Laredo, to death with padlocks stuffed into socks.
"There are a lot of wild things in the Valley, but this is by far the wildest . . . It's crazy," GEO's attorney David Oliveira said.
Outgoing Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra dismissed a three-count indictment against GEO earlier this month because it was improperly filed.
Lucio is charged with profiting from public office when he acted as a consultant for Management and Training Corp., CorPlan Corrections, Aguirre Inc., Hale Mills Corp., TEDSI Infrastructure Group, Inc., and Dannenbaum Engineering Corp. The indictment against Lucio reflects that he would have not been paid consulting fees were it not for his public office.
Brownsville Herald
2 comments:
Money sure does create corruption in public officials. Lets get up a posse and drag them all in front of the hanging judge.djw
Out in California, the new City Manager of Delano, CA was hired to get rid of the police chief, which he promptly did. He made himself Police Chief, as he had been a Police Chief in his previous job. He then went to the state and asked that a prison be built in the town. He then got a consulting job (while still City Manager) for the new prison. He then fired the Fire Chief and gave the fire department to the County. He then fired the City Clerk and made himself City Clerk. Then, when I questioned him about spending federal dollars for a development project at the airport and went over his head to the city council about it, and illegally giving a retirement to the Police and Fire Chief that was not legal, he fired me and made himself Finance Director. I attempted to arrest him and his police officers refused to put him in jail. Two years later he was fired and went to Arizona where he took more money for "development" and was indicted by a federal grand jury. It is not always the politicians that are corrupt. Retired and ex-police chiefs are highly suspect. mpc
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