Vice President Dick Cheney, Former AG Alberto Gonzales, State Sen. Eddie Lucio Indicted By Willacy County Grand Jury

Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity related to federal prisons in Willacy County. State Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. (D-Brownsville) was also indicted in the case that can best be described as an odd legal and political war involving the outgoing district attorney.

The District Attorney of Willacy County, Juan Gurrera was himself under indictment for about a year and a half. A state district judge dismissed those indictments last month. After two decades in office, Guerra lost the Democratic Primary earlier this year.

Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president’s investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and “at least misdemeanor assaults” on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately-run prisons.

Lucio is accused of profiting from public office by accepting honoraria from prison management companies. In a statement, his attorney lambasted the the DA:

“Senator Lucio is completely innocent and has done nothing wrong,” said Michael R. Cowen, the senator’s attorney. “We will file a motion to quash the indictment this week. We look forward to having the opportunity to have an independent, competent prosecutor review the facts, and are confident that once that happens these baseless charges will be dismissed.”

The AP has more on the prisons in Willacy County and some other cases and the bizarre behavior of the Willacy DA:

Last month, a Willacy County grand jury indicted The GEO Group, a Florida private prison company, on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release. The three-count indictment alleged The GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. The death happened in 2001 at the Raymondville facility.

In 2006, a jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa’s family $47.5 million in a civil judgment. The Cheney-Gonzales indictment makes reference to the de la Rosa case.

None of the indictments released Tuesday had been signed by Presiding Judge Manuel Banales of the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region.

Last month, Banales dismissed indictments that charged Guerra with extorting money from a bail bond company and using his office for personal business. An appeals court had earlier ruled that a special prosecutor was improperly appointed to investigate Guerra.

After Guerra’s office was raided as part of the investigation early last year, he camped outside the courthouse in a borrowed camper with a horse, three goats and a rooster. He threatened to dismiss hundreds of cases because he believed local law enforcement had aided the investigation against him.

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