Indictments Against Vice President Cheney, Gonzales, Senator Eddie Lucio Dismissed

Administrative Judge Manuel Banales yesterday dismissed eight indictments brought against Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, State Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr., and a number of local elected officials in Willacy County.

The Associated Press has more:

Banales dismissed the indictment against Lucio Monday because it failed to address whether Lucio knew he was only being hired by private prison companies as a consultant because he was a state senator.

Later, Banales dismissed that indictment and the other seven because Tony Canales, attorney for The GEO Group, showed that on the day the indictments were handed up, two alternates were part of the 10-member grand jury. Those alternates not been properly substituted.

“I find each and every one of these indictments were improperly returned,” Banales said.

[...]

Banales found Monday that it was inappropriate and unlawful for Guerra to present those cases to the grand jury where he was the alleged victim, witness and prosecutor.

In all of the cases except the indictment of Cheney and Gonzales, Banales said he found no probable cause to support the indictments. He withheld that judgment on the Cheney and Gonzales indictment because they were not represented in court and did not present any argument.

Technically, the indictments were dismissed on technicalities. However, they are some pretty serious technicalities. In reference to the Lucio indictment, the issue here was that the indictment failed to relate a “culpable mental state.” Earlier stories from the AP pointed this out, but it was evidently left out of later versions. Texas law requires that this be stated in an indictment and, technical as it is, it is exceedingly important.

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