A Strange Florida Foundation And Wayne Christian’s Public Integrity Office Bill

[Updated to include a correction]

There has been a lot of interest in the last few days about State Rep. Wayne Christian’s HB 566, which would move the Public Integrity Unit–which, among other things, prosecutes state officeholders who break the law–from the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.

Texas Watchdog explored some of the connections between the bill’s author and the indictments surrounding Tom DeLay’s Texans for A Republican majority here and here. And we’ve told you previously that Christian has held town hall meetings with indicted John Condolyro of TRMPAC fame.

Far more interesting to us, however, is a strange and new Florida non-profit foundation that seems to have an interest in Christian’s bill. In fact, it seems to be their singular purpose for existing.

The Everglades Legal Foundation, an organization incorporated in Florida claiming its application for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS is “pending,” is a pretty big supporter of Christian’s bill.

On the foundation’s website, they list as their only activity several press releases–all relating to the Travis County DA’s Office, former Travis County DA Ronnie Earle, or testimony given on HB 566 before the House Criminal Jurisprudence Subcommittee on Criminal Procedure. While the foundation appears to be connected to a couple of poorly designed efforts to whip up conservative sentiment on the internet (here and here), they appear to have done little else of any substance except support House Bill 566 and slam the Travis County DA’s Public Integrity Unit.

Its board includes Former House Speaker Bob Livingston, Kori Klein of Fairtax and the Arizona Homeowner’s Protection Effort, former Congressman Bob Barr, Heratige Foundation director Genevive Wood, and Congressman Dana Rhorbacher.

Heyward Smith, a former aid to Barr and U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell of Georgia is the foundtion’s executive director.

Here is what the foundation claims is its mission:

Everglades Legal Foundation tackles and often initiates cases where the government enroaches on economic or individual liberty and pursues an aggressive yet measured course in addressing such matters. We provide litigation, advocacy and media support in the following issue areas:

* Property Rights
* Prosecutorial Misconduct
* Political Malfeasance
* 1st Amendment/Free Speech Issues

All of that is especially interesting, given the fact that, when founded, the foundation listed its mission as follows when it filed its charter with the Florida Secretary of State in August 2008:

To raise awareness of business and consumer issues facing all Florida citizens.”

By November of 2008, the organization had changed its mission to something more broad:

“To create, form, and establish an organization to formulate, provide data, and distribute information on information and individual rights and liberties to the general public; to teach and educate individuals regardung the pursuit of such rights; to assist individuals in their pursuit of their rights through the legal system of the federal government and the fifty states; [and lots of similar goals].

Editor’s Note: The Monty Warner affiliated with Everglades Legal has contacted us and informs us that he and the Monty Warner mentioned in the paragraphs we’ve removed from this story are not the same person, and provides this information about Everglades Legal:

Everglades Legal Foundation handles other cases such as property rights on behalf of business, but it does not always post information its website when cases are ongoing, particularly if the litigation is sensitive in nature

Everglades supports the Christian bill but has not coordinated with Christian’s office and wasn’t asked to. It is an issue of interest to us, period. Everglades is a regional if not national organization. The mission statement is semantics

For all of the alleged support for Christian’s bill, only one person–an attorney for Everglades Legal Foundation–testified for the bill in Committee. All other witnesses who appeared were against the bill.

Clerkin, as it happens, is a Dallas attorney and SMU graduate. A former clerk for former Judge Adolph Canales of the 298th District Court of Dallas County, Clerkin is a partner in the Dallas office of Clerkin Sinclair. Richard Mahfouz, another partner in the firm’s California office (which appears to be its main office) did the Everglades Legal Foundation’s work on its corporate charter amendments presented to the Florida Secretary of State in November of 2008 to expand its scope from Florida-based to nationwide.

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