There is an interesting story out of Texas in the Perry controversy that raises the difference between grand juries and petit juries. One of the grand jurors, Rho Chalmers, who indicted Governor Rick Perry turned out to be a delegate to the Texas Democratic Party convention who not only actively participated in the convention during her service but actually took a picture with a Democratic state representative who appeared as a witness before her jury.
The rules on conflicts are more relaxed for grand jurors due to the larger number of members and the fact that their decisions are only to indict rather than to convict. However, Chalmers’ political work during the pendency of the case raises question of whether a recusal or at least a notice should be required of members. I am not saying that she acted out of political animus. I am perfectly willing to accept her insistence that it was “not a political decision” for her to vote to indict. Yet, the appearance could not be worse in such a case and the question is whether the issue was raised with the special prosecutor, San Antonio lawyer Michael McCrum.
News reports state that Chalmers attended the Democratic convention and commented on its proceedings while the grand jury proceedings were occurring. She was also photographed with Democratic state Sen. Kirk Watson, a witness. It is not known if she discussed the matter with him.
The grand jury was selected in April, 2014 and did not conclude until last week. Yet, on June 27, 2014, Chalmers shared a photo of the Watson event on a community Facebook page stating, “Senator Kirk Watson telling the story of the Wendy Davis fillibuster (sic).”
Numerous posts from both of Chalmers’ Facebook pages — her personal page, which she shares with her husband, Davis, and her “Developer’s Dungeon” page — make clear that she is a partisan Democratic activist, and that she was an active participant in the Texas Democratic Party’s state convention in June while grand jury proceedings were ongoing. Her postings revealed a strong Democratic following and activism for both her and her husband, including her participating in the Rules Committee. She states “The Rules Committee was challenging but fun. A little over half a day to resolve everything but we ‘got er done’!” she wrote. She then liked and shared that post using her personal Facebook page, where she noted that she was “pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t completely lost on this committee.”
The grand jury rules are, in my view, woefully ambiguous on how to handle conflicts and, while personal relationships are addressed, the rules do not deal with these type of conflicts:
Art. 19.08. QUALIFICATIONS. No person shall be selected or
serve as a grand juror who does not possess the following
qualifications:
1. The person must be a citizen of the state, and of the
county in which the person is to serve, and be qualified under the
Constitution and laws to vote in said county, provided that the
person’s failure to register to vote shall not be held to disqualify
the person in this instance;
2. The person must be of sound mind and good moral character;
3. The person must be able to read and write;
4. The person must not have been convicted of misdemeanor
theft or a felony;
5. The person must not be under indictment or other legal
accusation for misdemeanor theft or a felony;
6. The person must not be related within the third degree of
consanguinity or second degree of affinity, as determined under
Chapter 573, Government Code, to any person selected to serve or
serving on the same grand jury;
7. The person must not have served as grand juror or jury
commissioner in the year before the date on which the term of court
for which the person has been selected as grand juror begins;
8. The person must not be a complainant in any matter to be
heard by the grand jury during the term of court for which the
person has been selected as a grand juror.
Once again, I am not casting aspersions on Chalmers who did nothing that I can see that violates these rules. However, it is a serious appearance problem in having a grand juror who interacts with a witness and actively working for the opposing party to a political figure during her service. I believe that the rules should expressly require notice to the judge and prosecutor of such contacts or activities and that grand jurors have a running obligation to raise potential conflicts of interest for possible recusal from a case of this kind. People have been voicing arguments on both sides of this controversy. I have criticized the indictment, including in a column out today. Others on this blog believe that indictment is well founded. Yet, such controversies over grand jury service are not good for either side and distract from the merits of the case.
Source: Chronicle and AL and media trackers
And this thread doesn’t allow an intellectually honest person who has never been here previously to pick out the Republican cultists? Wow!
PCS, if I am, I stand corrected. I think Texas was flipped for Kennedy. Johnson took a bribe for every contract he ever knew about. Johnson was going to be removed from the ticket and prosecuted by Kennedy’s brother. Billy Sol Estes was in jail. Johnson was a crook. My point is that Nixon won and the election illegally and erroneously went to Kennedy who should have never been. Imagine America without the Kennedy era; America never having heard of Kennedy. It’s a funny universe.
leejcaroll – your comment was that who ever it was had plagiarized from Wikipedia and you seemed horrified that they would stoop so low. 🙂
The Hebrews plagiarized the story of Noah from the Sumerians.
John – there are two Noah stories in the Bible. One is a little closer to the Sumerian story than the other, probably picked up during the Babylonian Captivity. I am not sure they plagiarized it as much as paraphrased it. There is a difference. They did not give the Sumerians credit regardless, but considering the circumstances I can see why not. 🙂
Paul I don’t believe I ever responded with Wikipedia or about Wikipedia. It is way too often an unreliable source and you will find I rarely (if ever) use that as my source, although I try to source as often as possible, and with 2, rather then just put “facts” out there that are merely mine but cannot be verified.
Right Squeeky, Biden paid for his plagiarism, the school sanctioned him. Paul went to medical school, he knows how to cite and footnote. but since he is a repub you give him free pass.
Please briefly excuse me. This comment relates to the thread title and no individual or particular conversation:
The ends justify the means. The very chameleon collectivist/liberal/ socialist/progressive/communist/democrats will lie, cheat and steal to obtain the power to dictate. They have no sense of the import of integrity, honesty and truth; no sense of self-reliance and individual responsibility.
John F. Kennedy was NOT elected. Nixon won the election and the mob et. al. stole Illinois and Texas for their colleague, Joe Kennedy, the patriarch. There would have been no Camelot, no Kennedy mystic or otherwise “Kennedy” era. The Bay of Pigs would have succeeded consolidating North America. The whole Kennedy narrative was falsely imposed on America.
Thank you. Please carry on.
John – the mob was responsible for Chicago and one other state, but I think Texas was all Lyndon Johnson.
A glimpse in the Texas grand jury system.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/columnists/falkenberg/article/A-disturbing-glimpse-into-the-shrouded-world-of-5626689.php?cmpid=twitter-premium&t=7436fa9ed6ad6264fa
This is only the beginning. Will there be disorder in the court? And video to prove it?
Biden was drop dead stupid in his plagiarism. Go figure, Biden being stupid.
I like Fareed Zakaria and he just got nailed for plagiarism. It’s often competiveness and laziness, a bad combo.
Lee:
Plagiarism is very serious. I don’t know why any public figure even tries it, considering it’s so easily provable. Why not just properly reference???
I haven’t followed Rand Paul, but if he did plagiarize, he deserves a rebuke. It’s taking credit for other people’s ideas. I don’t know if it’s true or not.
Are we having a wave of plagiarism, or is it occurring at routine levels, but just getting reported on more?
I would love to see government workers/politicians held to the same standards as the rest of us.
Karen – most big players have either official speech writers or have assistants write them. They are the ones doing the actual plagiarizing, but it is unseemly to blame the staff.
@leecarroll
Plagiarism is the “wrongful appropriation” and “stealing and publication” of another author’s “language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions” and the representation of them as one’s own original work. The idea remains problematic with unclear definitions and unclear rules. The modern concept of plagiarism as immoral and originality as an ideal emerged in Europe only in the 18th century, particularly with the Romantic movement.
Plagiarism is considered academic dishonesty and a breach of journalistic ethics. It is subject to sanctions like penalties, suspension, and even expulsion.
Now with that basis in mind. . .ooops! I didn’t attribute the above stuff. OMG, I plagiarized it!!! Now what I have done wrong? Squat. What if I said that in a speech? Again, squat. What if I did it intentionally? Again, squat. What if I did it on accident thru faulty footnoting? Again, Squat.
But, if I did it on an academic paper, or as part of a news story, then it could be subject to sanctions. What Rand did, he says was faulty editing and footnoting. But it was neither academic nor journalism. What Walsh did was part of his getting some degree or designation from the War College, which whatever raised his pay. Whole different thing.
But, to the children of the Left, like Rachel Maddow, it’s GOTCHA!, without any qualitative analysis whatsoever. No surprise. The Left isn’t about values. It’s about power.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky do you have legitimate sources for your claim(s) about Walsh. My point was simple. The democrat is forced to withdraw while the plagiarist stays in the senate.
Re Biden and Paul: Now compare this to the Rand Paul situation. He was caught initially by two different reporters. Rachel Maddow first reported on a speech Paul made in Virginia in which he quoted, at different points in his speech three or four excerpts from a summary of a movie plot. The excerpts were from Wikipedia. Wikipedia!
Subsequently Andrew Kaczynski of Buzzfeed identified another instance of stealing a movie summary virtually word for word from the same source and others have subsequently found other blatant instances in a book he wrote, congressional testimony and op-eds written for the Washington Times. That crappy excuse for journalism, by the way, said on Wednesday that Paul would no longer be writing on their editorial page.
Joe Biden admitted to the two instances of which he was accused and apologized (even though others had pretty much explained away any intentional abuse in the more famous case). Rand Paul initially denied the multiple accusations, called Maddow a hater, said he was being treated unfairly, made it clear he was clueless about what attribution means, made jokes about challenging someone (Maddow?) to a duel, then finally blamed it on his staff. Now we just have to wait for him to join his followers and whine, “But Biden did it.”http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/07/biden-paul-false-equivalence-run-amok.html
Biden paid for his plagiarism, Paul gets a free oass.
The faculty ruled that Mr. Biden would get an F in the course but would have the grade stricken when he retook it the next year. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/18/us/biden-admits-plagiarism-in-school-but-says-it-was-not-malevolent.html
leejcaroll – Teddy Kennedy was kicked out of college for plagiarism and the magazine ‘Science’ no longer deals with claims of plagiarism. They say to take the claim up with the writer(s) institution. Now that you agree with me on using Wikipedia, please don’t use it and ask all your friends to find other sources.
swarthmoremom,
Dredd, We can always look forward to him with his new glasses in the debates. Maybe they will applaud again when he brags about executing innocents.
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One has to wonder if the primaries will have a who shot down the most of those who are not American-Americans.
It could become a pecking order at the rate we are going.
SWM, Are you an unbiased observer?
Justice Holmes
Did any of the grand jurors in other cases go to the GOp convention? Does one lose ones citizenship when one becomes an active democrat?
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There are 253 other counties in this red state, with plenty of GOP folk on board grand juries.
The race of grand juries is another consideration.
But when republicans indict republicans they are RINO not GOP, no matter what the race.
You know, equality.
Dredd, We can always look forward to him with his new glasses in the debates. Maybe they will applaud again when he brags about executing innocents.
Nick Spinelli
leej, If I remember correctly, Walsh harkens from the military, where there still is honor.
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Especially in the military NSA.
They are quite fair, they treat everyone like an enemy by spying on them.
No unequal treatment there.
So there’s that.
Did any of the grand jurors in other cases go to the GOp convention? Does one lose ones citizenship when one becomes an active democrat?