Direct Action Texas - Page 2 of 22 - Fighting for Transparency & Fiscal Responsibility in Local Government

Opportunity to Oust Another Corrupt Tarrant County JP

Posted by P. Nomen Meum | May 10, 2018

“All free men, when they form a social compact, have equal rights, and no man, or set of men, is entitled to exclusive separate public emoluments, or privileges, but in consideration of public services”. – Texas Constitution Article 1, Section 3.

Are we all equal or do different citizens enjoy special privileges and benefits? Our Constitution tells us that we are equal, but are we? Here is a story about how one person, an elected official, gets special privileges above and beyond the normal citizens and blatantly and obscenely abuses her power. To make things worse, this person is a sitting Judge in Tarrant County.

Judge Jacquelyn Wright, one of Tarrant County’s Justices of the Peace, is actively campaigning from her courtroom, which is a clear violation of ethics. She has campaign literature in her courtroom as well as inside her jury room. We have pictures of the flyers and nail files with her messaging (See them HERE, HERE, and HERE.), but there is no telling what she is saying from the bench.

As a taxpayer, YOU are paying for her campaign by paying for the facilities to distribute her materials. It is wholly improper for government buildings to be used to assist a campaign. Imagine walking up to a courthouse and seeing a big banner with the Judge’s name on it right as you go to vote, having county employees make campaign calls during work hours, or even using tax dollars to pay the postage for campaign mailers. It is a slippery slope when we allow government employees to engage in political activity.

An Open Letter to Brian Byrd

Posted by Matt Spano | May 4, 2018

Fort Worth Council Member Byrd,

As a strong supporter of your campaign, I am frustrated with how you have governed in your short time on the Fort Worth City Council. I supported you because you promised to fight for conservative principles, especially in the area of fiscal responsibility and budgeting.

Fort Worth still has one of the highest property tax rates in DFW. Just last year, you voted to reduce the tax rate, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Due to skyrocketing appraisal values, your vote still raised property taxes on existing residents by $19.6 million. The budget you voted for increased property tax revenue by 8 percent in total, and now you’re supporting two massive bond packages, which will raise property taxes even more. Excessive local debt is something you specifically campaigned against. Read More

DAT Files New Complaints: Kaufman County

Posted by Christine Welborn | April 27, 2018

Direct Action Texas has just filed new complaints with the Secretary of State detailing 47 counts of election fraud in Kaufman County. Our filing comes shortly after a District Judge called for a new election for the Republican nomination for County Court at Law 1. Judge Marty Lowy nullified the original results where Judge Jones had won his race by only one vote, citing voter fraud as well as violations of Federal Law, according to a recent Federal Court ruling.

Several voters took the stand in the Election Contest. One elderly couple, who could not read nor write, said that they don’t recall ever filling out or signing an application for a ballot by mail. They believe that their “voting papers” just arrive in their mailbox. A woman took the stand and said she doesn’t remember voting since JFK, and if she had voted it would have been in the Democrat Primary. Her vote was actually cast in the Republican Primary. Some recognized their signatures, some did not. In one case a voter said, “it looks like someone tried to write like me.” The details of their testimony varied, but all of them had one thing in common. None of them knew for whom they voted. None of them could name a single person on their ballot. Someone else had voted in their name.

Voter Fraud Is Not Real…Haven’t You Heard?

Posted by Aaron Harris | April 26, 2018

How many times have you heard concerns of voter fraud be dismissed by politicians, media pundits, or the Democrat Party of Texas?

In 2012, the Donna ISD school board president hung himself after the FBI pressed for an indictment on grounds that he stole his election using fraud.[1]

In 2015, six people were convicted of felony voter fraud in Hildalgo County, Texas for harvesting mail in ballots fraudulently in several local elections.[2]

In the 2016 Republican primary in Hill County, Texas, election officials claimed 9,038 ballots were cast, yet only 7,171 voters actually voted in that election.[3] There were 1,800 votes counted with no voters to go with them, and on that very ballot three races were determined by less that 70 votes.

In 2017, Rosa Ortega (a legal resident) was convicted and sentenced to 8 years in Tarrant County, Texas after she illegally voted for 10 years, although she is not a citizen of the US.[4] The very same year, an Ellis County, Texas constable was removed from office and convicted for having stolen his election using fraud.[5]

In 2018, Tarrant County convicted a felon of illegal voting after she intentionally voted after having been told, in writing, she was not eligible to do so.[6] Just last week, a judge ordered a new election in Kaufman County, Texas after it was shown in court that fraudulent ballots were improperly counted.[7] I could continue, the list is long – and these are just Texas.

In Tarrant It’s Good to be White, Rich, and Republican

Posted by P. Nomen Meum | April 23, 2018

JUDGE RUSS CASEY PLEAS GUILTY! GETS PROBATION AND VACATES OFFICE IMMEDIATELY.

Remember Judge Russ Casey? The one who was sanctioned for forcing his subordinate to have sex with him, in the courthouse, while wearing his robe? Let’s talk about a current situation that gives all the appearance of special treatment of a special class of citizens, an elected official. And this elected official is Russ Casey, the Justice of the Peace of Precinct 3 which includes Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Southlake, North Richland Hills, Keller, Grapevine, and Colleyville areas. You may remember Direct Action Texas reporting about the (dis)Honorable Russ Casey forging signatures in order to get on the ballot for the 2018 Republican Primary election. Direct Action Texas, along with various Republican activists, went across Precinct 3 searching for citizens of whom the Judge forged their signatures. It was a rainy Sunday in December when voter after voter swore to affidavits that the signatures that the Judge submitted were not, in fact, their signatures.

There was a criminal complaint filed against Russ Casey by his Republican Primary opponent, Lenny Lopez. The Tarrant County Sheriff, Bill Waybourn, investigated the crime. The Sheriff contacted all the victims of the forgery, then sent a detective out to each of their homes to speak to each victim. Then the Sheriff turned over the evidence to the District Attorney, Sharen Wilson, who sent a THIRD round of people to knock on each victim’s door. Then nothing happened.

We waited and waited. For some reason, Sharen Wilson didn’t think that there was a sense of urgency in this. One theory is that she didn’t want to give Lenny Lopez any additional exposure for exposing the fraudulent activity by the Judge, but honestly, no one knows what Sharen Wilson was thinking other than Sharen Wilson. I should make it clear that the delay could be nothing more than the typical and expected government inefficiency that we have all become accustomed to. Or maybe it wasn’t. All I know is that it didn’t happen quickly.

Yours truly happened to be sitting around thinking about the injustice of Jacqueline Wright and the probability that no one will actually do anything to make a difference (or at least not enough people) and I decided to look into Russ Casey. I called my lawyer to look up his case and found out that not only had his case been filed on April 17th, 2018 and Casey is scheduled to appear before the Hon. Wayne Salvant on Monday, April 23rd, 2018 in the Criminal District Court #2 on the 6th floor of the Tim Curry Justice Center at 9:00 a.m. for the Plea Bargain docket. Yes, his attorney had already worked out a plea deal within 4 days of the case being filed. It is not public record what the deal is, but a hearsay within hearsay within hearsay rumor has it that it will be probation and resignation from his job as a Judge.

Probation. Really? Probation? Sharen Wilson refused to offer a plea deal to Crystal Mason (who is African-American) for illegal voting, making it known that Sharen felt that crimes which involve the integrity of the political process should go to the jury. Sharen allowed the citizens of Tarrant County to determine guilt or innocence, and on March 18th, 2018, the jury found her guilty and she received 5 years in prison from the Judge, no probation. If you remember February 9th, 2017, Rosa Maria Ortega (who is Hispanic) was tried in front of a jury for illegal voting. Once again, Sharen Wilson thought it was important for the citizens of Tarrant County to decide if she was guilty or not guilty, and the jury found her guilty and sentenced her to 8 years in prison, no probation. Oh, and Rosa will also be deported. This time, we have a white, male Republican elected official who lives in a nice suburb community of North Richland Hills and Sharen Wilson has evidently decided that a jury is not qualified to hear this case and has allowed Russ Casey to avoid prison time. If you ever wonder how incarceration rates by ethnicity gets out of control, it starts one case at a time, beginning with cases like this. According to the Bureau of Prisons, Black defendants have an incarceration rate 6 times higher than whites. Hispanics are 2.5 times higher than whites. Sharen Wilson has taken the power away from the citizens to decide whether Russ Casey is guilty or not, and has decided to bypass the citizens in this political crime. We elect our representatives to represent the citizens. Given what the citizens said about Crystal Mason and Rosa Maria Ortega, is Sharen really representing the will of the citizens? Do not overlook the fact that while Mason was being tried, Sharen Wilson was investigating and working on Russ Casey’s case.

So the question is, why are the citizens of Tarrant County denied the chance to stand in judgement of Russ Casey?

I’ve racked my brain thinking about why the DA would be willing to give Russ probation. Perhaps the DA thought that this would be a way to get Russ out of office immediately, since they could condition the plea bargain on Casey resigning from office. However, I just don’t buy that. If there is a trial and Casey is convicted, then Chapter 87 of the Texas Local Government Code mandates that he would be removed from office. It says, in part: (a petit jury is the jury of 12 that will determine guilt or innocence)

Sec. 87.031. IMMEDIATE REMOVAL. (a) The conviction of a county officer by a petit jury for any felony or for a misdemeanor involving official misconduct operates as an immediate removal from office of that officer.

If Casey was found “Not Guilty,” then justice and due process would have been served. If the trial was never reached by the end of Casey’s term, then he would be leaving office on December 31st anyways. I can speculate that the argument was the goal was to have Casey removed from office as soon as possible, but then why did the DA wait 5 months before filing charges against him? This just doesn’t make sense. Why was it so important for Crystal Mason and Rosa Ortega to go to trial and eventually prison, yet Russ Casey gets to work out a “deal” and get probation. Like the Esurance commercial lady said, “That’s not how it works. That’s now how any of this works.”

I’m not saying that Casey is getting special favors because he is white, because he is an elected official, because he is a Republican, or that Sharen Wilson is guilty of racial bias. I’m saying that for someone as politically astute as Sharen, she should know exactly how this looks. The way this case was handled by the Tarrant County District Attorney was like they were trying to shove 5 pounds of crap in a 3 pound bag.