Grand Jury Indicts Veep Under Guidance of Formerly Indicted DA

[WSJ Law Blog]

When the American Tort Reform Association publishes its gimmicky-but-juicy “Judicial Hellholes,” its annual list of the places it deems the most unfair places to be sued, the Rio Grande valley of Texas often makes the list. It might also top a list of places with the kookiest prosecutions.

On Tuesday, a Willacy County grand jury indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to federal prisons in south Texas. The Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra told the AP: “The grand jury is the one that made those decisions, not me.”

He should know. Guerra himself was under indictment for more than 18 months until a judge dismissed the indictments last month. Guerra’s tenure ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost in a Democratic primary in March.

According to the AP, 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.

Gonzales’s attorney, George Terwilliger III, said in a written statement, “This is obviously a bogus charge on its face, as any good prosecutor can recognize.” He said he hoped Texas authorities would take steps to stop “this abuse of the criminal justice system.”
(Here’s another story from the San Antonio Express-News.)

Photo: Getty Images