As expected, the criminal mischief charge against Austin developer Hunter Wheeler — accused of illegally cutting down a tree last year — has been dismissed by Travis County prosecutors.
Neighbors on Daniel Drive in South Austin called police in 2007 after a landscaping crew cut down a large cedar tree in the city-owned right of way. The workers told the neighbors that Wheeler had told them to cut the tree, which was across from a home Wheeler had built. Neighbors speculated that he wanted to clear the way for a city skyline view from that home.
Wheeler’s case had been set on state District Judge Julie Kocurek’s jury trial docket today. But prosecutors formally dismissed the felony charge — which is punishable by up to two years in jail — Tuesday, writing in a court paper that Wheeler “has complied with the request of the complainant to their full satisfaction.”
Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Scales, who could not be immediately reached today, said for a story on the case in Saturday’s Statesman that Wheeler paid for a crew to remove the stump of the cedar tree and planted a live oak tree in its place.
In exchange, Scales said, prosecutors planned to dismiss the case. She said the dismissal was contingent on a city forester confirming that the newly planted tree is healthy and meets the terms of the deal.
City Forester Walter Passmore said Wednesday that he had not inspected the live oak tree and is still waiting for Wheeler to offer a plan on how he is going to care for the tree. He said that Wheeler is responsible for watering and other care to keep the tree alive.
Source
Monday, December 28, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Gonzales: "I'm Excited About the Tech Opportunity"
Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says his new position as a visiting professor at Texas Tech University came about after he gave a speech recently at a banquet at Texas Tech University School of Law.
Gonzales says he started talking with Texas Tech chancellor Kent Hance, a former Texas congressman who also is an attorney, and Hance offered him a job. Gonzales starts Aug. 1.
"I'm going to be in the Political Science Department," Gonzales says of his new position as a visiting professor at Texas Tech University. "It's a one-year gig and I'm going to come in and teach one course in the fall. It will probably be on national security issues. And I will be helping out the chancellor with other duties," including recruiting Hispanic students, he says.
According to a statement Texas Tech released yesterday, Gonzales will assist Texas Tech and Angelo State University in recruiting and retaining "first generation and underrepresented students" and will be involved in planning a leadership training and development program aimed at minority students.
Hance writes in the release, "I am excited that Alberto Gonzales is bringing his experience to Texas Tech. His own upbringing in Houston as part of a migrant family with eight children makes him qualified to tell underrepresented Texas students that college is possible."
The statement also notes will teach a junior-level seminar course, "Contemporary Issues in the Executive Branch."
In 1995, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush hired Gonzales, a former Vinson & Elkins transactional lawyer and a 1982 Harvard Law School graduate, to be general counsel at the Governor's Office. In 1997, Gov. Bush made Gonzales secretary of state, and a year later Bush appointed him to the Texas Supreme Court. In 2001, Gonzales left Austin to become President George W. Bush's White House counsel in Washington, D.C. Gonzales became attorney general in 2005.
Gonzales says he's not sure what the future holds as far as the possibility of working again for a Texas firm. "You know, I don't know if I'm still in the hunt for a firm job. I've been open to the possibility to going back to a big-firm job," Gonzales says. "But I'm ambivalent about going back as a partner. I've done that. And I worry that I would lose my flexibility to do other things. But if the right opportunity came along I'd consider it. But I'm excited about the Tech opportunity."
Gonzales, who resigned as AG as of Sept. 17, 2007, says he is not worried about a special prosecutor's investigation into the dismissals of U.S. attorneys in 2006. But that investigation has hampered his job search, he says. "I think it was unrealistic for me to believe that I could pursue the things I want to pursue," Gonzales says. "It had an effect, no question about it. And others I've talked to want to make those things under review come out in a positive way. To answer your question, it is something that I had to do. But I'm grateful there's been no finding of criminal wrongdoing by me."
Source
Gonzales says he started talking with Texas Tech chancellor Kent Hance, a former Texas congressman who also is an attorney, and Hance offered him a job. Gonzales starts Aug. 1.
"I'm going to be in the Political Science Department," Gonzales says of his new position as a visiting professor at Texas Tech University. "It's a one-year gig and I'm going to come in and teach one course in the fall. It will probably be on national security issues. And I will be helping out the chancellor with other duties," including recruiting Hispanic students, he says.
According to a statement Texas Tech released yesterday, Gonzales will assist Texas Tech and Angelo State University in recruiting and retaining "first generation and underrepresented students" and will be involved in planning a leadership training and development program aimed at minority students.
Hance writes in the release, "I am excited that Alberto Gonzales is bringing his experience to Texas Tech. His own upbringing in Houston as part of a migrant family with eight children makes him qualified to tell underrepresented Texas students that college is possible."
The statement also notes will teach a junior-level seminar course, "Contemporary Issues in the Executive Branch."
In 1995, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush hired Gonzales, a former Vinson & Elkins transactional lawyer and a 1982 Harvard Law School graduate, to be general counsel at the Governor's Office. In 1997, Gov. Bush made Gonzales secretary of state, and a year later Bush appointed him to the Texas Supreme Court. In 2001, Gonzales left Austin to become President George W. Bush's White House counsel in Washington, D.C. Gonzales became attorney general in 2005.
Gonzales says he's not sure what the future holds as far as the possibility of working again for a Texas firm. "You know, I don't know if I'm still in the hunt for a firm job. I've been open to the possibility to going back to a big-firm job," Gonzales says. "But I'm ambivalent about going back as a partner. I've done that. And I worry that I would lose my flexibility to do other things. But if the right opportunity came along I'd consider it. But I'm excited about the Tech opportunity."
Gonzales, who resigned as AG as of Sept. 17, 2007, says he is not worried about a special prosecutor's investigation into the dismissals of U.S. attorneys in 2006. But that investigation has hampered his job search, he says. "I think it was unrealistic for me to believe that I could pursue the things I want to pursue," Gonzales says. "It had an effect, no question about it. And others I've talked to want to make those things under review come out in a positive way. To answer your question, it is something that I had to do. But I'm grateful there's been no finding of criminal wrongdoing by me."
Source
Saturday, November 28, 2009
How SA's Office of Municipal Integrity lost its bite
Virginia Quinn still recalls the videotape she was handed by San Antonio’s chief of inspections when she took over the Office of Municipal Integrity in February 1999.
It was a copy of a 1985 KENS-5 investigative report which caught San Antonio’s Office of Inspections investigators taking kickbacks on camera, in exchange for approved building permits which overlooked faulty wiring and various other structural defects.
“It was one nasty stink bomb after another, spread out over five nights during a sweeps week,” Quinn recalls of the TV sting. “That opened the floodgates. Not only were they taking bribes, but they were punishing people who refused to participate.
“When I got the job, I went around to meet all of the directors, and said, ‘What can I do for you?’ [The chief of inspections] said, ‘Make sure nothing like this ever happens to me again.’”
San Antonio created the Office of Municipal Integrity in direct response to that 1985 scandal, with the idea that it would fill a gaping hole in the City’s oversight process, by providing the City with an outlet for whistleblowers, a team that could investigate allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse, and expose corruption.
Real oversight requires autonomy, however, and no one could credibly argue that the 2009 model of OMI is an autonomous entity. Over the last decade the office has moved from reporting to the Office of Internal Audit — a natural fit for an internal-investigations unit designed to expose bad behavior in city government — to being under the auspices of the City Manager’s office, ultimately finding itself puppet-mastered by a committee created and overseen by City Manager Sheryl Sculley.
During her time at OMI, Quinn, a retired captain in the Harris County Sheriff’s office, oversaw two civil investigators, a San Antonio Police officer, and a staff secretary. She recalls that OMI investigations, which generally hovered between 50 and 60 a year when she got the job, quickly jumped to 150 annually, and steadily climbed during her first few years.
At that time, the City’s process for handling allegations of impropriety in local government was similar to the approach currently taken by Austin, with an Integrity Unit working in the City Auditor’s office.
“This group should be under the City Auditor and be independent as well, to investigate any fraud, waste, or abuse — including investigating the City Manager and her staff,” says Pete Gonzales, who served as San Antonio’s City Auditor from May 2007 to June 2008, when he was fired. A subsequent
Express-News investigation revealed that Gonzales was let go after he confronted City staff about overdue inspections and repairs at public playgrounds. The director of Parks and Recreation resigned as a result of the scandal.
“Other city managers will tell you that they don’t even touch that, because that’s a conflict of interest,” he adds. “That’s the reason why [Sculley] looks so great, because she suppresses everything through investigations.”
Critics of the City’s current handling of municipal integrity cases point to three sharp changes instituted during the Sculley era that have incrementally neutered OMI.
In fairness to Sculley, by the time she came to San Antonio in 2005, OMI had already become an instrument of the City Manager’s office. In 2001, at Mayor Ed Garza’s urging, the City replaced its Office of Internal Audit with a city-auditor position and made the city auditor accountable to the mayor and City Council. As a result of that shakeup, Quinn, who previously reported to Internal Audit, began to submit OMI reports directly to City Manager Terry Brechtel. Upon receiving the ethics reports, Brechtel generally convened the heads of the implicated departments to decide what, if any, disciplinary action should be taken. This approach hardly made for an independent OMI, but Quinn says it functioned effectively.
Quinn says that after Sculley took over, the City Manager’s office began to drop OMI’s reports down to the lower reaches of the municipal food chain. “First of all, we reported to a deputy city manager, then it went to the director of Innovation, and then it was relegated to the Human Resources director. It was never told to me why. All I knew was the reporting structure changed.”
Source
It was a copy of a 1985 KENS-5 investigative report which caught San Antonio’s Office of Inspections investigators taking kickbacks on camera, in exchange for approved building permits which overlooked faulty wiring and various other structural defects.
“It was one nasty stink bomb after another, spread out over five nights during a sweeps week,” Quinn recalls of the TV sting. “That opened the floodgates. Not only were they taking bribes, but they were punishing people who refused to participate.
“When I got the job, I went around to meet all of the directors, and said, ‘What can I do for you?’ [The chief of inspections] said, ‘Make sure nothing like this ever happens to me again.’”
San Antonio created the Office of Municipal Integrity in direct response to that 1985 scandal, with the idea that it would fill a gaping hole in the City’s oversight process, by providing the City with an outlet for whistleblowers, a team that could investigate allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse, and expose corruption.
Real oversight requires autonomy, however, and no one could credibly argue that the 2009 model of OMI is an autonomous entity. Over the last decade the office has moved from reporting to the Office of Internal Audit — a natural fit for an internal-investigations unit designed to expose bad behavior in city government — to being under the auspices of the City Manager’s office, ultimately finding itself puppet-mastered by a committee created and overseen by City Manager Sheryl Sculley.
During her time at OMI, Quinn, a retired captain in the Harris County Sheriff’s office, oversaw two civil investigators, a San Antonio Police officer, and a staff secretary. She recalls that OMI investigations, which generally hovered between 50 and 60 a year when she got the job, quickly jumped to 150 annually, and steadily climbed during her first few years.
At that time, the City’s process for handling allegations of impropriety in local government was similar to the approach currently taken by Austin, with an Integrity Unit working in the City Auditor’s office.
“This group should be under the City Auditor and be independent as well, to investigate any fraud, waste, or abuse — including investigating the City Manager and her staff,” says Pete Gonzales, who served as San Antonio’s City Auditor from May 2007 to June 2008, when he was fired. A subsequent
Express-News investigation revealed that Gonzales was let go after he confronted City staff about overdue inspections and repairs at public playgrounds. The director of Parks and Recreation resigned as a result of the scandal.
“Other city managers will tell you that they don’t even touch that, because that’s a conflict of interest,” he adds. “That’s the reason why [Sculley] looks so great, because she suppresses everything through investigations.”
Critics of the City’s current handling of municipal integrity cases point to three sharp changes instituted during the Sculley era that have incrementally neutered OMI.
In fairness to Sculley, by the time she came to San Antonio in 2005, OMI had already become an instrument of the City Manager’s office. In 2001, at Mayor Ed Garza’s urging, the City replaced its Office of Internal Audit with a city-auditor position and made the city auditor accountable to the mayor and City Council. As a result of that shakeup, Quinn, who previously reported to Internal Audit, began to submit OMI reports directly to City Manager Terry Brechtel. Upon receiving the ethics reports, Brechtel generally convened the heads of the implicated departments to decide what, if any, disciplinary action should be taken. This approach hardly made for an independent OMI, but Quinn says it functioned effectively.
Quinn says that after Sculley took over, the City Manager’s office began to drop OMI’s reports down to the lower reaches of the municipal food chain. “First of all, we reported to a deputy city manager, then it went to the director of Innovation, and then it was relegated to the Human Resources director. It was never told to me why. All I knew was the reporting structure changed.”
Source
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Wheaton mom gets first visit with baby she's accused of abandoning
In a tearful meeting, the Wheaton woman who is accused of abandoning her newborn son after his birth cradled her child Tuesday for the first time.
Authorities allowed Nunu Sung to have a brief supervised visit behind closed doors on the day of a civil hearing regarding the baby's custody.
The shelter care hearing before DuPage Associate Judge C. Stanley Austin was continued to Sept. 15. Meanwhile, the child named Joshua remains in state protective custody in foster care.
Sung, a 24-year-old Myanmar native, faces up to three years in prison if she is convicted of obstructing justice and misdemeanor endangering the life of a child. She does not have a prior documented criminal history.
She was set free July 16 after supporters helped her family raise the required 10 percent of a $50,000 bond. Sung, though, is required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet.
Prosecutors said Sung abandoned the infant early June 12 after she gave birth behind a garage outside her cousin's apartment on Crescent Street in Wheaton. A neighbor called 911 after he and his dog discovered the nude baby, his umbilical cord still attached, covered in dirt under a bush.
Authorities said Sung became pregnant while living in Texas. They said the father has not responded to their attempts for contact. He and Sung were not married. She does not have other kids.
Prosecutors said Sung did not receive prenatal care during her pregnancy, which she hid from relatives after moving to Wheaton from Texas in February. Sung later said she felt no emotional connection to the infant and wished they both had died during his delivery, according to court records.
Prosecutors said she told police she "wasn't thinking straight," adding, "She stated that she thought about going back to check on the child, but she didn't."
But, in several court appearances, a tearful Sung publicly asked about the baby's health and her attorney said she desperately wanted to see him.
Source
Authorities allowed Nunu Sung to have a brief supervised visit behind closed doors on the day of a civil hearing regarding the baby's custody.
The shelter care hearing before DuPage Associate Judge C. Stanley Austin was continued to Sept. 15. Meanwhile, the child named Joshua remains in state protective custody in foster care.
Sung, a 24-year-old Myanmar native, faces up to three years in prison if she is convicted of obstructing justice and misdemeanor endangering the life of a child. She does not have a prior documented criminal history.
She was set free July 16 after supporters helped her family raise the required 10 percent of a $50,000 bond. Sung, though, is required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet.
Prosecutors said Sung abandoned the infant early June 12 after she gave birth behind a garage outside her cousin's apartment on Crescent Street in Wheaton. A neighbor called 911 after he and his dog discovered the nude baby, his umbilical cord still attached, covered in dirt under a bush.
Authorities said Sung became pregnant while living in Texas. They said the father has not responded to their attempts for contact. He and Sung were not married. She does not have other kids.
Prosecutors said Sung did not receive prenatal care during her pregnancy, which she hid from relatives after moving to Wheaton from Texas in February. Sung later said she felt no emotional connection to the infant and wished they both had died during his delivery, according to court records.
Prosecutors said she told police she "wasn't thinking straight," adding, "She stated that she thought about going back to check on the child, but she didn't."
But, in several court appearances, a tearful Sung publicly asked about the baby's health and her attorney said she desperately wanted to see him.
Source
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Two face homicide charges in Santa Cruz court for case of missing L.A. man
SANTA CRUZ -- Murder charges have been filed against two men who were arrested last week in connection with the kidnapping and slaying of a Los Angeles man missing since July 20.
Prosecutor Rob Wade confirmed Tuesday that the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office filed homicide charges against Adam Spencer Hunt, 29, of Watsonville, and Stewart Skuba, 31, of Santa Cruz. Both will be arraigned today on murder, kidnapping and robbery charges in connection with the death of 29-year-old Elias Sorokin, a Los Angeles businessman who was last heard from while driving on the Fishhook in Santa Cruz. Police say his death was the result of a drug deal gone bad, but have declined to release specifics.
Sorokin's body has not been found, though police have continued their search.
"We are going to exhaust every possible avenue we need to," said Lt. Rudy Escalante of the Santa Cruz Police Department.
Tuesday, they were using a "grid searching method" as well as cadaver dogs near Bonny Doon in the Santa Cruz Mountains, according Escalante.
Police admit they have no idea where Sorokin's body is. His scorched pickup was found Tuesday off Empire Grade Road on State Parks property about a mile from Smith Grade Road. Police believe he was killed before his truck was dumped, although Tuesday they were searching near where his truck was found.
"It was covered once, but there's nothing wrong with covering an area a second time," Escalante said.
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Police said they are committed to continuing the search for Sorokin's remains. Tuesday evening, they were sifting through other leads to find other viable search areas that they will canvas today.
"We don't have a timetable of when we're going to stop looking," Escalante said. "We're going to just keep looking."
Wade said the ongoing investigation led the District Attorney's Office to file homicide charges Tuesday.
"That information reflected that he's been killed," Wade said, though without a body he said they can't confirm the manner of death. Police have not disclosed how they believe Sorokin was killed.
Three men have been arrested as part of the investigation that also involved the FBI and Department of Justice. Kenneth Clamp, 39, a Santa Cruz construction worker, was arrested early Friday and is being held without bail on a drug-related parole violation and is thought to be "peripherally involved", investigators said.
Hunt surrendered to Santa Cruz police at 12:40 a.m. Saturday and was booked into County Jail. He and Skuba are being held on $1 million bail.
Friends last spoke to Elias Sorokin, 29, as he drove from Oakland to Santa Cruz on July 20. Two days later, a couple tried to use his credit cards and checks at businesses in Santa Cruz and Watsonville, which prompted local authorities to become involved in his disappearance.
Skuba, 31, who identifies himself as a hair stylist, was arrested Thursday in South County, then taken to the Santa Cruz police station and questioned. Hunt identifies himself as a laborer. The three men are acquaintances and all have criminal records, according to police.
Police believe the men had a prearranged meeting with Sorokin to sell a large amount of marijuana and that the deal went sour at a condominium at 244 Felix St. in Santa Cruz. The FBI and Department of Justice were at the Felix Street location Friday collecting evidence.
Investigators have not said if they recovered the drugs involved in the deal and have not disclosed whether anything else was stolen from Sorokin. Watsonville police arrested two men who allegedly were using Sorokin's credit cards at South County businesses, but those men have not been charged in connection with Sorokin's disappearance and death.
Source
Prosecutor Rob Wade confirmed Tuesday that the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office filed homicide charges against Adam Spencer Hunt, 29, of Watsonville, and Stewart Skuba, 31, of Santa Cruz. Both will be arraigned today on murder, kidnapping and robbery charges in connection with the death of 29-year-old Elias Sorokin, a Los Angeles businessman who was last heard from while driving on the Fishhook in Santa Cruz. Police say his death was the result of a drug deal gone bad, but have declined to release specifics.
Sorokin's body has not been found, though police have continued their search.
"We are going to exhaust every possible avenue we need to," said Lt. Rudy Escalante of the Santa Cruz Police Department.
Tuesday, they were using a "grid searching method" as well as cadaver dogs near Bonny Doon in the Santa Cruz Mountains, according Escalante.
Police admit they have no idea where Sorokin's body is. His scorched pickup was found Tuesday off Empire Grade Road on State Parks property about a mile from Smith Grade Road. Police believe he was killed before his truck was dumped, although Tuesday they were searching near where his truck was found.
"It was covered once, but there's nothing wrong with covering an area a second time," Escalante said.
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Police said they are committed to continuing the search for Sorokin's remains. Tuesday evening, they were sifting through other leads to find other viable search areas that they will canvas today.
"We don't have a timetable of when we're going to stop looking," Escalante said. "We're going to just keep looking."
Wade said the ongoing investigation led the District Attorney's Office to file homicide charges Tuesday.
"That information reflected that he's been killed," Wade said, though without a body he said they can't confirm the manner of death. Police have not disclosed how they believe Sorokin was killed.
Three men have been arrested as part of the investigation that also involved the FBI and Department of Justice. Kenneth Clamp, 39, a Santa Cruz construction worker, was arrested early Friday and is being held without bail on a drug-related parole violation and is thought to be "peripherally involved", investigators said.
Hunt surrendered to Santa Cruz police at 12:40 a.m. Saturday and was booked into County Jail. He and Skuba are being held on $1 million bail.
Friends last spoke to Elias Sorokin, 29, as he drove from Oakland to Santa Cruz on July 20. Two days later, a couple tried to use his credit cards and checks at businesses in Santa Cruz and Watsonville, which prompted local authorities to become involved in his disappearance.
Skuba, 31, who identifies himself as a hair stylist, was arrested Thursday in South County, then taken to the Santa Cruz police station and questioned. Hunt identifies himself as a laborer. The three men are acquaintances and all have criminal records, according to police.
Police believe the men had a prearranged meeting with Sorokin to sell a large amount of marijuana and that the deal went sour at a condominium at 244 Felix St. in Santa Cruz. The FBI and Department of Justice were at the Felix Street location Friday collecting evidence.
Investigators have not said if they recovered the drugs involved in the deal and have not disclosed whether anything else was stolen from Sorokin. Watsonville police arrested two men who allegedly were using Sorokin's credit cards at South County businesses, but those men have not been charged in connection with Sorokin's disappearance and death.
Source
Thursday, October 15, 2009
‘The Best Lawyers In America’ Honors 40 Gardere Attorneys
DALLAS/HOUSTON/AUSTIN – Forty lawyers from the Dallas, Houston and Austin offices of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP have been honored among 2010’s “Best Lawyers in America.”
Published by Woodward/White Inc., “The Best Lawyers in America” is widely regarded as one of the most respected surveys of U.S. lawyers. Attorneys are selected following a rigorous process in which thousands of the country’s top lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. More than 2 million detailed evaluations are reviewed in compiling the selections.
This year’s honorees from the firm’s Dallas office: Val J. Albright, Tax Law; Mark W. Bayer, Antitrust Law; Cynthia J. Bishop, Environmental Law; Michael J. Donohue, Tax Law; Curtis L. Frisbie Jr., Antitrust Law and Commercial Litigation; Jeffrey M. Gaba, Environmental Law; Kenneth R. Glaser, Intellectual Property Law; Lawrence E. Glasgow, Corporate Law and Mergers & Acquisitions Law; Lawrence B. Goldstein, Corporate Law; Douglas A. Harrison, Family Law; Joe B. Harrison, Commercial Litigation and Personal Injury Litigation; Jack W. Hawkins, Trusts and Estates; Cym H. Lowell, Tax Law; Stephen A. McCartin, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; Keith V. Novick, Trusts and Estates; Holland N. O'Neil, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; Alan J. Perkins, Corporate Law; Frances E. Phillips, Environmental Law; Richard M. Roberson, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; Deirdre B. Ruckman, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; Robert Sarfatis, Corporate Law; Larry L. Schoenbrun, Corporate Governance and Compliance Law, Corporate Law, Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law, and Securities Law; Richard A. Tulli, Corporate Law; and Peter Vogel, Communications Law and Information Technology Law.
From the Houston office: Michael A. Abbott, Employee Benefits Law; Geoffrey H. Bracken, Oil & Gas Law; Michael P. Cash, Mass Tort Litigation; Allen B. Craig III, Corporate Law and Tax Law; Barbara Spudis De Marigny, Tax Law; Richard O. Faulk, Environmental Law; Thomas A. Hagemann, Commercial Litigation and Criminal Defense: White-Collar; Elizabeth Howard, Structured Finance Law; Mark R. Martin, Tax Law; William E. Matthews, Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, and Legal Malpractice Law; John P. Melko, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; John R. Pearson, Maritime Law; Lawrence J. Pirtle, Trusts and Estates; Frank M. Putman, Corporate Law; and N.L. Stevens III, Corporate Law.
From the Austin office: Mark Vane, Government Relations Law.
Three Gardere attorneys, Jack Hawkins, Cym Lowell and Larry Schoenbrun, have been included in the Best Lawyers listing for 20 years or longer. William Matthews, Fran Phillips, Lawrence Pirtle and Frank Putman have each been recognized for at least 10 years. Four others – Elizabeth Howard, Michael Cash, Jeffrey Gaba, and Michael Donohue – were first-time honorees.
Additionally, with three attorneys from the firm’s Environmental group receiving individual honors, the firm was the top ranked Environmental Law practice in Dallas.
Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, an AmLaw 200 firm celebrating 100 years in 2009 and one of the Southwest’s largest full-service law firms, has offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston and Mexico City. Gardere provides legal services to private and public companies and individuals in areas of energy, hospitality, litigation, corporate, tax, environmental, labor and employment, intellectual property and financial services.
Source
Published by Woodward/White Inc., “The Best Lawyers in America” is widely regarded as one of the most respected surveys of U.S. lawyers. Attorneys are selected following a rigorous process in which thousands of the country’s top lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. More than 2 million detailed evaluations are reviewed in compiling the selections.
This year’s honorees from the firm’s Dallas office: Val J. Albright, Tax Law; Mark W. Bayer, Antitrust Law; Cynthia J. Bishop, Environmental Law; Michael J. Donohue, Tax Law; Curtis L. Frisbie Jr., Antitrust Law and Commercial Litigation; Jeffrey M. Gaba, Environmental Law; Kenneth R. Glaser, Intellectual Property Law; Lawrence E. Glasgow, Corporate Law and Mergers & Acquisitions Law; Lawrence B. Goldstein, Corporate Law; Douglas A. Harrison, Family Law; Joe B. Harrison, Commercial Litigation and Personal Injury Litigation; Jack W. Hawkins, Trusts and Estates; Cym H. Lowell, Tax Law; Stephen A. McCartin, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; Keith V. Novick, Trusts and Estates; Holland N. O'Neil, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; Alan J. Perkins, Corporate Law; Frances E. Phillips, Environmental Law; Richard M. Roberson, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; Deirdre B. Ruckman, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; Robert Sarfatis, Corporate Law; Larry L. Schoenbrun, Corporate Governance and Compliance Law, Corporate Law, Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law, and Securities Law; Richard A. Tulli, Corporate Law; and Peter Vogel, Communications Law and Information Technology Law.
From the Houston office: Michael A. Abbott, Employee Benefits Law; Geoffrey H. Bracken, Oil & Gas Law; Michael P. Cash, Mass Tort Litigation; Allen B. Craig III, Corporate Law and Tax Law; Barbara Spudis De Marigny, Tax Law; Richard O. Faulk, Environmental Law; Thomas A. Hagemann, Commercial Litigation and Criminal Defense: White-Collar; Elizabeth Howard, Structured Finance Law; Mark R. Martin, Tax Law; William E. Matthews, Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, and Legal Malpractice Law; John P. Melko, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law; John R. Pearson, Maritime Law; Lawrence J. Pirtle, Trusts and Estates; Frank M. Putman, Corporate Law; and N.L. Stevens III, Corporate Law.
From the Austin office: Mark Vane, Government Relations Law.
Three Gardere attorneys, Jack Hawkins, Cym Lowell and Larry Schoenbrun, have been included in the Best Lawyers listing for 20 years or longer. William Matthews, Fran Phillips, Lawrence Pirtle and Frank Putman have each been recognized for at least 10 years. Four others – Elizabeth Howard, Michael Cash, Jeffrey Gaba, and Michael Donohue – were first-time honorees.
Additionally, with three attorneys from the firm’s Environmental group receiving individual honors, the firm was the top ranked Environmental Law practice in Dallas.
Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, an AmLaw 200 firm celebrating 100 years in 2009 and one of the Southwest’s largest full-service law firms, has offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston and Mexico City. Gardere provides legal services to private and public companies and individuals in areas of energy, hospitality, litigation, corporate, tax, environmental, labor and employment, intellectual property and financial services.
Source
Monday, September 28, 2009
Johnson County drops DWI charges against Tarrant judge
The Johnson County attorney is dismissing its driving while intoxicated case against Tarrant County state District Judge Elizabeth Berry.
County Attorney Bill Moore’s decision to drop the case comes after the 10th Court of Appeals dismissed his appeal of a lower court ruling that threw out blood tests taken after she was arrested last year.
"After reviewing the evidence, we determined that because of the ruling on the suppression of the blood test, our only alternative is to dismiss the case against Elizabeth Berry," Moore said. "Our opinion was that we could not prove DWI/open container beyond a reasonable doubt without the blood test."
Moore filed the dismissal on Tuesday after the Waco appeals court tossed out his appeal on a technicality because Moore did not sign the required notice of appeal. An assistant county attorney signed the document.
Moore could have filed an appeal with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin.
Berry was charged with misdemeanor DWI based on the results of a blood draw taken three hours after she was arrested Nov. 8 by Alvarado police. Officers said she was driving 92 mph in a 65-mph zone on Interstate 35W when they stopped her.
Moore has refused to release the blood test results. In Texas, drivers with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 are considered intoxicated.
After a three-hour hearing in January, Senior Judge Robert Dohoney ruled that the results could not be used to try Berry on the DWI charge because the facts cited by the arresting officer were not enough to support the search warrant granted by a judge to obtain her blood.
Berry, 44, announced in June that she will not seek re-election when her four-year term expires next year. She has presided over Criminal District Court No. 3 since 2003.
Since her arrest, Berry has transferred all alcohol-related cases in her court to another judge.
Source
County Attorney Bill Moore’s decision to drop the case comes after the 10th Court of Appeals dismissed his appeal of a lower court ruling that threw out blood tests taken after she was arrested last year.
"After reviewing the evidence, we determined that because of the ruling on the suppression of the blood test, our only alternative is to dismiss the case against Elizabeth Berry," Moore said. "Our opinion was that we could not prove DWI/open container beyond a reasonable doubt without the blood test."
Moore filed the dismissal on Tuesday after the Waco appeals court tossed out his appeal on a technicality because Moore did not sign the required notice of appeal. An assistant county attorney signed the document.
Moore could have filed an appeal with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin.
Berry was charged with misdemeanor DWI based on the results of a blood draw taken three hours after she was arrested Nov. 8 by Alvarado police. Officers said she was driving 92 mph in a 65-mph zone on Interstate 35W when they stopped her.
Moore has refused to release the blood test results. In Texas, drivers with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 are considered intoxicated.
After a three-hour hearing in January, Senior Judge Robert Dohoney ruled that the results could not be used to try Berry on the DWI charge because the facts cited by the arresting officer were not enough to support the search warrant granted by a judge to obtain her blood.
Berry, 44, announced in June that she will not seek re-election when her four-year term expires next year. She has presided over Criminal District Court No. 3 since 2003.
Since her arrest, Berry has transferred all alcohol-related cases in her court to another judge.
Source
Monday, September 7, 2009
DA Peck reviews allegations of prisoner beaten by prison guards
Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said he is reviewing a report of an internal investigation into the alleged beating of an inmate in the county prison this month before deciding whether a criminal probe is warranted.
A sergeant, two corrections officers and a former guard are under investigation by prison officials for allegedly assaulting James Edwards, 27, of Austin, Texas, who claims he was beaten by guards in the middle of the night in a counselor's room, out of sight of video cameras.
After the incident, Edwards was returned to Texas on a parole violation. He has since been released from prison.
"As soon as I get the report, I'll look at it," Peck said. "We'll read the report and make a decision whether a future investigation needs to be done. I am aware of the incident. The warden told me they have a truthful account of what occurred.
"The warden called and gave me a thumbnail sketch of what occurred," Peck said. "We have to learn the extent of his injuries. This is a big issue in deciding if it could be simple assault or aggravated assault."
The beating allegedly occurred June 5. Peck said he wasn't notified until June 17.
Warden John Walton said he didn't notify Peck until the investigation was completed.
"We don't notify the DA until we're done," Walton said.
The warden would not say whether any disciplinary action has been taken against the guards.
Commissioner Tom Ceraso, chairman of the county's prison board, said he can't comment on a personnel issue.
"I can't comment about anything that's going on at the jail," Ceraso said.
Edwards' mother, Patty Varhola of New Kensington, said her son had a warrant issued against him for a technical parole violation after he missed an appointment with his parole officer. Edwards had served part of a 10-year sentence in a Texas prison on a charge of attempted capital murder, according to court records.
Edwards was involved in a New Kensington drug ring in 2001 and traveled to Texas with another man to buy drugs, court records show. There was a shootout between Edwards' companion and a drug dealer, who was wounded.
Edwards was arrested in 2001 and sentenced in 2003 in Travis County, Texas. His sentence was set to expire in 2013, court records show.
Edwards left Texas to visit Varhola, who was a patient at the Alle-Kiski Medical Center in Natrona Heights, his mother said. While he was in the area, Edwards was stopped by Upper Burrell Police. They discovered the outstanding warrant and took him to the New Kensington Police Station, then to the county lockup, she said.
She said the beating incident occurred after officers found some inmates smoking, a violation of prison policy, and ordered them to return to their cells. Edwards protested, saying he wasn't smoking, and asked if he could remain outside his cell.
Varhola said officers came to her son's cell late that night, took him to a counselor's office and ordered him to put his hands over his head. Then they handcuffed him and took turns beating and choking him, allegedly slamming his head against a desk, Edwards said.
Varhola said her son weighs 130 pounds and has "mental health issues" but is not violent.
"He's very frail," she added.
Peck's office has investigated a number of allegations of assaults on inmates — some of them mentally ill — by guards over the past several years. Only one has been successfully prosecuted.
In February, a former guard pleaded guilty to charges of official oppression for forcing inmates to kneel, bark like dogs and sing nursery rhymes.
Source
A sergeant, two corrections officers and a former guard are under investigation by prison officials for allegedly assaulting James Edwards, 27, of Austin, Texas, who claims he was beaten by guards in the middle of the night in a counselor's room, out of sight of video cameras.
After the incident, Edwards was returned to Texas on a parole violation. He has since been released from prison.
"As soon as I get the report, I'll look at it," Peck said. "We'll read the report and make a decision whether a future investigation needs to be done. I am aware of the incident. The warden told me they have a truthful account of what occurred.
"The warden called and gave me a thumbnail sketch of what occurred," Peck said. "We have to learn the extent of his injuries. This is a big issue in deciding if it could be simple assault or aggravated assault."
The beating allegedly occurred June 5. Peck said he wasn't notified until June 17.
Warden John Walton said he didn't notify Peck until the investigation was completed.
"We don't notify the DA until we're done," Walton said.
The warden would not say whether any disciplinary action has been taken against the guards.
Commissioner Tom Ceraso, chairman of the county's prison board, said he can't comment on a personnel issue.
"I can't comment about anything that's going on at the jail," Ceraso said.
Edwards' mother, Patty Varhola of New Kensington, said her son had a warrant issued against him for a technical parole violation after he missed an appointment with his parole officer. Edwards had served part of a 10-year sentence in a Texas prison on a charge of attempted capital murder, according to court records.
Edwards was involved in a New Kensington drug ring in 2001 and traveled to Texas with another man to buy drugs, court records show. There was a shootout between Edwards' companion and a drug dealer, who was wounded.
Edwards was arrested in 2001 and sentenced in 2003 in Travis County, Texas. His sentence was set to expire in 2013, court records show.
Edwards left Texas to visit Varhola, who was a patient at the Alle-Kiski Medical Center in Natrona Heights, his mother said. While he was in the area, Edwards was stopped by Upper Burrell Police. They discovered the outstanding warrant and took him to the New Kensington Police Station, then to the county lockup, she said.
She said the beating incident occurred after officers found some inmates smoking, a violation of prison policy, and ordered them to return to their cells. Edwards protested, saying he wasn't smoking, and asked if he could remain outside his cell.
Varhola said officers came to her son's cell late that night, took him to a counselor's office and ordered him to put his hands over his head. Then they handcuffed him and took turns beating and choking him, allegedly slamming his head against a desk, Edwards said.
Varhola said her son weighs 130 pounds and has "mental health issues" but is not violent.
"He's very frail," she added.
Peck's office has investigated a number of allegations of assaults on inmates — some of them mentally ill — by guards over the past several years. Only one has been successfully prosecuted.
In February, a former guard pleaded guilty to charges of official oppression for forcing inmates to kneel, bark like dogs and sing nursery rhymes.
Source
Monday, August 24, 2009
Austin to Marfa, a love connection
Sandlot baseball requires a certain amount of trash talk, and there was plenty of it at Parque Zaragoza earlier this month.
Austin's Texas Playboys were facing off against their favorite Texas rival: Marfa's Los Yonke Gallos. But despite the brash talk during the afternoon double-header, the competitors were chatting in the other side's dugout and the fans seemed to be cheering for both teams at once.
In fact, the amity seen at the East Austin baseball diamond reflects a larger camaraderie between the two communities, the effect of Austin's ongoing love affair with the tiny West Texas town of Marfa.
Take Austin architect Jack Sanders, the founder and captain of the Playboys. He's currently project manager of Marfa's El Cosmico, which is "part yurt and hammock hotel, part residential living, part art-house, greenhouse and amphitheater" and is the latest project of Liz Lambert, who was the creative force behind the Hotel San Jose and Jo's coffee house on South Congress Avenue and Hotel Saint Cecilia just off South Congress Avenue.
One of the reasons Sanders approached Marfa furniture designer Joey Benton about the possibility of a baseball game was because he believed Marfa's independent, "create your own fun" attitude would lend itself to the type of sandlot revolution the Playboys champion.
"Marfa has that type of attitude and Austin does, too; that's one of the similarities," Sanders says.
Benton was up for the challenge, putting together an eclectic team of Marfa natives and newcomers, many from or with ties to Austin. The first game took place during El Cosmico's festival in September 2007, when about 200 Austinites flooded Marfa, which has about 2,100 permanent residents, for a weekend of camping and outdoor music.
Lambert is one reason the trail to Marfa from Austin is so well worn.
Her family has ranch land near Marfa and she spent childhood summers in the area. Now, she has a second home on a ranch just outside of town, where she regularly hosts her Austin friends.
She's responsible for Austin-to-Marfa transplants such as Krista Steinhauer and Adam Bork, founders of Marfa's beloved mobile restaurant, the Food Shark. Steinhauer and Bork originally moved to Marfa in 2004 to work at the Thunderbird, the hotel Lambert spearheaded (it opened in 2005) but with which she's no longer affiliated.
Lambert is proud of making so many Marfa introductions. "I've taken everyone I've ever loved there. It's a gift," she says. But she refuses to take credit for the Austin-Marfa love connection.
"It's about the long drive, the changing landscape and the time to unwind," she says. "There are also many similarities between Austin and Presidio County. They are the only blue dots in an otherwise red state. There's a similar political and creative sensibility."
Migration from Austin
During the past few decades, the town, founded in the early 1880s as a railroad water stop, has solidified its reputation as an artistic enclave. Starting with the arrival of minimalist artist Donald Judd, who moved to Marfa in the 1970s, the arts scene has helped drive the development of high-caliber restaurants, music venues and hotels.
Of course, Austinites have been making the pilgrimage to Marfa long before it had fusion cuisine.
Larry Doll, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Texas, and his wife have been making regular trips since 1991. They built a house in Marfa in 2004.
For Doll, "any urban stress starts to peel away" when he hits Junction. "It's the remoteness that's a big part of the attraction," he says. "Plus, I never get tired of the art."
According to Joni Marginot, the director of the Marfa Chamber of Commerce, "the highest percentage of Marfa's tourists now comes from Austin." Marfa's tourism continues to reap the benefits of a steady stream of press coverage on Marfa as movie location, arts Mecca, destination film festival and gastronomic delight. But, for many Austin regulars to Marfa, it was other Austinites, not the media, who first got them there.
Austin education consultant Quality Quinn has been introducing her friends to Marfa since 1998, when she and her now former partner, criminal defense attorney Michael Maguire, purchased a home there. They hosted parties and fundraisers for Austin-based institutions.
In those days, recalls Quinn, the regular visitors and second-home owners were largely from Dallas and Houston. She attributes the influx of Austinites to the "people from Austin's creative culture who made Marfa spectacular, people including hotel owner Virginia Lebermann, Liz Lambert and Randy Franklin." (Franklin, the owner of Yard Dog Gallery on South Congress Avenue, opened Yard Dog Marfa in November 2007.)
"Marfa, like Austin, is one of the few places you can go where the price of inclusion is just showing up," Quinn says. "The drive from Austin falls in line with a staycation. You can just get in the car, drive out and experience the vastness, the high plains and the stars free of charge."
The pull of Marfa
But it's not just Austinites pressed for cash who are making the journey with more frequency.
"Just did a quick interview with the Austin American-Statesman on the relationship between Austin and Marfa, Texas. I miss Marfa!!!" wrote Lance Armstrong on his Twitter page, minutes after his phone interview for this article. Armstrong is renting a loft space in Marfa's historic Brite Building, where he plans to return for long weekends in the fall.
"There's no doubt that I'll be spending quite a bit of time there," says Armstrong. "Marfa is one of the simplest places I've ever been. And, for me, simple isn't always easy." Naturally, Armstrong is quick to mention that Marfa is a bike-friendly town, with nearby mountain trails and endless swaths of empty road. "It's safe to say you don't need a car there," he laughs.
For Armstrong, Marfa's charm also has to do with the similarities to Austin, where Armstrong spends the majority of his time when he's not training or racing.
"Austin and Marfa are both heavy on the arts," he says. "Of course, Austin is more about music and Marfa is more about the visual arts, but both places don't just happen by accident."
One of the people helping develop the arts scene is Lebermann, owner of the Thunderbird hotel and co-founder of Ballroom Marfa, a nonprofit space for contemporary art and culture in downtown Marfa.
"It's exciting to build on what Judd did here, to be involved with a culture that has such a rich history in railroad, ranching and art as its base," she says.
Lebermann, who grew up in Austin, has been visiting Marfa and the nearby Big Bend region since childhood. She's considered Marfa her home since 2002. And while the Thunderbird has always had a large number of Austin patrons, in the past couple of years, Lebermann has seen a marked increase in Ballroom's Austin members.
Part of the draw, she says, is its developing music program, featuring musicians such as Lyle Lovett, Billy Joe Shaver, Jeff Tweedy and Conor Oberst in intimate settings. The shows are reminiscent of Austin in the '70s and '80s.
"I remember seeing tiny, amazing shows in Austin when I was growing up," says Lebermann. "But now they're just all so massive."
The comparison between "old" Austin and "new" Marfa might be extreme, but it's one that's increasingly being made by the Austinites who escape to West Texas for a vacation or more permanent relocation.
"Marfa is a natural draw for people from Austin because it's like Austin used to be. It's where people go who don't want to live a Type A life," says Barbara Morgan, executive director of the Austin Film Festival, who's lived in Austin for 30 years.
Morgan first started traveling to the region more than 20 years ago and continues to make routine visits, including her annual trip to the Marfa Film Festival, which the Austin festival supports by trading film screenings and co-sponsoring events.
"West Texas people just do their own thing, which is the real foundation of how Austin used to be. It's that distinct personality that acts as a magnet for other people who have like personalities," she says. "So when Marfa became the art community town it was mirroring (old) Austin."
Other transplants say that ultimately they were tired of the congestion, the sprawl and the condos in Austin. They went to Marfa looking for a way of life, they say Austin has lost.
Karen Longshore, moved to Marfa in December 2007 after living in Austin for 13 years. It was what the 32-year-old, former Arthouse membership coordinator refers to as her winter of discontent.
"The day I decided to move to Marfa, I was riding my bike on Second Street, and this Hummer limo pulled out in front of me," says Longshore. "I was more tapped than hit, but my bike skidded and the girls in the Hummer, who were clearly on their way to a bachelorette party and probably had French pedicures, rolled down their windows and laughed." The Austin she'd fallen in love with had changed in a way that wasn't working for her.
"The only thing that's missing in Marfa is single men in deck shoes and summer sweaters," she says.
By all accounts, the Marfa dating scene and the Marfa job market are not ideal. It's why many young people, including 25-year-old Austin native Marie Ely, who moved to Marfa for a year in 2007, eventually leave. Ely first visited Marfa in 1999 and then, again, in 2003 with her parents, Sharon Ely and musician Joe Ely. "It was like an extremely simplified version of Austin," she remembers. "The people were friendly; there was music constantly happening and art-related events."
For her, the desert landscape and diverse inhabitants were worth working the three or four odd jobs she needed to make ends meet. Although now Marie Ely's life is largely a nomadic one, spent traveling with her boyfriend, artist Justin Lowe, she always makes a point of returning to Marfa.
"I have to go out to the desert, to the emptiness, to the nice people and great food. I need that kind of sanctuary and release of business and life in order to continue traveling around."
Thirty-nine-year-old Lance Webb has a unique perspective on Austin's love affair with Marfa.
Webb is a fourth-generation Marfan, who splits his time largely between Austin and Marfa and manages Joe Ely and the Flatlanders. He sees three groups of Austinites who make the 800-plus-mile circuit from Austin to Marfa and back again: younger folks struggling to make ends meet; the older, more established arts crowd with more discretionary time and resources; and the professionals who come up for the occasional three-day weekend.
"When I'm in Austin, being a native Marfan now seems to have status attached to it," he says. "My dad and grandparents would never have believed it because back in the day, if you told people you were from Marfa, they thought you were a hillbilly living in a wasteland."
Of course, Webb appreciates the attraction. Formerly the CEO of public trading software companies, he spent years living in Asia, but always made the pilgrimage home.
"I would sometimes get on a plane and fly from Tokyo to San Francisco to El Paso, then rent a car and drive to Marfa for 24 hours; that's how strong the pull was," he says. "I'd fly to Marfa and sit on the tailgate of a pickup and just look at the sky. It was always worth it, even for a day."
Tobin Levy is a freelance writer based in Austin and Marfa. She moved to Marfa in 2006.
Source
Austin's Texas Playboys were facing off against their favorite Texas rival: Marfa's Los Yonke Gallos. But despite the brash talk during the afternoon double-header, the competitors were chatting in the other side's dugout and the fans seemed to be cheering for both teams at once.
In fact, the amity seen at the East Austin baseball diamond reflects a larger camaraderie between the two communities, the effect of Austin's ongoing love affair with the tiny West Texas town of Marfa.
Take Austin architect Jack Sanders, the founder and captain of the Playboys. He's currently project manager of Marfa's El Cosmico, which is "part yurt and hammock hotel, part residential living, part art-house, greenhouse and amphitheater" and is the latest project of Liz Lambert, who was the creative force behind the Hotel San Jose and Jo's coffee house on South Congress Avenue and Hotel Saint Cecilia just off South Congress Avenue.
One of the reasons Sanders approached Marfa furniture designer Joey Benton about the possibility of a baseball game was because he believed Marfa's independent, "create your own fun" attitude would lend itself to the type of sandlot revolution the Playboys champion.
"Marfa has that type of attitude and Austin does, too; that's one of the similarities," Sanders says.
Benton was up for the challenge, putting together an eclectic team of Marfa natives and newcomers, many from or with ties to Austin. The first game took place during El Cosmico's festival in September 2007, when about 200 Austinites flooded Marfa, which has about 2,100 permanent residents, for a weekend of camping and outdoor music.
Lambert is one reason the trail to Marfa from Austin is so well worn.
Her family has ranch land near Marfa and she spent childhood summers in the area. Now, she has a second home on a ranch just outside of town, where she regularly hosts her Austin friends.
She's responsible for Austin-to-Marfa transplants such as Krista Steinhauer and Adam Bork, founders of Marfa's beloved mobile restaurant, the Food Shark. Steinhauer and Bork originally moved to Marfa in 2004 to work at the Thunderbird, the hotel Lambert spearheaded (it opened in 2005) but with which she's no longer affiliated.
Lambert is proud of making so many Marfa introductions. "I've taken everyone I've ever loved there. It's a gift," she says. But she refuses to take credit for the Austin-Marfa love connection.
"It's about the long drive, the changing landscape and the time to unwind," she says. "There are also many similarities between Austin and Presidio County. They are the only blue dots in an otherwise red state. There's a similar political and creative sensibility."
Migration from Austin
During the past few decades, the town, founded in the early 1880s as a railroad water stop, has solidified its reputation as an artistic enclave. Starting with the arrival of minimalist artist Donald Judd, who moved to Marfa in the 1970s, the arts scene has helped drive the development of high-caliber restaurants, music venues and hotels.
Of course, Austinites have been making the pilgrimage to Marfa long before it had fusion cuisine.
Larry Doll, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Texas, and his wife have been making regular trips since 1991. They built a house in Marfa in 2004.
For Doll, "any urban stress starts to peel away" when he hits Junction. "It's the remoteness that's a big part of the attraction," he says. "Plus, I never get tired of the art."
According to Joni Marginot, the director of the Marfa Chamber of Commerce, "the highest percentage of Marfa's tourists now comes from Austin." Marfa's tourism continues to reap the benefits of a steady stream of press coverage on Marfa as movie location, arts Mecca, destination film festival and gastronomic delight. But, for many Austin regulars to Marfa, it was other Austinites, not the media, who first got them there.
Austin education consultant Quality Quinn has been introducing her friends to Marfa since 1998, when she and her now former partner, criminal defense attorney Michael Maguire, purchased a home there. They hosted parties and fundraisers for Austin-based institutions.
In those days, recalls Quinn, the regular visitors and second-home owners were largely from Dallas and Houston. She attributes the influx of Austinites to the "people from Austin's creative culture who made Marfa spectacular, people including hotel owner Virginia Lebermann, Liz Lambert and Randy Franklin." (Franklin, the owner of Yard Dog Gallery on South Congress Avenue, opened Yard Dog Marfa in November 2007.)
"Marfa, like Austin, is one of the few places you can go where the price of inclusion is just showing up," Quinn says. "The drive from Austin falls in line with a staycation. You can just get in the car, drive out and experience the vastness, the high plains and the stars free of charge."
The pull of Marfa
But it's not just Austinites pressed for cash who are making the journey with more frequency.
"Just did a quick interview with the Austin American-Statesman on the relationship between Austin and Marfa, Texas. I miss Marfa!!!" wrote Lance Armstrong on his Twitter page, minutes after his phone interview for this article. Armstrong is renting a loft space in Marfa's historic Brite Building, where he plans to return for long weekends in the fall.
"There's no doubt that I'll be spending quite a bit of time there," says Armstrong. "Marfa is one of the simplest places I've ever been. And, for me, simple isn't always easy." Naturally, Armstrong is quick to mention that Marfa is a bike-friendly town, with nearby mountain trails and endless swaths of empty road. "It's safe to say you don't need a car there," he laughs.
For Armstrong, Marfa's charm also has to do with the similarities to Austin, where Armstrong spends the majority of his time when he's not training or racing.
"Austin and Marfa are both heavy on the arts," he says. "Of course, Austin is more about music and Marfa is more about the visual arts, but both places don't just happen by accident."
One of the people helping develop the arts scene is Lebermann, owner of the Thunderbird hotel and co-founder of Ballroom Marfa, a nonprofit space for contemporary art and culture in downtown Marfa.
"It's exciting to build on what Judd did here, to be involved with a culture that has such a rich history in railroad, ranching and art as its base," she says.
Lebermann, who grew up in Austin, has been visiting Marfa and the nearby Big Bend region since childhood. She's considered Marfa her home since 2002. And while the Thunderbird has always had a large number of Austin patrons, in the past couple of years, Lebermann has seen a marked increase in Ballroom's Austin members.
Part of the draw, she says, is its developing music program, featuring musicians such as Lyle Lovett, Billy Joe Shaver, Jeff Tweedy and Conor Oberst in intimate settings. The shows are reminiscent of Austin in the '70s and '80s.
"I remember seeing tiny, amazing shows in Austin when I was growing up," says Lebermann. "But now they're just all so massive."
The comparison between "old" Austin and "new" Marfa might be extreme, but it's one that's increasingly being made by the Austinites who escape to West Texas for a vacation or more permanent relocation.
"Marfa is a natural draw for people from Austin because it's like Austin used to be. It's where people go who don't want to live a Type A life," says Barbara Morgan, executive director of the Austin Film Festival, who's lived in Austin for 30 years.
Morgan first started traveling to the region more than 20 years ago and continues to make routine visits, including her annual trip to the Marfa Film Festival, which the Austin festival supports by trading film screenings and co-sponsoring events.
"West Texas people just do their own thing, which is the real foundation of how Austin used to be. It's that distinct personality that acts as a magnet for other people who have like personalities," she says. "So when Marfa became the art community town it was mirroring (old) Austin."
Other transplants say that ultimately they were tired of the congestion, the sprawl and the condos in Austin. They went to Marfa looking for a way of life, they say Austin has lost.
Karen Longshore, moved to Marfa in December 2007 after living in Austin for 13 years. It was what the 32-year-old, former Arthouse membership coordinator refers to as her winter of discontent.
"The day I decided to move to Marfa, I was riding my bike on Second Street, and this Hummer limo pulled out in front of me," says Longshore. "I was more tapped than hit, but my bike skidded and the girls in the Hummer, who were clearly on their way to a bachelorette party and probably had French pedicures, rolled down their windows and laughed." The Austin she'd fallen in love with had changed in a way that wasn't working for her.
"The only thing that's missing in Marfa is single men in deck shoes and summer sweaters," she says.
By all accounts, the Marfa dating scene and the Marfa job market are not ideal. It's why many young people, including 25-year-old Austin native Marie Ely, who moved to Marfa for a year in 2007, eventually leave. Ely first visited Marfa in 1999 and then, again, in 2003 with her parents, Sharon Ely and musician Joe Ely. "It was like an extremely simplified version of Austin," she remembers. "The people were friendly; there was music constantly happening and art-related events."
For her, the desert landscape and diverse inhabitants were worth working the three or four odd jobs she needed to make ends meet. Although now Marie Ely's life is largely a nomadic one, spent traveling with her boyfriend, artist Justin Lowe, she always makes a point of returning to Marfa.
"I have to go out to the desert, to the emptiness, to the nice people and great food. I need that kind of sanctuary and release of business and life in order to continue traveling around."
Thirty-nine-year-old Lance Webb has a unique perspective on Austin's love affair with Marfa.
Webb is a fourth-generation Marfan, who splits his time largely between Austin and Marfa and manages Joe Ely and the Flatlanders. He sees three groups of Austinites who make the 800-plus-mile circuit from Austin to Marfa and back again: younger folks struggling to make ends meet; the older, more established arts crowd with more discretionary time and resources; and the professionals who come up for the occasional three-day weekend.
"When I'm in Austin, being a native Marfan now seems to have status attached to it," he says. "My dad and grandparents would never have believed it because back in the day, if you told people you were from Marfa, they thought you were a hillbilly living in a wasteland."
Of course, Webb appreciates the attraction. Formerly the CEO of public trading software companies, he spent years living in Asia, but always made the pilgrimage home.
"I would sometimes get on a plane and fly from Tokyo to San Francisco to El Paso, then rent a car and drive to Marfa for 24 hours; that's how strong the pull was," he says. "I'd fly to Marfa and sit on the tailgate of a pickup and just look at the sky. It was always worth it, even for a day."
Tobin Levy is a freelance writer based in Austin and Marfa. She moved to Marfa in 2006.
Source
Monday, August 10, 2009
Prosecutors seek to revive 'cold case' murder charge
Action by Texas' top criminal court Wednesday will give Travis County prosecutors one last chance to revive their case against Jimmie Dale White, a 58-year-old Austin man arrested in 2003 and charged with killing his roommate 17 years earlier.
White's murder charge was considered a major achievement for the Austin Police Department's cold case unit — at the time, it was the oldest unsolved case resulting in an arrest — but White never went to trial.
On New Year's Eve 2006, hours before retiring from the bench, state District Judge Jon Wisser announced that he had reluctantly dismissed White's murder charge because a fair trial was unlikely after the passage of so much time and the death of many witnesses who could have vouched for the suspect.
The Travis County district attorney's office appealed Wisser's decision to an intermediate court but lost.
On Wednesday, however, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to examine prosecution arguments that White's charge was improperly dismissed. There is no deadline for the appeals court to rule.
The decision keeps alive a case that has taken numerous twists and turns, including White's 1993 diagnosis with Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal condition that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Prosecutors took White's health into account when launching their appeals, assistant district attorney Holly Taylor said.
"We feel the evidence is pretty clear that he did kill this victim," Taylor said. "It's certainly unfortunate he has ALS, but there is also an issue of justice for this victim and this community."
David Botsford, White's appellate lawyer, said Wisser was correct to dismiss the charge.
"Who's in a better position than the trial judge — given the evidence he heard and credibility of witnesses — to determine whether this man could receive a fair trial?" Botsford said.
The mystery began May 3, 1986, when an Austin patrol officer discovered the body of Michael DesJardins in a parking lot at 5550 N. Lamar Blvd. The 23-year-old had been shot in the head, chest and abdomen and dumped in the parking lot.
The investigation led detectives 1 1/2 miles north, to the home DesJardins shared with White at 1211 Dwyce Drive. According to court records, White said he and DesJardins had visited several gay bars the night before DesJardins' body was found, and that DesJardins had left in the company of a person he met at one of the bars.
The investigation stalled, but through the years, new information arose. According to White's 2003 arrest warrant:
• White told his sister that he killed a man in his house and dumped the body in a Lamar Boulevard parking lot. That information came from White's brother-in-law in 1990.
• Also in 1990, a family friend told police that White's sister once discussed cleaning blood from White's house while he drove away with a body.
• In 1996, a bar patron recalled a 10-year-old conversation in which an intoxicated White had mentioned wanting to kill DesJardins over a debt. White offered to pay the bar patron to help with the killing, police said.
No arrests were made because of a lack of evidence, police said.
The Police Department's cold case unit picked up the investigation in late 2002. Detective Rick Blackmore found additional witnesses, including White's former next-door neighbor, who recalled a late-night scuffle, one or more "popping" sounds and sudden quiet. Several days later, the suspicious neighbor phoned an anonymous tip into CrimeStoppers after reading about DesJardin's killing in the American-Statesman, court records show.
Police, fearing that White was preparing to flee after he placed a rush order for his first passport, arrested him 17 years and two days after DesJardins was killed. Efforts to reach White's trial lawyer, Doug Beeson, were unsuccessful. Beeson has said in the past that he thinks his client is innocent.
Source
White's murder charge was considered a major achievement for the Austin Police Department's cold case unit — at the time, it was the oldest unsolved case resulting in an arrest — but White never went to trial.
On New Year's Eve 2006, hours before retiring from the bench, state District Judge Jon Wisser announced that he had reluctantly dismissed White's murder charge because a fair trial was unlikely after the passage of so much time and the death of many witnesses who could have vouched for the suspect.
The Travis County district attorney's office appealed Wisser's decision to an intermediate court but lost.
On Wednesday, however, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to examine prosecution arguments that White's charge was improperly dismissed. There is no deadline for the appeals court to rule.
The decision keeps alive a case that has taken numerous twists and turns, including White's 1993 diagnosis with Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal condition that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Prosecutors took White's health into account when launching their appeals, assistant district attorney Holly Taylor said.
"We feel the evidence is pretty clear that he did kill this victim," Taylor said. "It's certainly unfortunate he has ALS, but there is also an issue of justice for this victim and this community."
David Botsford, White's appellate lawyer, said Wisser was correct to dismiss the charge.
"Who's in a better position than the trial judge — given the evidence he heard and credibility of witnesses — to determine whether this man could receive a fair trial?" Botsford said.
The mystery began May 3, 1986, when an Austin patrol officer discovered the body of Michael DesJardins in a parking lot at 5550 N. Lamar Blvd. The 23-year-old had been shot in the head, chest and abdomen and dumped in the parking lot.
The investigation led detectives 1 1/2 miles north, to the home DesJardins shared with White at 1211 Dwyce Drive. According to court records, White said he and DesJardins had visited several gay bars the night before DesJardins' body was found, and that DesJardins had left in the company of a person he met at one of the bars.
The investigation stalled, but through the years, new information arose. According to White's 2003 arrest warrant:
• White told his sister that he killed a man in his house and dumped the body in a Lamar Boulevard parking lot. That information came from White's brother-in-law in 1990.
• Also in 1990, a family friend told police that White's sister once discussed cleaning blood from White's house while he drove away with a body.
• In 1996, a bar patron recalled a 10-year-old conversation in which an intoxicated White had mentioned wanting to kill DesJardins over a debt. White offered to pay the bar patron to help with the killing, police said.
No arrests were made because of a lack of evidence, police said.
The Police Department's cold case unit picked up the investigation in late 2002. Detective Rick Blackmore found additional witnesses, including White's former next-door neighbor, who recalled a late-night scuffle, one or more "popping" sounds and sudden quiet. Several days later, the suspicious neighbor phoned an anonymous tip into CrimeStoppers after reading about DesJardin's killing in the American-Statesman, court records show.
Police, fearing that White was preparing to flee after he placed a rush order for his first passport, arrested him 17 years and two days after DesJardins was killed. Efforts to reach White's trial lawyer, Doug Beeson, were unsuccessful. Beeson has said in the past that he thinks his client is innocent.
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Monday, July 20, 2009
Foy goes after Texas firm linked to Madoff
Frank Foy on Tuesday added a Texas-based firm that caused New Mexico teachers’ pension funds to be indirectly invested in what some are calling one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history.
Austin Capital Management was added to a growing list of defendants named in Foy’s lawsuit, which is seeking the recovery of millions of taxpayer dollars lost to bad investments.
Austin Capital invested money from the state’s Educational Retirement Board and State Investment Council into a hedge fund that itself was heavily invested in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC. When Madoff admitted in December to bilking investors of billions of dollars over several decades, the two New Mexico state agencies lost a combined $25 million.
“So you end up having school teachers money invested in this Ponzi scheme,” Foy’s attorney, Victor Marshall, said during a late-morning press conference.
Austin Capital also figured in another lawsuit that was unsealed Tuesday — that of the National Education Association of New Mexico, which is seeking damages due to the losses related to the Madoff fraud.
The teachers’ union is accusing Austin Capital of professional negligence.
The Educational Retirement Board and State Investment Council hired Austin Capital as a money manager. In essence, the Texas firm was trusted to invest the two agencies’ funds in other hedge funds. One of those Austin Capital invested in was Tremont Group Holdings, which had invested billions with Madoff, according to the complaint. Published reports have put Tremont’s investment with Madoff at more than $3 billion.
A spokesman for the State Investment Council, meanwhile, said Tuesday that his agency had looked into suing Austin Capital, but hadn’t yet.
“The SIC has looked at possible legal action against Austin for some time, and has discussed the subject with the Attorney General’s office previously,” Charles Wollmann of the State Investment Council said in an e-mail. “The SIC cannot proceed with such a suit without prior approval or representation from the AG.”
Austin was not the only new name added to Foy’s lawsuit Tuesday. Foy’s attorney also named Tremont Holdings, as well as many other names that have dominated New Mexico headlines of late, including Aldus Equity and Marc Correra.
Saul Meyer, the founder of Aldus Equity, once an investment adviser for the State Investment Council and Educational Retirement Board, has been indicted in New York investment scandal on criminal charges.
Correra, meanwhile, shared in $16 million in so-called third-party marketing fees, which has led to questions from lawmakers and others. Third-party marketers like Correra, once obscure figures, have burst into the public consciousness because of the amount of money they have earned as matchmakers between fund managers and investors such as the State Investment Council and Educational Retirement Board.
Foy’s expanded lawsuit had very few new revelations, partly because it incorporated many facts already uncovered by newspapers, online news sites and TV stations in recent months.
In essence, Marshall suggested the complaint showed that many firms that received fees or contracts to manage or consulting work on New Mexico’s investments were involved in an intricate system of pay-to-play orchestrated by Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration.
“You’d have to come from another planet to not know what was going on,” Marshall said.
But not everyone saw it that way.
“The complaint is thin on facts but rife with unsubstantiated allegations and malicious innuendo,” Wollmann said. “Today’s latest exercise in tort claim abuse and political slander is simply an act of financial opportunism originating from a very uncredible source.”
Source
Austin Capital Management was added to a growing list of defendants named in Foy’s lawsuit, which is seeking the recovery of millions of taxpayer dollars lost to bad investments.
Austin Capital invested money from the state’s Educational Retirement Board and State Investment Council into a hedge fund that itself was heavily invested in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC. When Madoff admitted in December to bilking investors of billions of dollars over several decades, the two New Mexico state agencies lost a combined $25 million.
“So you end up having school teachers money invested in this Ponzi scheme,” Foy’s attorney, Victor Marshall, said during a late-morning press conference.
Austin Capital also figured in another lawsuit that was unsealed Tuesday — that of the National Education Association of New Mexico, which is seeking damages due to the losses related to the Madoff fraud.
The teachers’ union is accusing Austin Capital of professional negligence.
The Educational Retirement Board and State Investment Council hired Austin Capital as a money manager. In essence, the Texas firm was trusted to invest the two agencies’ funds in other hedge funds. One of those Austin Capital invested in was Tremont Group Holdings, which had invested billions with Madoff, according to the complaint. Published reports have put Tremont’s investment with Madoff at more than $3 billion.
A spokesman for the State Investment Council, meanwhile, said Tuesday that his agency had looked into suing Austin Capital, but hadn’t yet.
“The SIC has looked at possible legal action against Austin for some time, and has discussed the subject with the Attorney General’s office previously,” Charles Wollmann of the State Investment Council said in an e-mail. “The SIC cannot proceed with such a suit without prior approval or representation from the AG.”
Austin was not the only new name added to Foy’s lawsuit Tuesday. Foy’s attorney also named Tremont Holdings, as well as many other names that have dominated New Mexico headlines of late, including Aldus Equity and Marc Correra.
Saul Meyer, the founder of Aldus Equity, once an investment adviser for the State Investment Council and Educational Retirement Board, has been indicted in New York investment scandal on criminal charges.
Correra, meanwhile, shared in $16 million in so-called third-party marketing fees, which has led to questions from lawmakers and others. Third-party marketers like Correra, once obscure figures, have burst into the public consciousness because of the amount of money they have earned as matchmakers between fund managers and investors such as the State Investment Council and Educational Retirement Board.
Foy’s expanded lawsuit had very few new revelations, partly because it incorporated many facts already uncovered by newspapers, online news sites and TV stations in recent months.
In essence, Marshall suggested the complaint showed that many firms that received fees or contracts to manage or consulting work on New Mexico’s investments were involved in an intricate system of pay-to-play orchestrated by Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration.
“You’d have to come from another planet to not know what was going on,” Marshall said.
But not everyone saw it that way.
“The complaint is thin on facts but rife with unsubstantiated allegations and malicious innuendo,” Wollmann said. “Today’s latest exercise in tort claim abuse and political slander is simply an act of financial opportunism originating from a very uncredible source.”
Source
Monday, July 13, 2009
Austin woman to serve prison term for role in meth sales
An Austin woman must serve more than one year in federal prison for her role in a methamphetamine bust in December 2008.
Emily Elaine Young, 22, got a 15-month prison term Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute meth, court records show. Young, who was released pending her imprisonment's start, will have three years of supervised released after prison.
Judge John Tunheim granted Young's request for a lesser term than called for by sentencing guidelines.
Local authorities, including the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, arrested Young and her boyfriend, Jason Reinartz, 35, while serving search warrants Dec. 5 on the couple, their Lansing Township home and a northeast Austin residence linked to drug sales.
Authorities reported finding about seven ounces of meth in a box Reinartz carried into the Austin home at 800 Second Ave. N.E., a criminal complaint says. The box also allegedly had 92 grams of marijuana, urine-cleanser products, a scale and two cell phones.
Later that month, a federal grand jury indicted Reinartz and Young for knowingly conspiring together and with others to distribute at least 500 grams, or about 1.1 pounds, of meth from April 2008 to Nov. 25 in Minnesota.
Young's attorney John Fossum, of Northfield, Minn., argued in a court document last week that Young deserved probation rather than a prison term. Young, who has no significant prior criminal record, is employed, paying taxes and abstaining from drugs, he wrote. He added that placing Young in prison would be a "burden to the taxpayers."
Young has taken steps to deal with her addiction, including completing outpatient treatment and continuing to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Fossum wrote.
"(Young) had a minor role in the offense," Fossum stated. "She assisted her boyfriend but was not the instigator of the offense."
Reinartz, who remains in custody, faces one count of conspiracy to distribute and posses with intent to distribute meth. He was set for a change-of-plea hearing Feb. 2, but court documents from that hearing remain sealed, records show.
A recent court document, however, shows a plea agreement was reached in the case, with both sides agreeing that Reinartz doesn't qualify as a "career offender." It also states that both sides are preparing for Reinartz's sentencing.
In July 2008, Reinartz opened A-Town Tattoo. He was on supervised release after serving time in state prison for drug convictions in Mower County.
Source
Emily Elaine Young, 22, got a 15-month prison term Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute meth, court records show. Young, who was released pending her imprisonment's start, will have three years of supervised released after prison.
Judge John Tunheim granted Young's request for a lesser term than called for by sentencing guidelines.
Local authorities, including the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, arrested Young and her boyfriend, Jason Reinartz, 35, while serving search warrants Dec. 5 on the couple, their Lansing Township home and a northeast Austin residence linked to drug sales.
Authorities reported finding about seven ounces of meth in a box Reinartz carried into the Austin home at 800 Second Ave. N.E., a criminal complaint says. The box also allegedly had 92 grams of marijuana, urine-cleanser products, a scale and two cell phones.
Later that month, a federal grand jury indicted Reinartz and Young for knowingly conspiring together and with others to distribute at least 500 grams, or about 1.1 pounds, of meth from April 2008 to Nov. 25 in Minnesota.
Young's attorney John Fossum, of Northfield, Minn., argued in a court document last week that Young deserved probation rather than a prison term. Young, who has no significant prior criminal record, is employed, paying taxes and abstaining from drugs, he wrote. He added that placing Young in prison would be a "burden to the taxpayers."
Young has taken steps to deal with her addiction, including completing outpatient treatment and continuing to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Fossum wrote.
"(Young) had a minor role in the offense," Fossum stated. "She assisted her boyfriend but was not the instigator of the offense."
Reinartz, who remains in custody, faces one count of conspiracy to distribute and posses with intent to distribute meth. He was set for a change-of-plea hearing Feb. 2, but court documents from that hearing remain sealed, records show.
A recent court document, however, shows a plea agreement was reached in the case, with both sides agreeing that Reinartz doesn't qualify as a "career offender." It also states that both sides are preparing for Reinartz's sentencing.
In July 2008, Reinartz opened A-Town Tattoo. He was on supervised release after serving time in state prison for drug convictions in Mower County.
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