{"id":153,"date":"2012-10-07T02:32:32","date_gmt":"2012-10-07T02:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawflog.com\/?p=153"},"modified":"2014-08-23T21:24:38","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T21:24:38","slug":"the-laziest-da-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawflog.com\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Is John Paschall the laziest DA in Texas?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Walter David Sanders
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According to the Robertson County District Clerk’s Office, District Attorney John C. Paschall and his staff have tried only one felony case out of 769 that were filed between October 4, 2009 and October 4, 2012. That lone case was tried in January of 2010, which means the DA’s office has not tried a felony case in 21 months.<\/p>\n

Paschall has two full-time assistant DAs, plus two secretaries and several investigators. I am awaiting information from the county clerk’s office, but my courthouse sources say Paschall’s office tries perhaps 2 or 3 misdemeanor cases per year<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Is Paschall really that incapacitated by his alcohol problems? Or is he just lazy? And what are he and his assistant DAs doing all day? Clearly, some of his employees have too much time on their hands. You may recall that in 2009, local business owners in Hearne accused one of Paschall’s investigators of trying to intimidate<\/a> them into removing signs about American Violet<\/a>, a movie that was embarrassing Paschall.<\/p>\n

With three full-time attorneys, Paschall’s office should be trying multiple felonies per year and multiple misdemeanors per month. In all fairness, many of the 769 felony cases were plea bargained, and that’s not inherently bad. But the plea bargaining process only works if the defense attorneys know that the DA’s office is willing (and able) to take a case to trial.<\/p>\n

Shortly after I started taking criminal defense appointments in Robertson County in 2007, other local attorneys told me that Paschall never wanted to try a case, therefore you could always get easy plea bargains out of him. And they were right. Every criminal defense attorney within 50 miles of Robertson County knows that Paschall won’t try cases. [more…]<\/p>\n

What are the consequences of Paschall’s unwillingness \/ inability to prosecute cases? My sources tell me the Robertson County News<\/a> will break a big story on that subject on Wednesday. Meanwhile, I invite Paschall to tell his side of the story. If he wants to explain why his office has not tried a felony case in 21 months, I’ll be glad to post it here and on RedFacedDrunk.com<\/a>. In fact, if Paschall wants to respond to anything I’ve written about him, e.g.<\/em>, the Marium Oscar case<\/a>, I’ll be glad to post it here. Or I suppose he could try to get another gag order to shut me up.<\/p>\n

Either way, the ball is in Paschall’s court. As one of my friends recently observed, Paschall’s supporters (including his daughter) have called me a lot of names on Facebook<\/a>, but they’ve not yet called me a liar. None of them — not one — has denied that he refers to black people as “niggers” (and they can’t, because too many witnesses have already testified in Regina Kelly, et al. v. John Paschall, et al. <\/a>about his use of that word).<\/p>\n

None of his supporters have denied that he’s a drunk. None of his supporters have offered an explanation for what happened to the Marium Oscar estate<\/a>. None of his supporters have denied that he is currently under indictment for a felony<\/a>. None of his supporters have denied that he was arrested for public intoxication<\/a> in 2005. None of his supporters have denied that he threatened Steve Stokely, a detective who was investigating Paschall’s brother-in-law for murder.<\/p>\n

No, all the Paschall stooges are too busy calling me names, which is fine. I wonder when they’ll figure out that my name is not on the ballot.<\/p>\n

UPDATE (1:25 p.m., October 8, 2012):<\/span> I’ve learned that the Robertson County News<\/em> story about Walter David Sanders has been postponed until October 17, 2012.\u00a0 After the first story<\/a> broke on September 26, 2012, Paschall claimed the victims recanted. But was that true? Dennis Phillips, publisher of the News<\/em>, decided to find out for himself.<\/p>\n

UPDATE (4:00 p.m., October 17, 2012):<\/span> Robertson County News<\/em> will not<\/span> be running a story on October 17, 2012 about Walter David Sanders.<\/p>\n

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