The Houston Chronicle’s Rick Casey today reports how state Rep. Larry Taylor, R- Friendswood, a recipient of $20,000 in the infamous 2002 Tom DeLay/Tom Craddick campaign money laundering scheme, subsequently passed a bill an all-GOP judicial panel is now using to justify tossing out criminal indictments against the conspirators.

When an Austin appeals court recently issued a ruling that appears to absolve former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and two co-defendants of money laundering charges, it cited a law passed eight months after the original indictments in support of its ruling.
So what are we to make of the fact that the law cited by the court was authored by one of the recipients of the allegedly laundered money?

What are we to make of it? I’d say the three judges of the 3rd Court of Appeals just joined a criminal enterprise. The three judges are W. Kenneth Law, Bob Pemberton, and Alan Waldrop. All three received large campaign contributions from Texans for Lawsuit Reform. Waldrop once lobbied for the group. TLR was a central player in the money laundering scheme.

Get the picture? Texas courts have grown so corrupt that their real job is simple crony protection. Stroke the hand that feeds them, keep their benefactors out of jail, twist the law to the favor of those who own them. And make no mistake, they are owned by the old Tom DeLay network. By notorious “Swift Boat” contributor Bob Perry, James “Shut Down the Public Schools and Give All Your Tax Money To My Private Schools” Leininger. The TLR. Tom “Absolute Power” Craddick.

Here’s what the judges did. They ruled that the state’s money laundering statute didn’t make it illegal to launder money by using checks. The ruling offers a get out of jail free card to DeLay and two of his cronies, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro. The judges referred to a bill sponsored in 2005 by Rep. Taylor that specifically included “checks” as subject to anti-money laundering laws. See, the court said, before that it wasn’t illegal to launder checks. Of course, this came three years after the DeLay schemes and crimes.

It’s now obvious the little meaningless phrase in the 2005 bill was done simply to give the Court what it needed to save it’s cronies. That is corruption. Here’s how Rick Casey puts it:

Taylor said Friday his inclusion of the language had nothing to do with the legal problems of DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro.
“We were working on insurance fraud, and we had prosecutors from all over the state wanting us to help them,” he said. “They said we also have another issue we have trouble prosecuting. In this electronic age, the drug smugglers are not just using cash. They said they weren’t able to prosecute money laundering under the old statute.”
I asked him who some of the prosecutors were who raised this issue. He couldn’t remember, but called back to recommend I call Kyson Johnson, a special prosecutor with the Texas Department of Insurance.
I was unable to reach Johnson, but I did call Ed Coffey, a Bexar County prosecutor who testified at a committee hearing regarding the bill.
Coffey, now retired, said prosecutors were eager to bring Texas law “into the 21st century.”
He said, however, he didn’t recall that prosecuting money laundering regarding checks had been a problem.
“We were more concerned about electronic transfers,” he said.
I also called the major crimes section at Harris County and talked to veteran prosecutor Brian Roberts.
He said the department doesn’t try many money laundering cases, but that he had never heard anyone express concern about laundering that involved checks.
He cited a case called Lee vs. the State of Texas that indicated such prosecutions were possible under the old law.
“It was a home repair scheme. The defendant admitted to cashing a large check,” he said. “Based on the evidence, a jury could have believed it was dirty money. It was upheld that the check that was proceeds from the scam constituted money-laundering.”

Let’s summarize. Tom DeLay, Tom Craddick and their cronies put together an illegal scheme to launder corporate money into Texas House races in 2002. Corporate money is illegal in Texas campaigns. The money was used to gain the GOP House majority that made Tom Craddick speaker. DeLay, Colyandro and Ellis were indicted in connection with the launder of $190,000. A check in that amount, signed by Colyandro, was sent from DeLay’s Texans for a Republic Majority (TRMPAC) to the Republican National State Elections Committee. The amount allegedly included $100,000 in corporate donations. Eventually, $190,000 was sent by the Elections Committee to seven GOP House candidates at the direction of Ellis. That’s laundering.

But now the 3rd Court of Appeals is saying, no, not criminal laundering, because it was legal to launder by check under the old law — and they are relying on the actions of a recipient of the laundered money, Larry Taylor, to make their case.

It doesn’t get any more corrupt than this. From top-to-bottom, Texas’ out-of-balance courts have grown so corrupt that we resemble some kind of Third World country. It’s the problem with One Party rule. There’s nothing to stop the thieves, no opposition with the standing to stand in their way. From the district courts to the Texas Supreme Court, it’s time to throw the bums out.