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WE HAVE A VERDICT IN THE DISTRICT CLERKS CORRUPTION CASE
*BREAKING NEWS*
Bill was in the courtroom when the jury annnounced their verdict.
Patricia Crigger - GUILTY on all charges
Rebecca Littrell - GUILTY on all charges
Sherry Bell - GUILTY on her one charge
Hannah Kunkle - NOT GUILTY - Kunkle is acquitted.
Judge Nelms immediately asked Crigger to stand. He said, "you are removed from your office effective immediately. Do you understand?" Crigger replied, "Yes sir."
Bill and I will have updates later this evening regarding evidence and testimony from Day 4 and the Closing Arguments.
Sentencing tomorrow at 9:00 A.M.
LEX LAWYER (In Limine)
Attorney at Law
2 comments
Comment from: PP [Visitor] 
Wow!!!! how do you find 3 quilty and not 1 and she was head of the office. i smell something fishy. this is what we call justice. this a joke. it should be all are none.
12/06/11 @ 16:57
Comment from: LEX IN LIMINE [Visitor]
1. The Board of Collin County District Court Judges are charged with appointing a new District Clerk until an election is held. On the day of the verdict, the Board promoted Judy Blazier to be "Interim District Clerk." Ms. Blazier fired Sherry Bell and Rebecca Littrell that same day. The Board of Collin County District Court Judges will meet soon to appoint a new District Clerk. Patricia Crigger's name and picture has been removed from the Collin County website.
2. Based on the arguments of counsel and some of the testimony that I observed, most of the evidence was against Crigger, Littrell, and Bell. There was very little little evidence against Kunkle. Even the prosecutor, in his closing argument, devoted about 5 minutes of his 90 minutes allotted to mention her. And the acts he did mention - such as Kunkle's desire that Crigger win- do not constitute a crime.
3. Collin County juries are very conservative and very conviction oriented. It has been my experience (over 20 years as an attorney) that most Collin County jurors really do believe that if a Defendant is in court, they are guilty and that is that. Notice that in a corruption trial against a Dallas county constable (that occurred this week), the DALLAS county jury resulted in a mistrial. Dallas County juries and most of the other juries around the state do not convict the way Collin County juries do.
4. The probated sentences for the crimes for which the defendants were convicted are in line with the nature of the crime. The prosecution had to really stretch the facts to come up with the $25/hour figure of time misused. These ladies don't make $25 per hour -but this figure included their "benefits" that the county pays anyway. So, because of the very low dollar amount of the missued funds and the non violent nature of these crimes, probation would have been easily awarded to almost any defendant - they really did not get off "light."
LEX
2. Based on the arguments of counsel and some of the testimony that I observed, most of the evidence was against Crigger, Littrell, and Bell. There was very little little evidence against Kunkle. Even the prosecutor, in his closing argument, devoted about 5 minutes of his 90 minutes allotted to mention her. And the acts he did mention - such as Kunkle's desire that Crigger win- do not constitute a crime.
3. Collin County juries are very conservative and very conviction oriented. It has been my experience (over 20 years as an attorney) that most Collin County jurors really do believe that if a Defendant is in court, they are guilty and that is that. Notice that in a corruption trial against a Dallas county constable (that occurred this week), the DALLAS county jury resulted in a mistrial. Dallas County juries and most of the other juries around the state do not convict the way Collin County juries do.
4. The probated sentences for the crimes for which the defendants were convicted are in line with the nature of the crime. The prosecution had to really stretch the facts to come up with the $25/hour figure of time misused. These ladies don't make $25 per hour -but this figure included their "benefits" that the county pays anyway. So, because of the very low dollar amount of the missued funds and the non violent nature of these crimes, probation would have been easily awarded to almost any defendant - they really did not get off "light."
LEX
12/07/11 @ 18:38
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