The Collin County Observer™

DA pulls 100 indictments from Wooten's court, Wooten's attorney says Roach has "lost his mind"

DA pulls 100 indictments from Wooten's court, Wooten's attorney says Roach has "lost his mind"

By Danny Gallagher, StarLocalNews.com/McKinney Courier-Gazette
October 5, 2010

The tension between Collin County District Attorney John Roach and District Judge Suzanne Wooten grew another notch Tuesday when Roach announced he would pull and re-submit over 100 cases from her court.

Roach said in a released statement that he ordered his office to pull and review more than
100 indictments filed in Wooten's court and resubmit them to another Collin County grand jury due to allegations of biased members that Wooten placed on the jury panel and the appointing commissioners.

Roach, who conducted an investigation into Wooten's election practices to the 380th District Court that ousted incumbent Charles Sandoval before handing the case to a special prosecutor from the Texas Attorney General's Office, claimed the questionable indictments were made by a grand jury selected by Wooten.

A separate grand jury approved the appointment of a second special prosecutor to investigate the Collin County DA's office's conduct in launching their investigation against Wooten. Roach's office recused themselves from the investigation after the Texas Attorney General's took over the case.

Roach alleged in a separate statement that Wooten had stacked the grand jury with questionable appointments including the father of her attorney Pete Schulte of Dallas and a former Collin County DA employee "who has had personal and professional conflicts with my office."

Schulte said Wooten did not directly appoint the members of the grand jury. She appointed commissioners to choose jurors from a sealed document.

Roach pulled the indictments when he discovered that an unidentified aunt of Schulte's served as one of the commissioners on the grand jury panel.

"We have also learned at least one of Judge Wooten's grand jurors, who we believe to be acting independently of the 'special prosecutor,'" Roach said, "has personally contacted at least one person to be a witness for Judge Wooten's grand jury."

Schulte rebuked the allegations made by Roach's office as the last act of a desperate man.

"The DA of Collin County has completely lost it," Schulte said. "He's lost his mind."

Schulte said he recommended her aunt to Wooten as a commissioner for the grand jury panel after Wooten asked him if he knew anyone "in Plano who has a lot of time. I thought of my aunt because she's retired."

He called Roach's decision "unprecedented."

"Basically for the DA to decided without any other determination that a grand jury is not lawful is unprecedented and probably illegal," Schulte said. "The fact of the matter is that taking the time to do away with these cases that he's dismissing and re-indicting or resubmitting is obstruction of justice."

The resubmitted cases represent the distrust that Roach and his office have in Wooten's ability to construct a credible and impartial grand jury, Roach said.

"I took these actions because I have profound reservations about the integrity of the entire process in impaneling Judge Wooten's grand jury and its subsequent actions, which also present serious ethical questions," Roach said. "Neither I, not any other citizen of Collin County can have confidence in the composition and operation of Judge Wooten's grand jury. All persons whose cases are presented to a grand jury have a right to expect, without reservations, that their cases will be considered ethically and within the bounds of the law. I am duty bound to see to it."

Schulte denied the allegations that Wooten tried to stack a grand jury with favorable members.

"If Judge Wooten was going to stack a grand jury, she would have put 12 angry lawyers on that grand jury because it takes nine out of 12 jurors to do anything," Schulte said. "This is all a smoke screen because he's scared. He knows the activity that he and his office have done and he knows he could get indicted. He's trying to cast a shadow of doubt because he has no other recourse."

link to article at StarLocalNews.com....

Fox4 TV aired a short piece tonight about the sad case of Matthew Cantrell, the young boy from Murphy who was strangled in a back yard soccer net. Matthew's Parents filed suit in a federal court earlier this year charging that Matthew's death could have been avoided, but that the city's 911 response and police failed to help.

The Dallas Morning News followed up with the article below mostly airing the City of Murphy's position.

Last May, The Collin County Observer posted a copy of the law suit (it is very disturbing reading) and a press release by the parents. We also published the City Manager's report on the incident.

In their latest filing with the District Court, the City of Murphy has asked the court to dismiss the suit.

Bill

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Murphy city officials defend officers' response in boy's death

Thursday, December 3, 2009
By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News

Officials with the city of Murphy on Thursday defended the handling of a situation two years ago in which a toddler died after becoming ensnared in a backyard soccer net.

The city released testimony and a 911 recording from the October 2007 incident. The boy died in a hospital three days later, and his parents subsequently sued the city.

"This is a tragedy, and our hearts go out to them," City Manager James Fisher said. "But our employees did the job they were trained to do. They went out of their way to help as best they could."

The city said it filed a motion last week in a federal district court in Tyler to dismiss the case.

The plaintiffs, Michael and Ave Cantrell, contend that police officers and paramedics reacted too slowly to save their son Matthew. The lawsuit names specific officers and East Texas Medical Center, which provided additional assistance.

On Thursday, Fisher said Murphy is free of blame. Its motion states that Ave Cantrell's hysterical 911 call made it difficult for the dispatcher to respond to her cries for assistance. Records show police still arrived at the Cantrell home about three minutes after the call.

"It's wrong in the assertion that officers didn't do anything to help them," Fisher said. "In a very emotional call, the dispatcher moved as fast as possible."

Cantrell defended his wife.

"That they are coming out with this press release attacking the mother is disturbing considering she did everything possible to try and save Matthew," he said. "She received zero medical help from [the dispatcher] or the police who had her imprisoned" in the bedroom as they evaluated the boy, he said. Ave Cantrell cut her son from the net and placed him on a couch at least 10 minutes before officers arrived.

The federal lawsuit argues that police officers prevented paramedics and the boy's mother from helping him. The motion to dismiss counters that both officers checked for a pulse and breathing and one set of paramedics moved into the house immediately upon arrival.

read the rest of the article in the Dallas Morning News....