Video: South Texas D.A. Indicting Cheney And Gonzales For Prisoner Abuse Didn’t Show Up To Court

The Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales prisoner abuse indictment case is on hold at least until Friday because the lame duck District Attorney of Willacy County, Texas who brought the charges didn’t show up in court yesterday. In fact, no one could find Juan Guerra at his office or his home. The only person representing him in the courtroom was his office manager who looked as mortified as the many defense lawyers there to represent the accused. This turn of events is particularly interesting when you consider that at least one Texas lawyer interviewed by The Brownsville Herald yesterday claims Guerra doesn’t have the authority to indict a federal official because he has no jurisdiction over them or federal buildings.

“You can’t have district attorneys across the country bringing charges against federal officials,” [said T. Gerald Treece, a constitutional law specialist and professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston.] If there are issues at the federal detention centers, then Guerra should turn the investigation over to the federal government, he said.

And even in a federal probe, Cheney and Gonzales have a “qualified privilege” that would protect them so long as they were acting within their jobs, Treece said.

Guerra accused Cheney and Gonzales, along with at least a half dozen local politicians and other “political rivals,” of using their office for personal financial gain through abuse of inmates held in federal detention centers in Willacy county. This just one month after Judge Manuel Banales, the same judge he blew off today, dismissed a case against Guerra brought up by many of the same locals Guerra is now prosecuting. Judge Banales dismissed that case because an appeals court had earlier ruled that a political rival of Guerra’s, Gustavo Garza who is among yesterday’s accused, was improperly appointed as special prosecutor to investigate Guerra. (Does anyone else need a commercial break to figure out this telenovela?) When Guerra’s office was raided as part of that investigation:

He camped outside the courthouse in a borrowed camper with a horse, three goats and a rooster. He threatened to dismiss hundreds of cases because he believed local law enforcement had aided the investigation against him.

Dick Cheney ain’t seen nothing till some small town, Rio Grande Valley political pedo hits him smack in the kisser. Below, check out a news clip from the court room where Guerra was amiss.

Earlier: All States Lose: Dick Cheney And Alberto Gonzales Indicted For Prisoner Abuse
Willacy County Indictments Latest [KRGV]