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OT Democrats threaten DA in Texas...
Story from the Corpus Christi Caller Times
Callers to DA: Will you prosecute?
Waiting for sheriff's report is the next step
By Sarah Viren Caller-Times
February 15, 2006
Carlos Valdez stood in his office Tuesday afternoon, tiredly dropping
one pink phone message slip after another onto his desk:
"ABC News, The Baltimore Sun, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated
Press"
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The district attorney had known these were coming since Sunday, when
he learned that Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot
78-year-old Harry Whittington, a prominent Austin lawyer, during a
quail hunt.
"When I heard it was on the Armstrong Ranch, which is in Kenedy
County, I said, 'Oh no, the vice president shot someone in my
jurisdiction: This can't be good.' "
In addition to Nueces County, Valdez's jurisdiction in the 105th
Judicial District includes Kenedy and Kleberg counties.
Now, he said, everyone on each of those pink messages slips wants to
know the same thing: Will the district attorney's office prosecute?
And the calls aren't just coming from the news media.
Four people phoned and others e-mailed to ask - or demand - that
Valdez go after the vice president, or face consequences. One man
called claiming to be a local taxpayer, but he could be heard on the
voicemail mispronouncing "Nueces." The man pronounced the county's
name "NEW-sis."
"A lot of people are going to be writing checks to your opponents in
the next political race unless you immediately announce that you will
be taking this issue," said another caller, from New York, who left a
message on Assistant District Attorney Mark Skurka's phone Tuesday.
Gary Head, from Michigan, said he e-mailed Nueces County Sunday to
demand "equal justice" for Cheney, who was issued a warning from Texas
Parks and Wildlife for hunting without a mandatory $7 bird stamp.
"I write people all day long - people in the House and Senate," Head
said Tuesday. "There has never been any reason to write people in
Corpus Christi or anyone in Texas before."
Right now, Valdez says, he has nothing to tell the callers. The Kenedy
County Sheriff's Department is investigating and has not released an
incident report, saying it isn't ready and that it will be released
when it's completed. Texas Parks and Wildlife labeled the shooting an
accident.
"At this point there is no reason to look into it," Valdez said.
"Everything points to this as an accident. There is nothing, nothing,
nothing to indicate there is any criminal wrongdoing by anybody."
Whittington was listed in stable condition, but Valdez said the
national media and other callers have been asking him what-ifs.
"If he died, I would take that one additional step of looking at
whatever report the sheriff prepared. And based on what that says, we
might do a couple of things: We might ask them to conduct extra
investigations by asking for specific statements of specific persons
or we might decide that a grand jury might want to look at this. Maybe
one or the other, or maybe nothing at all. Maybe we will be satisfied
with the report and say everything's done."
In the meantime, he's not expecting the calls to subside soon. But
this media frenzy, he said, is nothing compared to what started on
March 31, 1995, when Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez was shot
to death.
"Those calls came from all over the world," he said.
--
Scott in Florida
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