Jump to content

Absolutely wild story from D magazine about the Collin County judicial system

Brian Fantana

By Brian Fantana
in Daily Texan

 Share

Recommended Posts

TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31,678

Posted
Posted (edited)

In another lifetime, I did quite a bit of state court stuff.  I always heard banjos when I went up to Collin County.  Tarrant County has this tongue in cheek reputation of fucking with Dallas lawyers, but it's not really true.  It pretty much is in Collin County.

It used to be kind of funny, about half the people in the courthouse were complete country fucks and the other half were suburbanites from Plano, with a hefty quotient of azns.  They looked scared.

Good friend of mine's dad was a urologist.  In the mid-80s, his partner died and he went looking for a new practice and wound up in McKinney and found out that the Wysong family, which had paid for the hospital, basically, had an absurd and corrupt amount of control over medical practices in McKinney by forcing the hospital to withhold privileges.

Place is dirty as fuck.

Edited by TwiceHorn
  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
gyroprotagonist

gyroprotagonist 2,595

Posted
Posted

you think there is something wrong with them trying to build a false case (without law enforcement) and failing for a grand jury to indict 5 times but then 6th time is the charm?

Read this over the weekend, but the big takeaway was the line about the public (in the form of the jury) finding out that someone donating to a judge's re-election fund on Saturday and then showing up on their docket on  Monday and that was totally cool and perfectly legal (even though that was not what happened at all with this case).  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hornian

hornian 5,251

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Also, that Paxton was connected in Collin County, and indicted there, is the main reason he's never stood trial.

And it’s where he stole the Mont Blanc pen. So he’s a thieving wanker as well. 
 

Not really relevant to your post but I try to drop that fact into most conversations about Paxton. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
  • Haha 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites
HRSchenker

HRSchenker 2,288

Posted
Posted

Collin County is home to former McKinney City Councilman La'Shadion Shemwell who got recalled from office. I know it went to federal district court and I guess he lost. The story is that he was really unpopular around the city but loved by his district (think John Wiley Price but on a smaller scale). McKinney elects council members via districts but a recall petition and subsequent election involved the entire city so people who never had the opportunity to vote for or against him now get to decide if he should continue serving his district. Really strange.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54,838

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Also, these fuckwads, including Abbott, did all this shit on behalf of one of the worst judges in local history. https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2009/december/the-worst-judge-in-dallas-county/

Well no shit, there's a lot more to gain from buying a bad judge.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
DDD Dad

DDD Dad 14,369

Posted
Posted
On 10/24/2022 at 2:29 PM, TwiceHorn said:

In another lifetime, I did quite a bit of state court stuff.  I always heard banjos when I went up to Collin County.  Tarrant County has this tongue in cheek reputation of fucking with Dallas lawyers, but it's not really true.  It pretty much is in Collin County.

It used to be kind of funny, about half the people in the courthouse were complete country fucks and the other half were suburbanites from Plano, with a hefty quotient of azns.  They looked scared.

Good friend of mine's dad was a urologist.  In the mid-80s, his partner died and he went looking for a new practice and wound up in McKinney and found out that the Wysong family, which had paid for the hospital, basically, had an absurd and corrupt amount of control over medical practices in McKinney by forcing the hospital to withhold privileges.

Place is dirty as fuck.

@Ghost of LL and I had a case up there years ago and we convinced our client we needed local counsel.  For a courthouse 30 minutes from downtown Dallas.

It was the right call, but we had to hold our noses.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15,604

Posted
Posted
30 minutes ago, DDD Dad said:

@Ghost of LL and I had a case up there years ago and we convinced our client we needed local counsel.  For a courthouse 30 minutes from downtown Dallas.

It was the right call, but we had to hold our noses.

And who was our local counsel?  And did we make sure to lock up all of the Mont Blanc pens before meeting with him?

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31,678

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Local counsel is always good.  I had a lawyer from Chicago call me about needing some help on a case that he had pending in BEX-AR County Texas (that's the way he pronounced it) -- my first response was:  "Have you engaged local counsel?"

Local counsel for out-of-state lawyers is one thing, and often required by the local rules and a good idea based on detailed local practices, e.g. Eastern District of Texas and other places with patent local rules.  Those Potter Minton and other Tyler/Longview/Marshall lawyers made out like bandits on that deal.  I bet they're kind of hurting now.

Local counsel in an adjoining county in state court is, um, unusual.  Even in Tarrant County where alleged hostility to Dallas lawyers gets a lot of "play," but is pretty much untrue.

Professor Jack Ratliff used to tell an apocryphal story about some out of state lawyer who was flummoxed by venue in Bexar County, and by the pronunciation of Bexar.  He allegedly concluded a motion to transfer venue by asserting that venue in Bexar County was "manifestly unfexar."

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
hornian

hornian 5,251

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Local counsel for out-of-state lawyers is one thing, and often required by the local rules and a good idea based on detailed local practices, e.g. Eastern District of Texas and other places with patent local rules.  Those Potter Minton and other Tyler/Longview/Marshall lawyers made out like bandits on that deal.  I bet they're kind of hurting now.

Local counsel in an adjoining county in state court is, um, unusual.  Even in Tarrant County where alleged hostility to Dallas lawyers gets a lot of "play," but is pretty much untrue.

Professor Jack Ratliff used to tell an apocryphal story about some out of state lawyer who was flummoxed by venue in Bexar County, and by the pronunciation of Bexar.  He allegedly concluded a motion to transfer venue by asserting that venue in Bexar County was "manifestly unfexar."

I've heard that at St. Mary's Law School, the Texas Civ Pro professor used to say there were two court systems in Texas. The students assumed the prof meant Federal Court and State Court. What he actually meant, and told the students, was the court system north of San Antonio, and the Court system south of San Antonio/into the Rio Grande Valley. 

Having experience with trying family law cases south of San Antonio on several occasions, I'm inclined to agree with that assessment. We do get local counsel when we are doing more than just filing a motion to transfer venue in many/most cases. And we always warn our clients about the local bias if they choose not to engage local counsel. 

I guess I'll do the same if I ever have a case in Collin County. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
DDD Dad

DDD Dad 14,369

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Local counsel for out-of-state lawyers is one thing, and often required by the local rules and a good idea based on detailed local practices, e.g. Eastern District of Texas and other places with patent local rules.  Those Potter Minton and other Tyler/Longview/Marshall lawyers made out like bandits on that deal.  I bet they're kind of hurting now.

Local counsel in an adjoining county in state court is, um, unusual.  Even in Tarrant County where alleged hostility to Dallas lawyers gets a lot of "play," but is pretty much untrue.

Professor Jack Ratliff used to tell an apocryphal story about some out of state lawyer who was flummoxed by venue in Bexar County, and by the pronunciation of Bexar.  He allegedly concluded a motion to transfer venue by asserting that venue in Bexar County was "manifestly unfexar."

Reminds me of a case I had in Tarrant County many years ago.  I was up against a Houston lawyer.  While I'd have had my ass handed to me if opposing counsel was from Fort Worth, in that case the judge took my side and chastised the other lawyer for putting his foot on my throat (I had a terrible client who had put me in an unwinnable position that I won thanks to the judge).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31,678

Posted
Posted
21 minutes ago, hornian said:

I've heard that at St. Mary's Law School, the Texas Civ Pro professor used to say there were two court systems in Texas. The students assumed the prof meant Federal Court and State Court. What he actually meant, and told the students, was the court system north of San Antonio, and the Court system south of San Antonio/into the Rio Grande Valley. 

Having experience with trying family law cases south of San Antonio on several occasions, I'm inclined to agree with that assessment. We do get local counsel when we are doing more than just filing a motion to transfer venue in many/most cases. And we always warn our clients about the local bias if they choose not to engage local counsel. 

I guess I'll do the same if I ever have a case in Collin County. 

Probably that guy, whose name escapes me at the moment, that used to teach a special "segment" of BarBri bar review for Tex. Civ. Pro. and Evidence.  He was pretty entertaining.  David something, IIRC.

At one time, I think, the South Texas courts, particularly in the Valley, had some venue law/rules more akin to what the Mauzy and "yellow-dog Dem" Supreme Court had in place while everyone else was following the then-current Republitard Supreme Court, before it was completely Republitard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15,604

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted
2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Local counsel for out-of-state lawyers is one thing, and often required by the local rules and a good idea based on detailed local practices, e.g. Eastern District of Texas and other places with patent local rules.  Those Potter Minton and other Tyler/Longview/Marshall lawyers made out like bandits on that deal.  I bet they're kind of hurting now.

Local counsel in an adjoining county in state court is, um, unusual.  Even in Tarrant County where alleged hostility to Dallas lawyers gets a lot of "play," but is pretty much untrue.

Professor Jack Ratliff used to tell an apocryphal story about some out of state lawyer who was flummoxed by venue in Bexar County, and by the pronunciation of Bexar.  He allegedly concluded a motion to transfer venue by asserting that venue in Bexar County was "manifestly unfexar."

It was unusual.  

@DDD Dad and I had a case in Collin County in 2013.  It was one of those cases where we had a decent shot at summary judgment, but if we didn't get summary judgment we knew we were going to get absolutely buttfucked by a Collin County jury.  So I called up a friend who does a lot of Collin County work and asked him about his thoughts on our judge, and specifically whether he is prone to granting summary judgments.

The feedback I got was "you need local counsel, and your local counsel needs to be Ken Paxton."  Our judge had just been appointed to the bench a year earlier, and had been something of a protégé of Paxton's.  I don't know the complete backstory, but it was apparent that our judge was on the bench entirely due to Ken Paxton.

Great.  I don't care.  I want to win.  And if I need Ken Paxton to win, then I'm going to get Ken Paxton.

So the day of the summary-judgment hearing, Paxton rolls into the courtroom about 10 minutes before the hearing.  I chat with him briefly--and "briefly" was all our chat needed because it became really apparent real quick that Paxton hadn't done shit.  He hadn't read the briefing; he didn't know shit about the case.  I suggested that I could do the argument, and he readily agreed.

So there we go in our hearing.  Collin County is one of those counties where there is kind of a shelf on the front of the bench and you go up there to argue.  As an aside, I think that's really kind of a North Texas thing--you don't see that in Houston or Austin or really anywhere else.  Anyway, so Paxton and I go up.  It's my motion, so I argue and am typically brilliant.  I've got this wrapped up.  Plaintiff's counsel argues, but he's fucked up a bunch of shit, and I'm feeling pretty good.

I have a short rebuttal.  Now, it's been nearly ten years.  But I'm pretty sure that this is a very accurate transcription of what happened next:

THE COURT: Ok.  Anything else?

Mr. Ghost: No, your honor.

THE COURT.  Ok.  Umm, . . . Mr. Paxton, what do you think I should do here.

Mr. Paxton: I really think you ought to grant this motion, Judge.

THE COURT: Ok.  Mr. Ghost--why don't you get me a proposed order.

Mr. Ghost: Thank you, your honor.  We'll get that for you promptly.

And that's how I won in Collin County, Texas.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
  • Rage+1 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ChuckNorrisActionJeans

ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2,687

Posted
Posted

Not much to add except I worked on the appeals of both David and Stacy Cary -- the other side of the coin from Judge Wooten, in that any "bribes" offered weren't actually bribes or illegal. Some of the most convoluted, yet pretty transparently wrong stuff I've ever worked on. Screw Collin County (my home county, yay), Paxton, Abbott, and all the cockroaches. Also, didn't know that David Cary was killed in a bike accident not that long ago. What a sad story. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31,678

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

Not much to add except I worked on the appeals of both David and Stacy Cary -- the other side of the coin from Judge Wooten, in that any "bribes" offered weren't actually bribes or illegal. Some of the most convoluted, yet pretty transparently wrong stuff I've ever worked on. Screw Collin County (my home county, yay), Paxton, Abbott, and all the cockroaches. Also, didn't know that David Cary was killed in a bike accident not that long ago. What a sad story. 

Sorry to bash on your home "town."  I know it's produced many fine people, yourself included (not Charlottesville fine, conventionally fine).  It's fun and easy to generalize, though.

Even when Dallas County was monolithically Republican, I never got much sense that there was any kind of local machine controlling candidates etc. Hell, half those R judges had D by their names 10 years prior, and some have Ds today.  Some were shitty, some were great, but I never got much sense that many or any of them were "installed," except maybe a few gubernatorial appointees. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DDD Dad

DDD Dad 14,369

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

Not much to add except I worked on the appeals of both David and Stacy Cary -- the other side of the coin from Judge Wooten, in that any "bribes" offered weren't actually bribes or illegal. Some of the most convoluted, yet pretty transparently wrong stuff I've ever worked on. Screw Collin County (my home county, yay), Paxton, Abbott, and all the cockroaches. Also, didn't know that David Cary was killed in a bike accident not that long ago. What a sad story. 

Did his wife recently get drunk and assault some Asian ladies?

  • Rage+1 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hanrahan

Hanrahan 1,306

Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

It was unusual.  

@DDD Dad and I had a case in Collin County in 2013.  It was one of those cases where we had a decent shot at summary judgment, but if we didn't get summary judgment we knew we were going to get absolutely buttfucked by a Collin County jury.  So I called up a friend who does a lot of Collin County work and asked him about his thoughts on our judge, and specifically whether he is prone to granting summary judgments.

The feedback I got was "you need local counsel, and your local counsel needs to be Ken Paxton."  Our judge had just been appointed to the bench a year earlier, and had been something of a protégé of Paxton's.  I don't know the complete backstory, but it was apparent that our judge was on the bench entirely due to Ken Paxton.

Great.  I don't care.  I want to win.  And if I need Ken Paxton to win, then I'm going to get Ken Paxton.

So the day of the summary-judgment hearing, Paxton rolls into the courtroom about 10 minutes before the hearing.  I chat with him briefly--and "briefly" was all our chat needed because it became really apparent real quick that Paxton hadn't done shit.  He hadn't read the briefing; he didn't know shit about the case.  I suggested that I could do the argument, and he readily agreed.

So there we go in our hearing.  Collin County is one of those counties where there is kind of a shelf on the front of the bench and you go up there to argue.  As an aside, I think that's really kind of a North Texas thing--you don't see that in Houston or Austin or really anywhere else.  Anyway, so Paxton and I go up.  It's my motion, so I argue and am typically brilliant.  I've got this wrapped up.  Plaintiff's counsel argues, but he's fucked up a bunch of shit, and I'm feeling pretty good.

I have a short rebuttal.  Now, it's been nearly ten years.  But I'm pretty sure that this is a very accurate transcription of what happened next:

THE COURT: Ok.  Anything else?

Mr. Ghost: No, your honor.

THE COURT.  Ok.  Umm, . . . Mr. Paxton, what do you think I should do here.

Mr. Paxton: I really think you ought to grant this motion, Judge.

THE COURT: Ok.  Mr. Ghost--why don't you get me a proposed order.

Mr. Ghost: Thank you, your honor.  We'll get that for you promptly.

And that's how I won in Collin County, Texas.

Arguing right in front of the bench is normal practice in Houston.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bevo

Bevo 13,633

Posted
Posted
On 10/24/2022 at 2:29 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Good friend of mine's dad was a urologist.  In the mid-80s, his partner died and he went looking for a new practice and wound up in McKinney and found out that the Wysong family, which had paid for the hospital, basically, had an absurd and corrupt amount of control over medical practices in McKinney by forcing the hospital to withhold privileges.

Place is dirty as fuck.

Just curious if the dad was from Houston. A good friend of mine's mom and dad (who was a urologist) died in a plane crash in the mid-80s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dcbc

dcbc 14,568

Posted
Posted
On 11/2/2022 at 8:56 AM, ftf82 said:

The Collin County DA and his top assistant of have been accused of sexual harassment by one of his investigators and three other employees.

Here's the pdf of the 75 page federal lawsuit. (H/T to Liberally Lean blog)

 

 

The old hug and moan.  Gets 'em every time. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...