Texas Tribune
Federal prosecutors asked to reopen Jared Woodfill fraud case
by Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune – 2024-02-07 15:10:48
SUMMARY: Amy Holsworth, a former client of Houston attorney and Texas House candidate Jared Woodfill, has requested a re-examination of a 2017 investigation where Woodfill was accused of misappropriating client funds. Holsworth alleges Harris County prosecutors, including District Attorney Kim Ogg, mishandled the case and suggests possible improper influence by Ogg and Rachel Hooper, a Houston attorney with connections to Ogg. This comes as Woodfill faces unrelated scrutiny over a sexual abuse scandal involving his ex-law partner. Despite detailed financial discrepancies outlined by a federal judge, no charges were filed. Holsworth's new complaint involves claims of intimidation and mishandling of the investigation.
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A former client of Houston attorney and Texas House candidate Jared Woodfill is asking state and federal investigators to give fresh scrutiny to a 2017 investigation into allegations that he misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars from his firm's clients.
In a sworn affidavit sent this week to the Texas Rangers, the FBI's Houston office and U.S. attorneys in the Southern District, Amy Holsworth, the former client, alleges that Harris County prosecutors mishandled her case against Woodfill and unexpectedly closed it. She also suggests the outcome of the case may have been improperly influenced by District Attorney Kim Ogg and Rachel Hooper, a Houston attorney and counsel for the Texas GOP whose relationship with Ogg has been under scrutiny since January.
Holsworth said in the new complaint that she recently learned that Hooper was associated with Woodfill's legal team during the 2017 investigation into his firm — Woodfill appeared in a video with Hooper that was taken at the Harris County courthouse days after investigators raided his office. In October 2021 — a month before Holsworth says she was told the Woodfill case was closed — Hooper was reportedly hired as a contract employee for the district attorney's office.
Woodfill is a former chair of the Harris County Republican Party who has for years led anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns in Houston and Texas. He has accused his opponent, Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, of being a “Republican In Name Only” over her vote to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton — who has endorsed Woodfill's campaign. If Woodfill wins his House race, he has said that he will also run for speaker of the Texas House.
Holsworth's complaint comes as Woodfill continues to face unrelated scrutiny for his role in a sexual abuse scandal involving his former law partner Paul Pressler, a Southern Baptist leader and former Texas judge who has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple men.
Ogg, a Democrat, currently faces a well-funded primary challenge from a former assistant attorney, Sean Teare, as well as criticism from the local Democratic Party and others for allegedly abusing her office to pursue political vendettas.
Ogg has downplayed the accusations as “political drama.” Her office did not respond to a request for comment Holsworth's claims, nor did Hooper or her husband, who was also named in Holsworth's complaint.
In an interview, Woodfill's attorney, Terry Yates, called Holsworth's new complaint politically motivated and unlikely to be taken seriously because of the age of her claims. He also disputed claims about Hooper's involvement with Woodfill's defense, saying that he was the lead attorney in the case and didn't remember her playing a significant role.
The complaint centers around a fraud and money laundering investigation into Woodfill's firm that began in 2017, after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge found more than $140,000 in unaccounted funds or overpayments to Woodfill's firm. In a massive findings of fact document that was filed in federal court at the time, the judge detailed more than a year of alleged financial “discrepancies,” overcharged attorneys fees and other instances of financial mismanagement by Woodfill's firm.
At one point, the judge found, there was only $650 left of the $225,000 that was placed in a trust to fund legal services for Holsworth and her then-husband. Her husband declared bankruptcy, and Holsworth eventually filed a criminal complaint against Woodfill with the district attorney.
Woodfill's firm disputed the judge's findings.
In a separate complaint filed with the Houston Police Department around the same time, Woodfill was accused of misusing at least $300,000 from a trust account in a different divorce case.
In November 2018, Woodfill's law offices were raided by the District Attorney's Office, which seized more than 127 boxes of files and six computers, according to a search affidavit from the time. The warrant also cited a second complaint from a woman who hired Woodfill's firm in 2013, as well as an employee for Woodfill's firm who said that Woodfill often moved money between client accounts and his own bank accounts.
Woodfill was also publicly reprimanded and fined by the Texas Bar for violations related to the complaint.
In her new complaint, Holsworth wrote that she had expected charges to be filed in the case, given the detailed allegations that were already outlined by a federal judge.
At one point, Holsworth, who was previously active in Harris County conservative politics, alleges that her friends and employer were contacted by a private investigator claiming to work for Woodfill. She wrote that Hooper's husband Don, who runs a small conservative blog, spread “malicious gossip” about her and harassed her in online Republican groups.
Holsworth said that she spent years contacting officials in the District Attorney's Office to check on her case. She wrote that she also ran into Ogg at a 2020 political event, and introduced herself as one of the victims in the Woodfill investigation.
“Ogg said that she knew exactly who I was and that she would reach out soon,” Holsworth wrote. “I never heard from DA Ogg.”
In the year after, Holsworth wrote that she and another alleged victim of Woodfill's continued to contact investigators, who told them that they were waiting for Ogg's approval to bring the case to a grand jury.
In November 2021, Holsworth said she was unexpectedly told that the case had been closed.
“This came as a complete surprise to me,” she wrote. “I was always given the impression that they believed they had a very strong case against Woodfill.”
Then, last month, Holsworth wrote that she began to further scrutinize her case after a story in the Houston Landing that raised ethical concerns about Ogg's decision to tap Hooper to investigate Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's office, given the public acrimony between Ogg and Hidalgo, Hooper's ties to the state GOP and blog posts in which Hooper's husband called Hidalgo a “Marxist.” Hooper, the Landing wrote, was hired to work on a “special project” that centered on an allegedly improper $11 million COVID-19 vaccine outreach contract. In 2022, two of Hidalgo's aides were charged with misusing official information and tampering with a government document.
Ogg's office defended the hiring of Hooper, telling the Landing that they “needed the manpower” because roughly half of the office's public corruption prosecutors were on leave. Hooper's role in the Hidalgo inquiry was to “draft and review legal documents,” Ogg's office said, adding that they have a longstanding agreement with Hooper's firm, BakerHostetler, “that allows our office to hire them as outside counsel, as does the Harris County Attorney's Office.”
According to the Landing, Hooper began investigating Hidalgo's office in October 2021 — a month before Holsworth said she was told the case against Woodfill had been closed.
Holsworth says she has since learned that, in addition to her alleged involvement with Woodfill's legal defense, Hooper also performed legal work in the divorce and bankruptcy proceedings that prompted her complaint about Woodfill.
“All of the information that I learned in January 2024 only confirmed in my mind that the Hoopers and others were attempting to intimidate me due to my cooperation in the Woodfill criminal investigation and that the investigation was dropped by the DA's Office for reasons contrary to the interest of justice,” Holsworth wrote.
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Texas Tribune
Two political advisers plead guilty in Cuellar bribery case
by By Jasper Scherer, The Texas Tribune – 2024-05-09 12:33:09
SUMMARY: Two political consultants are set to plead guilty to laundering over $200,000 in bribes with U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar. Court documents reveal their agreement to assist the Justice Department's case against Cuellar, who, along with his wife Imelda, was indicted for accepting nearly $600,000 from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank. Cuellar supposedly influenced U.S. Treasury policies to benefit the bank. The consultants, who may face 20 years in prison and heavy fines, were reportedly involved in a project that was a front for channeling money to Cuellar, bypassing financial disclosures. Cuellar maintains his innocence.
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Two political consultants agreed to plead guilty to charges that they conspired with U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar to launder more than $200,000 in bribes from a Mexican bank, according to recently unsealed court documents that show the consultants are cooperating with the Justice Department in its case against the Laredo Democrat.
Cuellar, a powerful South Texas Democrat, was indicted with his wife Imelda on charges of accepting almost $600,000 in bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank. The indictment, unsealed last week, accuses Cuellar of taking money from the commercial bank in exchange for influencing the Treasury Department to work around an anti-money laundering policy that threatened the bank's interests. Cuellar allegedly recruited his former campaign manager, Colin Strother, and another consultant, Florencio “Lencho” Rendon, to facilitate the payments, according to court records.
Rendon and Strother both struck plea deals with the Justice Department in March, in which they agreed to cooperate in the agency's investigation of the Cuellars. They each face up to 20 years in prison and six-figure fines for charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The plea deals, which were first reported by the San Antonio Express-News, allege that Cuellar first asked Strother to meet with Rendon in February 2016 to “participate in a project to test and certify a fuel additive made by a Mexican company … so that it could be sold in the United States.” Rendon told Strother he would pay him $11,000 a month for the project, $10,000 of which Strother would pass on to Imelda Cuellar, according to the plea agreements.
Rendon paid Strother a total of $242,000 from March 2016 to December 2017, nearly $215,000 of which Strother then paid to Imelda Cuellar, the documents allege. Strother concluded the project was “a sham,” according to his plea deal, because neither Rendon nor Imelda Cuellar “did any legitimate work.” Strother “understood that the true purpose of the payments” was to “funnel money” to Henry Cuellar without the Laredo Democrat having to reveal it in his annual financial disclosures.
Cuellar has asserted his innocence, releasing a statement Friday in which he said his actions were “consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.”
This story is being updated.
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The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas Tribune
Texas to pay landowners for damage caused by border crime
by By Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune – 2024-05-09 12:05:39
SUMMARY: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a new program providing compensation for U.S.-Mexico border landowners for damage by migrants and smugglers. The program, established under Senate Bill 1133, offers reimbursements up to $75,000 and requires a police report of the incident. Landowners have 90 days to file a claim for events between September 1 and May 6. The state has allocated $18 million for this year and next. Paxton criticizes President Biden's policies for the influx of migrants causing property damage, and the application process is available online.
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Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday opened a program that will reimburse landowners along the U.S.-Mexico border for damage to their land and property caused by migrants, smugglers and drug traffickers.
Landowners have 90 days after an incident to file a claim, which requires a written police report documenting the damage. The state will compensate up to $75,000 for damage to things like a barn or a fence, Paxton's office said in a written statement that blamed President Joe Biden's administration for the problem.
“This program will provide needed relief to Texans whose property is damaged by foreign aliens waved into the country by the federal government,” Paxton said in the statement. “I am glad to help the farmers and ranchers on our borderlands who bear the costs of Biden's destructive policies.”
Property damage caused by migrants crossing through private property — such as cutting through fences as they make their way north — has been a constant problem for border-area landowners for decades. Private property is sometimes damaged when human smugglers try to evade authorities and crash their vehicles into fences or structures.
Landowners can apply online and should expect correspondence via email, according to the attorney general's office.
The Legislature last year approved a law, Senate Bill 1133, to create the program, which appropriated $18 million in state money for the fund for this year and next year.
Land damage before Sept. 1, when SB 1133 went into effect, is not eligible for the program. Landowners have 90 days to file claims for any damage to their land between Sept. 1 and May 6.
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The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas Tribune
TCEQ to vote on Lake Ringgold reservoir near Wichita Falls
by By Alejandra Martinez, The Texas Tribune – 2024-05-09 05:00:00
SUMMARY: The Texas Tribune reports on Wichita Falls' controversial plan to build a 16,000-acre reservoir, Lake Ringgold, to address water scarcity during droughts, exacerbated by climate change. Ranchers in Clay County oppose the lake, fearing it would inundate their properties and disrupt cattle grazing, including land held since the 1880s and locations with deep sentimental and family heritage value. Wichita Falls' Public Works Director, Russell Schreiber, argues that the reservoir would provide essential water storage. Despite a decrease in the city's population and a judge's recommendation to deny the permit due to the lake's excessive scale for the actual need, if approved, eminent domain may be used to obtain necessary land for the project, provoking significant local resistance. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is set to vote on the permit.
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HENRIETTA — One rancher said the proposed reservoir would cut through her property and flood areas of her ranch she needs to graze cattle. Another said it would flood ancestral lands that have been in his family since the 1880s. Another said his kid's childhood home, where many family memories were made, would be underwater.
They traveled to Austin last year to voice their opposition to a 16,000-acre reservoir that the city of Wichita Falls wants to build in Clay County, approximately 30 miles east of the city. City leaders have applied for a state permit, arguing that building Lake Ringgold is vital to help the city avoid running out of water during droughts, which climate change has made more common and more intense.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state's environmental agency, will vote on the city's permit on Friday. If the city is granted the state water rights permit from TCEQ, it would next need to apply for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the city needs both a state permit and a federal permit for the project.
The seeds for the Lake Ringgold plan began about three years after Russell Schreiber took a job as the director of public works for Wichita Falls in 2008. A severe drought struck the area in 2010 and lingered for years, nearly draining the city's two reservoirs: Lake Kickapoo and Lake Arrowhead. Schreiber faced the nearly impossible task of finding water during one of the worst droughts to ever hit North Texas.
“It was very devastating,” Schreiber said, remembering how Lake Arrowhead, the city's primary water reservoir, and its other reservoirs came close to drying up.
When Wichita Falls hit a Stage 5 drought, the highest of the stages that's considered a “drought catastrophe,” the city issued water restrictions banning all nonessential water use like refilling swimming pools, using sprinkler systems and washing cars.
From July 2014 to July 2015, the city tried something new: direct potable reuse, a water recycling process that purifies waste and sewer water using a filtration system. The system allows the filtered water to be immediately used as drinking water.
Schreiber said at the time the city exhausted nearly every option to reduce water use, and managed to reduce the demand on the two reservoirs by 75%. But it wasn't enough, and the reservoirs reached an all-time low of 20% of capacity.
This prompted city officials to dust off plans for a new reservoir that's been considered since the 1950s.
“We're the only water supply for the whole North Texas region,” Schreiber said, referring to nearby communities like Olney, Burkburnett, Electra and a dozen others that get water from the same reservoirs. “And it's our job to ensure that there's adequate supply for this region.”
Reservoir project brings concerns from ranchers
After the drought finally ended in 2017, the city applied for a water rights permit with the state to build the Lake Ringgold reservoir.
The reservoir would be formed by building a dam on the Little Wichita River approximately half a mile upstream from its confluence with the Red River and downstream from Lake Kickapoo and Lake Arrowhead.
The reservoir would cost $443 million to build and could hold 65,000 acre-feet of water per year. (An acre-foot of water is enough to cover one acre to a depth of one foot.)
The city would need 24,000 acres of land for the reservoir site, which includes the lake, pump station facilities and transmission line to send water to treatment facilities in Wichita Falls. The city owns approximately 6,662 acres of the land needed for the reservoir, but would still need to acquire the remaining land through purchase or eminent domain. Opponents of the project say it would force more than 25 Texas ranching families to sell all or part of the land.
On Monday, the Little Wichita River's current was aggressive. Much of Texas had experienced heavy rainfall the week prior, and the river's waters ran red with sediment, surrounded by green bushes and trees. Swallows, a common songbird in the area, glided from underneath a bridge to the trees and back.
Less than 5 miles away, Deborah Clark, a cattle rancher in Clay County, said a portion of her land would be seized through eminent domain if the project is approved. Clark has spent decades raising cattle through regenerative agriculture, a practice that draws visitors to her ranch from around Texas to witness the dance between her livestock and the land as her herd of about 5,000 steers moves from one side of her 12,000-acre ranch to the other.
Clark says letting the cattle roam — rather than letting them graze on a single parcel of land — prevents them from putting too much stress on one area and promotes better overall soil health and diversity.
“We use the entire ranch, not just a little piece,” she said.
In December, she spoke against the project during a seven-day contested case hearing before a state administrative judge in Austin, along with many other neighbors.
After the TCEQ issued a draft permit for Lake Ringgold in 2019, Clark and other local residents, along with environmental groups like the Texas Conservation Alliance, disputed that decision, which triggered the contested case hearing — a formal legal proceeding where parties present evidence and arguments regarding a specific environmental permit application.
At the hearing, they argued that Lake Ringgold would harm agriculture in the area and force landowners to sell the city their land.
After the hearing, the judge recommended that the TCEQ deny the city's request to build Lake Ringgold, saying the project was too big for what the city's shrinking population needed. While the city has projected a population increase to 120,000 by 2070, Wichita Falls' population has dropped from 104,000 to 102,000 since 2010, according to the latest U.S. Census.
Clay County rancher's land could be taken and flooded
About 15 minutes away from Clark's ranch, Shane Cody, 54, and his wife Casey, 51, stood in front of their country-style brick home with their dog Blue. It was a picturesque scene, the branches of two oak trees converging into an arc around them.
The couple has owned the 185 acres surrounding the house since 2005, but the land wasn't always this taken care of, according to Cody.
When they bought it to build their dream home — something Cody had promised his wife when they married six years before — the land was filled with mesquite trees, which are not great for cattle. Cody knew he had to remove them because the couple wanted to start a family cow/calf operation.
Cody bought an old bulldozer with a grubber and got to work. For two years, he spent evenings and weekends removing mesquite trees, brush, and roots. He also planted Bermuda grass.
“We put our blood, sweat and tears into this place,” Cody said.
Cody taught their three boys to take care of cattle and hunt deer on the property. During the pandemic, when the world was in lockdown, he even installed a zip line behind the house.
“This is where the boys grew up and learned to be men,” Cody said.
Cody said that now his work, livelihood and family memories tied to his home are at stake. In his office, he pulls out three manilla folders from a filing cabinet, takes out a map of the proposed Lake Ringgold and lays it out on his desk. If Lake Ringgold is built, it could come within feet of the back door of their home, inundating his backyard and, he fears, possibly cutting off their only way to escape the property during a flood.
Less than 20 minutes away, Brent Durham, 61, rode his four-wheeler through waist-high native tallgrass prairie. His property, which is approximately 5,000 acres, is blooming with red Indian blanket, yellow common sunflower and pink Indian paintbrush. Scissor-tailed flycatchers soared across the vast land.
One of the reasons Durham moved to rural Clay County 12 years ago was to experience the wildlife in the area. He raises livestock like cows and sheep on his property.
Part of the land has been in his family since the 1880s. Durham still has the old deeds. His mother spent part of her life on the land and so did his great-grandmother.
If Lake Ringgold is approved, approximately half of his property would be underwater.
“That's why the lake is so sad. This entire pasture would be gone,” Durham said. “I'm pretty sure [the city] could care less. They don't care, they're displacing all of us. ”
Durham has stage four colon cancer that has spread to his lung. He's been on and off chemotherapy since 2021. He said he doesn't have much longer to live, but he thinks of his teenage daughter who lives with him as well as his eldest son, who has a home on the property too.
“I'll be dead way before they construct the lake. But they want to stay here,” he said.
He said the lake would ruin his ability to make a living through grazing livestock.
Meanwhile, back in the city, Schreiber, the public works director, defended the proposed reservoir project.
“If I've got two glasses of water half full sitting on the table, I've got a certain amount of water to use, right?” he said. “If I've got three glasses of water half full, I've got more water to use, right?
“That's the reason reservoirs are built,” he added. “They're built to store floodwaters for use later. You dam up the river and you create an impoundment that stores that water for people to use at a later time.”
Disclosure: Arrow has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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The post TCEQ to vote on Lake Ringgold reservoir near Wichita Falls appeared first on TexasTribune.org.
The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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