Texas grand jury indicts Cheney, Gonzales of crime
Wed Nov 19, 2008 2:49am EST

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A grand jury in South Texas indicted U.S. Vice President **** Cheney and former attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday for "organized criminal activity" related to alleged abuse of inmates in private prisons.

The indictment has not been seen by a judge, who could dismiss it.

The grand jury in Willacy County, in the Rio Grande Valley near the U.S.-Mexico border, said Cheney is "profiteering from depriving human beings of their liberty," according to a copy of the indictment obtained by Reuters.

The indictment cites a "money trail" of Cheney's ownership in prison-related enterprises including the Vanguard Group, which owns an interest in private prisons in south Texas.

Former attorney general Gonzales used his position to "stop the investigations as to the wrong doings" into assaults in county prisons, the indictment said.

Cheney's office declined comment. "We have not received any indictments. I can't comment on something we have not received," said Cheney's spokeswoman Megan Mitchell.

The indictment, overseen by county District Attorney Juan Guerra, cites the case of Gregorio De La Rosa, who died on April 26, 2001, inside a private prison in Willacy County.

The grand jury wrote it made its decision "with great sadness," but said they had no other choice but to indict Cheney and Gonzales "because we love our country."

Texas is the home state of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Bush and his Republican administration, which first took office in January 2001, leave the White House on January 20 after the November presidential elections won by Democrat Barack Obama. Gonzales was attorney general from 2005 to 2007.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4AI11B20081119

bring the criminal to justice

thier not the only ones. Is the President able to be prosecuted as an ex-president for what he did in office?

Supposed to be, but it probably won't happen. The incoming Pres. tends to pardon the one going out, case in point, Ford Pardoned Nixon.

If you can send a person to jail for buying a dime bag of a weed!!! Bring it on..JUSTICE FOR ALL!!!!

Don't forget, Nixon was a President, not a Vice. Ford did the right thing, the Watergate scandal was tearing the government up and keeping him from getting other things done. Don't forget, there was a lot of things going wrong then. Don't forget, we've imprisoned VP's for lesser crimes. Spiro Agnew went to jail for tax evasion, hence Ford being the only President to never be part of winning an election.

but nixion appointed ford per say


this is a lil dif

and will be hard to get cheney (he in actuality had no power to make any one do anything legally


vp votes to break ties in congress (about the extent of his legal power thus how can he be held accountable for policy of the executive branch) they would have to go after bush and i doubt that will happen

bush is a tx boy

Let's not imply that Ford was appointed VP specifically to pardon Nixon. That is about as false an accusation as there can be. Agnew, as I said ended up going to prison, and Ford was appointed to replace him, long before Watergate started to really threaten Nixon's White House.

In actuality, Ford let the investigation go on at first, but it was starting to literally clog congress, the white house and government in general. Ford paid his price too. What four assassination attempts in 2 years? No chance at reelection because all Carter had to say was "pardoned Nixon." The main reason he lost.

The only reason I brought up the example at all was to demonstrate that we have no problem sending VP's to jail. I didn't mean to start a Ford bashing session. I like the guy, I got to eat lunch with him once, and he was actually quite funny.

i never said that is why he was appointed i said he was appointed by nixion that is a lil dif

you can read it any way you wish but i did not say it and whether he was or was not does not matter

what happened is he did it

I realize he did what he did, but there is a large misconception as to the why he did what he did. I apologize if I offended

Arraignment set for Cheney, Gonzales in prisoner abuse caseAssociated Press
Published: Thursday November 20, 2008


CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
AP News

Nov 19, 2008 21:25 EST

A Texas judge has set a Friday arraignment for Vice President **** Cheney, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others named in indictments accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a federal detention center.

Cheney, Gonzales and the others will not be arrested, and do not need to appear in person at the arraignment, Presiding Judge Manuel Banales said.

In the latest bizarre development in the case, the lame-duck prosecutor who won the indictments was a no-show in court Wednesday. The judge ordered Texas Rangers to go to Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra's house, check on his well-being and order him to court on Friday.

Half of the eight high-profile indictments returned Monday by a Willacy County grand jury are tied to privately run federal detention centers in the sparsely populated South Texas county. The other half target judges and special prosecutors who played a role in an earlier investigation of Guerra.

One indictment charges Cheney and Gonzales with engaging in organized criminal activity. It alleges that the men neglected federal prisoners and are responsible for assaults in the facilities.

The grand jury accused Cheney of a conflict of interest because of his influence over the county's federal immigrant detention center and his substantial holdings in the Vanguard Group, which invests in private prison companies.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of stopping an investigation into abuses at the federal detention center.

An attorney for the private prison operator The GEO Group filed motions accusing Guerra of "prosecutorial vindictiveness."

One motion said Guerra had hijacked "the grand jury process and disregarded the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure designed to protect defendants' due process rights."

Some attorneys argued that Banales may not have the authority to schedule an arraignment because the indictments were invalid. One lawyer said Guerra never should have been allowed to present the cases to the grand jury because at least four of the indictments deal with people who had some role in the investigation of his office last year.

"He is the witness, the victim and the prosecutor," said the attorney for Mervyn Mosbacker Jr., a former U.S. attorney who was appointed special prosecutor to investigate Guerra.

District Clerk Gilbert Lozano, District judges Janet Leal and Migdalia Lopez, and special prosecutors Mosbacker and Gustavo Garza, a longtime political opponent of Guerra, were all indicted on charges of official abuse of official capacity and official oppression.

The grand jury tied all of their charges to an earlier investigation of Guerra's office.

Banales dismissed an indictment against Guerra last month charging him with extorting money from a bail bond company and using his office for personal business. An appeals court had earlier ruled that a special prosecutor was improperly appointed to investigate Guerra.

After Guerra's office was raided as part of the investigation early last year, 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.

Guerra has been in office nearly 20 years, but was defeated in the March Democratic primary.