Liberally Lean From The Land Of Dairy Queen: Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

12.08.2022

Our now county judge had some singing gigs back in the day when he was also the mayor of Chico.

This seems to be big: The Sheriff told WFAA that the State will seek the death penalty for Tanner Horner. I'm kind of surprise that he just casually made this statement because (1) that's one heck of an announcement, and (2) that decision is exclusively in the hands of the District Attorney's office so normally that would be entity to make that proclamation.
The probable cause affidavit has apparently been "sealed." I'm not sure about the propriety of this. You can seal search warrant affidavits for 31 days (art. 18.011) in certain circumstances, but I don't think you can seal probable cause affidavits (art. 15.26.) There is some information which might be able to be redacted in certain cases, but I didn't think you can seal the probable cause affidavit in its entirety. Heck, magistrates are even officially trained in Texas that those documents are public records (Example: Page 45 here.) Maybe I'm wrong. I suppose that it could have been a combo search and arrest warrant which would probably justify a 30 day waiting period.
The mother of Athena Stand has hired a law firm based in Fort Worth, and they will address the press at 11:00 a.m. today on the Wise County courthouse steps. I know that firm is a great criminal defense firm, but I wasn't aware they did civil litigation. Full press release here.

Hey, I'm thrilled she's out, but it must be noted that Paul Whelan remains in a Russian prison. Fox News just got published this statement from his family:
Micah Parsons, of all people, coming in hot (Edit - now deleted):

That case did not seem to be particularly compelling. We'll see what happens. Hot opinion: The defense has to be thinking about resting and arguing the State failed to prove his case. But if they decide to present a defense case, I would strongly urge having their client testify. I think he'd be found not guilty if they do.
We would probably be surprised how many government-issued-for-business-only phones have TikTok downloaded on them which taxpayer paid employees waste time with.
You know how I'm always dogging Medical Examiner's for listing a cause of death which they couldn't possibly know by simply examining the body. Well, there's a trial doing on right now In Denton where a deputy ME basically admits he changed his opinion because of influence from the cops. It's a front page story today in the Record-Chronicle.
Hanging out with Nazi's on Thanksgiving, advocating that the Constitution be "terminated" the next week, and now he has moved on to QAnon/Pizzagate disciples. That's, Liz Crokin. Google her. Keep it up, buddy.