Cheney indictment tied to immigration detention facility

San Antonio Express-News:

A district attorney with a reputation for wackiness and little time left in office has stunned observers by securing indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Brownsville Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., among others.

Is this reality TV or something that will prove real?

At least for now, the White House isn't saying. But Lucio's lawyer described outgoing Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra as a circus act.

Guerra, a 53-year-old Rio Grande Valley prosecutor who drew national attention for suing counterparts in the county justice system and staging a protest with barnyard animals, long has alleged high-ranking corruption in the deals that brought the impoverished county a $60 million immigration detention center.

On Monday, he got a grand jury to sign off on a slew of indictments including an acceptance of honorarium charge against Lucio and an engaging in organized criminal activity charge against Cheney and Gonzales.

“I didn't intend to go after the vice president. That was not my intention,” said Guerra, who dubbed the investigation Operation Goliath. “We just followed the money, followed the corruption. It just happened that it just took us all the way to Washington.”

Lucio's lawyer, Michael Cowan, fired back Tuesday with a news release trumpeting Guerra's continued “one-man circus.”

“Having been voted out of office, Willacy County DA commits one last act of political revenge,” Cowan said. “With only a few weeks left in his term, Mr. Guerra has again chosen to misuse his position in an attempt to seek revenge on those who he sees as political enemies.”

Cheney is accused of contributing to the neglect of federal immigration detainees by contracting for-profit prisons.

“By working through corporations as prisons for profit, Defendant Richard Cheney has committed at least misdemeanor assaults of our inmates and/or detainees,” the indictment reads, adding that a “money trail” can be traced to Cheney's substantial investments in the Vanguard Group, which invests in privately run prisons.

Megan Mitchell, spokeswoman for Cheney, said: “We have not received an indictment. We haven't received a call from the district attorney's office. ... We haven't heard anything from the district attorney.”

Guerra said he kept Operation Goliath secret for four months over concern that pressure would be brought to bear to stop it.

He said “everything was being worked out of my house” and only one trusted member of his staff knew about it. He said he enlisted the help of people all over the country and talked to witnesses all over the country. Everyone who helped was assigned a biblical name. Guerra was known as David.

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These appear to be indictments that will be dismissed by either his successor in office or by the first judge that has them come before him. It appears the votes were wise to vote for change at the DA's office in Willacy County. The county is near the Rio Grade in the lower valley. It is near McAllen and Harlingen and is ow the Gulf coast. It is one of the few areas of Texas still dominated by Democrats. Guerra was probably replaced by another Democrat.