DeLay just won this little victory, but hopefully justice will still be served. Since when should a defendent in this country get to rig his own trial?
From Bloomberg news:
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U.S. Representative Tom DeLay won his bid to remove from his campaign-finance trial a Texas judge who has contributed money to Democratic candidates.
District Judge C.W. Duncan sided with DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, who argued that Travis County District Judge Bob Perkins may be biased against Republican DeLay, who stepped down as U.S. House majority leader after being indicted. No new judge was named to preside over the trial.
"This was about the appearance of impropriety," DeGuerin said after the ruling.
DeLay, who left the courtroom in Bell County with a smile on his face, didn't take any questions.
DeGuerin asked for Perkins's removal because of the judge's donations to 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, among other Democrats, and to Moveon.org, a Democratic-leaning group that opposes DeLay. He's still trying to move the trial out of Travis County, which includes the capital city of Austin and votes Democratic at election time.
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who obtained the indictments, argued against removing Perkins.
"We respect the judge's decision," Earle said. "We believe Judge Perkins is an intellectually honest judge and that's why we felt we had to defend his position in the case."
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