Saturday, June 14, 2008

Much ado about nothing


Seems like a case of much ado about nothing.


It sure doesn't sound like a matter that should have been persued let alone filed.



Lawyer says charges indicate vendetta
By Zeke MacCormack: zeke@express-news.net

BOERNE — A former federal prosecutor who made her mark here as an aggressive defense lawyer faces three misdemeanor charges over a disturbance call to police she made last year.

The charges against Kira West reflect a vendetta by county prosecutors against her, said her attorney, Dick DeGuerin of Houston.

That's denied by Kendall County Attorney Don Allee and by Ryan Turner, a special prosecutor to whom Allee referred the case.
At issue is a call made at 11:20 p.m. on July 20 to the local police non-emergency number in which West — without identifying herself — reported a disturbance and asked that Sgt. Mark Busbee be sent to a local strip mall, records show.

Busbee's fiancee, attorney Christina Mitchell, was out that night with West at a pizzeria in the center.
In his report, the police sergeant said West, 43, met him outside the eatery and told him there was no disturbance.
“West advised that a male subject had been ‘hitting' on Christina and that she had found that disturbing and had wanted me to know about it,” Busbee wrote in his report.

West, who declined comment, moved to Washington, D.C., on June 3, the day Turner charged her with making a false report, making a false statement to police and perjury.

The first charge arose from the call to police, and the latter two concern statements by West during the subsequent investigation that officials deemed false and intended to deceive.

DeGuerin, who met West when she was an assistant U.S. attorney in Houston, said she didn't lie or do anything wrong. “She perceived there was a disturbance and she reported it,” he said.
Allee, whose staff sometimes clashed with West, said he turned the decision on whether to file charges over to Turner, adding, “I'm completely staying out of it.”

Turner, an Austin attorney, said “friction” between West and Allee's office “has nothing to do with this case.”

But Mitchell, a close friend of West, subscribes to the vendetta theory and called the charges “absolutely ridiculous.”
She declined to discuss what occurred in the pizzeria last summer, saying, “I'll save that for the ridiculous trial that's going to be a circus.”