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District clerks plead not guilty
McKinney Courier-Gazette
All six Collin County district clerks indicted on counts of engaging in organized criminal activity pled not guilty in a preliminary hearing held Wednesday before visiting District Judge John Nelms in the 401st District Court.
Punishment for the second degree felony ranges from 2 to 10 years upon conviction.
During the hearing, Judge Nelms said that he plans to hold trial in mid-November before the term of John Roach, Collin County District Attorney, expires. As justification, he said that because the defendants are employees of the county government a speedy trial is necessary, adding that a change in leadership at the DA’s office could mean new attorneys coming on board and replacing the current prosecution team.
Robert Hinton, attorney for Crigger, objected to the judge's decision to hold trial before the end of the year, saying it would not allow time him to go through the "thousands of documents" submitted as evidence. The judge responded that these matters need to be resolved in a reasonable amount of time.
The current plan is to try all six defendants together, although Deric Walpole, who represents Littrell, plans to file a motion to sever the cases over concerns that other attorneys would undermine a joint defense by saying his client pressured other clerks into participating in the accused charges.
The motion to sever will be heard on Sept. 27. Walpole also intends to file a motion to reveal the identity of the unidentified sources who helped with an investigation conducted by the Texas Rangers into the District Clerk's office that prompted a July raid at the Collin County Courthouse.
Judge Nelms refused to grant another request from Walpole to limit publicity of the trial, although he advised police offices, witnesses and attorneys involved in the case to refrain from making statements. The judge asked both sides to commit to a "gentleman's agreement" not to discuss the case or speculate on the outcome of the trial.
"If I read about it and know where it came from, I'll be very unhappy,” he said.
As justification for the motion, Walpole raised concerns over the mountain of evidence (13,000 pages) the DA’s office has filed in the case. He said that evidence has been disseminated to the public before trial has even begun and asked for some level of protection from such mass filings in the future.
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