 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
April 2009
More KVUE Blogs
Political Blogroll
|
Recently in Litigation CategoryHouse Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and Patrick Marsteller, a Dallas travel company owner, have settled the lawsuit and countersuits they filed against each other. Marsteller first sued the speaker and lobbyist Bill Messer last May, accusing Craddick of abusing his power in demanding a refund for a five thousand dollar fishing trip that didn't happen. Craddick sued back for his refund. The deposition got a little tense, >> Continue reading: Speaker Unhooked from Fishing Lawsuit Totally unproductive three-day weekend here at PJ headquarters. Just to get y'all back up to speed: On the Texas front: --The Texas Supreme Court reviewed documents over the weekend but so far has not made a decision on whether to overturn a ruling by the Third Court of Appeals that Texas was wrong to seize those 460 children from the FLDS compound. --The "who loves veterans more" back-and-forth between Senate candidates John Cornyn and Rick Noriega continues. Noriega stoked the flame... Texas Allstate customers will get a total of $71 million in refunds after the insurance company settled with the Texas Department of Insurance , over the insurance company's excessive premiums*. Here's how it will affect you, if you are in "good hands": Allstate will refund almost $37 million for new and renewal policies written between Dec. 1, 2004-April 23, 2006, a period when the state said its rates were too high. By a 6-3 vote, the high court upholds voter ID laws in Indiana, which experts expect will fuel stronger voter ID movements in other states. Last session, eleven Democratic state senators in Texas blocked a voter ID requirement from becoming law. You might recall that, since State Senator Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, had to come back from liver transplant recovery in order to vote against it. This is new, so there's not a whole lot on it yet, but here's Indiana's WRTV-TV: WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can requi... Our intrepid web team at KVUE has posted raw video of parts of Craddick's deposition (see post below), but if you want to see the condensed version we put on TV, here's the 6pm video story. In this version you can watch the travel company owner, Phillip Marsteller, talk about the so-called "threatening" letter he received from Craddick and lobbyist Bill Messer. Since we didn't post all eighty minutes, I took a snapshot for you of an interesting moment we didn't post online. This is Craddick talking with his attorney, in the middl... The deposition of Tom Craddick lasts about eighty minutes, and all of it is riveting when you consider Craddick almost never sits down for extended "interviews" like that. Click on the picture to see raw video of the end of the deposition, where Craddick walks out before questioning is finished.
I am watching House Speaker Tom Craddick's deposition video from this morning, and it's a lot of "I don't know", "I don't remember", "I'm not advised" and "I have no idea's". Craddick was fidgety at first but overall appeared calm and at times even a little bored in the video. It lasts about 80 minutes, and lobbyist Bill Messer was deposed separately for another 90 minutes. His attorney, Dallas-based Tom Thomas, is a tiger! (If I am ever in trouble with the law, I am so calling this guy.) He snaps at plaintiff's attorney Kevin Buchanan several times, and instructs his client, Tom Craddick, not to a... Just a quick update, questioning of Craddick and Messer is complete in their fishing lawsuit depositions. Plaintiff's attorney Kevin Buchanan said the deposition lasted about ninety minutes. I'm told there was lots of asking Craddick to speak up (he tends to mumble sometimes) and Buchanan is admittedly a little hard of hearing. The transcript won't be available for another ten days or so, but I'll have details about the questioning this afternoon. ...House Speaker Tom Craddick and lobbyist Bill Messer are going under the oath right now in the lawsuit filed against them by a Dallas travel agent. (See the backstory and documents here.) The plaintiff's attorney, Kevin Buchanan, says it should go "pretty fast" so I'll update once I hear anything. A judge denied Craddick's earlier motion requesting that attorneys be prohibited from talking to the press, so we should definitely be hearing something. ...House Speaker Tom Craddick is set to go under oath on March 27th in a nearly-yearlong lawsuit, in which a Dallas travel company owner claims he was bullied by Craddick and lobbyist Bill Messer when he refused to give them their money back after a fishing trip that didn't happen. See my May 2007 story here. Craddick requested a judge to limit the time and scope of the deposition. A motion filed by his Dallas attorneys also requested that the attorneys involved be restricted from talking to the media about it, and that any videotape or other recor... |
|
|
Elise Hu is KVUE's Political Reporter and your dedicated blogger. There's too much politics in Texas to fit into a newscast, so the fun continues here. Email your ideas and feedback to ehu@kvue.com.
Categories
Powered by Movable Type 4.1 |
|
