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David Michael Medina, Ex-Governor Perry Advisor, Ex-Judge, Ex-Texas Supreme Justice

In June 2002, David Michael Medina was pulled over by a Harris County Constable and almost hit the deputy’s car.  Medina refused to identify himself, allegedly smelled of alcohol, could not walk steadily, failed the eye-movement test, and refused to take a breath test.

Medina got himself a high-priced lawyer (Rusty Hardin), pled guilty to a lesser offense, and only had to pay $500. The DWI accusation was reduced all the way to a Class C Misdemeanor as seen in this certified copy of the judgment. David Michael Medina Judgment.pdf

Then in 2008 a grand jury returned felony indictments against Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife.  Mrs. Medina was accused of setting a blaze with an accelerant found in their garage that caused almost $1 Million worth of damage to three homes in their Spring, Texas, neighborhood, including their own 5,000 sq. foot home.

What made investigators suspicious is that the Medinas had been sued in June 2006 by a mortgage company. The suit was filed because the family had missed five months of payments. The investigators also learned that the Medinas owed $1,900 in fees to their homeowners’ association.

In a November interview with the AP, the Medina’s financial problems were publicly revealed. Ironically, the losses from the fire were not covered because unbeknownst to the Medinas, the homeowners insurance policy had lapsed.  After the fire, the Medinas sold their home in Spring and moved to Austin, Texas.

For this felony, Mrs. Medina’s bail was set at $20,000.  TSC Judge David Medina was indicted for tampering with evidence (a felony), and his bail was set at $5,000. Dick De Guerin was Mrs. Medina’s lawyer.

District Attorney (Charles A. Rosenthal, Jr.  — also a Republican) decided to dismiss the grand jury’s indictments because of a procedural error made by his own DA’s office.

By law, grand jury deliberations must be kept secret; but the jury foreman did state, “The testimony of the arson investigator is what we went on…Draw your own conclusion if it was sufficient.”

Both the grand jury foreman and the assistant foreman (an experienced civil trial lawyer) said the DA’s office had already decided beforehand to oppose the indictments against the Medinas. The foreman stated, ”If this was David Medina,  truck driver of Baytown, Texas, he would have been indicted three months ago.”

Even though the grand jury had returned guilty indictments against both the Medinas, the DA’s office managed to get the judge to void the grand jury’s vote. To keep the grand jury members from telling their side, the prosecutor placed an injunction over them that gagged them from talking under threat of jail time.

District Attorney Rosenthal himself was later forced to leave office because of love notes and sexually explicit messages sent from his office.

David Medina broke compaign laws. In 2001, 2002, and 2003 David Medina chose not to comply with the campaign finance laws. In 2008, the Texas Ethics Commission brought ethics complaints against Medina because he improperly paid himself $57,000 from campaign funds. He escaped with a fine of $35,000. On June 4, 2012, the Texas Ethics Commission sent Judge Medina another campaign ethics complaint — #SC31205185. Despite this, Medina failed to report a contribution of $5,000 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform. TLR is often challenged before the Court.

David Michael Medina Judgment.pdf (Certified)

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