Dick Cheney is indicted by a Willacy County, Texas, grand jury.  No, not for shooting campaign contributors in the face, but for abusing prisoners.  No, not Gitmo prisoners, but federal inmates in a privately operated prison run by the Vanguard Group, with which the Vice President was involved. 

Aside:  Could this prison be the secret location where Cheney hid whenever the country was under attack or reporters sought comments?

According to the AP Report :

Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president’s investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and “at least misdemeanor assaults” on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.

Not exactly compelling clarity as to what the Veep is accused of doing.  That doesn’t mean that the indictment is a joke, but it does raise a question about what Cheney, as an invester, had to do with misdemeanor assaults on detainees. 

In the meantime, the lawyer for his co-defendant, Alberto Gonzalez (yes, that AG), wasn’t impressed:

Gonzales’ attorney, George Terwilliger III, said in a written statement, “This is obviously a bogus charge on its face, as any good prosecutor can recognize.” He said he hoped Texas authorities would take steps to stop “this abuse of the criminal justice system.”

Is it just me, or does it seem that Gonzalez lawyered up awfully fast on this one?  I mean, the indictment has yet to be signed.  Then again, as every smart criminal knows, it’s always good to have a lawyer at the ready.

What makes this scenario messy, aside from the fact that the perps happen to be the Vice President and the former Attorney General, is that the local District Attorney, Juan Angel Guerra, has some problems of his own.

Guerra himself was under indictment for more than a year and half until a judge dismissed the indictments last month. Guerra’s tenure ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.

Now who am I to impugn his decision to present this case to a grand jury, but then this isn’t your run of the mill South Texas prosecution.  Or is it?

Willacy County has become a prison hub with county, state and federal lockups. Guerra has gone after the prison-politician nexus before, extracting guilty pleas from three former Willacy and Webb county commissioners after investigating bribery related to federal prison contacts.

Last month, a Willacy County grand jury indicted The GEO Group, a Florida private prison company, on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release. The three-count indictment alleged The GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. The death happened in 2001 at the Raymondville facility.

So Guerra may be crazy, but is he crazy?   It is way too early in a case that will assuredly test the borders of politics, law, media and public tolerance, to draw any conclusions.  But if I was a network executive, I would seriously considering signing this one up for a movie of the week today, because by tomorrow it will be too late.

If I may interject one somewhat technical legal question, what authority does the Great Republic of Texas have to indict a sitting American Vice President?  The bad news for Cheney is, if he gets the early morning knock on his door at the Naval Observatory, chances are slim that Texas allow him to contact the United State Consulate before imposing the death penalty.  This case has it all. 

I wonder what Sean Hannity thinks of this?  He’s a very law and order sort of guy, you know.