1975 impeachment of Carrillo makes Paxton case look tame
The Texas House has voted overwhelmingly to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton. He’s now suspended from office. A trial in the Texas Senate will determine whether he’ll be removed permanently.
The last time Texas legislators impeached a state officeholder was in 1975, and the target was an old-style political boss from Duval County named O.P. Carrillo.
Paxton is accused of doing favors for a wealthy donor, accepting bribes and retaliating against whistleblowers, among other abuses of office.
Carrillo’s misdeeds echo a bygone era in deep South Texas. He was accused of putting ghost employees on the Duval County payroll, buying groceries with county welfare funds meant for the poor and using county machinery to dig post holes and haul grain on his ranch.
Here’s a look at that earlier scandal.
Who was O.P. Carrillo?
He was the third-generation heir to a Duval County political dynasty. He held a law degree from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. He was also a rancher and a state district court judge in the 229th Judicial District, which encompasses Duval, Starr and Jim Hogg counties.
What bad stuff did he do?
He was accused of misusing public funds and making judicial decisions that benefited him personally or that involved a conflict of interest.
For instance, the 11-member Texas House Select Committee on Impeachment, which investigated the corruption allegations against Carrillo, found that the judge took $300 a month in county welfare aid to pay for groceries for himself and “his employees and guests.”
Carrillo’s brother Ramiro, a Duval County commissioner, was in on the action, according to the committee. He collected his own $300 a month in groceries that were supposed to go to poor families.
What else?
The committee found that Carrillo ruled on cases in which he had a conflict of interest.
One such case involved a dispute over the purchase of ranchland and a majority stake in a bank in Rio Grande City. The purchaser was land baron Clinton Manges. Carrillo knew Manges. In fact, Manges, who was the plaintiff in the case, put Carrillo on the bank’s board of directors while the matter was pending before the judge. Manges also allowed Carrillo to graze his cattle for free on the disputed ranchland — and he paid nearly $7,000 toward Carrillo’s purchase of a Cadillac.
In light of the above, the opposing side asked Carrillo to recuse himself from the case. He refused.
Was there more?
Oh, yes. That’s just the beginning.
According to the select committee, Carrillo “conspired with others to dominate and control” the Benavides Independent School District in Duval County. His methods were unsubtle: If a school board member opposed him, he would use his power as a judge to remove the person and replace them with one of his cronies or relatives.
Carrillo himself served on the school board, while also serving on the bench and as Duval County attorney.
He treated the Duval County government as his personal fiefdom and piggy bank, the committee found. He put county employees to work on his ranch and in a store he and his brother owned. One county employee worked as a welder on the judge’s ranch, another as a cook. Yet another helped to dig a reservoir on the property, using county-owned heavy machinery.
The judge also used county equipment to build outbuildings, haul grain and dig post holes for fences on his ranch, the committee found. He even tapped the county’s gasoline and diesel tanks to fuel his vehicles.
Was that the extent of his misdeeds?
No. As a state judge, he was required to file financial disclosures with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. Carrillo’s filings were fraudulent, omitting the “substantial annual income” he received from a family trust, according to the select committee. What is more, he and his brother, the Duval County commissioner, arranged to have the county pay one of their cousins $225 a month from the county’s road and bridge fund, supposedly for seasonal labor. At the time, the cousin was a student at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) in Denton, more than 400 miles from Duval County. The cousin was one of several ghost employees paid with county funds at Carrillo’s instigation, the committee found.
How did all this come out?
In 1975, then-state Rep. Terry A. Canales, a Democrat from Alice, put forward a resolution calling for Carrillo’s impeachment for abuse of office.
The select committee was formed to investigate the judge’s conduct. It gathered evidence and took testimony from 32 witness during 70 hours of public hearings. The committee’s “Statement of the Facts” filled 15 volumes.
In July 1975, the committee adopted 11 articles of impeachment against Carrillo, and the full House followed suit in August.
Did Carrillo testify before the select committee?
The committee invited him to testify, but he declined. Committee members decided not to compel his testimony by subpoena because Carrillo was under federal investigation for alleged tax crimes. Anything he said could be used against him in the federal case, so he likely would have pleaded the Fifth Amendment.
Then what?
In September 1975, the Texas Senate convened as a High Court of Impeachment to decide the case against Carrillo. Houston lawyer Leon Jaworski, the famed Watergate special prosecutor, served as special counsel to the Senate.
Senators considered Articles I and VII first.
Article I accused Carrillo of conspiring to have Duval County pay for his groceries. Members of the Senate voted not to sustain that charge. But on Jan. 23, 1976, they sustained Article VII, which said Carrillo had fraudulently billed “governmental entities” for phantom equipment rentals.
Under the Texas Constitution, conviction on any article of impeachment results in removal from office. In a separate vote, senators imposed on Carrillo the added punishment of “disqualification,” barring him from ever again holding any state office of “honor, trust or profit.”
The Senate then dismissed the remaining articles without ruling on their merits, so as not to “prolong unnecessarily” the impeachment trial.
What about that federal tax investigation?
Shortly before the Senate impeachment trial, Carrillo was convicted in federal court of criminal charges of tax evasion.
Was that the end?
Not quite. In 1976, the Texas Supreme Court, acting on a recommendation from the State Judicial Qualifications Commission, booted Carrillo from the bench, somewhat redundantly, for “willful acts of conduct which cast public discredit upon the judiciary of the state.”
Where can I find out more?
The Legislative Reference Library of Texas has posted links to an extensive collection of documents on the Carrillo impeachment case at www.expressnews.com//carrillo-impeach.