Dave Wilson
Harris County officials are asking an appeals court to reconsider the question of where Dave Wilson lived when he ran for his seat on the Houston Community College board,
The Harris County Attorney’s office is appealing a reluctant ruling by state district Judge Mike Engelhart, who in August upheld a jury verdict that Wilson did in fact live in an apartment in a warehouse on W. 34th Street that he claimed as his residence when running for the HCC seat in November.
The county attorney contends that Wilson actually lives with his wife in a home outside the city limits, and outside the boundaries of HCC District II. County attorney officials argue Wilson claims residency wherever he wants to run for office.
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While some have questioned the county’s persistence in the case, officials in the county attorney’s office have said that the jury’s ruling sent an inappropriate message to those looking to run for office — in effect, that “anything goes” when it comes to residency.
“A lot of people are looking at the result of this and concluding that … the concept of residency, as far as qualifying for election goes, is meaningless,” Assistant County Attorney Douglas Ray said at the time. “If Mr. Wilson can claim he lives in a warehouse at the same time he has a homestead exemption at another location, then anybody can claim to live anywhere.”
See here, here, and here for the background. Color me skeptical of this. I rather agree with the County Attorney that the ruling in this case has functionally rendered the concept of residency meaningless. At some point, however, that needs to be an issue for the Legislature to deal with, if they choose to do so. Wilson found a loophole and burrowed into it, and the law as it stands doesn’t address that. I don’t see how an appeals court will see it differently. Campos has more.
harris county attorney vince ryan is now living in a world that is a million miles away from us,he is attempting to say that the jury in harris county could not have reached the verdict that they did by the evidence that they recieved=vince ryan is not with us at this point ,because even if his appeal was granted it would be a reverse and remand not a reverse and render,so what that means is vince ryan would get another trial,which would take at least two more years at the minimum but i see it could take 3 years,but theres no way he could get the appeals court to reverse and render,hes got 3% chance at a reverse and remand back to the trial court but a reverse and render would be more like 0.0000000001% chance at this stage of his game,i think its safe to say that vince ryan is really going in deep in the pockets of the harris county tax payers and if he continues i would not be surprised if travis county public integrity division begins to look at his suits against an elected official,which by law dave wilson is an elected official and is entitled to review from travis county if he feels vince ryan is using the courts unethically to interere with a public official and his offcial duties to the houston community college.ive tried to help vince ryan in the past but like soooo many before him he just wont listen to reason. i wrote every word of what you just read joshua ben bullard