14 people were named in a federal indictment that was unsealed in Dallas, TX today. Amongst them is State Rep. Terri Hodge (Democrat, though you have to dig for that tidbit of info in the stories…wonder if that would be the case if she were a Republican?).
Go here to read the entire 100-page indictment.
According to the federal indictment, the objective was:
“…to unjustly enrich Hodge through her corrupt solicitation, acceptance (of) things of value in return for her performance of official acts and use of her official position as a state representative”
The 66-year old Hodge is accused of taking bribes from people trying to develop an affordable public housing project in her district. Nice going, Rep. Hodge.
Hodge faces up to 100 years in prison and 3.5 million in fines for the 15 counts of bribery, conspiracy, and fraud. She is charged with eight counts of bribery, five counts of fraud and false statements in connection with federal income tax returns, and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Hodge is currently representing District 100 in her fourth term in the Texas House of Representatives. Ironically, she serves on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
She’s about to gain a whole new perspective on criminal jurisprudence.
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A quick look around the Progressive and Liberal political blogs that focus on Texas politics, and of the 10 or so that I quickly checked, only PinkDome has posted anything about the story. Though she does conveniently omit Hodge’s political affiliation…
I would expect that the guys over at BurntOrangeReport are probably trying to think of a good way to spin this…as of right now it looks like they are just going with the “ignore it” option…
As of this posting, the Austin American-Statesman is ignoring it too…
I can understand if the guys at BurntOrangeReport just haven’t gotten around to posting about it yet — they’re busy college kids probably still trying to recover from the UT loss to K. State this weekend. But for the Statesman, this is supposed to be a full-time gig.
The Statesman did have time to write and post a story about Britney Spears being ordered to give her kids to Kevin Federline…
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OTHERS:






What a shame for the city and all African Americans in Dallas who elected her.
Left by nocrap on October 1st, 2007 at 9:18 pm