The Crooked D.A. - #106

#106 RAY SUMROW
FORMER ROCKWELL COUNTY (TX) DISTRICT ATTORNEY

That last entry on GOP Cocksucker #105 (JUDY JONES) was pretty picayune, so we need something with a little more meat on the bone. I know! How about a crooked DA!?

Here's the story of Ray Sumrow.

Sumrow had been the DA of Rockwell County for 20-some years. Then he got into the habit of stealing the county's 'fee fund.' That's the fund where fines from hot checks go. The DA has the discretion to use the fund to buy office supplies above and beyond his salary. That sounds reasonable.

Except that Sumrow was using the fund to buy computer equipment for his own use, plane tickets for his girlfriend and as reimbursement for business trips he never took.

Sumrow got into trouble when someone blew the whistle on him after he diverted $68,000 into his own personal checking account. He was madder than a wet hen but had to repay the money anyway.

He may have thought he had dodged a bullet but then a Travis County grand jury investigating political corruption got ahold of him. It filed an indictment over Sumrow's misuse of the $68,000.

Sumrow was stunned when, after 13½ hours of deliberation, jurors found him guilty of theft but innocent of two more charges involving records tampering and forgery. There was one holdout on those two charges.

Sumrow later gets sentenced to four years in the Slammer.

S. Olson