A weak and politically motivated criminal complaint against a state senator was shot down by DPS this week.
The Department of Public Safety announced that they have dismissed a criminal complaint against State Sen. Jane Nelson (R – Flower Mound), lodged by a disgruntled horse-breeding association in regards to the legislature’s funding of the Texas Racing Commission.
The Texas Thoroughbred HBPA – upset that Sen. Nelson and the rest of the Legislature used the appropriations process to rein in the constitutionally defiant commission – filed the complaint with the Texas Rangers earlier this month. The Rangers are an independent investigatory division of DPS.
In a letter addressed to Jan Hayes, President of the association who filed the felony complaint, DPS General Counsel Phillip Adkins states that allegations against Nelson neither establish an offense nor suggest a reasonable investigative effort would be worthwhile.
“Assuming for purposes of this evaluation that the information you have provided is accurate, as a State Senator and member of the Legislative Budget Board, these matters are appropriate areas for Senator Nelson’s concern and attention. Nothing in the materials you have provided thus far raises a plausible possibility that criminal conduct has occurred.”
(Read the full letter here.)
Sen. Nelson and the Legislature demonstrated the most basic concept behind our three branches of government: separation of powers. That concept seems to be lost on the Thoroughbred association and its overseers on the Racing Commission.
Kudos to the Texas Rangers for so quickly dismissing such a frivolous political stunt.
