Bay Area Houston

WARNING: THE REPORT ISSUED BY THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL INVESTIGATING IS GRAPHIC.

Prior to voting to expel State Representative Bryan Slaton, the Committee of General Investigating issued a report on their investigation into allegations against Slaton which included providing alcohol to a minor, having sex with a staff member, and threats. The report is just 16 pages long and is chock full of gross details.

Slaton is accused of providing alcohol to a number of under aged staff members including a 19 year old identified as “Sophie” (not her real name). Slaton is a holier than thou, twice married, former pastor who has led the republican efforts against the gay community. Sophie is probably also a right wing holy Christian who porked a married man 26 years older than she is. From the report:

Sophie A. told Emily J. that she and Slaton had sex in various places throughout his apartment and that it “went on the entire night.” Sophie A. told Emily J. that it felt weird to have sex with him [Slaton] with pictures of his wife in the apartment. 

Yep. That is so very Christian of both of them. But it gets worse. Here is another snippet:

Emily J. recalled her conversation with Sophie A. on the morning of April 1. Emily J. asked Sophie A. “did you have sex with him [Slaton]?” and Sophie A. replied “yes.” Sophie A. told Emily J. that she had lost her virginity and that she bled a great deal as a result. Sophie A. told Emily J. that “they” had to change the sheets the next morning because of the blood. Sophie A. had bloody underwear with her that she attributed to her loss of virginity. Sophie A. told Emily J. that she was keeping the underwear as a memento from the night. Emily J. saw bloody underwear on Sophie A.’s bedside table.

I warned you this report was graphic. Now this isn’t graphic but it is disturbing. Republicans think they are above the law.

Other than Sophie A., all employees of Slaton are male. All five men employed by Slaton were represented by the same attorney, Connor Ellington. Ellington is employed by the Law Office of Tony MacDonald. Upon the advice of Ellington, all five men employed by Slaton refused to meet with the independent investigator for an interview, even after being informed that a person must cooperate with an investigation in accordance with the Committee Rules.

You can read the entire report here. I hope the Committee has referred Slaton to the District Attorney. What he did was gross, illegal, and representative of the current Republican Party.

You have to be an idiot to vote against impeachment after reading the 158 page transcript of the hearing on Ken Paxton. (BTW I have read it)

Only 23 Republicans voted against impeachment of Ken Paxton. 121 House members voted in favor even Little Baby Briscoe Cain of Deer Park voted in favor. Dennis Paul was in the minority joining Representative Leo-Wilson of Galveston which leads me to believe Senator Money Mayes Middleton will be voting against removing Paxton from office.

Paul claims in a statement, below, that the process was rushed which, if you read the transcript of the hearing of the Committee of General Investigating, is total bullshit. Paul is just repeating the talking points of the extreme far ignorant which included Democrat Harold Dutton. Impeachment in the House does not remove Paxton from office, but just last month after a two week investigation by the Committee, Paul voted to actually remove a member of the House, Representative Bryan Slaton for allegedly having sex with an intern among other things. That 16 page transcript is also posted.

Paul didn’t’t whine about that process, or rushing to remove him after Slaton was voted in by his Khristian Konservative Konstituents but he did whine about Paxton. He claimed he had read the 158 page report. I bet he didn’t. He claimed that his Khristian Konservative Konstituents wanted him to not impeach. I bet that isn’t true. As I said you have to be an idiot not to impeach after reading that transcript. Don’t believe me? Take a hour to read it.

The transcript of the hearing by the Committee is riveting. After reading 25 pages I would have voted to impeach and remove Paxton. It is just that bad. The transcript is the testimony of four, highly qualified, dedicated, non-partisan, (even though they are republicans) investigators giving a report to the Committee on what they found about Paxton. This included the evidence of bribery, securities fraud, misuse of the office, and 17 other claims which could get Paxton from 2-99 years in jail. It’s bad. It is very bad. If he was a Democrat he would have been impeached and removed in a heartbeat by a unanimous vote.

There are so many “OMG” moments in this transcript I would have to cut and paste the entire transcript, but let me just post a few lines:

VICE CHAIRMAN JOHNSON:··So is it fair to say the OAG’s office was effectively hijacked for an investigation by Nate Paul through the Attorney General Ken Paxton?
MS. EPLEY:··That would be my opinion

CHAIRMAN MURR:··So just — I want to summarize really succinctly.··And I’m not trying to put words in your mouth, but what your investigation of allegations by whistleblowers tells us is that the Attorney General himself chose to hire an attorney with five years experience based on the recommendation of Nate Paul’s attorney, give that attorney some job title that doesn’t even exist with Office of the Attorney General, and somehow give him the authority to issue 39 subpoenas to go after business interests for an individual and law enforcement that is conducting an investigation on that individual.
MR. DONNELLY:··That’s correct.

The entire transcript of the hearing can be found on the Committee of General Investigating website as well as the transcript concerning the ousted Bryan Slaton. Dennis Paul is either a liar, scared of a primary challenge, or just plain stupid.

Michael Smith of the Galveston Daily News had a great editorial concerning outside PAC money infiltrating local elections. He wrote an interesting tidbit that caught my attention:

Political operative Joseph Lowry, who has run toxic campaigns against elected officials in La Marque, paid for a billboard urging voters to reject Skipworth.

Lowry, of course, has been supported by the Galveston County Connects political action committee, which has a habit of suggesting elected officials are criminals, but won’t follow the state’s campaign finance laws itself.

So I thought I would look up GCC’s financial reports and it is interesting. GCC was created in early 2021 with Sarah Dougherty of La Marque appointed as Treasurer. They have an address in Austin. Initially they started with a couple of small donations totaling over $800 from Joseph Lowery, Vice CEO of Six Brothers Concrete Pumping in La Marque. Sarah Dougherty is an assistant at this company.

In 2022 they raised $10,725 from two big donations of $5000 each, MSW Investments Group and Robert Michetich of La Marque. The treasurer listed MSW Investments Group with an address in Winnie Texas. I couldn’t find a MSW Investments Group with a Winnie Tx address. There are a number of MSW Investments listed with one being listed in Stowell, Texas just a mile from Winnie Texas. This organization has a registering agent of Matt Wooten of Dickinson at 7011 S South Oak Avenue. According to OpenCorporates.com MSW Investments Group is an inactive organization.

Robert Michetich is a former La Marque City Council Member.