Bay Area Houston

I just can’t.

So two interesting articles have come up about local attorney and Harris County Department of Education Trustee Eric Dick. Yesterday I posted about an investigation into Dick concerning possible illegal solicitation of clients in Maui. Today there is an article about Dick being sanctioned $137,000. According to ClaimsJournal.com:

A Texas judge has ordered a Houston plaintiffs’ attorney to reimburse an insurer $137,000 for the legal fees it expended to defend itself against a “frivolous” and “groundless” lawsuit that was filed “solely for the purpose of harassment.”

The final judgement, which you can read here, is quite interesting and reminds me of his run in with the Texas Ethics Commission. According to the judgement:

During discovery, Dick named four expert witnesses who would testify about the loss: Richard Gadrow, Billy Bray, Matt Morgan and Shiran Perera. The order says Gadrow, Bray and Morgan testified that they were unaware that they had been named as experts. Perera, an engineer, testified that he had never inspected the property but did review photographs that showed wind damage, not the hail damage that had been alleged.

Of course Dick is now using the old Trump defense claiming it is a witch hunt, yada, yada:

Dick told the Claims Journal that the judge’s order is “100% political.” He said Williams has “weaponized” the justice system and using it against him because she is a Democrat and he is an elected Republican. Dick is an elected trustee on the Harris County Board of Education.

“This is how these corrupt judges do it,” Dick said. “This is the same way they are doing it with Donald Trump.”

Not only was he sanctioned the Judge has required him to pay the defendant’s fees for any appeals:

I just can’t get rid of Dick.

If you have read this blog at any time you might have noticed I have written about Eric Dick, Harris County Department of Education Trustee, candidate for city council, and candidate for Harris County Treasurer. I filed 2 ethics complaints against Dick which the Texas Ethics Commission accepted, investigated, and fined him $30,000 and $10,000. You can read the results of those investigations here and here. I actually expected a small fine and a promise not to do it again.

Dick is a well know insurance attorney. You might have seen his ads or flyers. He has since been appointed to the Harris County Department of Education. That should have been the end of all of this but he has now come under fire for soliciting clients in Maui after the massive fire. According to Hawaii News Now Dick sent out flyers (see below):

The flyer says “you may be entitled to money” and “We are helping your friends and neighbors protect their legal rights and want to help you,” although Dick has no Hawaii clients.

The back of the flyer included a contract and instructions to sign it and text it to Dick’s law firm.

Dick claims:

Dick said the flyer was approved by the Texas Bar Association and he has used similar flyers thousands of times, but apparently didn’t realize without a Hawaii license or working in partnership with a licensed Hawaii attorney, it is illegal to solicit clients here.

Dick seems to be like the jam of the month club. He just keeps on giving. I doubt if the Texas Bar, the Ethics Committee, or any other Texas organization will take action. It’s up to Hawaii to do so.

I can’t make this stuff up. Literally.

So the party of family values, the party of demonizing the gay community has it’s very own little secret that has blown up into calls for resignations of the Florida Republican Party Chair and the Chair of the Sarasota County School Board.

In a nutshell: The Florida Republican Party Chair, Christian Ziegler, has been accused of rape. He is currently under investigation. His wife, the Chair of the Sarasota County School Board, Bridget Ziegler, has been drawn into this because the accuser claims she was involved in three way sex with the Zieglers. Why is this dripping with hypocrisy if this is all true? Glad you asked.

Bridget is the co-founder of Mom for Liberty, the group that has been the driving force behind book bans targeting the gay community. According to the accuser she was having a three way with the Zieglers and the details are quite disturbing. Christian claims the sex was consensual and he has a video to prove it. (Yes he took a video of himself having sex) It should be bad enough that the Chair of the Republican Party was involved in adultery but that just qualifies you for being the GOP nominee for President. Regardless, even the Governor, Ron DeSantis, has called for his resignation.

And school board members have also called for the resignation of Bridget saying

She’s vilified the LGBTQ community, while at the same time having a sexual relationship with her husband and another woman. We don’t care who she has sexual relationships with. She’s a grown adult. The issue is, you can’t have a bisexual relationship and at the same time vilify the LGBTQ community

Ziegler is under investigation. Film at eleven. Literally.

Judgement day for trump will eventually come.

His family will not let him go quietly. They will request a state funeral that will last for 5 days. His coffin will be draped with the United States flag and put on a horse drawn carriage. A riderless horse with a single boot placed backwards in a stirrup will follow the carriage.

Trumps body will be place in the rotunda of the United States Capitol if Congress approves it. Luckily trump will not be buried in Arlington. His family will decide where he will be buried. Flags across the nation will be at half mast. MAGAs from across the country will come to see trump’s casket carrying their confederate flags, wearing the red hood, possibly considering storming the capitol again.

And then trump will meet his day of judgement. On this day this rotten, filthy, lying, cheating, racist, immoral, adulterer will be refused entry into hell by satan.

At least satan has limits.

I took another for the team and read the 55 page report. You can read the entire thing here. It’s detailed. It’s boring. Here are the findings:

• The committee gave Santos ample opportunity to address the issues, provide documentation, and testify to the committee. He refused all while claiming he was fully cooperating with the committee.
• His staff wrote a 141 page Vulnerability report and encouraged him to drop out of the race. His staff members quit.
• His staff encouraged him to seek medical attention for his constant lying.
• His staff member responsible for the FEC filings admitted to conspiring with Representative Santos to submit false reports to the FEC.
• Santos listed multiple personal loans, over $80,000, and $500,000 to his campaign that were never actually made.
• Representative Santos was also improperly repaid for loans that were not made ($31,000)
• These fictions loans falsely raised his Cash on Hand and could not pay outstanding debts. One staffer was not paid for 8 months.
• Ms. Marks pled guilty and testified under oath to conspiring with Representative Santos to falsely report loans
• He made $6,000 worth of purchases at Ferragamo stores, withdraw $800 in cash from an ATM at a casino, withdraw $1,000 in cash from an ATM near Representative Santos’ apartment, and to pay Representative Santos’ rent.
• filed a list of false donors with the FEC on the year-end 2021 report knowing it was not true, and the donors, who are the real people, didn’t give [her] permission to use their names.
• This was done to obtain money for his campaign by artificially inflating his funds to meet thresholds set by a national political committee
• He spent thousands of dollars on personal expenses such as $2,281.52 spent at resorts in Atlantic City, $1,400 at Virtual Skin Spa, $225 at CityMD, and $3,332.81 Airbnb expenditure, $5000 for personal credit cards
• He used his campaign money, over $4000, for Botox treatments
• The ISC determined that the systemic errors and omissions in Representative Santos’ campaign reporting were more than mere carelessness by his treasurer; rather, they were part of an overall scheme to avoid transparency about his campaign’s finances
• $50,000 of contributors money was used to, among other things: pay down personal credit card bills and other debt; make a $4,127.80 purchase at Hermes; and for smaller purchases at OnlyFans; Sephora; and for meals and for parking.
• He convinced donors to contribute large amounts to an advertising company claiming the donations would go towards his campaign. He used the donations for personal use.
• Santos claimed that he hired a professional tax preparer to file his Financial Disclosure statements. The tax preparer said she didn’t file the reports and was not hired by Santos.
• He lied on his FD claiming he made $400,000/year when he made only $55,000
• Santos reported four assets: (i) an apartment valued between $500,001 and $1,000,000; (ii) a checking account with between $100,001 and $250,000; (iii) a savings account with between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000; and (iv) 100% ownership of Devolder Organization, valued between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000. Each of these disclosures was false.

I’m tired. He is a liar like trump but just more stupid.