What's the Deal With Tom DeLay's Mug Shot?
Why doesn't it have numbers on it?
By Keelin McDonell
Posted Friday, Oct. 21, 2005

He's De-Lovely!

On Thursday, Tom DeLay reported to the Harris County sheriff's office in Houston to post bond and get fingerprinted. DeLay also posed for a mug shot. The photograph shows a face-forward DeLay grinning; it doesn't show him in profile or holding a placard of identifying numbers. Is this happy-go-lucky photo a real mug shot?

Yes, though advances in technology have made mug shots pretty much indistinguishable from normal photographs. During the last decade or so, most state and federal bond offices have made their entire booking process digital. (For one, most jurisdictions no longer take fingerprints using an ink pad but use biometric scans instead.) Mug shots now typically get taken with a digital camera. The accused's personal identification number (those digits that used to appear on a placard in front of the arrestee's torso) and other data like gender, eye color, and birth date, get recorded on the side of the photo. (You can see DeLay and his booking information in this uncropped version of the photo.)

Photographing criminals in profile was once considered essential. But since the advent of digital photography, the profile shot has become less common. (Practices vary from state to state, but Texas now takes only frontal pictures.) A side-angle photo once helped officers to identify criminals who tried to disguise themselves, as it's more difficult to alter your profile than your face-forward appearance. However, now that computer programs are used to compare photographs instead of the naked eye, profile shots aren't as useful.

As for DeLay's smile, that's most likely pure political strategy (see below - editor). Reporters are speculating that the congressman's advisors urged him to grin so that Democrats won't be able use a dour mug shot in future ad campaigns.

Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer.

Explainer thanks Sgt. Bruce Carr of the Harris County Bonding Office, Terry Julian of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, and several Slate readers for asking the question.

Related in Slate

Nicholas Thompson created a DeLay scandal scorecard.

Keelin McDonell is a reporter-researcher at the New Republic

washingtonpost.com
DeLay Smile May Foil Democrat Campaign Ads
By LAURIE KELLMAN, The Associated Press
Thursday, October 20, 2005; 9:20 PM

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WASHINGTON -- Why is Tom DeLay smiling? After all, he's been indicted. Forced out of his job as House majority leader. And called into court for fingerprinting and a mugshot like a common criminal.

Answer: A photo of DeLay grinning from ear to ear doesn't pack quite the punch in a Democratic attack ad as one that looks more like the mugshot of, say, actor Hugh Grant.

Note the House of Representatives security pin on DeLay's lapel.

He looks in the photo like a proud member of Congress who might just have won the lottery, not one indicted on charges of money laundering. The photo looks like it could have been taken anywhere.

And that was just the point.

Democrats nationally are already sounding as if they'll make DeLay the poster boy for bad Republican behavior in next year's elections, when every House seat and a third of those in the Senate are up for grabs.

DeLay, an 11-term Texas congressman and former pest exterminator famous for enforcing GOP loyalty, faced a tough reelection campaign even before the indictment.

In the 2004 elections, DeLay won 55 percent of the vote, a relatively weak showing for a veteran House leader. His challenger next year is expected to be former Rep. Nick Lampson, who lost his seat in 2004 after he was forced to run in a new district under a redistricting plan pushed by DeLay.

For his mandatory booking Thursday, which caused him to miss voting on a gun industry bill popular in his home state, DeLay did everything he could to prevent images of the event from being committed to film.

Rather, the photo projects the confidence DeLay exhibits in all of his scuffles. For anyone who didn't get it, DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, articulated the message it was intended to send.

"If you saw Congressman DeLay's mugshot, he was smiling," DeGuerin told reporters. "He's eager and he's ready to go."

© 2005 The Associated Press

Tom Delay mug shot and arrest warrant from The Smoking Gun

Delay's lawyers believe that the arrest is part of a democratic conspiracy, and wanted the judge removed from the case. Mr. Delay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, accused the judge of passing out anti-Delay t-shirts. The judge denied it. From The E-Accountability Foundation to Dick: This strategy may not be the best one for Tom. The judge passes the recusal on to another judge:

Judge in DeLay Case Bumps Recusal Motion to Another Judge
Mary Alice Robbins, Texas Lawyer
10-24-2005

LINK

With lawyers for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, challenging his impartiality because of contributions he made to Democratic groups, 331st District Judge Bob Perkins opted on Friday to let another judge decide whether he should be recused.

Perkins, a Democrat, announced from the bench that he will ask Judge B.B. Schraub of Seguin, presiding judge of the 3rd Administrative Judicial Region, to assign a judge to hear the recusal motion that DeLay's defense team filed on Thursday.

Recently returned from a vacation in Italy, Perkins set a light tone for DeLay's first appearance before him after being indicted on conspiracy and money-laundering charges. After entering the packed courtroom and taking the bench, Perkins quipped, "With this big of crowd today, I really must say that I should have stayed in Italy."

But the hearing quickly turned to business when Perkins considered the recusal motion. DeLay, the former U.S. House majority leader who had to step down from the leadership post after he was indicted in September, alleges in the recusal motion that Perkins made contributions in the fall of 2004 to the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org, a nonprofit organization. According to its Web site, MoveOn.org focuses primarily on education and advocacy on important national issues and also has a political action committee.

DeLay asserted in the recusal motion that MoveOn.org solicited contributions for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, in 2004 by asking donors to "send a message to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay ... who quarterbacked last year's redistricting battle that split Travis County three ways."

The Texas Legislature drew new congressional districts that favored Republican candidates in 2003. DeLay founded the Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, another defendant in the case, which helped raise money for GOP candidates who ran for the state House of Representatives in 2002.

Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's lead counsel, says in an interview that two organizations funded by MoveOn.org are selling T-shirts featuring DeLay's mug shot.

Referring to DeLay's recusal motion, Perkins said, "It seems to me this is going to continue to be an issue anytime there's a Democratic judge hearing a Republican defendant." The issue should be decided, he said.

"It just doesn't look right," DeGuerin said of Perkins' contributions during a news conference after the brief hearing.

But Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle told reporters, "I think what this means is if a judge had contributed to Crime Stoppers, he couldn't hear a burglar's case. ... We don't live in a country where a political party determines justice."

Perkins had little choice with regard to the recusal motion. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 18(c) requires that after a motion to recuse a judge is filed, the judge either must recuse himself or request the regional administrative judge to assign a judge to hear the motion.

Dianne Griepentrog, administrative assistant for the 3rd administrative region, says Schraub probably will hear the motion himself. "He hears almost all recusal motions filed in the 3rd region," she says.

Griepentrog says Schraub probably will set a hearing on the motion within a couple of weeks. Schraub is a Republican whom Gov. Rick Perry reappointed to the administrative post in 2002.

Perkins recused himself from presiding over the trial of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, after she was indicted in 1993 for allegedly tampering with physical evidence and tampering with a governmental record. Perkins had contributed to Hutchison's Democratic opponent, Richard Fisher.

Steve Bickerstaff, a Texas election law expert and adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, says he doesn't think the decision whether to recuse Perkins this time will hinge on whether the judge made contributions to candidates. What makes this different, is MoveOn.org has taken a position on DeLay, says Bickerstaff, who is writing a book on the Legislature's 2003 redistricting and the DeLay case.

The judge who hears DeLay's case must decide whether to move the case out of Travis County. Also on Thursday, DeLay's attorneys filed a motion for change of venue. DeLay alleges in that motion that "extremely strong political feeling" against him in Travis County would make it extremely difficult for him to get a fair trial in the county.

Earle disagreed. "I believe in the essential fairness of the people who live in Austin," he said during a brief news conference.

Outside the courthouse, however, several Austin residents waved posters stating their opposition.

Chris Levack, who identified himself as a builder and sculptor, carried a poster that read: "Hey DeLay, Welcome to Waterloo."

"This is my greeting card to Tom DeLay," Levack says. "I'm disgusted with the way [Travis County] was redistricted."

DeLay's Lawyers Press Judge to Step Aside
DeLay Makes First Court Appearance; Lawyers Attack Judge's Democratic Donations
By SUZANNE GAMBOA, The Associated Press

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AUSTIN, Texas - Proceedings in the political-money case against Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, are on hold after the congressman's lawyer asked the presiding judge to step aside because he made campaign donations to Democrats and their liberal allies.

After a hearing that lasted less than five minutes Friday, Judge Bob Perkins deferred further proceedings, including the entry of a plea, until a hearing can be held on DeLay's request for a new judge.

The former House Republican leader, charged with conspiracy and money laundering, did not speak during the brief session but read a statement later accusing prosecutor Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, of partisanship.

He said that because Earle and the Democratic Party "could not beat me at the ballot box and could not beat me on the floor of the House of Representatives, they are now desperately trying to challenge me in a courtroom."

Defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin made an issue of the $3,400 in political donations the judge has made to Democratic causes, including one to MoveOn.org, a group critical of DeLay and Republicans.

Perkins denied bias but ended the exchange quickly, saying, "The best way for me to handle" the request for a different judge would be to defer further proceedings.

That means the issue now goes to hearing before a state administrative judge, B.B. Schraub.

Schraub, a Republican, became an administrative judge in 1990 and was appointed or reappointed by four governors: three Republicans and one Democrat. Schraub, from 1989 through 2002, contributed at least $1,500 to federal Republican campaigns, according to disclosure reports compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

He donated an additional $4,900 to Texas GOP candidates between 1998 and 2001, according to state disclosure reports analyzed by a public interest group, Texans for Public Justice.

Outside the courtroom, prosecutor Earle spoke dismissively of DeLay's efforts to get Perkins to step aside. Judges in Texas must run for election and DeLay's lawyers filed a motion Thursday identifying 34 donations Perkins had made.

"What this means is if a judge had contributed to Crime Stoppers that judge could not hear a burglary case," said Earle. "Carried to its extreme, that is what I think this motion means and I think that's absurd."

DeLay and two political associates are accused of funneling corporate money to Texas legislative campaigns, in violation of state law prohibiting use of these donations for election or defeat of state candidates.

Two grand juries accused the three men of sending $190,000 in corporate money, raised by a Texas group founded by DeLay, to the Republican National Committee in Washington, and having the money routed back to several Texas candidates.

The felony charges triggered an upheaval in the House Republican leadership, as DeLay was obligated to step aside under House rules.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

October 22, 2005
DeLay Appears in Court in Money Laundering Case
By PHILIP SHENON

AUSTIN, Tex., Oct. 21 - Representative Tom DeLay entered a criminal courtroom on Friday to face for the first time his nemesis, the Texas county prosecutor who has charged him with money laundering and conspiracy, but the proceedings were brought to a halt almost as soon as they began.

The judge in the case, Bob Perkins of the 331st Judicial Criminal District Court, said he was temporarily putting the prosecution on hold in light of a defense motion demanding that he recuse himself because he was a Democrat who had made recent donations to the Democratic Party and to Democratic candidates.

"I should have stayed in Italy," Judge Perkins said, drawing a taut smile from Mr. DeLay and laughter from others in the audience who had gathered to see Mr. DeLay make his first court appearance in Austin, the state capital. The judge was on a European vacation last month when the first of two indictments was brought against Mr. DeLay, forcing him to step down as the Republican majority leader in the House.

Before conducting any substantive business in the case, Judge Perkins said he was referring the question of his impartiality to the presiding administrative judge of the region.

The administrative judge, B. B. Schraub, a Republican appointed by a succession of Republican and Democratic governors, will be asked by Mr. DeLay's lawyers to determine if Judge Perkins should recuse himself. Judge Schraub's office said he expected to hold a hearing on the case within two weeks.

Mr. DeLay, appearing relaxed and accompanied by his wife, Christine, had no opportunity to speak during the brief hearing in the Travis County Courthouse. Afterward, he appeared before reporters on the steps of the Capitol, a few blocks away, to proclaim his innocence again.

"I will absolutely be exonerated," he said, accusing the prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, a Democrat who is the district attorney of Travis County, of a politically motivated investigation.

Mr. DeLay said he was pleased to have the "opportunity to go before a court and refute these baseless charges that are the result of a political vendetta being acted out by Ronnie Earle."

Mr. DeLay is accused of money laundering and conspiracy in a scheme that, prosecutors say, funneled thousands of dollars in corporate donations to Republican legislative candidates in 2002 in Texas in violation of the state's century-old ban on corporate money in state campaigns.

In that election, Republicans captured the Texas House for the first time in 130 years, allowing Mr. DeLay's allies here to redraw Congressional districts to allow more Republicans to be sent to Washington.

Mr. DeLay is free on $10,000 bail, which was set on Thursday after a brief appearance at the sheriff's office in downtown Houston, near his home in Sugar Land, Tex., when he was fingerprinted and photographed. His booking photograph, in which he is smiling broadly, dominated the front page of newspapers throughout Texas on Friday.

Mr. Earle, who has prosecuted a variety of politicians, most of them Democrats, during more than a quarter century as the county's district attorney, said after the court hearing that it was "absurd" to think of Judge Perkins's removing himself from the case.

"What this means is that if a judge had contributed to Crime Stoppers, that judge could not hear a burglary case," Mr. Earle said. "Carried to its extreme, this is what I think this motion means."

He added: "This judge has a record of fairness to all who come before him. Membership in a political party does not determine the quality of justice."

Judge Perkins is widely praised by criminal defense lawyers in Texas, Republicans and Democrats alike, including lawyers for other figures in Mr. Delay's case.

During the hearing on Friday, which lasted less than 10 minutes, Judge Perkins appeared to rebut the suggestion that he would not provide Mr. DeLay with a fair trial.

In respectful tones, Mr. DeLay's lead defense lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, noted that Judge Perkins had given money to, among others, MoveOn.org, a liberal group that Mr. DeGuerin said had been "selling T-shifts with Mr. DeLay's mug shot on it."

Judge Perkins replied: "Let me just say I haven't seen that T-shirt, No. 1. No. 2, I haven't bought it. No. 3, the last time I contributed to MoveOn that I know of was prior to the November election last year, when they were primarily helping Senator Kerry."

(MoveOn.org quickly denied that it had been selling DeLay T-shirts. "DeGuerin has either bad information or lied in court," said Tom Matzzie, the group's Washington director. "Americans are sick of the corruption in Congress and think it will be a better place without Tom DeLay.")

In court filings this week, Mr. DeGuerin listed dozens of contributions that Judge Perkins had made since 2000 to "causes and persons opposed to Tom DeLay," including $1,175 to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, last year's Democratic presidential nominee, $400 to the Democratic National Committee and $200 to MoveOn.org.

Press Release from MoveOn.org about the t-shirts

and, there are more stories about ethics lapses of people connected to, or working with, Mr. Delay that may become more serious if there is an investigation (begin to think "Domino theory of moral nonresponsibility" and Norman Swartz):

DeLay's sub also faces fire on ethics issues
Rep. Blunt's liberal critics level lobbying charges
By Scott Shepard, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 2, 2005

LINK

Even before taking over for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay last week, Rep. Roy Blunt was under fire by liberal watchdog groups for alleged ethics lapses arising from the lobbying activities of his family.

Now, with Blunt in charge of moving Republican legislation through the House of Representatives, the five-term Missourian is taking even more shots from his critics, some of whom put him at the top of their list of the "13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress."

In a 93-page report released Monday--- two days before an indictment forced DeLay to step down --- the Washington group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington criticized Blunt for what it called repeated "misuse of his position for the benefit of his family," including his wife, Abigail Perlman, and son Andrew, both of whom are lobbyists, and his other son, Matt, the governor of Missouri.

In the days since Blunt, the Republican whip, was elevated to the party's top House leadership post, watchdog groups, liberal bloggers and some of Blunt's Democratic colleagues in Congress have repeatedly cited the CREW report, directing the public to a special Web site the group has set up, www.beyonddelay.org.

Blunt spokeswoman Burson Taylor dismissed such criticism Friday, calling it nothing more than "a coordinated attack on Republicans." She emphasized that Blunt "is not being investigated" by the House ethics committee and has never been publicly sanctioned by the panel. And when asked if Blunt considered any of his actions unethical, she replied, "No."

Blunt himself, in an interview with The New York Times, said the renewed intensity of the criticism aimed his way would ultimately discredit the critics.

"I actually think that may be the greatest favor they could do our party, to show that this is just a pattern, serial efforts to distort facts and make situations look differently than they are and try to attack people individually," Blunt said.

CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, maintains that Blunt "has long followed" DeLay's approach to politics, particularly in raising vast amounts of campaign funds through close ties to lobbyists and the business community, leaning on colleagues for votes, and using his leadership position for special favors for supporters, she says.

"With such an ethically challenged record, is Representative Blunt an appropriate choice for House majority leader?" Sloan asked.

Like DeLay, Blunt has close connections to Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the subject of criminal and congressional investigations. Blunt was one of the party leaders who signed a letter in June 2003 that would have blocked gambling competition that threatened one of Abramoff's clients, the Louisiana Coushatta Indian tribe.

Cigarettes in security bill

But the incident most often cited by Blunt's critics is his unpublicized attempt to insert a provision into homeland security legislation that would have blocked the sale of cigarettes over the Internet. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and DeLay pulled the provision from the 475-page bill after it was brought to their attention.

At the time, in 2003, the newly divorced Blunt --- just installed as the House Republican whip --- was dating Abigail Perlman, a lobbyist for the Philip Morris tobacco conglomerate. Later that year he married Perlman, securing permission from the House ethics committee not to report their wedding gifts on the financial disclosure form required of members of Congress.

The same year, Blunt inserted in the $79 billion emergency appropriation bill for the war in Iraq a provision requiring that military cargo be carried only by companies with no more than 25 percent foreign ownership. The provision benefited United Parcel Service and FedEx Corp., both of whom were trying to block the expansion of foreign-owned rivals.

No charges from ethics panel

Blunt's son Andrew is a lobbyist in Jefferson City, Mo., and his clients include UPS and Altria, the new name of the Philip Morris company.

Blunt's daughter Amy, a lawyer with the Kansas City law firm of Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin, registered as a legislative lobbyist in the Missouri capital last spring, representing the energy company Ameren Services and traffic signal manufacturer Intellistrobe Safety Systems.

Blunt's other son, Matt, was elected governor of Missouri in 2004 after receiving donations from some of the same backers as the congressman. Altria, for example, gave $24,000 to Matt Blunt's campaign. And according to the Springfield News-Leader, a series of transactions involving campaign committees controlled by Roy Blunt resulted in a $40,000 deposit in his son's campaign account.

No one has accused Blunt of illegal actions, and no member of Congress has made a formal complaint about him to the ethics committee, the first step required to trigger an investigation. The committee does not take complaints from outside groups.

But Common Cause President Chellie Pingree said the events of last week indicated that "Congress, and the House in particular, should take this as an opportunity to set higher ethical standards for the politicians who are in positions of power and influence."

Rep. Hart Buys Ticket to Thursday's DeLay Defense Dinner in DC : Hart Loyalty to Delay Trumps Claims of Objectivity

CREW Asks that Hart Be Removed From Ethics Committee
Washington, DC - According to Congressional Quarterly Today, Representative Melissa Hart (R-PA) is one of 30 members of the House of Representatives who purchased either an individual ticket or a table to the American Conservative Union dinner on Thursday to defend ethically-challenged Majority Leader Tom Delay.

Representative Hart was tapped earlier this year to serve on the House ethics committee, and chosen to head-up the investigation into DeLay's ethics violations with Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and payments to his family with his campaign funds.

This is not Representative Hart's only link to DeLay She previously had received $15,000 from DeLay's political action committee and held a fund-raiser at a restaurant owned by Jack Abramoff.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) responded to Rep. Hart's decision to purchase tickets to DeLay's defense dinner:

"Buying a ticket to a DeLay defense dinner only confirms what we already know, the Congresswoman is not capable of sitting as an impartial judge in considering Mr. DeLay's ethical transgressions ," Melanie Sloan, executive Director of CREW said today. "She has again proven that her loyalty to Mr. DeLay trumps any purported claim of objectivity. Her leading this 'investigation' into Mr. DeLay only further proves that the ethics committee, in its current form, is a kangaroo court. Representative Hart should be removed from the committee immediately and replaced by a member who is not beholden to Mr. DeLay. This is further evidence that an outside counsel is required to investigate Mr. DeLay's activities."

For more information on CREW please contact Naomi Seligman by phone at 202.588.5565 or press@citizensforethics.org.

Summary of actions against Delay

Related articles:

The Truth about Ronnie Earle

Dear President Bush: Why DeLay?

Wikipedia: Free Will, Determinism versus indeterminism, Moral Responsibility, and more