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Jun 19, 2009 8:09 am US/Central
Judge Wants To Know If Don Hill Violated Gag Order
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Former Dallas City Council member Don Hill may have some explaining to do in front of a federal judge.
Hill's bribery and corruption trial starts Monday morning in the federal courthouse in Dallas.
Six days ago the judge in the case, Barbara Lynn, issued a gag order to all the defendants and lawyers in the case. It barred them from talking to media outlets about the case, except for information that was already in the public record.
This week, Hill sat down for an interview with the Dallas Morning News and WFAA-TV. In the interview, he accused the Bush administration of prosecuting him for political reasons.
"The way they went about investigating, targeting and now prosecuting me was not fair from the standpoint of I'm a democrat," he said.
Hill also contacted CBS 11 News about an interview, which we agreed to and scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday. But after we arrived and waited for an hour, Hill canceled the interview.
Also on Thursday, Judge Lynn called a hearing on Monday morning for Hill, all the other defendants in the case, their lawyers and public relations representatives. She wants to know if anybody in the case violated her gag order.
Hill's public relations representative denied he violated the judge's order.
"It's potentially very serious," said John Ratcliffe, the former U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Texas. He says the judge's initial order was designed to keep the defendants, their attorneys and federal prosecutors from making any statements that could impact the impartiality of potential jurors.
"A judge could consider a fine. She could consider imprisonment even during the pendency of the trial," he said. "If potential jurors hear statements, extrajudicial statements, in the media in the paper, those can influence their opinions in the case."
Here's what the judge wrote in calling Monday's hearing:
"The Court hereby ORDERS that the Defendants set for trial on June 22, 2009, their counsel, and all persons providing any public relations services for these Defendants shall appear before the Court at 8am on June 22, 2009, in Courtroom 1570, 1100 Commerce St., Dallas, Texas 75242, to be placed under oath and to answer questions to determine if any actions constituting contempt of the Court's Order of June 12, 2009 have occurred. Counsel for Defendants are directed to advise non-parties of the terms of this Order. Neither the Government nor any Defendant shall communicate, directly or indirectly, with the media pending such hearing.
SO ORDERED this 18th day of June, 2009."
Several African-American pastors in Dallas sent current Attorney General Eric Holder a letter asking him to review the case.
Click here to read the letter (,pdf file).
The same pastors who wrote the attorney general planned to hold a prayer vigil for Hill and his wife Sunday in the parking lot in front of the federal courthouse. As of this evening, one pastor told me the plan hasn't changed.
Look for complete coverage of the gag order hearing and the entire city hall corruption trial from CBS 11 News online and on television beginning Monday.
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