David Cary v. State
2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 2816
| Tex. App. | 2015Background
- David Cary was tried and convicted on six bribery counts, one money-laundering count, and one engaging-in-organized-criminal-activity count; jury assessed concurrent 14-year sentences. The court of appeals reverses and renders acquittals on all counts.
- Prosecution theory: Cary and his wife Stacy covertly funded judicial candidate Suzanne Wooten’s campaign via payments from Stacy to campaign manager James Spencer (totaling $150,000), intending to influence Wooten’s official acts.
- Evidence showed payments from Stacy to Spencer and that Spencer used those funds to pay Wooten’s campaign expenses; no direct transfers from Cary or Stacy to Wooten personally were shown.
- Indictment charged bribery under Tex. Penal Code §36.02(a)(1)–(2), which excludes political contributions per §36.02(d); thus the State had the burden to prove the payments were not “political contributions” under Title 15 of the Texas Election Code.
- The State also charged money laundering (predicate bribery) and organized criminal activity (predicates: bribery, money laundering, tampering with a governmental record). For tampering, the alleged false instrument was Wooten’s Personal Financial Statement (failure to report gifts/loans).
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument (State) | Defendant's Argument (Cary) | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal sufficiency of bribery convictions | Payments to Spencer were used to fund Wooten’s campaign but were covert and thus not political contributions; evidence supports bribery and intent | Payments were political contributions/expenditures under the Election Code; State failed to negate the political-contribution exception | Reversed and acquitted — State failed to prove the transfers were not political contributions, so bribery convictions unsupported |
| Legal sufficiency of money-laundering conviction | Cary knowingly financed funds intended to further bribery (predicate offense) | Predicate bribery is unsupported because payments were political contributions; thus no evidence Cary believed he was furthering bribery | Reversed and acquitted — no evidence Cary believed he was furthering bribery, so money-laundering conviction fails |
| Legal sufficiency of engaging in organized criminal activity | Combination charged included tampering with governmental record (Wooten’s PFS) as a predicate in addition to bribery and money laundering | No evidence Wooten personally received undisclosed gifts/loans; experts said disclosures apply to gifts/loans to the candidate individually, and no evidence Cary knew of or caused false filings | Reversed and acquitted — no evidence of unreported gifts/loans to Wooten or Cary’s knowledge, so predicate offenses fail and organized-crime conviction cannot stand |
Key Cases Cited
- Delay v. State, 443 S.W.3d 909 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014) (legal-sufficiency review framework and construing penal provisions)
- State v. Vasilas, 198 S.W.3d 480 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2006) (tampering with governmental record elements)
- Magness v. Magness, 241 S.W.3d 910 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2007) (ordinary meaning and elements of a gift)
- Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., 556 U.S. 868 (U.S. 2009) (judicial recusal due to campaign-related influence)