posted on July 17, 2003 05:10:34 PM new
Former Texas AG Morales Pleads Guilty
By KELLEY SHANNON Associated Press Writer
July 17, 2003, 3:33 PM EDT
AUSTIN, Texas -- Former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges of mail and tax fraud in a deal expected to bring him four years in prison.
Morales had pleaded innocent in April to charges that he and friend Marc Murr fraudulently tried to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees for Murr from the state's $17.3 billion tobacco settlement.
Prosecutors offered Morales the plea bargain, and the agreement was reached Wednesday. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said he expected a federal judge to accept the deal calling for four years of prison time.
"I think that the four years in prison is a reasonable amount of time for the crime he committed," Sutton said. "What this shows is nobody's above the law."
Morales has spent the last three weeks in the Caldwell County Jail after a judge revoked his bond in late June, saying he may have lied on two car loan applications.
"It has been a difficult three weeks," Morales said as he emerged from the federal courthouse. "It's been horrible for me to be away from my wife and kids."
Morales, 46, was elected attorney general in 1990 and won a second term in 1994. He ran last year for the Democratic nomination for Texas governor, but lost the primary.
The indictment against Morales and Murr stemmed from a long-running investigation into payment of legal fees from the 1998 tobacco settlement. The five private attorneys hired by Morales to handle the state's case received $3.3 billion in fees from the state's settlement. Murr asked for $520 million for his role as an adviser, but other attorneys said he did little work on the case.
Murr's case is still pending, and prosecutors declined to comment on it.
