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Stacy Cary guilty in judge bribery case
By Dan Eakin, deakin@starlocalnews.com
A Collin County jury Wednesday found Stacy Stine Cary guilty of bribing a candidate for district judge in 2008.
She was convicted for engaging in organized crime, money laundering and six counts of bribery. Sentencing will be scheduled after an investigation takes place to determine whether she is eligible for probation.
Stacy and her husband, David Cary, were accused of funneling six payments totaling $150,000 into then-380th District Court judge candidate Suzanne Wooten's campaign via Wooten's campaign manager's checking account, in exchange for favors in a case against them. David and Wooten's campaign manager, James Stephen Spencer, are scheduled to be tried later.
She had declined to preside in a child-parent relations case involving the Carys.
Stacy's trial began early last week. Prosecutors, who had placed several witnesses on the stand during eight days of testimony, rested about noon Tuesday. The defense rested about 4 p.m. Tuesday after calling only three defense witnesses to the stand.
Following closing arguments Wednesday morning, the jury reached its verdicts about 2 p.m. after deliberating for about three hours.
Harry White and Catherine Chopin of the Texas Attorney General's Office, who had prosecuted Wooten last November, also prosecuted Stacy, who was represented by Heather Barbieri and Richard Ryczek.
Visiting District Judge James Fallon presided over the Cary trial and ruled that Wooten did not have to testify even though she had been subpoenaed by the prosecution.
Fallon, who did not preside over Wooten's trial, had expressed concern that Wooten's earlier conviction might improperly sway the jury.
Attorney Peter Schulte, who was among attorneys who represented Wooten at her trial, had argued that prosecutors would attempt to trap Wooten into saying she was guilty when Schulte does not believe she is.
Although Wooten consistently claimed in November she knew nothing about funds that went indirectly into her campaign account as an attempt to get favors from her in a case against the Carys, a jury of six men and six women found her guilty of bribery and other charges. Once Wooten was found guilty, prosecutors from the Texas Attorney General's Office began preparing a case against Stacy.
The Collin County District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the cases against Wooten and the Carys because of an alleged conflict of interest.
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