Rockwall DA sentenced for corruption

by Scott Henson of Grits For Breakfast

Named statewide "Prosecutor of the Year" in 2001, the Rockwall County DA will now join those he sent to prison after a conviction for theft by a public servant, including using government funds to purchase a high-end video gaming computer for personal use. (See this hilarious cartoon from Penny Arcade for a sense of what the trial must have been like.)

"A public official, like Caesar's wife, must be above suspicion," said a Dallas judge before sentencing Rockwall County District Attorney Ray Sumrow to four years in TDCJ. "Certainly a great deal of suspicion hung over your tenure in office, Mr. Sumrow. I'm sure you sent people to prison for far less than the charges against you. ... You have basically slandered the sheriff and his employees," the judge said. "They are in no way responsible for your actions."

See MSM coverage from the Dallas News, and also here, and from the Greenville Herald Banner. (An aside: Didn't it used to be the "Herald Banner Press"? Maybe they shortened it for the internet age.) Overseas, the gaming aspect of the story has picked up traction. As a bonus, the Dallas News dredged up this blast from the past from Mr. Sumrow, speaking in 1993 as a special prosecutor in Tarrant County:

"All public officials, myself included, should realize that they take an oath, and they have a responsibility to live up to that oath ... the public has a right to have good, elected public officials.

"If we don't police ourselves, there's no one else to do it."

Perhaps while he's sitting in Huntsville or Palestine for the next year, Mr. Sumrow will have time to get that last line emblazoned on a prison tat.