Business Leaders Demand Williamson County DA's Resignation 'By Sunset Friday'

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX -- Business leaders have put their the Williamson County district attorney on notice: Resign by sunset this Friday or a petition will be circulated asking for her ouster.

That's the message a group of business officials led by Jim Schwertner conveyed at a Wednesday morning press conference staged outside the Williamson County Courthouse, the Austin American-Statesman reported

Schwertner, president and CEO of Schwertern Farms Inc., is leading the charge in calling for the resignation of county DA Jana Duty after she was suspended for 18 months by the Texas State Bar for what they termed as professional misconduct while in the process of prosecuting a murder case (see story below).

At the press conference, Schwertner also accused Duty of not showing up to work for days at a time, an assertion he based from stories filed by the Wilco Report online blog.

“Who gave her the day off?" Schwertner asked rhetorically. "We should expect all our elected officials to give our taxpayers a full day’s work for a full day’s pay.”

Duty did have defenders at the event, including Kim Polk who said there was no evidence to suggest Duty wasn't showing up to work, the Statesman reported. “She’s an extremely hard worker and always has been,” Polk said.

But business people gathered were unyielding in their demand for a resignation, post-haste: “I, along with other community leaders, demand that Jana Duty step down and resign her position as district attorney of Williamson County by sunset this Friday,” Schwertner said.

Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman >>

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From June 8:

ROUND ROCK, TX -- Members of the business community are scheduled to stage a press conference Wednesday morning urging the county's DA to resign after she was placed on probation by the State Bar of Texas this week, according to a published report.

Jim Schwertner -- who owns the largest cattle trading company in the nation, Schwertner Farms -- will be joined by other business leaders asking for Jana Duty to resign her post, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

The group has scheduled a press conference demanding the resignation at 10 a.m. July 8 on the south steps of the Williamson County Courthouse in Georgetown, Schwertner told the Statesman.

“Williamson County leaders should be held to the highest standards of accountability, and our current district attorney has not lived up to those standards,” Schwertner said in a press release.

The move comes after Duty was sanctioned for violating a gag order related to an ongoing murder trial. In a detailed, seven-page judgment, the State Bar of Texas outlined reasons for placing Duty on an 18-month probation.

Among the accusations is that Duty spoke to the Austin American-Statesman on her role in the case to prosecute a defendant on trial for murder, despite a gag order being in place. The judgment also notes that Duty skipped a meeting with the judge in the trial in a response for her perception that she was being disrespected by the judge for calling the meeting between her and the defendant's counsel in staging the gathering.

Ahead of the press conference, Duty was defiant in saying she would not resign.

“I have no plans to resign my position and I will be staying on until the end of my term,” she told the Statesman in an email. “No amount of political pressure from my political enemies will change this. They are simply wasting everybody’s time.”

The State Bar of Texas put Duty on probation effective June 1 for her conduct related to the Crispin harmel capital murder case. Duty's term as DA ends at the end of December after having been defeated in the Republican primary this past March.

The business leaders' news conference will take place on the south steps of the Williamson County Courthouse at 710 S. Main St. in Georgetown.

Read the full story at the Austin American-Statesman >>