Francisca Medina turns herself in

Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina accompanied his wife, Francisca, to the Harris County Jail late yesterday, where she turned herself in to sheriff’s deputies and was released shortly after posting $42,000 bail for three felony arson counts, according to one of her attorneys.  “She’s doing well,” says John Parras, an associate with Houston’s Deguerin & Dickson. “She’s confident in her innocence and upset that this has come back.” Francisca Medina will be arraigned before 176th District Court Judge Brian Rains on May 20. Medina and his wife, Francisca, were previously both indicted on Jan. 17 in connection with the June 28, 2007, fire that damaged the Medinas’ home and neighboring homes in Spring. But Rains dismissed those indictments on Jan. 18 at the request of the Harris County District Attorney’s office on the ground that there was insufficient evidence. On Jan. 22, 263rd District Judge Jim Wallace ruled that the original grand jury was not properly impaneled. But on April 30, the DA’s office took the case before a second grand jury, which indicted Francisca Medina but declined to indict her husband. “I think that it’s a shame that’s she’s been indicted,” Parras says. “This case has been going backwards.”
--- John Council