As Texas Supreme Court mulls MQ Sullivan residency, he promotes citation proving he lives in Austin

Originally published on the Quorum Report.

A local prosecutor in Corsicana is “seething mad” after the spokesman for Texas Public Policy Foundation Vice Chairman Tim Dunn lashed out at the city and threated its police department even after a citation against him was dismissed.

"Shame on Mr. Sullivan for not having the grace to simply say 'thank you,'" said City Attorney Kerri Anderson Donica.

Michael Quinn Sullivan, Dunn’s spokesman, announced on his blog that the ticket he received while allegedly threatening public safety during a protest last year had been dismissed. The protest comprised mainly of paid Empower Texans and Texas Right to Life staffers was held outside a fundraiser for Texas House State Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Cook as the powerful Republican kicked off his reelection campaign.

“Unhappy with his lobby cartel donors having to drive past such a display, Cook and his political team coordinated with the city police to disrupt the gathering,” Sullivan wrote. “The police were clearly uneasy with the task – though the chief of police at one point threatened to arrest me if the crowd didn’t disperse. At the end of the day, the police issued citations to me and Texas Right to Life’s president, Jim Graham.”

Objectively, there was nothing threatening or intimidating about the police interaction with Sullivan and Graham. Graham looked gleeful when he was given his ticket. You can watch the video right here.

Just as he has previously, Sullivan on Wednesday promoted an image of the citation with his addressed redacted. The un-redacted citation, which you can see here, shows Sullivan resides in Austin not Denton. He claims to live in Denton County as part of the legal case of his unregistered lobbying.

Sullivan was fined a record $10,000 by the Texas Ethics Commission and he is appealing in court.

The question of Sullivan’s residency is now before the Texas Supreme Court after an appeals court in Fort Worth sided with the Ethics Commission on the issue. Attorneys for the agency have said the case never should have been argued in Denton County, where a friendly judge dismissed the case only to have it later reinstated after that judge was removed amid accusations of bias in Sullivan’s favor.

Donica, the Corsicana City Attorney, said it is difficult to fathom why Sullivan wouldn’t just let it go after his citation in Navarro County was dismissed.

"I see the thanks I get for behaving professionally and saving Mr. Sullivan more time and money for a city ordinance violation (which does NOT result in any sort of "criminal record"), is that he smears the City with completely FALSE allegations regarding fabricated claims that the police department was working in conjunction with Representative Cook," Donica said.

"Frankly, I am seething mad I decided to take the high ground rather than roll in the mud, but thankfully I've got better sense and like to attempt to stick to the truth and professionalism,” Donica said.

Sullivan, on his blog, also said the city was not “interested in having the cozy relationship between (Chairman) Cook and the city administrators revealed… nor in us exposing some dirty laundry at the Corsicana Police Department. But don’t worry, we will be anyway.”

The city attorney said all of that was outrageous.

"My job was to see that justice is done, and that is what I attempted to do," Donica said. "It had NOTHING to do with any 'cover-up', nor will I EVER risk my law license to participate in something that is not completely above board," she said.

Donica also said the accusations from Sullivan were particularly surprising given that his three attorneys seemed “incredibly polite and professional."

Copyright July 28, 2016, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved. Reprinted with permission.