Even more impressive, in a way, was the victory of Texas Rep. Ron Reynolds (D-Fort Bend), who got re-elected while he was in jail. The question was whether he could serve from jail, because he was convicted of a misdemeanor (well, five) and state law only disqualifies felons. But as it turned out, Reynolds was released after serving only four months of his year-long sentence, just in time for the start of the 86th Legislature in January 2019.
Bonus points: Reynolds was a personal-injury lawyer who was convicted of barratry (illegal solicitation of clients), and I say “was” because he was disbarred for that last year. The report says he and eight others were charged with paying someone to “scour Houston police records and recruit accident victims” to be clients. “We have discovered additional evidence in my favor and are confident that we will prevail on appeal,” Reynolds said, apparently forgetting that you can’t introduce new evidence on appeal.
Finally, and most importantly, I received an email recently that read as follows: “This is Steven Turnage who got shot in a chicken suit in 2006, I was letting you know the guy who shot me died.” See “Arkansas Chicken Man Plagued by Attacks” (July 27, 2006) and “UPDATE: Arkansas-Chicken-Man Assaulter Captured” (July 28, 2006). Turnage, who was wearing the suit to promote a local restaurant, said he had put up with people throwing tobacco cans and frozen drinks at him, but called police after being hit by bottle rockets fired from a car. It appears that the culprit has since passed away, but I have no further information at this time.
I sent Steven a follow-up email, of course, but to date he hasn’t responded. Steven, if you read this, congratulations on outliving your assailant and I look forward (I think) to learning further details.
