Another year, another court date is down on the docket for former Beaumont ISD contract electrician Calvin Walker, indicted in 2014 for stealing from Beaumont taxpayers via exorbitant markups and falsified invoices presented to the BISD finance officer in the wake of a natural disaster. The crime itself dates back years before the 2014 indictment, but now – even years after a jury convicted the felon and sentenced him for the charged crime in 2019 – Walker’s still a persistent presence on court dockets near and far.
Walker, currently spending weekends in jail and weekdays allegedly not earning any money according to his plea to America’s highest court as indigent, is now set to have his case reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Now that the time has expired for Jefferson County prosecutors to offer retort against former Beaumont ISD contract electrician Calvin Walker’s claims for relief from SCOTUS, the justices are set to conference and discuss the matter in February. But, first, another Jefferson County court date is on the horizon.
Walker was convicted of securing execution of a document by deception, a first-degree felony, at the end of 2019. The document Walker secured was a check in excess of $1 million from the local school district that prosecutors showed was obtained through nefarious means. Finding him guilty of crimes against the community, the jury sentenced Walker to serve 10 years in jail – reduced to community supervision for 10 years – and assorted added penalties.
Of main contention in Walker’s plea to the U.S. Supreme Court is a restitution order for $1,172,656.92 entered on Jan. 8, 2020, more than three years ago now; and “up-front” jail time that requires weekend incarceration for the next few years.
Arguing that the case should be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court, Walker’s attorneys assert that words like “pecuniary” and “value” are vague in definition, and now is the time to clarify commands. Attempting to offer rationale for this case being of national importance, Walker’s attorneys allege the Supreme Court should review the matter as it relates to the Texas Penal Code charges of fraudulently securing document execution being “unconstitutionally vague under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.”
According to the Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States, Walker’s plea for judicial review is no sure thing. The Supreme Court, the clerk’s office reports, grants and hears arguments “in only about 1% of the cases that are filed.”
“The vast majority of petitions,” according to the clerk’s office, “are simply denied by the Court without comment or explanation.”
Walker’s case has already advanced further than that. Jan. 12, Walker’s case was distributed for justice conference on Friday, Feb. 17. Still, the Beaumont electrician’s plea is on “List 2” in a total of nine lists to be discussed during the that single day’s conferences.
Supreme Court procedure dictates that: “The Justices meet in a private conference to … discuss and vote on petitions for review. The building is open to the public but the Justices do not take the bench.”
“The Justices meet in a private conference, closed even to staff, to discuss the cases and to take a preliminary vote on each case,” court procedure details. “If the Chief Justice is in the majority on a case decision, he decides who will write the opinion.”
The timing for placing petitions on a conference list and distributing them to the Justices is governed by Rule 15.5, which states: “The Clerk will distribute the petition to the Court for its consideration upon receiving an express waiver of the right to file a brief in opposition, or, if no waiver or brief in opposition is filed, upon the expiration of the time allowed for filing.
“If a brief in opposition is timely filed, the Clerk will distribute the petition, brief in opposition, and any reply brief to the Court for its consideration no less than 14 days after the brief in opposition is filed, unless the petitioner expressly waives the 14-day waiting period.”
SCOTUS docketing notified Jefferson County prosecutors that a response to Walker’s plea was due Dec. 29, 2022 – exactly 14 days, no holidays or weekends taken off, before the petition was distributed for review. No response is docketed on the court’s system for public review.
Jefferson County prosecutors will have a chance to be heard on the matter before Jefferson County Criminal district Court Judge John Stevens on Friday, Jan. 20, when parties are set to give the court an update as to the case standing.