Linda Harper-Brown Facing Bribery Probe

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Linda Harper-Brown Facing Bribery Probe
Was Harper-Brown paid off with a luxury car?

Linda Harper-Brown (R-HD105) sits on the Texas House Transportation Committee and is the biggest advocate for red-light cameras in the Texas Legislature. Harper-Brown also drives a $55,000 Mercedes Benz, owned by a transportation company that, along with its sister company, has sold red-light cameras and received more than $12.3 million in Texas state contracts.

A formal bribery complaint has been submitted to the U.S. District Attorney and the Public Integrity Section of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office (Source: Dallas Morning News, June 17, 2010).

Read the DMN Story

During her nearly 8 years as State Representative in Irving-based House District 105, Linda Harper-Brown has been known as a harshly partisan Republican – spouting mean-spirited rhetoric and voting with ideologically extreme GOP members of the Legislature (Dallas Morning News , March 4, 2006).

Harper-Brown is also known as a relentless promoter and defender of red-light camera traffic enforcement. Even when it meant bucking her extreme-right soul-mates , Linda Harper-Brown has offered amendments, inserted legislative language and generally used her personal and political influence to promote the use of red light cameras by cities to photograph and fine motorists at road intersections (Dallas Morning News , July 11, 2004).

Key Documents

TEXVAC's Memo to the District Attorney

Supporting Documents (warning large file)

TDP Statement Calling on Straus to Remove Harper-Brown from Transportation Committee

Why would a hard-right Republican, who talks about personal liberties and limiting government, make invasive red light traffic cameras a central focus of her official duties?

The answer may be simple – she was bought off.

Texas Values in Action Coalition, a Democratic watchdog organization in North Texas, has filed a formal complaint against Linda Harper-Brown with the U.S. Attorney in North Texas and with the Public Integrity Section of the Travis County District Attorney’s office. The TXVAC filing was covered in recent news reports by WFAA-TV and the Dallas Morning News .

The Lone Star Project reviewed the TXVAC complaint to law enforcement authorities. The highlights are detailed below:

What Linda Harper-Brown did
As an Irving City Council Member, before she served in the Legislature, Linda Harper-Brown was known as an advocate for red-light cameras – cameras that capture the license plate numbers of drivers moving through intersections.

Later, in the State House, Harper-Brown stepped up her support for the industry. Her actions during the 2003 Legislative Session are a dramatic example. A measure allowing cities to issue traffic tickets using red-light camera photos as evidence failed overwhelmingly on the House floor by a vote of 103 to 34 (Dallas Morning News , July 11, 2004). Undeterred, Harper-Brown used her influence as a member of the Appropriations Committee and Chair of the Appropriations Interim Subcommittee on Transportation Issues to get an almost identical provision quietly slipped in to the 2003 Transportation bill where it was passed unnoticed by most members of the House (Houston Chronicle, December 22, 2004)

Harper-Brown's
2010 Mercedes
E550 Sedan

What Linda Harper-Brown received in return
Paradigm Traffic Systems and Durable Enterprises – sister companies both run by Jeffery C. Bryan out of Duncanville, TX – have multimillion dollar transportation services contracts with the State of Texas. They have millions of dollars in state transportation contracts, continue to operate in the red-light camera business, and have shown their appreciation to Linda Harper-Brown for protecting their investment. While on the Council, Harper-Brown twice signed conflict of interest affidavits to abstain from voting on contracts awarded to Paradigm Traffic Systems (Irving City Council Minutes, September 10, 1997 and January 24, 2002).

Harper-Brown's
Chevy Tahoe

Luxury Automobiles
Linda Harper-Brown has two special vehicle license plates issued only to Members of the Legislature:

First: plate number SO166 is tagged on a 2010 Mercedes ME550 Sedan.
Second: plate number SO166A is tagged on a high-end 2010 Chevy Tahoe.
Both the luxury Mercedes and the Tahoe are registered with Durable Enterprises Equipment LTD as owner.

Clearly, Linda Harper-Brown is being provided personal use of late model vehicles by a company that has directly benefited from her actions as a legislator. Harper-Brown has never disclosed the compensation in any report filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.

What laws have been broken?
Earlier this year, former State Representative Terri Hodge was sentenced to a year in prison for accepting reduced rent and home improvements in return for official favors – less in compensation than it appears has been received by Linda Harper-Brown (Dallas Morning News , June 16, 2010). If it is proven that Linda Harper-Brown was given use of the car(s) in return for her actions as a legislator, she will be guilty of bribery.

The Texas Penal Code describes Bribery as:

an offense if [a person] intentionally or knowingly offers, confers, or agrees to confer on another, or solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept from another … any benefit as a consideration for the recipient’s decision, opinion, recommendation, vote, or other exercise of official discretion as a public servant (Texas Penal Code § 36.02).

Bottom Line
From a legal standpoint, the matter is now in the hands of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas and the Travis County District Attorney.

From an ethical standpoint, Linda Harper-Brown has inexcusably violated the trust of her constituents and the public in general. She has maintained an inappropriate relationship with a business that stand to gain by her actions as a legislator.

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