Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife were indicted today by a Harris County grand jury in connection with a fire that destroyed their Spring home last summer, the judge's attorney said.
Medina is charged with evidence tampering, attorney Terry Yates said. His wife, Francisca Medina, is charged with arson, Yates said.
Flames gutted the Medinas' 5,000-square-foot house, destroyed a neighbor's home and damaged a third home on June 28.
In an interview last October, David Medina said he didn't know how the fire started and that he, his wife and four children were innocent.
"Nobody in my family has done anything wrong and we continue to cooperate with investigators so that this matter will come to a conclusion," David Medina said at the time.
District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said in October that David Medina was not a suspect in the arson.
Read more in The Houston Chronicle
The Supreme Court of Texas website
Justice David Medina, Place 4
Justice Medina, a former Harris County state district judge, succeeded Wallace B. Jefferson in Place 4 after Jefferson's appointment to be chief justice. Gov. Rick Perry appointed Justice Medina, who was the governor's general counsel since January 2004.
Before that, he was associate general counsel for Cooper Industries Inc. in Houston and served on the Harris County bench in 1996-2000 after appointment in May 1996 by then-Gov. George W. Bush. He was elected in November 1996 and again in November 1998.
Justice Medina was born on Galveston Island, attended public schools in Hitchcock and graduated with a bachelor science degree from Southwest Texas State University in 1980 (now Texas State University-San Marcos). In college he competed on the university's karate and baseball teams and was on the Dean's List. In 1989 he earned his law degree from South Texas College of Law. He was on the Dean's List and a member of the American Bar Association Regional Moot Court National Championship Team.
He joined Cooper Industries in 1987 and was promoted to litigation counsel upon his graduation from law school. Governor Bush appointed him to the 157th State District Court. The Houston Bar Association voted him as one of the top jurists in Harris County.
He rejoined Cooper in 2000 as associate general counsel for litigation, responsible for supervising Cooper's litigation and product-safety matters throughout the world.
Justice Medina is a former Board Member of Habitat for Humanity and Houston Metro. He currently serves on the Board for the Spring Klein Baseball Association. He is also the manager of his son's Select baseball team and has served as an adjunct professor for South Texas College of Law, where he taught advanced civil trial litigation.
His term ends December 31, 2012.
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