Questions Surface Regarding Denton County Judge Candidate
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CARROLLTON (CBSDFW.COM) - Steven Weinstein is running for district judge in Denton County. Recently some serious claims against him have come to light. But he told CBS11 it's all just dirty politics.
Officers at the Carrollton Police Department have a program called the Carrollton Citizen Patrol. Weinstein used to be a member of that program, but his opponent said he claimed a much bigger role in law enforcement.
Opposition research is common in political campaigns, but incumbent Judge Jonathan Bailey said he didn't expect to find a letter from the FBI ordering his opponent to stop claiming to be an employee of the FBI.
"Apparently Mr. Weinstein had been repetitively using FBI credentials," Judge Bailey said.
Weinstein insisted it was all a misunderstanding. A collector of memorabilia badges, Weinstein said he showed a store employee a replica badge, and the exchange was caught on store surveillance.
"I did show the badge, but it was always made clear to the people that I showed the badge to that I was not an agent," Weinstein said.
A graduate of the FBI Citizens Academy, Weinstein said a special agent called him into his office after seeing the surveillance images.
"They told me that they were issuing me this as a warning, and they wrote it very strongly. You know the FBI means serious business," Weinstein said.
The FBI declined to comment. Bailey says he doesn't buy Weinstein's explanation and says the FBI claim is part of a pattern of behavior.
"He's apparently not a very honest person and has some delusional ideas that he's above the law, and that's the last kind of person you want to sit on a district court bench," Bailey said.
A spokesperson for the Carrollton Police said they were going to ask Weinstein to leave the Citizen's Patrol Program when he voluntarily resigned. Police said he abused his authority to write parking warnings by going after people who parked in front of his home. Weinstein said that was also a misunderstanding, and he feels all of these things are being brought up now to influence the upcoming vote.
"In the end, it's dirty politics," Weinstein said.
Judge Bailey said he just received the information from an open records request and posted it on Facebook Thursday because there isn't time to mail information to voters.
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