The fire was massive, completely destroying the Medinas' Spring home in northwest Harris County. There's also damage to nearby homes. But fire officials didn't like what they saw, so as a result, specially trained dogs picked up the scent of accelerants in the home, which led investigators to believe the fire was intentionally set.
Medina and his wife, Fran, both appeared before a Harris County grand jury back in October. No charges resulted and an attorney for the Medinas thought the case was closed until Thursday when Judge Medina was charged with tampering and his wife, Fran, charged with arson.
"We were literally shocked, dismayed when we heard this occurred today," said Terry Yates, who's representing the Judge Medina. "As you know, Justice Medina testified in front of the grand jury back in October. After that, it's been kind of a dead issue until today so we were surprised to hear that this occurred."
The attorney for Judge Medina's wife takes it a step further. Dick DeGeurin says he's been told by the prosecutor there's not sufficient evidence.
"Either Mrs. Medina's or Justice Medina's indictment to justify going forward and that he's going to dismiss both cases tomorrow," said DeGeurin.
"They are not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing whatsoever," said Yates. "Justice Medina is coming in either tonight or in the morning. He's coming in from Austin."
Justice Medina is expected to be at the courthouse to find out about the charges.
