RECENT SECURITY FRAUD CASE CONVICTION RESULTED FROM AGENCY COOPERATION       On November 13, 2006 a Burnet county jury found Melvin Dean Marshall guilty of security fraud and theft in the 33rd judicial court. Marshall an 80 year old Marble Falls business man was given an 11 year sentence in the state penitentiary and ordered to pay a fine of $10,000. No probation was given.       This case involved a scheme to dupe thousands of dollars from good citizens of Burnet County.       The District Attorney’s office has jurisdiction over all felony case in all state courts including the 33rd and 424th county of the 4 county judicial districts. No state government agency can prosecute a case in these courts without the permission and/or participation of the District Attorney’s office, even where an outside agency has done the investigation. Permission to just investigate a case by an outside agency is required from the District Attorneys office if it is a state offense.       It is not uncommon for a rural District Attorney’s office with minimum staff and budget to call on one of these agencies to lend their personnel and/or specialists in certain fields of law enforcement to handle the investigation and even prosecute certain offenses in behalf of the local District Attorney’s office. One of these agencies is the Attorney General’s office in multiple types of offenses such as open meetings cases, open records cases, some types of child pornography, cases where computer systems are used; and even death penalty cases.  Other agencies often called to assist include, Texas State Insurance Board for insurance fraud cases, the Texas State Securities Board (SSB) for security fraud cases, the Texas State Auditors office where complicated money laundering cases are involved.         The types of cases mentioned usually involve volumes of documents, countless hours of investigation and specialists in forensic accounting and analysis. “These agencies are more than willing to assist or even leads the prosecution of these offenses for local prosecutors at no expense to the counties under the requesting District Attorney’s Jurisdiction,” said District Attorney Sam Oatman.       In the Marshall case, the Texas State Securities Board (SSB) enforcement division was called in from the beginning.  This was not because the District Attorney office was unable or unwilling to prosecute.  The SSB prosecuted the case and justice was served.  The District Attorney’s office was aware of all aspects of the investigation and even prepared the judgment for the SSB following conviction.       “We will continue to review complex and important cases of this kind and seek investigative and prosecution resources from outside State agencies, if we deem necessary, in order to bring their specialized resources into our District.  This is to ensure the best justice in this type of case,” explained Oatman.