RICHMOND – Beneath the statue of Lady Justice, outside the Fort Bend County courthouse is something you rarely see—accused men asking prosecutors to set trial dates or set them free.

“It’s been two years,” said David Dumas, one of the eight defendants involved, “Let’s do something.”

The group of eight used to work for Brett Holden and his Rosenberg company Holden Roofing.

They were all former friends but are now legal enemies.

When the roofers quit in February 2006 to open their own business they say Holden retaliated and accused them of ripping him off and engaging in organized crime.

Members of the group are alleged to have over-ordered shingles and supplies when they worked for Holden Roofing and collected payment from Holden’s customers but kept a portion themselves. Holden Roofing alleged the group did this so it could start its own roofing company.

But Andy Dumas and the other defendants claim it’s all a lie, fabricated the group says by Holden and his friend in the county prosecutor’s office Mike Elliott.

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“Show us the evidence! If you got it. Show it to us,” Dumas asked. “I’ll walk across to the county jail with you and turn myself in if you have something you can bring charges on me. If not turn me loose. They won’t do either one. ‘We’re just looking at it. We’re going to continue to look at it,’ Andy said of the excuses he has heard about why the case has not gone to trial. “[They’ve] been looking at it for two years. How long you gonna look at it?”

“It makes me mad because it’s wrong,” Dumas’ attorney, Don Bankston said.

Seeing no evidence and claiming a conflict of interest Bankston asked for the case to be dismissed.

He alleged the prosecutor and victim are friends.

Bankston discovered that Elliott personally escorted Holden to Rosenberg Police to file charges, something rarely if ever done.

Plus, perhaps most concerning, just days earlier, records show Holden made a $1,000 campaign contribution to Mike Elliott’s wife who was running for district clerk.

“It’s enough of a conflict of interest [District Attorney] John Healey recognized it. He kicked [Elliott] off this case.”

Healey did not want to be interviewed for this story.

Brett Holden referred our calls to his attorney. Through his lawyer, Holden denied getting favorable treatment and he characterized his former employees as desperate. Holden added that he regularly donates money to charities and politicians, and stressed that charges were only brought against his former employees after the case was presented to the district attorney’s office, Rosenberg Police, and a grand jury.

Prosecutor Mike Elliott did not want to discuss the case publicly either.

“It’s hogwash,” Elliott told 11 News briefly by phone. “There’s absolutely no credibility or truth to his allegations. I’ll try my case in the courtroom not the media,” he continued.

But Rosenberg Police never found evidence linking the roofers to their indictments of money laundering and organized crime.

“I think that, and this has been stated before, the indictments were premature,” Rosenberg Police Lt. Kenny Seymour said. “Additional work could have been done. Questions could have been asked.”

Officers recently reevaluated the case after Elliott was removed from it.

11 News has learned that this time with more information Rosenberg Police could only find evidence that maybe one, perhaps two of the roofers might have committed a crime.

Not all of them.

So a year and a half after being indicted the first of the cases, Andy Dumas’s, appears to be unraveling.

In a recent court filing, a new prosecutor now admits some of the evidence against Andy Dumas “...was not a theft as originally presented to the D.A.’s office.” Plus, there was “...no over-ordering of supplies” by Dumas. And “...the defendant was correct.”

Still, neither Andy Dumas’s charges nor any of the others including his brother, David, have been dropped.

“He can’t step up to the plate and say ‘Hey. I wrongly accused these guys.’ Because he knows... what would you do?,” David Dumas asked. “I’m going to sue him for the half million dollars I got in it. And his house, his horse, his dog, his wife. Everything he’s got. I’m gonna have. So he ain’t going to turn me loose.”

But District Attorney John Healey told us by phone he hopes to finally reach a resolution in these cases at next month’s hearing.

Perhaps ending a case which some believe looks more like an embarrassing mistake that questions truth and justice themselves.