A Harris County Sheriff Deputy's Views on DA Lykos

Like I've said several times, I have no dog to hunt in the Harris County DA's race. I had my say on DA Lykos in 2008, she won the election, and, in my view, has done a good job. Not perfect, but far from "terrible" as her opponents have been saying since the day she won the Republican primary in 2008 – that's right, they never stopped campaigning against her and never gave her a fair shake. 

I was asked by a commenter a while back to speak to Harris County judges and law enforcement officers for a "better" opinion than my view from the outside. You know, because only ex-ADA's and LEO's should be allowed to vote. I tried to do this, speaking to two judges and nine different LEO's – problem was, their opinions were the same as mine. She's done a decent job. The LEO's that I talked to this week laughed at the union's vote of "no confindence" in her, saying that was just politics and no one listens to the union reps anyway. Yesterday, I reached out to two of Lykos' detractors and asked them to help me find someone to talk that supported their views. I'm waiting on that but late last night, I did get an email from a good friend who happens to be a Harris County Sheriff's Deputy. I'm not sure why I didn't think to ask him earlier about this but at any rate, let's just say that…well, I'll let him tell you in his own words. Here is his letter in full, I have redacted only his name and the name of the investigator he references:

David,

I have to take issue with your latest Lykos post.

I agree with the law enforcement employee groups and Judge Anderson.  The laws are made by the legislators, not the District Attorney. A criminal offense in Harris County should carry the same weight as it does in the other 253 counties in Texas.  I say let the jury hear the cases.

Currently Harris County law enforcement officers must prove their cases to the Screening DAs at Intake.  Intake wants the cases won before accepting charges.  I feel many Intake DAs have become lazy and refused more and more cases under Lykos so their clearance/conviction rates are higher.  Criminal investigations are then "suspended" by the agency because we can't get the DA to accept the charges for burglaries, assaults, thefts, criminal mischief, etc. If it is not 100{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} on-viewed by the patrolman, the hurdles are raised.  What I'm saying is – the suspects are never charged, and citizens are the ones suffering.  I'm not just talking about possible suspects – I'm talking cases with eyewitnesses, sworn statements, videos, DNA evidence, etc… and the cases are still refused and referred back to investigators.  The case investigators then run through the same process and no charges are accepted – thus cases are suspended.

One of my friends in the office is an investigator; she works burglaries and home invasion cases.  Time and time again she has been told to "suspend" any cases that did not have charges pending or solid leads. I remember how mad she was when she had to box up 300 cases. That was 300 families where some criminal went into a victim's home and stole something. There are other investigators that had 700 or more cases that also had to be closed out, excuse me, not closed – suspended, which is a nice way of saying forgotten about. I figure more than 5000 burglary cases were shelved just in one year.  5000 homes x 3 people per house, 15,000 people affected.

Then there is the grouping of multiple cases, only accepting one "theft" or "possession of stolen property" (misdemeanors) so they can offer probation or deferred adjudication.  Sure multiple cases can be closed; most of the families never see justice.

This is also partially to blame on the Sheriff's Office administrators and the Commissioner's Court for failing to adequately staff the Sheriff's Office patrol districts.  Instead the Sheriff added 98 people to his Executive Bureau, while patrol lost 350+ slots.  If the cops aren't on the street catching crooks red-handed, the crooks get away; then the investigators get more cases to try to resolve, then more backlog of cases.  This is with all agencies, not just the HCSO.

Just over the Thanksgiving weekend my friend had 77 new cases sitting on her desk to be sorted through on Monday.  She is only one of 10 investigators that handle residential burglaries and home invasions in unincorporated Harris County (population is what – 1.5 million?).  Do the math… that would mean hundreds of cases just over the weekend county wide, over one holiday weekend.  The crooks are winning.

When an investigator calls the DA Intake after working up their case and the Screening DA at Intake refuses to accept the charge, it really screws the whole system up.  The crackhead burglar will continue to steal from the citizens, we all suffer. The insurance companies refuse to pay without a huge deductible… so eventually victims quit calling for our help… crime stats drop and the crooks win.

Sorry, I will not support Lykos, she is the one of the heads of the Hydra of Harris County's woes.  I can tell you story after story; different areas of law enforcement which would agree with me and will actively oppose her.  I couldn’t care less about her many political endorsements, they're not the victims screaming out for help and justice, and their hands aren't tied like the cops because of her liberal tendencies and incompetence.  Her endorsers are meaningless in the real world – oh they may share conversations at luncheons or social circles together, but that is it, they don't realize the harm she has done.  Think about it, her actions cause people to fear living in their own home or calling the police for help.

Thanks for listening.

I'll leave it at that until I talk to more of her detractors. But I'll also be talking to her supporters and I'll say this: if Mike Anderson's start to his campaign is an indicator of what to expect from him, this will be one of the most fact challenged races for office the county has seen in a long time. I'd advise Mr. Anderson to stop pretending to be a martyr and start presenting a factual case.