Perhaps you were aware that Houston Mayor Annise Parker was investigated and no-billed by a Harris County Grand Jury in April of 2000 but I wasn’t. Here are several screen captures from the Harris County District Clerk’s office:
Now, it could be that I’m the only person in town that didn’t know this. But don’t you think it odd that in all of her elections, none of her opponents brought this up?
It raises a lot of questions, if I’m not the only person that didn’t know this.
- Was this information always in the clerk’s database or was it added at a later point?
- What was the gift that she was accused of giving or accepting?
- Who else was involved?
- What initiated the grand jury’s investigation?
Obviously Mayor Parker was no-billed, so my questions really aren’t about innocence or guilt. I’m just curious as to why I, and others that I’ve talked to, people that have run against her in the past, didn’t know about it. Perhaps you are a better researcher than I am, but I can find no mention of it anywhere, including in the hometown newspaper of record.
Help?
UPDATE: One long-time newsperson in Houston called to say that it might be related to this: http://bit.ly/19UFLeI – the timing is close anyway.
UPDATE 2: The Parker campaign provides a copy of an April 13, 2000 Houston Chronicle article about the allegation and the grand jury no-bill. Click here to view. Turns out the old newsperson was correct, it is related to the article linked above.
Why is this now appearing, and why wouldn’t she expunge it?
the case has been “public” since it was no billed in 2000. It was available to anyone using the JIMS (Justice Information Management System) subscriber access or at our criminal customer service area. It has been available on the DCO public website since 2010 when my predecessor began making criminal records available there (www.hcdistrictclerk.com) for non-subscribers of JIMS .
It is possible that those looking for the case on the public website had common user-error in searching for the documents, including searching under the civil/ family tab instead of the criminal tab, or misspelling the name.
Hey, Jennings, who do you think you're calling "old?"
LOL, I didn't want to "out" you!