This was my first time to visit with this particular club and I liked it a lot. Everyone was friendly and the setting, The Old Spaghetti Warehouse, was perfect. They had a large section of the upstairs dining room reserved, had lunch specials that were very good for less than 10 bucks, and the service was good. But more than that, the people were friendly and welcoming, something that is not always the case at these clubs. Could just be me though. 😉
As usual, we started with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance to the both the U.S. and Texas Flags. Judge Jack Cagle, from County Civil Court at Law, No. 1, led the prayer. Then Ann Lee, Precinct Chair of the 315th, led both pledges. After leading in the pledges, Mrs. Lee gave a passionate plea to all that they vote for Debra Lehrmann for Texas Supreme Court, pointing out the same thing I’ve pointed out, that her opponent, former State Legislator Rick Green, has zero experience at ANY level of the judiciary. Ridiculous on its face but Mr. Green did garner the most votes on primary day from an uninformed electorate. Tell your friends and neighbors about this one, folks – it is important!
After that, club President Bill Henderson introduced the two candidates, giving each man 5 minutes to sell their campaigns. First on the ballot, and first to speak, was Marc Brown. For the most part, Mr. Brown stuck to his traditional stump speech, pointing out his experience as an Assistant District Attorney for 22 years and the various roles he’s held as a public servant. Mr. Dexter also touted his time at the DA’s office but pointed out that he worked for 20 years in the private sector before his time as an ADA, and his private defense practice on the federal level after leaving.
Once the stump speeches were finished, the floor was opened up for questions. I counted seven different questions, and, unlike those from most forums, they were good ones! Good questions elicit good answers and no doubt that happened today.
The first question was from Randy (sorry, I didn’t catch the last name but everyone seemed to know him). He wanted to know what Mr. Brown was actually doing now that DA Lykos had appointed him to head up the re-engineering of the Grand Jury process. Mr. Brown’s answer included modernizing the process, including new computer systems which has resulted in a 20{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} throughput increase and a change in the way “Joe Horn” cases are handled. As I understood his answer, he is the single focal point for controversial cases and presents them to the Grand Jury himself, saving time and allowing the office to focus on the outcome. As the question was directed to Mr. Brown, Mr. Dexter’s response wasn’t really necessary but he did state that he liked the way the system worked during his time with the DA and he supported Mr. Brown’s efforts to make the process more efficient.
The second question was from Michael Kubosh of red-light camera fame. He wanted to know if the fact that Mr. Brown had only done prosecutorial work in his career influence his actions on the bench. Mr. Dexter actually went first on this one, pointing out that he has worked both sides of the legal system and he thinks that is an asset. Mr. Brown defended his time as a civil servant and noted that the goal as a judge is to apply the law fairly and that he is known throughout the Harris County criminal justice system as a fair prosecutor.
Next up was an excellent question about the racial makeup of a Grand Jury and what would each candidate do to insure that the criticism of the process of judges appointing Grand Jurors would be addressed. On this question, the candidates had polar opposite opinions. Mr. Brown is in favor of going over to the regular jury pool and picking people from that pool to serve. Mr. Dexter said that you cannot just walk into a supermarket and pick out the first person you see to serve on such an important panel.
Ed Johnson, club Vice President, then asked the candidates what the advantages and disadvantages were of being inside the system, as Mr. Brown is, versus being outside the system, as Mr. Dexter is. Mr. Dexter was first to answer the question and I think his answer gives us a clue as to why his personnel file contained such negative information. He responded that he has served both inside and outside, and that even when he was inside the system, he didn’t spend any time with his peers outside of working hours. I think that answer says a lot about the regime that he found himself in as a somewhat “older” but “new” attorney. Mr. Brown talked again about his knowledge of the process. He also talked in the third person, as in “Marc Brown is known for this” and “Marc Brown is known for that”. I always find that style interesting.
I’m not sure how many people picked up the hostility in the next question/questioner but I surely did. Mr. Brown had brought with him a supporting cast of ADA’s. One of them addressed this question to Mr. Dexter: Of the 70 trials you handled as an ADA, how many of them were felony’s? Of those, how many were Homicides? Of those Homicides, how many were Capital Murder cases? I could almost feel the disdain that she had for Mr. Dexter having the audacity to run against the very qualified Marc Brown.
Mr. Dexter answered simply and truthfully, not spending much time on it. He stated that 45 of the 70 cases were felonies, with no Homicides or Capital Murder cases. He stated that some of them were aggravated sexual assaults, then he sat down. Probably his best move. The questioner then looked at Mr. Brown and asked him innocently if he had ever handled any murder cases. Why, of course! Mr. Brown stated that he had handled 30 murder cases and a dozen or so capital murder cases. He also noted that he handled the first case to be tried under the new Life Without Parole sentencing guidelines. I don’t mean to make light of his experience but you had to be there and you have to know how much emphasis his campaign is placing on this to understand why I found it humorous.
Tom Zakes, club Secretary, Treasurer and Past President, was up next. He wanted to know what the candidates could do to stop unnecessary trials, pointing out that shortly after he and Mr. Brown left law school together, they argued a case over $1 that lasted two days. Mr. Brown stated that in hindsight, his supervisor should have allowed him to dismiss the case but that every defendant has the right to have his case heard to the full extent of the law. Mr. Dexter agreed.
Last up, club President Bill Henderson asked what each of the candidates thought about the possibility of a public defender system. Both were adamantly opposed. Mr. Brown talked about the corruption in Cooke County and the rules in Harris County that require court appointed attorneys to pass a test before they can be assigned to various levels of cases. Mr. Dexter talked about his time as a defense attorney in the federal system and that the cases were generally assigned to young, first year attorneys that used them for political agendas. Interesting, I’d like to hear more about that.
And that’s a wrap. Hope I didn’t bore you to death but I do think that the questions were far better than most forums.
One bit of “news” was made – Mr. Dexter announced that Gary Polland endorsed him a couple of days ago. I think that makes a sweep for him among the, how shall I say this, um, pay to play guys? Not saying that he bought Mr. Polland’s endorsement, just pointing that out.
Hopefully, you can use the information above to help you make the right choice for Harris County. Here are a few pictures:
