Harris County DA's race, DIVERT program

As much as I wish there would not have been a challenge to the sitting Harris County DA Pat Lykos, there is and now the Harris County Republican Party will have to deal with it. No, I’m not a huge supporter of DA Lykos, although I do think that she has done a decent job. I’m a supporter of Republicans in office and in the November 2012 election, it sure would have been nice to have a united party. It is bad enough that the HCRP itself is in shambles – in case you haven’t heard, it is very much in shambles, especially financially. And this time, there will be no Judge Emmett at the top of the ticket as in 2008 and 2010 – this time, the DA will be the featured race. And the primary will be, in political parlance, bloody. DA Lykos has already shown that she can get down and dirty – challenger Mike Anderson has indicated that he will have no problem matching her. Not gonna be a pretty sight. Who will pay for it? Republican judicial candidates (remember, Obama carried Harris County in 2008 and Bill White won in 2010). The only hope, if there is one, is that the Harris County Democratic Party is just as bad, maybe worse. A Christmas Party at an aboratorium?

Add to that an already nasty Sheriff’s primary and the probable entry by Houston City Councilman Mike Sullivan into the Tax Assessor/Collector’s race and you have a volatile primary. Heck, Bert Keller might as well get off the fence and challenge Jared Woodfill; who knows, this might get down and dirty enough to oust him. Even if Jared doesn’t have a challenger, he is going to be in over his head trying to bring the party together and better start thinking about that now. I’m sure that the plan is to once again make the judicial candidates carry the financial burden but if I were them, I’d look elsewhere for help. If they aren’t careful, we’re going to be saying hello to a lot more of the Judge Kevin Fine types.

But like I said, it is what it is. Now it is time to try and sort out the DA’s race, separate fact from fiction. I’ll start with the DIVERT program, which is described as:

DIVERT (Direct Intervention using Voluntary Education, Restitution and Treatment)  is a pre-trial diversion program for eligible first time DWI offenders in Harris County with no prior criminal history.   The program took its first clients in September of 2009.   From the inception,   HCCSCD has evaluated 2338 clients for entry into the DIVERT program.   As of May, there are currently 1392 clients who have signed an agreement with the District Attorney’s office for the DIVERT program.

The clients are assessed up front by Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department and a report is forwarded to the DA’s office and the Court for consideration into the program.  The DIVERT clients are currently being supervised at 49 San Jacinto as well as the North, South and West Region offices on a limited basis.   The clients are required to attend treatment as outlined in their recommendations, complete the DIVERT education classes designed to prevent driving under the influence,  have an ignition interlock installed on their vehicles for a minimum period of time,  and complete 16 hours of community service.

The program is an opportunity for a first time DWI offender to complete a program that promotes community safety and subsequently affords an opportunity to have the case dismissed upon successful completion.

I’ll let others worry about the legality of it. What concerns me as a citizen is the continued rumors that surround it. You know, those anonymous comments on websites or sent via email that claim the program is not being used as intended. Specifically, I’ve had people say that one famous person in particular has received preferential treatment, that the program is used to let influential people off and not used as described above for first time offenders, and that one judge that is against the program publicly recuses himself from cases so that his friends can be accepted into the program in other courts. Now, you might say, but those are just rumors, why bother with them? Because rumors bring down campaigns, that is why. So, let’s put these rumors under the microscope and see what the truth is, okay?

In that light, I filed a Public Information Act request this morning with Harris County District Clerk Chris Daniels seeking the following information:

1. Any and all records pertaining to cause # 151428701010 – The State of Texas vs. JONES, JACOBY R (Court 8 ) as related to defendant’s acceptance into and completion of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office D.I.V.E.R.T. program.
2. Statistics for the D.I.V.E.R.T. program from its inception through November 30, 2011, including the total number of referrals and/or requests to enter the program, the race/ethnicity of each defendant requesting entry, the total number of defendants accepted into the program, the race/ethnicity of each defendant accepted, and the the average and median time served under the program by race/ethnicity.
3. The total number of DWI cases from which Judge Bill Harmon of Harris County County Criminal Court at Law No. 2 recused himself, the court to which these recusals were assigned, and the disposition of each case, including acceptance into the D.I.V.E.R.T. program.

I think that once we have this information publicly available, we can either confirm or dismiss those particular rumors. I’ll keep you updated. As an aside, the District Clerk’s office doesn’t send a confirmation email when PIA’s are submitted – I had to take a screenshot. You need to fix that Chris.