Appointed Interim Harris County DA Devon Anderson has tried to convince voters that she is “tough on crime” while labeling her opponent, Kim Ogg, as “dangerous”. In fact, if Politifact had put Anderson’s claims through their “Truth-O-Meter“, they would have awarded Anderson a “Pants on Fire“.
They also might award Ms. Anderson a Pants on Fire for her claim that she is tough on crime. Let’s take a look at a few cases.
Judge Denise Pratt – in a secret backroom deal brokered by political insiders, Anderson let Judge Pratt walk away from criminal charges of any type in return for her resignation from the bench.
Constable Victor Trevino – Ms. Anderson offered him the equivalent of a traffic ticket instead of prosecuting him for four felony charges. Mr. Trevino rejected the offer.
HPD Homicide Detective Ryan Chandler – Ms. Anderson brokered a deal with her friend Judge Susan Brown to send the case to Montgomery County, under seal, where former HPOU attorney Brett Ligon, now the Montgomery County DA, assigned a rookie prosecutor to the case. When the rookie prosecutor cleared him, Ligon’s right hand man, Phil Grant, claimed that he had made the decision. Neither Anderson nor Brown objected to this blatant violation of the special prosecutor statute. Here is what the HPOU had to say about Mr. Ligon upon his election as Montgomery County DA:
He has loved helping HPOU members through officer-involved shootings, suspension hearings, grand jury appearances, trials on “the merits,” and any other part of the complicated job of being a police officer in a big city.
Hundreds of cases that Chandler worked on are now in jeopardy and Chandler gets off scott free.
Capital Murder Express Court – Ms. Anderson is touting the creation of a special court to get non-death capital murder cases through the courts quicker. She cites no statistics and provides us with just one anecdotal case. What about the other 93 cases that were rushed through? Swift justice is not always justice, if you know what I mean. She’s proud of the fact that the median case is only 1.5 years old – that is less than the time she has taken to prosecute Constable Trevino, to whom she offered a traffic ticket. If I’m some poor schmuck being falsely accused, I think I might not want the express train to “justice”. Or, maybe I do – after all, if she can reduce four felonies to a traffic ticket, maybe she can let me out on a Class A misdemeanor, right? Secret backroom deals seem to be her stock in trade.
Prostitute Court – Ms. Anderson wants to create a special court for prostitutes because “they are victims”. Yeah, right.
Teachers – Ms. Anderson is going to help HISD crack down on cheating because teachers can’t be trusted. But hey, prostitutes, ya know?
Now let’s take a look at someone who is in the news today for killing a Deputy Sheriff the other night. Some are accusing Kim Ogg of trying to gain politically off of the death of Deputy Jesse Valdez III for pointing out that he would be alive if the DA had been “tough on crime” with defendant Kelly Jo Ivey. Sometimes the truth is hard to hear. Let’s take a look at Ms. Ivey’s record and you decide if the appointed, interim DA is “tough on crime”.
Here is Ms. Ivey’s Harris County criminal record:
Not very pretty, is it? And that doesn’t include a conviction for theft in Liberty County. But it is the three charges in December, 2013 that are relevant in this case. As part of a plea bargain, Ms. Anderson, through ADA Keri Fuller, dismissed one charge (theft, habitual offender), and agreed to the minimum time allowed in the other two cases, after abandoning two enhancements on the auto theft charge, which could have increased the minimum sentencing. They did this knowing full well that Ms. Ivey would be eligible for parole long before the minimum sentence time in jail would be reached. Click here to read the rules on parole. Ms. Ivey did get out early and the rest is fact, not something used for political gain.
Brian Rogers and Cindy George of the Houston Chronicle reported on this in their article entitled Deputy’s death becomes issue in DA race. A couple of quotes caught my eye:
“Two years in prison for 3 grams of methamphetamine is perfectly acceptable and I stand by the prosecutor who made that plea bargain,” Anderson said.
….
So did an attack ad from Anderson’s campaign.
“Kim Ogg isn’t just wrong. She’s dangerous,” says the narrator in the 30-second spot, Anderson’s second. “But Devon Anderson is tough on crime.”
The central debate in the race has revolved around Ogg’s plan to not prosecute low-level drug offenders, like those arrested for having small amounts of marijuana. Ogg has also said that she would institute a policy of ticketing suspects caught with cocaine residue in crack pipes, not arrest them on felony drug charges, a move that has drawn the ire of area law enforcement agencies who support Anderson.
(click here to read the entire article on HoustonChronicle.com)
That first quote says that Anderson doesn’t think 3 grams of meth is much, so a light sentence is deserved. All the while filing felony charges against people that might have a trace of crack cocaine on a pipe. Hmm, I’ll bet the folks claiming that crack cocaine users (i.e., blacks) have a tougher time in the criminal justice system than other drug users might have some fun with that one. But before we move on, let’s take a look at the original charging instrument for against Ms. Ivey for drug possession. Notice that she is charged with possessing a minimum of 4 grams and a maximum of 200 grams of meth. Later, the charge was reduced to a minimum of 1 gram and a maximum of 4 grams, which allows for a much lighter minimum sentence. How does the DA explain that?
And that second one, as we know, is a “Pants on Fire” lie. Kim Ogg has NEVER stated that she would ignore laws, she has stated that she will follow the law that the legislature put on the books in 2007 giving prosecutors and officers the discretion to ticket low level offenders.
So which candidate in this race is really the “tough on crime” candidate? I think the evidence is quite clear. Harris County voters need to clean up the courthouse and STOP the secret, backroom, politically brokered deals and put people in jail who deserve to be there while providing true justice for those who don’t.
I’ll be voting for Kim Ogg and I urge my fellow Republicans to do the same.
I have absolute proof that a City of Katy Cop Sean Kiley, who has a criminal background and is a cop, believe it or not committed perjury against the Harris County District Attorney. I have the evidence and sent it to the Harris County Public Integrity Office being Paula Hartman and Michael Antonello. Paula Hartman dismissed all evidence against the corrupt cop.
Then I complained against Paula Hartman and Michael Antonello and DEVON ANDERSON AND HER 2ND IN COMMAND BELINDA HILL HAVE TOTALLY DISMISSED MY COMPLAINT.
These people are a corrupt mafia protecting each other. They use the Public Integrity Office as a make believe they are fighting corruption and such, when in fact they are all corrupt. We deserve better that this mafia!
If anyone needs the information I have, please contact me in Facebook.
Dr. Oto Cantu
David:
A couple of things about your post.
First, you state that Ivey was first charged with more than 4 grams of meth but the charge later was reduced to less than 4 grams.
That is quite common due to the fact that the police when they arrest someone often weigh things like the bag the dope is in to arrive at a weight. When the lab returns its results sometime later, it reports the actual weight of the drug and the indictment is based on that. The clerk’s website show’s that’s exactly what happened. The initial charge was more than 4 grams and the indictment was for 1-4 grams.
Whether you like Devon Anderson or not, at least that part of the case was handled appropriately.
Second, while you talk about Ivey’s criminal history, most of it consists of state jail felonies. Those generally cannot be used to enhance the punishment on a third degree or higher felony. I know. I’m one of the lawyers who got the Court of Criminal Appeals to rule that way in the mid-1990s.
Three years TDC for about three grams of meth is a reasonable sentence as part of a plea bargain. I don’t know either of the lawyers involved in that plea but a lot of factors going into plea bargainning. For example, there may be a serious question of the validity of the search that triggered the meth arrest.
Third, it usually is in the best interests of society for inmates to parole so they have supervision on the streets. A good example of what happens when they serve their entire term flat is the sex offender arrested for molesting two young girls and spreading HIV to lord knows how many other people.
He wasn’t supervised because he had served his full term and discharged rather than paroled. As poor as parole supervision is, it’s a heck of a lot better than no supervision at all.
Lastly, your posted document shows Ivey facing a new 1-4 gram meth case and say the punishment range is 2-10 years and that the disposition was two years in prison. Wrong on both counts. I just checked the District Clerk’s website. The complaint in that case shows it enhanced with her prior meth conviction so the punishment range is 2-20. And, there is no disposition. The case is still pending. It hasn’t been indicted yet. In fact, we don’t even know if the substance she supposedly had was meth because the lab reports aren’t back.
There have been a large number of drug cases which pled guilty early only to have the lab reports come back “No drugs.” There are so many that the DA’s office has brought back a retired bureau chief to supervise those cases and see that the convictions are appropriately vacated.
Ivy won’t be going anywhere anytime soon because there either is or soon will be a parole violator warrant issued. That’s a no bond warrant.
Kim Ogg is a friend of mine. When she was an assistant district attorney, she whipped my butt in ttrial a couple of times. She was one good prosecutor. She has a good record as the mayor’s gang coordinator and as head of CrimeStoppers. Kim and I have worked on a couple of cases together as defense lawyers since she went into private practice. I respect and like her a lot.
I’m unhappy with Devon Anderson’s ads attacking Kim for reasons not based on fact and I’m unhappy that Andserson seems to have become a mouthpiece for the police union.
But, when either is criticized, it should be fairly and based on fact. As for her ads abut putting people on death row, one case involved a serial killer and the case was a slam dunk. The other was a guy who shot and killed a police officer and a bystander and he did it on videotape.
As applied to the handling of Ivey’s previous cases, you went too far. Some of it may be based on lack of understanding of how the criminal justice sytem works. But don’t let your feelings about the race interfere with the facts.
Finally, I early voted but I own’t say which DA candidate I voted for. This post would be the same regardless of whether I voted for Kim or Devin.
Tom,
Thank you for your comments. I have no desire to spread false or even inflated accusations. I trust that any voter still undecided in this race will consider your experience in criminal law and give your comments due consideration in their deliberations. DJ
All of the democrat candidate’s endorsements are hard left. She WILL be obligated to them. The Dems are salivating at the prospect of winning this high profile office because they’re probably going to get smoked in most of the other races.
I hope the readers also look up some of David’s posts about Devon and abortionist Douglas Karpen.
And when are those who know the truth about both Devon and Mike Anderson’s judicial bypass record when they were judges going to fess up? Being an accomplice to the murder of babies is not a secret that can stay hidden forever.
Gregg Abbott has said nothing about the Exoneration of Dr. Douglas Karpen by Chip Lewis’ Harris County Key Man Grand Jury on December 12th, 2013 orchastrated by Devon Anderson under Abbott’s watch as AG. Nor Perry. Nor Kim Ogg. Karpen instead of being indicted for infanticide as Dewhurst originally intended was exonerated through the machinations of “tough on crime” Devon Anderson and continues to twist the heads off of five month and older late term, live born babies as I write this. Devon Anderson did this apparently unspeakable evil (David did not mention Karpen’s exoneration again in his last summation of Devon Anderson allowing criminals to committ crimes while claiming she is tougher than Ogg on criminals) for Abbott and Lewis, her masters. Chip Lewis is the only one to gloat publically about Karpen’s exoneration that Lewis bought and paid for through Devon Anderson. Kim Ogg, a typical liberal Democrat and backed by Annise Parker agrees with Karpen’s exoneration, but to pass herself off to get elected has said nothing about Karpen’s exoneration. Likewise Wendy Davis has said nothing about G. Abbott’s orchastrating the exoneration. All support Karpen’s exoneration and practice of infanticide. I am grateful to Big Jolly Politics for allowing me to post about Anderson and Karpen’s exoneration-but I am sad that the murder of children within, or outside the womb is used by all poiticians to gain political office first and foremost-Rebuplicans and Democrats- pro-life or pro-choice. I am not going to vote for “pro-life, Catholic, married to a Hispanic Jeb Bush because Hitlery is like Davis a proud pro-abort monster. Jeb Bush is a monster too, but two faced. Nor “pro-life, Catholic, married to a Hispanic” Greg Abbott because of Wendy Davis. When it comes to Douglas Karpen and the HCDA office there would have been absolutley no difference in regard to Douglas Karpen’s exoneratioin between Ogg and Devon Anderson. I do not believe Kim Ogg backed by Annise Parker, like Parker’s HPD, or G. Abbott, like “tough on crime” Devon Anderson will ever make even one arrest and conviction of a child sex trafficker or save one child from sex slavery and death. This has never happened in Texas, or as far as I know the US, or in the whole world. Nor will Ogg ever threaten Karpen in his practice of infanticide. She agrees with this practice as a woman’s right. And what about David Allen! Both parties are bipartisan using the Court and City Attorney Office in persecuting David Allen and his family for exposing both parties ties to child sex slave trafficking through campaign contributions from a prominent child sex slave trafficking kingpen who bank rolls Dems like Parker, and Repubs like Abbott and Perry alike to cover up his operation while at the same time claiming like Devon Anderson to be “tough” of child sex slave traffickers. No arrests and convictions.
Bypass cases are confidential. To throw something against the wall about bypass cases and figure it will stick because it can’t be refuted is one more example of gutter politics.
I think it’s crazy that they are publicizing what the plea bargain offer was in the Trevino case before the jury hears it. Talk about trying a case in the media! I think it would be dirty pool if in the course of negotiations (in which we are required to participate in good faith) I had told the DA my client would plead to X, only to have it rejected, then blasted to the media that “Tom Zakes’ client offered to plead guilty!”
It has never been unusual when prosecuting public officials to offer them a bargain that included getting them out of office. Remember Jerry Eversole? Can’t blame that on either of the Andersons. That was the feds. Or Jack Abercia? Or Mark Fury?
btw, this is copied from the politifact website:
“Is the statement rooted in a fact that is verifiable? We don’t check opinions, and we recognize that in the world of speechmaking and political rhetoric, there is license for hyperbole.”
In other words, they wouldn’t verify or debunk a statement that someone is “tough on crime.”
To use their logo is as misleading as to show a photo of employees in front of a car dealership with a fake sign implying that all the people pictured in the photo had donated to a judicial campaign.
I’m Tom Zakes and I approve this message
Question: do ‘felony trace cases’ just pad the numbers of arrests for purposes of obtaining free federal cash subsidies for cop ot and special drug units? Are most felony charged trace cases reduced to misdemeanors? How many trace case folks are clogging the jail? And how can one defend effectively when the trace evidence is likely lost as a result of initial testing? Just wondering.
Most of the trace cases I’ve seen over the years are after some sort of cheap traffic arrest for such things as no seat belt, illegal left turn, etc. They’re done by patrol officers. Often the searches in which the drug is found are of questionable legality. The narcs seldom make a trace case. They’re too busy chasing people who sell two rocks of crack for $20. The feds are too busy chasing multi-kilo cases. No one is really looking for the people who buy a kilo of cocaine and turn it into crack, then sell it to dealers.
Some of the judges think the reason we see a lot of trace, small amount of marijuana cases is that the patrol officers are getting the low hanging fruit. They get a statistic for their arrest, helping on promotions and assignments, and they are off the street for several hours preparing reports, booking the suspect, filing charges and depositing the drugs with the lab for testing. After all, it’s more comfortable in the police station than in a patrol car.
A large number of trace cases are sentenced as misdemeanors but are felony convictions. Another large number end up with deferred adjudication, a form of probation. Many are cases in which probation is mandatory.
The lab usually uses up all of the drug in testing and the defense cannot re-test.
A more interesting quesiton is raised by a visting judge who is a Republican ex-prosecutor: If you have some crack, you smoke it and think you’ve smoked it all, how can the prosecution prove you knew you had cocaine? Interesting question.
Can you find out why the ex DA investigator was allowed to resign after allegedly tampering with a government document and walk across the street to the Sheriff’s Office into a homicide position.
The DA’s Office publically announced the Sheriff’s Office helped them with the investigation. The Sheriff’s Office went on record advising they knew nothing of the event. I would think after the Sheriff’s Office rehired this person and after placing him back in homicide they would have to be concerned about Gigleo or Brady, or just maybe this was one of the “brother-in-law” deals to keep transparency from the citizens.
The reason Pratt wasn’t prosecuted was because the only “alleged” evidence against her was the manufactured affidavit, (written by the one of the high-dollar attorneys that didn’t like that she ruled the right way and not HIS way), by a career criminal who had been convicted of theft (2013), credit card abuse (2009), theft by check (2008), theft (2005), forgery (2000), theft (1999), and theft by check (also 1999), as well as being charged with theft in 2006, AND had an active warrant out for her arrest for theft when she signed the affidavit. Why didn’t you print that criminal record David? Additionally, the 2 attorneys on the case didn’t agree on a thing, EXCEPT that the woman was a habitual, pathological liar. They BOTH talked to Greg Enos before he and the Chronicle printed their one-sided set of lies, but neither Enos nor the Comical included any of that in their articles. What happened with Judge Pratt was a smear campaign by democrats and some in Republican sheep-skin.