Politics. Sweet politics. Fun stuff when things are going your way, not so much when they aren’t. And this morning at 5 am as I viewed Ted Oberg’s latest missive against Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos, I wasn’t having fun. In fact, in that moment, I was pretty certain that I’d screwed up and had egg (or something much worse) on my face for daring to go against the conventional wisdom and trying to understand her side of the story. Fortunately days are made up of many moments and that moment has passed. Not only do I not have egg (or something much worse) on my face, I’m more certain than ever that the entire 185th Grand Jury investigation was politically motivated and pushed by forces that want a new DA simply because they don’t like the current one.
Let’s state the obvious first: DA Lykos royally screwed up politically when she insisted at a press conference that (a) she didn’t know about any investigation of said grand jury and (b) if there was one, she certainly didn’t authorize it.
Both of her contentions are, on the face of it, false. Lies. Misstatements. Untruths. Use whatever word you wish because I assure you that the Mike Anderson campaign will use all of them and more. When DA Lykos made that statement, she handed political consultants and her enemies a golden egg.
Thing is, sometimes, on the face of it, things aren’t what they seem. And sometimes, things really are the way they are. You are going to have to decide what is what in this case. Most of you probably already have because in our fast paced society, when we see someone contradict themselves and we aren’t an interested party, we assume the worst and the worst in this case is that DA Lykos is lying and thus, most of us accept that. That’s just the way it is.
But I’m an interested party. Either because I like politics and politicians or because in this specific case, I said that the grand jury was headed up by a Wyatt Earp wannabe and thus want to defend that position. So, after that brief moment this morning, I started asking around, talking to people about it, and thinking about it. And what I have learned makes DA Lykos’ insistence that she did not order an investigation entirely plausible, even likely. I’ll try to keep it short because blog posts generally should be short and you’ve probably made up your mind anyway.
First, you have to decide whether or not to believe that DA Lykos has a different definition of “investigate” than the general public does. I admit that what I think she did when she asked Jim Leitner to ask Don McWilliams to look into Trisha Pollard, is that she started an investigation. And I bet most people not in her position would think the same. That said, she insists, and I’ve come to believe her, that her definition of what “investigate” means is entirely different than mine. Hers is a formal, working definition that would include the full weight of the HCDA’s office, including the use of investigators, law enforcement databases, background interviews with neighbors, employers, etc. After a long career as a police officer, a judge, and now as a district attorney, that is what the term means to her.
According to a high placed source in the DA’s office, no LEO databases were accessed and McWilliams did nothing more than search public domain internet sites on his own time. Everyone that I talked to on both sides of this political race agree that Mr. McWilliams is a man of integrity and when he says that is all he did, they believe it. In fact, he was the source mentioned in the grand jury report. Ask yourself why he would tell Jim Mount that he was asked to look into the grand jury if he had been asked to perform an investigation? Investigation as in the way DA Lykos thinks of an investigation? He wouldn’t.
What happened is that on 10/18, Ms. Pollard kicked the prosecutors out of the grand jury room. Both sides tell me this is not typical, that routinely prosecutors are given notice that the grand jury will be hearing from someone that might be a conflict of interest and know not to come that day or to be late, the judge routinely appoints a pro tem because grand juries need legal guidance when questioning witnesses, and all is well. None of that happened in this case, causing confusion in the HCDAO. When it hadn’t been resolved by the weekend, they decided to find out who the grand jury foreperson was and why they were being attacked.
On 10/24, Mr. Leitner was told by Judge Susan Brown that she was going to appoint a pro tem for the grand jury, who had been without one since the 18th. She assured him that she would not appoint someone political or from the previous administration. On 10/26, she appointed two men that fit both of those descriptions. Frustrated, the team at the HCDAO used the same public information databases to determine if any political links existed between the wider group of people involved.
So back to the original question, do you believe that DA Lykos ordered an “investigation” (remember her definition) or do you believe that the team at the HCDAO felt that they were under a political attack and did a Google search to find out who was attacking them? Using her definition, it is easy to see why she would have answered that question at the news conference the way she did. In other words, I believe her. As they say, your mileage may vary but before you quickly jump to a conclusion, at least do yourself a favor and consider what you would have said in her shoes with her background. Also consider that if they had performed a full investigation, public information requests would prove that. Alas, there are none.
And that last one is critical. Notice that near the end of Mr. Oberg’s report, he states that “county paid for, password protected internet databases” would have to be used to find out this information. Nonsense. Lots of people did the same searches on the same people because that grand jury leaked like a sieve. I assure you that I don’t have access to “county paid for, password protected internet databases” and I found everything they did and more. As did Mark Bennett, whom Mr. McWilliams references in his statement about the issue. Once Ms. Pollard put her name in the press, it was easy. If Mr. Oberg has something that proves his assertion, he needs to show us.
So believe what you want but also consider this. Check out Doug Miller’s report on KHOU.com from the day that the 185th Grand Jury released this “report” (letter). First, notice that Chip Lewis, the attorney for the Amanda Culberson is there to give reporters a nice little anti-DA soundbite. Interesting how that guy keeps getting a heads up on this grand jury’s activities – remember his phone call warning Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack that he was being subpoenaed?
Next, notice that DA Lykos’ opponent Mike Anderson is filmed ambling up the sidewalk (at the 1:46 mark), just minding his own business. Right? Well, that’s certainly the way it looks, doesn’t it? Minding his own business, then he’s yanked out of his little walk by the press and asked to comment on the “scolding” that the grand jury gave DA Lykos. Another soundbite for the press. But was he really just walking by, minding his own business at the courthouse?
Turns out that, no, he wasn’t. In fact, and I confirmed this with three different people, his political consultant had invited reporters to be at the “impromptu” press conference. So now we are right back to the start of this entire sham: was it all politically motivated in order to elect a new DA?
You decide.