Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Judging Judges

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The 85th Legislature passed Senate Bill 1893, which was signed by Governor Abbott on June 15, 2017. This legislation creates the tenth and eleventh administrative judicial regions. The eleventh administrative judicial region is now composed of Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Matagorda, and Wharton counties. Prior to this legislation, these counties were represented by Olen Underwood, presiding judge of the second administrative judicial region.

The Governor appoints a presiding judge to each of the now eleven judicial regions. These judges serve a four-year term. The presiding judge:

  • promulgates and implements regional rules of administration;
  • advises local judges on judicial management;
  • recommends changes to the Supreme Court for the improvement of judicial administration; and
  • acts for local administrative judges in their absence.

Very importantly, presiding judges have the authority to assign visiting judges. In August 2017, 29 separate visiting judge assignments were permitted in Harris County. This list includes Belinda Hill and Brock Thomas. Hill served as the First Assistant District Attorney for Mike and Devon Anderson and supported the decision to jail a sexual assault victim. After nine years at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Thomas, son of former Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas, was appointed to serve as judge of the 338th District Court. Thomas lost reelection in 2008 and started a law firm with Devon Anderson. Thomas won election to the 338th in 2012 and again lost reelection in 2016.

Hill and Thomas Summer Assignments

Hill
228th District Court (for Marc Carter) August 21
Criminal District Courts August 7
232nd District Court (vacant) July 31
180th District Court (for Catherine Evans) July 24
185th District Court (for Susan Brown) July 10
Criminal District Courts June 26
262nd District Court (for Denise Bradley) June 12
Criminal District Courts June 5
Thomas
185th District Court (for Susan Brown) August 2
185th District Court (for Susan Brown) July 5
185th District Court (for Susan Brown) June 7

Also, alarmingly, Marc Brown, aka Mr. Susan Brown, served as a visiting judge in the 180th District Court on July 31, 2017 and September 6, 2016. Why is a current, sitting appellate justice serving as a visiting judge in a trial court?

As you can see, the powers of the presiding judge are significant. Guess who has applied to serve as presiding judge of the newly created eleventh administrative judicial region? None other than Susan Brown – the judge who allowed her grand jury to be used for an unlawful purpose. If Governor Abbott choses to appoint Susan Brown to this position, he would send a terrible message to Texans.

Brown does not have the temperament for this position. Remember when she held a woman in contempt after the woman said, “Thank you, Jesus!” after her husband was acquitted?

Abbott must remember the 185th Grand Jury and the fact that this grand jury was misused for a political purpose. Some folks may have forgotten that Marc Brown actually appeared before this grand jury. A group of folks worked together to get rid of District Attorney Pat Lykos. They couldn’t do it legitimately, so they created a fake controversy and used Susan Brown’s grand jury to generate deceitful headlines.

Brown, et al. has led the justice system in Harris County down the wrong path. After the 185th runaway grand jury episode, the criminal district court judges got together and elected Susan Brown to serve as the administrative judge of the criminal division. Think about that a minute. Brown’s grand jury is used for an unlawful purpose and then her fellow judges nominate her to serve as their representative. Under Brown’s leadership, the judges decided to hide the identities of their grand jurors. More importantly, in her leadership role Brown supported not releasing the Planned Parenthood grand jurors.

They plan to use United States District Judge Lee Rosenthal’s bond ruling to put the democrats on trial during the gubernatorial election season. The truth is that Brown and friends are on the wrong side of this decision. Instead of taking action to repair the broken bail system, Brown, et al. allowed this decision to be made. If they had made appropriate decisions, the issue would not have been ripe.

For many years, the Browns and friends have gotten by with these misdeeds, but the line must be drawn right now. Contact Governor Abbott right now to let him know that Susan Brown and any character from the old guard.

Governor Abbott’s Appointments Office

512.463.1828

Gaby Fuentes, Governor Abbott’s Appointments Director

512.463.1828

[email protected]

Don Hooper's Sample Ballot

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I have been asked several times to write about my choices for the local and statewide judicial races. Stan Stanart, the Harris County Clerk, recently told me of his sample ballot that allows voters to enter their name and address on his website and produce a personalized sample ballot; so, I decided to give it a try. Stan and his team have developed a program that allows each voter to create their own unique slate to post and send to friends. Think of it as Stan’s way of overcoming the slate machines. And, when you think about it, Stan has revolutionized the way we can share our selections. Running the election operations in the largest county in Texas always makes Stan and his guys the smartest guys in the room. They do a great job.

You will notice I left many unopposed judicial races blank. I do this to send a message. The message is clear for the Criminal District Judges – I am tired of you supporting Judge Susan Brown as the Chief Administrative Judge of the Criminal Courts – think Goforth, the runaway grand jury, Constable Victor Trevino, judicial bypasses, and Devon Anderson. I have intentionally left them blank, which will show up as an under vote. This sends a message. I, of course, skipped Devon Anderson.

You will notice that I voted for Stacey Bond. She got my vote for standing against prosecutorial misconduct in her court. I also voted for Rick Green over Paul Green for Place 5 on the Texas Supreme Court. I do like what has happened at the Texas Supreme Court, especially concerning the City of Houston cases like HERO. I previously wrote about Jim Leitner for Harris County Attorney. It makes no sense for his opponent, a five-year lawyer, to represent Harris County in all civil litigation and advise Commissioners Court. Jim is the only choice.

Create your own ballot, print my ballot, or use something else entirely. Most importantly, VOTE! Study the candidates and, if you do not know them or the issue, do not feel compelled to vote in that race.

Marked Up Sample Ballot

Marked Sample Ballot

Sample Ballot Pic 2

Lisa Falkenberg and the Indictment of Alfred Dewayne Brown

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trisha-pollard-hpd-helicopter-facebook-june-4-2013

A grand jury led by Patricia Pollard indicted Alfred Dewayne Brown. In June, Brown was released from Texas death row after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his conviction because of prosecutorial misconduct and, specifically, the failure of Harris County prosecutors to disclose exculpatory material to the defense. The case was then dismissed by Devon Anderson, current Harris County District Attorney.

Pollard’s record and antics are well-documented and notorious at this point; but, I wanted to provide a recap for new readers. In 2003, Devon’s late husband, Mike, as judge of the 262nd District Court, selected Patricia Pollard as foreman of his grand jury. At last count, Pollard has been placed on at least six grand juries in Harris County where she has served as foreman on a minimum of five occasions.

262nd District Court Mike Anderson, Judge May 2003 Foreman
262nd District Court Mike Anderson, Judge August 2005 Foreman
177th District Court Devon Anderson, Judge February 2007 Foreman
262nd District Court Mike Anderson, Judge November 2009 Foreman
185th District Court Susan Brown, Judge August 2011 Foreman
179th District Court Kristin Guiney, Judge 2013 Assistant Foreman

After her 2005 service, Pollard wrote a letter to Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Legislature to report a “widespread, massive and repeated” Medicaid fraud in Texas. On January 18, 2006, Pollard was asked to testify before the Texas Senate Finance Committee. Under questioning, Pollard admitted that she possessed no evidence to substantiate her allegation.

Pollard then donated $5,000 to Texans for Rick Perry and was appointed to a six-year term on the Texas State University System Board of Regents. Devon conducted this swearing in ceremony and Pollard donated to Devon’s unsuccessful judicial reelection effort. So, in 2011, when it came time to take back the courthouse, the Andersons went to their go to gal, Pollard. Following the 185th tragedy, Susan Brown led the effort to seal all Harris County grand jury lists.

Needless to say, Pollard is the poster child for the grand jury reform signed by Governor Abbott, which eliminates the pick-a-pal grand jury selection system.

Earlier this year, Houston Chronicle metro columnist Lisa Falkenberg won a Pulitzer Prize for her stories on Alfred Dewayne Brown. Falkenberg wrote extensively about Brown and the circumstances surrounding his prosecution. While Falkenberg touched on the faulty criminal justice system, especially in Harris County, she completely ignored the fact that Pollard, a habitual grand juror in the pick a pal system, was behind Brown’s capital murder indictment. I wrote about the Pollard plague on August 15, 2014; yet, Pollard went unnoticed in Falkenberg’s reporting.

My primary criticism of Falkenberg’s stories: they largely ignore the criminal connections and jiggery-pokery that set these injustices in motion. Most of Falkenberg’s stories focused on the grand jury that was used to interrogate Ericka Dockery, Brown’s girlfriend at the time of the murders. The foreman of that grand jury was a Houston Police Department officer, which is very inappropriate and a conflict of interest considering that the offense involved the murder of a police officer from the same department. This would be kind of like someone from the Houston Chronicle leading the Pulitzer Prize committee that presented Falkenberg with this year’s award. Not to say that Falkenberg was undeserving of the award – it just appears improper.

I believe that Falkenberg’s focus is misplaced. Yes, the pick-a-pal grand jury system is wrong. And, the prosecutors in Brown’s case were wrong to not provide the defense with exculpatory evidence. Is Brown innocent of this crime? We may never know. The problem is larger than this singular event. The Brown case is an example of the systemic corruption within the system. The elimination of the pick-a-pal system will not stop these injustices.

Devon and Mike Anderson campaigned on bringing the Harris County District Attorney’s office back to the old days. The days when rape kits went untested and innocent men like Ricardo Rachell were convicted and sent to prison for crimes they did not commit. The most common reasoning around that office is, “This is the way we have always done it.” Well, I do not believe that logic is sufficient, especially when we are talking about liberty and justice.

Judge Gist found that Kelly Siegler, the Temple trial prosecutor, failed to disclose exculpatory material to the defense – same as the Brown case. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is likely to uphold Judge Gist’s findings, which would send the case back to Devon Anderson.

Devon promised the people of Harris County that she would personally prosecute all defendants accused of killing police officers. What about us regular folks? Are we second class victims? So far, the only case personally prosecuted by Devon was a capital murder on videotape.

The Temple case could be an Anderson v. Siegler showdown. What will the people who worked so hard to get Mike and Devon into the DA position do if Anderson dismisses the David Temple case?

So, why hasn’t Falkenberg broadened the scope of her reporting to include the reported injustices such as Antonio Williams and Linda Carty? One answer came today in a Falkenberg tweet.

FullSizeRender

Questions remain. Why did Susan Brown give $2,925 to Devon Anderson [now District Attorney] and Brock Thomas [now judge of the 338th District Court]? Will the Siegler gang move away from Devon and support a new candidate for 2016? What will prosecutors do without the rubber stamp pick-a-pal grand juries? Will Pollard still find her way to the grand jury room?

The real enemy here is the tradition of injustice that has plagued Harris County for many years. A tradition of injustice cannot justify injustice.

Is the needle express coming to Harris County?

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For the four years that Pat Lykos was the Harris County District Attorney, there was a blog that ran salacious rumors about the department. Anonymous commenters were allowed to posit wild stories and theories about the department. After Mike Anderson took office in January, the blog and its commenters have gone on a hiatus. Some people have missed that type of yellow blogging, so I’ve decided to fill the market niche, at least until they return. So until they return, I’m going to be filling you in on some of the happenings in the office and court system.

I thought I’d start with an easy one, one that any member of the system down there can verify by simply asking the players. Because the players think they have a great idea and I doubt they are going to deny the existence of the plan, although they’ll probably disagree with my opinion of it.

On any given day in Harris County, there is a backlog of capital cases in the courts of approximately 250 cases. Lots of reasons for that – judges don’t particularly care for them so they reset cases over and over again, defense lawyers know they can make more money if they can lengthen the cases, and defendants would rather sit in a jail cell than lay on a gurney in Huntsville. Of course the taxpayers are stuck with the additional costs of delaying these cases, so it would be nice if someone figured out how to speed the process up and reduce the backlog.

The good news is that Judge Susan “Runaway Grand Jury” Brown, Republican on the 185th bench, as well as the administrative judge for the courts, recognizes the problem and wants to do something about it. The bad news for defendants is that Judge Susan “Runaway Grand Jury” Brown, Republican on the 185th bench, as well as the administrative judge for the courts, recognizes the problem and wants to do something about it.

You see, Judge Susan “Runaway Grand Jury” Brown has a wee bit of a bias for the prosecution. As do most of the judges in Harris County but we’ll save that for another day. If you don’t think the bias exists, you probably don’t believe that judges routinely have dinner and drinks with the chief prosecutors of their courts. And if you don’t believe that, then you really wouldn’t believe that judges routinely have drinks and dinner with members of their grand jury. Oh, and did I mention that they have these dinners and drinks with the prosecutors and grand jurors at the same time? Heck, it’s so brazen that they do it in very popular places. Hmm. Brennan’s comes to mind. Doesn’t it GK?

Anyways, Judge Brown, former judge and now Harris County District Attorney First Assistant Belinda Hill, and former judge and now Director of the Harris County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Caprice Cosper got together and came up with a plan for the backlog. Notice who is missing from this cast of former and current judges and prosecutors?

Okay, so their plan is to create four specialty courts that deal solely with capital cases. The rub is that they get to pick the judges and the prosecutors for the courts. Again, who is missing from this cast?

Basically what they want to do is form a “needle express”, rushing defendants through a court with handpicked judges and prosecutors in order to eliminate the backlog. Ah, justice, sweet justice in Harris County. Just like the good old days we heard so much about when Mike Anderson was running for the office and the rumor blog was running amok.

The three recently approached Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia with the plan, hoping that he would fund the eight bailiffs necessary to run the courts.   Uh, no thanks, said the much more politically astute Sheriff.

For the third time, who is missing from the needle express cast?

Okay boys and girls, that’s it for this round of Harris County criminal  court follies. Don’t worry, there is plenty more to come. Why, just today I filed a PIA to find out who the two people are that are getting raises so large that the Commissioners Court had to approve them last week. And to find out who the lucky person is that lost their car allowance (okay, so I know it is the general counsel) and who was the recipient of his loss!

This might be fun!

Whoops! Almost forgot my bonus question of the day!

For extra points, name the current judge who was the attorney for Robin Sue Cooper, and tell us why Houston Chronicle reporter Brian Rogers refused to name this judge in his article about the dismissal of charges?

If you’ve got a tip for me about the Harris County DA and court system, send it to [email protected]. Remember! Don’t use your work email or any equipment supplied to you by the county!

Blind justice? Hahaha, this is Harris County!
Blind justice? Hahaha, this is Harris County!

Secret tribunal bill, aka runaway grand jury bill, goes down

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As I noted here, SB834 by Estes would have protected and even increased the possibility of runaway grand juries, such as the one in Judge Susan Brown’s 185th District Court. Fortunately, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee killed it by leaving it pending in committee. The only chance it has now of being revived is by attaching it as an amendment to another bill but several reps are carefully watching for this and will make certain that it doesn’t happen.

Several of those against the bill deserve special mention. The Denton Record-Chronicle’s editorial board came out against it. Also, Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe with the Denton Record-Chronicle kept a watchful eye on it throughout the session and made certain that people knew what was happening with it. Local Republican activist Don Hooper traveled to Austin to testify against it. Many of us sent notes to our state representatives about the dark side of this bill.

I doubt that anyone’s testimony had greater effect than that of former Harris County First Assistant District Attorney Jim Leitner. He simply destroyed the bill’s carrier in the House, Rep. Stefani Carter (R-102). It was apparent that Rep. Carter’s very limited experience as a misdemeanor prosecutor in the Dallas area didn’t prepare her well for arguing with someone of Mr. Leitner’s stature. He had to educate her on the difference between federal and state grand juries, the role judges have in picking commissioners for their grand juries, and even why it would be impossible to gather statistics if confidentiality was in place. Makes you wonder why Speaker Straus appointed her Vice-Chair of this committee.

Here is Mr. Leitner’s testimony before the committee: