Harris County District Attorney’s Office Administration Begins to Define Itself
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Houston Chronicle reported recently in yet another article that a number of veteran prosecutors have departed from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Throughout DA Pat Lykos’ 2008 campaign to replace the former district attorney, Charles “Chuck” Rosenthal who was forced to resign in disgrace, rumors dogged the “reform” candidate that, as a criminal district court judge, Lykos had a reputation for being intemperate, rude, and pronged to stirring unrest in both her courtroom and chambers.
Shortly after Lykos defeated Democratic candidate Johnny Bradford last November she promised to “clean house” as the Chronicle reported. Upon taking office, she immediately fired seven “veteran prosecutors” from the Rosenthal era. Some criminal defense attorneys hailed the firings as an indication that the “convict at any costs” prosecutorial philosophy of the Rosenthal administration was coming to an end and a more professional era was on the horizon. Other criminal defense attorneys, most with a lot of experience in the courthouse gang, were not so optimistic.
We accepted Lykos’ promise of reform at face value. In fact, we wrote about the so-called “new era of reform” (“District Attorney Pat Lykos Continues New Era of Reform in Harris County,” April 5, 2009). While, we were glad to see some of the old guard gone, we were not exactly convinced that Lykos’ early prosecutor dismissals were indicators of reform as opposed to old fashion politics. We nonetheless decided to subscribe to a time-honored principle and “give credit where credit is due.”
But then disappointment happened on the road to “reform” that caused us to view Lykos’ “reform” claims with a jaundice eye. She announced with much fanfare in the local media, fulfilling a campaign promise, that the district attorney’s office would make “offense reports” available to criminal defense attorneys. During the previous administrations, a criminal defense attorney had been forced to meet with the prosecutor handling a given case, put on a smiley face of deference, and request permission to hand copy notes from the prosecutor’s file, including offense reports. It was an arduous, time-consuming process—not to mention a sophomoric one—that sustained a perpetual attitude of animosity between defense attorney and prosecutor. (more…)
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