Will Womble, Eat your Heart Out

I'll admit it.  For years, I was totally jealous that my dear friend Will Womble had this.

For some reason, I was notified just this week that I now had this.

My life is now complete.

NOTE:  I've now worked on 10 different episodes of Cold Justice.  I don't know why I'm only getting credit for one.  I will have to take this up with the Screen Actors' Guild, I guess.

The Results of the Softball Game

As I mentioned last month, the second softball match up of the year between members of the Harris County Defense Bar and the Harris County District Attorney's Office was held on October 19th.  One of the added features of this particular game was that five generous donors had agreed to donate $100 per run to the Harris County Drug Court in the name of Mike Anderson.

I'm happy to report that the results of the fundraising were a tremendous success and raised a whopping $12,500!

Those donors (Chip Lewis, Paul Doyle, Will Womble, Walter Umphrey and Kristi Schiller) all combined for an outstanding tribute to an outstanding cause in the name of an outstanding leader and man.

In a related story, the County Commissioners unanimously voted to name the Drug Court's courtroom earlier this month.  It has now been officially named the Mike Anderson Memorial Courtroom.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Tru TV's In Session

Not to go all Womble on everyone, but I did want to post that I'm very excited to be appearing on Tru TV's In Session today and on Monday to talk about the Susan Wright re-trial.

On Friday, I'm scheduled to be on between 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. (CST) and on Monday, I think the schedule is 8 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Today's topic:  Why couldn't the Harris County District Attorney's Office have found someone better looking than John Jordan to replace me as second chair in the re-trial?

Say Goodbye to Hollywood

Today marks the final day of HCDA Office favorite and former child actor Will "Wombelina" Womble.

When I left the Office in December of 2008, my two was a prosecutor who has asked not to be named on my blog, so I will use the pseudonym "Justin Keeter", and my three was Womble. I had not known Womble prior to him coming to work in the Fighting 339th, and knew nothing more about him other than he used to be Ricky Schroeder's stunt-double on Silver Spoons. I quickly researched Womble's background by checking http://www.imdb.com/, and found that he actually had a distinguished film career, playing the role of "Corpse" in several prominent television series such as "J.A.G.", "Judging Amy", and "Designing Women". (Yeah, Will, I know that's an old joke, but I never get tired of it.) He also had a brief part as "Scared Nurse" in Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor".

It was during his illustrious career that he finally got the part of attorney "Dodge Rosen" in "Judging Amy", that Will decided to take on the role of a lifetime, and play a lawyer at the Harris County District Attorney's Office. He came to work a little over three years ago, and quickly became a very popular figure within the Office. His tales of getting facials with Oprah and apparently having even met Jon Hamm once had his co-workers enthralled.

So much so, that I'm not sure any of us ever checked to see if he actually had a law degree, come to think of it . . .

He soon translated his vast experience with infomercials into successful voir dires -- a five minute re-enactment of a burglar alarm commercial to illustrate how to interpret "intent" was particularly moving. He also channeled his dramatic side into closing arguments. Those of us in the courtroom will never forget his booming Jack Nicholson impression as he yelled: "You can't handle the toilet?!?!" to a shocked jury.

And in the role of his life, he even pretended to be my girlfriend at one point. You'll have to ask him about that one.

Between that, and the odd assortment of ladies' dresses that Womble kept in his office for no apparent reason, he was quite a character.

But the important thing to remember about Wombelina isn't just that he was a character, but that he also has character. Although I like to make fun of him, Will was a damn good prosecutor. He analyzed cases well. He listened to the defense bar. He listened to victims.

He always did what was right.

He worked his butt off for Harris County and he wasn't afraid to do the right thing even if it meant getting in trouble with the higher ups. He was a leader in the Office and a leader with integrity, smarts, and trial skills. He would have made an outstanding career prosecutor.

He'll make an even better defense attorney.

So, folks, get ready for the new Law Offices of Dodge Rosen, coming to you this summer.

Good luck, Wombelina.

And I look forward to seeing you in the next Danielle Steele mini-series as Corpse # 3.