The Official Investigation Has Begun

As most of you all know by now, yesterday it was officially announced that Judge Susan Brown appointed Stephen St. Martin and Jim Mount as Special Prosecutors for the 185th Grand Jury.  In light of the events of the past week, it isn't too surprising of a development.

I know Stephen very well because he was my former Chief when I was in the 174th.  If you read this blog, you know that I think extremely highly of him.  He was highly respected when he was at the District Attorney's Office before leaving in May of 2009.  He worked on high profile cases and was a Special Crimes prosecutor.  He has the highest integrity and I think the General Public can rely on both him and Jim Mount to uncover any illegal acts done by the District Attorney's Office without going on a witch hunt to drum up something if there isn't anything actually there.

I don't know Jim Mount nearly as well.  He was long gone from the District Attorney's Office when I started there in 1999.  I know that he was well-liked and respected as a prosecutor.  I dealt with him some when I was a new prosecutor and he was a defense attorney, and he was always very kind to me.  I'm sure that he will do a great job as well.

The developments surrounding this investigation are still difficult to comprehend.  Regardless of what the Public thought of Chuck Rosenthal for his inexcusable e-mails, we never saw a headline that read quite like today's:

The accusations against Lykos are extremely serious because they involve the widespread prosecution of members of our community for DWI with faulty evidence that the prosecutors knew was faulty.  Furthermore, they retaliated against the person who tried to bring it to light, and then tried to bully their way into the Grand Jury to make sure the investigation was going their way.

Folks, this stuff is serious.

As the Grand Jury investigation begins today with its new Special Prosecutors, Life is going on at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center.  Despite the fact that the elected District Attorney herself said she has no faith in HPD (before hopping on a plane to Hawaii where she'll learn how to prosecute drug cases in the event she ever decides to try a case), a DWI case with B.A.T. van involvement is going to trial in Court Four.

And yes, the filing deadline for District Attorney is rapidly approaching.

Things haven't been quite this crazy around the CJC since, oh, December of 2007.

More Experience Leaves the Building

Yet another Senior Prosecutor turned in their two weeks notice to Lykos and the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight today.

Veteran Chief Prosecutor Stephen St. Martin will be leaving the District Attorney's Office and joining the Defense Bar, effective at the end of business on May 1st.

If you will recall, Stephen, along with fellow Chief Prosecutor Lance Long was recently honored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Director's Award on April 1st for his role in working with the FBI on the Randy Sylvester case. His dedication to the Office for well over a decade has been a tremendous asset to the law enforcement community. His award was the one where Lykos snubbed both of her prosecutors at the ceremony.

Stephen also has a reputation as a no-nonsense and fair-minded prosecutor that Defense Attorneys find to be reasonable and attentive to their arguments.

Harris County's loss will definitely be the Defense Bar's gain.

I have a feeling that the above phrase will be said many many more times this year as more experienced prosecutors continue to file out of the D.A.'s Office.