Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

So, I had the following e-mail exchange with my 60-something year-old mother on Facebook on Monday. She was writing from College Station. MOM: Mur- [My friends] and I went to the Adult Bookstore Friday. We had a great time. I told them you worked on a murder there. They were impressed. MY REPLY: Um, that's great, Mom. I won't ask why you were there. MOM: Oh, it is a great new Mexican restaurant now. We will have to go the next time you are in Bryan. Good to know.

As election season is rapidly approaching, I realized that there probably wasn't going to be time for me to write the big, comprehensive reviews of candidates like I did in 2008 and in the primaries of this year. I'll put something out eventually, I'm sure. I may even focus on some races in particular, but I just don't have time to write the voluminous stuff I've written in the past for every race. But, I did want to write something semi-voluminous about the Race for District Clerk, because it is a position that affects both lawyers and citizens across the board. And for the past year or so, District Clerk Loren Jackson has been doing a freaking amazing job as District Clerk. Prior to Loren Jackson taking over the Office, you probably would have been fairly hard pressed to come up with the name of the District Clerk of Harris County. Now, Jackson's name is one of the most recognizable for a Public Servant in Harris County. And with good reason. Jackson took

Today marks the last day of prosecutor Sean Teare , who is leaving the Harris County District Attorney's Office to join the world of civil practice. Sean leaves as a second-time Felony Three in the 339 th District Court. (ON A RELATED NOTE: We are currently now looking for a foster parent for Ryan Mitchell.) I got to know Sean on the day he actually learned he had passed the Texas Bar exam, and I didn't really get the chance to work with him as a prosecutor. I did get the chance to work with him as a defense attorney, however. Sean was a damn good prosecutor who had the cajones to make a call on a case based on what was right or wrong, and not out of fear of getting in trouble with schmucks like Bridgwater and Leitner (who lately can't even seem to decide what their policy actually is .) Over the past year and a half, I've noticed (with concern) as senior prosecutors were leaving and the experience level that was leaving with them. Sean's departure actually

For those of you who may have missed it, apparently Pat Lykos took time out of her busy schedule to have her staff write up a memorandum on all of her "accomplishments" she was able to achieve during her first year . Now, never mind the fact that it took her and the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight until freaking September to come up with what they had done so great in 2009, I think it is kind of cute that she did that. I was especially moved by Lykos ' latest sound byte: "Justice is the highest good and injustice is the worst of the bad," Lykos said. Lykos then followed that statement by thanking Hannah Chow for being her " bestest friend". After reading over the review of herself (in which she gives herself very high marks for awesomeness), I realized that old Snooks sold herself short. So, I thought I would help her out with the following Top Ten list: TOP 10 ACCOMPLISHMENTS LYKOS FAILED TO RECOGNIZE HERSELF FOR 10. Lost no arguments o

There isn't anything particularly moving about my particular experience on September 11, 2001. I didn't lose a loved one. I had never even been to New York City before. But I received an e-mail about that day from a friend of mine this morning, and I guess I just wanted to write about what I remember from that day. When citing moments of historical importance that "everybody remembers where they were when they heard", people who were born after the assassination of John F. Kennedy often cite the Challenger disaster or when Ronald Reagan was shot. I don't think those moments, although tragic, even begin to scratch the surface of the National Shot-in-the-Heart that we all felt on the morning of September 11 th . The Harris County District Attorney's Office at that time was under flood conditions. Tropical Storm Allison had knocked out the CJC . After a month or so of the entire Office being crammed into the early voting offices of the 1319 Texas Avenue, th

Sometimes it is difficult to write a Prosecutorial "Obituary" for my friends and former co-workers as they leave the D.A.'s Office. And sometimes, it is very easy. Friday marks the last day at the Harris County District Attorney's Office for my best friend, the Reverend John Craig Still of the Universal Life Church of Modesto, California, who will be departing the Office after 9 years of service. So, without further ado, here's his obit: John Craig Still aka Flip Johnson will be departing his life as a Harris County Prosecutor on Friday, September 10, 2010. He will be moving on to a new life as a Criminal Defense Attorney effective Monday, September 13th. Craig first joined the Office as a full-fledged prosecutor in the Spring/Summer of 2001, and I first met him when all of the D.A.'s Office had been relocated to 1319 Texas Avenue because the CJC had been decimated by Tropical Storm Allison. When I first met Craig, he didn't have a lot to say. Come to

Christine Haas is continuing her investigation into the CJC and the overcrowding it experiences every day. In this piece (which I believe aired yesterday), she gets County Judge Ed Emmett and the Fire Marshal's Office to finally weigh in on what's happening there. I was disappointed to see both men give a soft-sell to what was happening with the building. Emmett notes that he's sure that sometimes the capacity of the building goes over 350 people? Dude, I'm totally voting for you in November, but seriously, " sometimes"???? But Emmett's quotes are nothing compared to Assistant Fire Marshal who called the problems at the CJC that they've addressed to be "minor", and notes that the reason there hasn't been follow up at the building since 2008 and was because nobody called in to complain. What? Let's analyze that for a moment. 1. Is he seriously stating that the Fire Marshal only responds to inspect public buildings if there has be