So, after spending her first three years in the Lykos Administration at the reward position of Deputy Dawg of the Misdemeanor Division, Rachel Palmer has finally been unseated from her throne. I guess the Lykos Administration finally decided to "punish" her for making the Office look bad by pleading the 5th.
Today, according to the Office's moves memo, Rachel is being moved to the Appellate Division.
She won't have to pull a docket or try a case. She can have relatively flexible hours. I wonder if they will be more flexible for Rachel than they were for Shirley Cornelius.
Perhaps she can do some legal research on when the 5th Amendment applies and when it doesn't and the admissibility of polygraph evidence.
Oh, and I've got $5 that says they use her move to Appellate as justification to give her Chief's salary in the weeks to come.
37 comments:
Considering Appellate is home for some of the smartest lawyers around, the Leadership Team has yet again made an incompetent move. I would imagine this is just a temporary move during election season.
If Lickyos wins the election in November, look for Palmer to move right back into a position of princess. Patsy will have to repay Palmer for saving her from a sure indictment.
Any other moves of note?
Yes! There was another move of note.
Connie Spence was promoted to Division Chief of Misdemeanor. Big congratulations go out to her!
That actually is great news!
Where's jj going and who's the new rp?
I was wondering if Rachel Palmer can be moved to the guard shack located on the north end of the Washburn Tunnel.
I was also wondering if Pat Lykos can be moved back to her role as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz.
The reason RP was sent to Appellate was so she wouldn't have to go to court and wouldn't be photographed. You can pretty much disappear in Appellate and not draw any attention. However, its a place for really good lawyers so not sure what the purpose was except to hide her til the smoke clears.
Don't rule out an indictment just yet....
Appellate??? Really??? What on earth qualifies her to be in appellate??? I feel sorry for Alan Curry. They keep putting Lykos favorites there when they prove themselves to be abject failures in all other positions.
If Appellate is a place for really good lawyers, why is Lana Shadwick there?
Just Wondering
Lana Shadwick was put in Appellate with zero knowledge about criminal law. She has never tried a criminal case. She makes Rachel look extremely well qualified.
What happened Thursday in Grand Jury? I take it there were no indictments, or we would have heard about them. Are the grand juries extended into next year? Who decides exactly what the new law means?
I supervised the Legal Services Bureau for eighteen years ( I assume that the Appellate Division is still within that Bureau). There were many excellent trial attorneys as well as "purely book lawyers" (appellate attorneys) who went through or served in the Appellate Division over that eighteen year period as part of their service to the office. Before an attorney came from one of the other divisions within the office, however, into Appellate I was always given the right of refusal because it was always the intent to have the best people qualified attorneys within the Appellate Division. Similarly attorneys hired from without the office were careflly scrutinized for ability before hire. Many of those excellent attorneys who served or serve in Appellate are still with the office. Succinctly, Appellate was never the HCDA's office dumping ground or a place to hide an attorney. Based on what I have only read in this blog, however,in my opinion, I believe that at least one apparently relatively recent hire, as well as the transfer of a Fifth Amendment invoking prosecutor to the Appellate Division, to be an insult, a taint, to the legacy of those fine lawyers who serve or who have served so ably the citizens of Harris County. Thus, I can only hope that within a short time that the apparent machinations of this administration will come to an abrupt end in the primary.
Calvin A. Hartmann
Sad. Used to, any prosecutor " worth their salt", always had two phone number extentions memorized: 1) Appellate &said 2) The Press room.
By comparison I guess one would call Grand Jury or post on this blog. APPELLATE was for egg heads that acted more like the book man in trial. They pulled my fat out of the fire plenty of times: everyone I dealt with is either on the C.A. or retired from there.
So with regard to the end of the grand jury, like the kid loading ammo into the guns said in the last Matrix flick..."So is it over?"
They used to have these 11:30 yoga classes or something. I wondered who on earth could actually go to them. Appellate. Should work well for RP.
When I think of the smart, capable people who would have been be razor sharp in that position if they weren't run off...
Maybe they'll make her defend her own appeals and then she'll quit. I would.
The Grand Jury investigation is not over. They didn't meet this week, though. They will be back at the beginning of next year.
Lana Shadwick describes herself as ... (is) a scholar of criminal law.... I just read that on her website. Slick.
The endorsement section is also fun. Notice that she never lets anyone know how long she's been with the district attorney's office. Pretty good.
The 185th GJ took the holidays off. They meet on Jan 2nd and their term is extended until Jan 31st. They have plenty of time left to sort out the issues they are investigating.
RP in Appellate is a bigger joke than her as Deputy Dawg. I agree with Anon 6:54; poor, poor poor Alan Curry. That he has to deal with the likes of her as a direct report is waste of his precious time.
Connie is a great lady and a hardworking, skilled Prosecutor. She is very deserving of her new position.
Besides Lana Shadwick running for judge, an even bigger shocker is Jim Barr running to get his old bench back in the 337th after being removed for ethics violations.
After googling and reading the details of his appalling behavior, especially toward women, I can't believe he is running again.
Do Republican voters know about this guy?
A quick Google search after reading Anon 4:00 AM's post turned up the following article. I'm sure there is more out there, but this is the first thing that turned up.
http://www.houstonpress.com/1997-03-20/news/the-insider/
Rachel on the 6th floor. Great! Now she will be available for the Chow and Lycos breakfast.
Wow, that Shadwick website reads like it was written by a politically-obsessed 8th grader.
It has basic grammar mistakes. No one even proofed it for, you know, duplicated lines? Wow. I guess that's what appellate has to offer. RP will fit right in.
Here is the link to the official findings of the review tribunal appointed by the TX Sup Ct., giving all the juicy details of Judge Jim Barr's ethics violations that led to his removal.
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/tx-review-tribunal/1299059.html
Can't believe this creepy guy is running for the 337th again.
Will Palmer and Shadwick get along with each other?
anon 12:17
That was a very interesting read. I can tell you who will not get my vote.
That guy is a disgrace to the bench. Thank God he was removed. Apparently his elevator doesn't run all the way to the top floor.
Thanks Pat for ruining the holiday weekend for a bunch of DA's who now have to move their offices on the 2nd. Really? Send the moves memo out on the Friday before a holiday weekend? WTF. It couldn't wait another week? Just another example of terrible leadership and zero management capabilities.
Congrats to Connie, she's earned it. What will they do with JJ now? Send him to Connie's spot? Will they fill Rachel's spot? (and if they do, I would recommend a full lysol spray down of the office).
I wouldn't bet on Palmer and Shadwick getting along together in Appellate. They are too much alike.
Years ago, Rachel Palmer applied to come to appellate. I worked there at the time. She was offered a position, based upon a good writing sample she submitted to the supervisors. Rosenthal was DA and Rachel wasn't notorious in the ways she currently is.
She asked around the office and sought an opinion about whether she should accept the position. She was advised if she did go, her career would be over, which is a crock. She got that advice from a gung-ho trial attorney who thought the trial bureau was the only place to be. Anyway, Rachel listened to this person's advice and said she would not accept the position. That was fine because all of us in appellate, who liked reseach and writing and advising trial attorneys who called us up in the middle of trial with urgent research requests, didn't want someone up there who thought being up there was so tragic. It's one thing to be up there because you want to be. It's another to be moved there because you're being hid away or worse. If she would've come up there the first time, maybe none of this would've happened. Maybe.
Nevertheless, the appellate division is filled with warm, nice people. I know they'll be nicer to her than any other place in the office. She's lucky she's going there. I can't say the same for the appellate folks, though.
Regarding Jim Barr, he was removed from the bench shortly before I became a lawyer. You can search Westlaw or Lexis and find the administrative decision that resulted in his removal. His behavior on the bench was horrible. (Having said that, I worked with him as a defense attorney afterwards, and he was very professional and I saw nothing of the Napoleon complex he exhibited on the bench.) But the administrative judicial disciplinary panel that heard his case stopped short of banning him from ever seeking office. Shortly after he was removed from his judicial bench, he sought election for the court of appeals. A group of lawyers who wanted to prevent that from happening sent a letter out to lawyers asking them not to vote for him. I remember reading the letter and afterwards, finding out why he was removed. Fortunately, he was not elected.
Please do not vote for him. His removal, in the late 1990s, sent a message to all judges that they were not to sexually harrass females in court. After his removal, I never experienced sexual harrasment. But if you ask any female who practiced before that time, they'll tell you it happened way too often. I'd hate to see any female go through that again. Even if he realizes the error of his ways, which I don't believe he has because he refuses to talk to people who testified at his hearing, I don't believe he deserves to hold to position of judge again.
They are not filling the deputy dawg position, per se. That "position" will be filled/replaced by a felony district court chief, instead of a felony #2. The name of that person has not been released to misdemeanor, yet.
When Rachel first came to the office, she was kind of shy and very nice. For whatever reason, a dramatic change took place in the past three years. Maybe the real Rachel surfaced; who knows. Appellate will be a nice place for her to finish out her career - at the end of 2012.
Oh no she didn't! The truly evil one's always use GOD as a shield to hide behind! Give her a taste of her own medicine , and treat them they way they do the innocent. Prosecute them anyway.
ADA Stays Silent in Front of Grand Jury on DA Allegations
www.myfoxhouston.com
A grand jury did not get a single word from Assistant District Attorney Rachel Palmer Thursday morning
Oh no she didn't! The truly evil one's always use GOD as a shield to hide behind! Give her a taste of her own medicine , and treat them they way they do the innocent. Prosecute them anyway.
ADA Stays Silent in Front of Grand Jury on DA Allegations
www.myfoxhouston.com
A grand jury did not get a single word from Assistant District Attorney Rachel Palmer Thursday morning.
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