Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

So, as I predicted in my last post, no indictments were handed down by the 185th Grand Jury today as they concluded their investigation into criminal wrongdoing by Pat Lykos' District Attorney's Office.  Also as predicted, they issued the following statement: To:  The Honorable Susan Brown, 185th State District Court From:  Foreman, 185th Grand Jury, Harris County DATE:  January 31, 2012 RE:  Our Grand Jury Service The members of this Grand Jury are honored to have had the opportunity to serve as Grand Jurors for the August 2011 Term, extended to February 1, 2012 for the HPD Mobile B.A.T. Vans investigation.  The privilege to serve the outstanding citizens of Harris County by participating in the determination of probable cause in felony cases and in an investigation is a unique experience essential to the administration of the criminal justice system, and we actively encore other citizens to volunteer for Grand Jury service. Our attempts to initiate our investigatio

This week should mark the final week of the 185th Grand Jury. If I recall correctly, their original order of extension put them through February 1st.  Since they are meeting only on Tuesdays and Thursday, that would have made today (January 31st) the last day they met.  However, some time last week, I heard that they had been authorized to meet through the end of this week, and have the option of meeting on Thursday, February 2nd if need be. At this point, anyone who is saying they know what the Grand Jury is going to do is just speculating. The common consensus around the CJC seems to be that they don't believe anyone from Pat Lykos' Administration is going to be indicted.  I'm inclined to agree that it is doubtful that there will be any indictments, and if any indictments are, in fact, returned, I doubt that they will reach the upper echelons of the Office.  According to the comments section a while back, Rachel Palmer and Jim Leitner were already planning to appear o

There will be a memorial service for Michael Barrow on Wednesday, February 1st at 2 p.m. at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, located at 717 Sage, Houston, Texas 77056. Following the service, at 3:30 p.m., there will be a gathering of family, friends and colleagues at Grove Park Lounge, located at 33 Waugh Drive.  Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend.

I learned this morning that my friend and fellow defense attorney, Michael Barrow passed away following a brief battle with cancer.  After all the friends in the legal community that we lost last year, I was hopeful that this year wouldn't be quite as tragic, but it looks like we are already off to a rough start. I first recall meeting Michael when I was a relatively new Felony Two in the 185th District Court.  I was prosecuting a trio of aggravated robbers and he represented one of them.  From my first dealings with Michael on the case, I just liked his style. Michael was smart and funny, and he was pleasant.  When I told him what I thought I had on his client, he nodded and didn't argue.  He also didn't tell me doodly-squat about any of the defense facts that he had.  He didn't confront anything I told him about what I believed the case to be.  He would reserve that for trial if need be.  Ultimately, the case worked out. The longer I worked in the 185th, the mor

Sorry I've been quiet the past week.  I was out of town over the weekend and came back just in time to start up trial. There have been a couple of interesting stories that are good topics for conversation, though.  I just don't have the time to write about them at length right now. First, we have Ted Oberg's attempt to once again get Pat Lykos to answer some questions , which she avoids (again). And this story from the Chronicle  about Lykos giving nearly a half-million dollars in asset forfeiture funds to HPD for breath testing equipment.  That would be the same HPD lab that she said she had no faith in this past Fall. Talk amongst yourselves.

Just saw this poll on CNN and thought my friends at the D.A.'s Office might like to take it. http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/19/business/psychopath-boss/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Tune in tonight for David Jones and Gary Polland's Red, White, and Blue  at 7:30 p.m. on Houston PBS's Channel 8 tonight. The guests are Pat Lykos and Mike Anderson. Should be worth watching.

Per the Houston Chronicle 's Brian Rogers, Pat Lykos did, in fact, testify before the Grand Jury today . Probably a good move on her part. My reports do indicate that she came to the Grand Jury down the back stairwell, rather than walk in the front door like other witnesses must do.  I wonder if she realizes that skulking around like that makes her look more suspicious than a registered sex offender hanging around a playground with a bucket of candy.

According to all the information that I've heard, Pat Lykos has been subpoenaed to testify before the 185th District Court Grand Jury tomorrow as part of their investigation.  The word on the street is that Lykos is intending to file a Motion to Quash her subpoena tomorrow in an attempt to avoid testifying.  I don't know whether or not that particular rumor is true, but given the way she and the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight have handled this entire debacle, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Now, keep in mind that Lykos got subpoenaed at the end of last year to testify in a DWI case and showed her distaste for testifying by filing a Motion to Quash and then heading to Hawaii.  It would appear that the woman (who prior to the 185th Grand Jury always had a sound-byte for every occasion) suddenly gets a little shy when that talking is under oath.  She's seen the bashing that Rachel Palmer has taken for invoking her 5th Amendment Right in front of the same

Please join me and host Todd Dupont for tonight's Reasonable Doubt  with special guest, Staci Biggar.  We've been working on getting Staci on as a guest for several months now to talk about Mental Health and how it is dealt with in Criminal Law.  It's going to be a great show and we look forward to taking your questions.  As always, you can watch it live streaming at 8:00 p.m. by clicking here .

Last night on the ten o'clock news, Channel 11 KHOU reported that Pat Lykos has been subpoenaed to testify before the 185th Grand Jury, which will resume meeting next week. I don't see a web article on their website, but it was reported on air.  They additionally aired comments from Lykos that the Grand Jury was politically motivated. Well, that's just brilliant.  Insult them before you even walk in the door. Perhaps she should read a prepared statement before giving testimony:  "I'm Pat Lykos, your elected District Attorney.  You all are a bunch of A-Holes.  That is all." I actually thought that Lykos had previously testified to the Grand Jury, so I'm not stunned by this development.  I expected they would call her eventually.  Obviously, I have no idea what is happening in the Grand Jury room, but if I had to guess, the fact that they are calling her means the Grand Jury may be getting close to a resolution of its proceedings.

As I mentioned in some of my earlier posts regarding the 185th Grand Jury investigation, one of the sneakier things that Pat Lykos and Crew were hoping to have happen was for the Grand Jury's term to expire at the end of the calendar year.  If it had done so, Lykos, Leitner, Bridgwater and Palmer could have all breathed sighs of relief as the twelve men and women who were looking into criminal wrongdoing suddenly had to disband as a matter of law. The reason Lykos and Crew believed this a possibility was due to some changes in the last legislative session which changed the terms of Grand Juries, thus ending all active Grand Juries on December 31st, 2011 . . . . . . unless that Grand Jury got an extension from the Court . . . . . . which the 185th Grand Jury did. Unfortunately, while the Lykos Administration was hoping against hope that their Grand Jury problem was going to go away by January 1st, they were forgetting to do something else:  work on establishing new Grand Jur

Join us tonight as we return from the Christmas break with a new episode of Reasonable Doubt.  Our guest tonight will be the Reverend John Craig Still of the Harris County Public Defender's Office.  As always, you can tune in at 8:00 p.m. and catch it live streaming by clicking here .

"I would be hard pressed to punish anyone because they exercised their constitutional rights." - Jim Leitner As we all know by now, Pat Lykos, Jim Leitner and the rest of the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight are really really big fans of the 5th Amendment.   The big question as we enter campaign season, however, is, "How are they feeling about the 1st Amendment these days?" Those around the Harris County Criminal Justice Center know that the vast majority of the prosecutors at the District Attorney's Office are miserable under the Lykos Administration.  They don't have the discretion to deal with their cases the way they know how.  They are worried about being "on the radar" which could possibly land them on the Upper Administration's Enemies List.  They are worried that the slightest infraction, whether real or perceived, could end up with them being gainfully unemployed. Judge Mike Anderson's candidacy and the possibility that 2012

UPDATE NOTE:  Several posters have put up different things about Don Hooper's financial and court dealings in the comments section since I put this article up yesterday.  I have allowed those that I have posted because I think they illustrate to potential voters who meet Hooper that he is not who he holds himself out to be.  In my opinion, given the trash that Hooper seems to feel so free about spewing out regarding others, this will allow those who meet him to consider the source.   Yesterday,  Brian Rogers ran a story in the Houston Chronicle regarding the District Attorney's race "heating up."  In the early morning hours, this relatively benign story suddenly got a flood of comments on it from a "group" of Chronicle commenters who mostly seemed to have generated their profiles the day before. The names such as "Dinkit", "KevinPadrick", "Tort_king", "LibelLuci", "Mike420" and (my personal favorite) "