. . . the D.A.'s Office.
As if all the investigations and counter-investigations that have gone on over the past several months weren't enough, DPS has issued an official statement that today they were asked by the Harris County District Attorney's Office to investigate the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
Now, in all honesty, I'm not really sure what to make of this.
Weren't the Texas Rangers and the FBI already investigating the D.A.'s Office? If so, isn't requesting them to investigate today kind of akin to inviting someone into your house after they've already come in three days ago?
Or did Lykos finally realize the hypocrisy of all her "transparency" blather in light of all the stonewalling and investigating they did during the 185th Grand Jury investigation?
Or did the people behind the 185th Grand Jury/Mike Anderson conspiracy just convince Pat Lykos to initiate a politically motivated investigation into herself?
I'm so confused.
The reality is that Lykos probably took all week to confirm that none of her investigators ran TCIC/NCIC background checks on any of the Grand Jurors, Jim Mount, Stephen St. Martin, Judges Marc and Susan Brown or Judge Mike Anderson or Devon Anderson. Once they were certain that nothing was going to turn up, they invited the Rangers in to confirm it and give them a Seal of Approval.
Once again, it is worth pointing out how unnecessary all of this is.
43 comments:
Because, it gives her a false sense of control. Her request is redundant. Below is a cut and paste link to The Texas Rangers. They are Born out of - D.P.S.. I think she is referring to the baseball team. Keep digging Pat, keep digging. Asses and elbows keep doing everything BUT your job!
The Texas Rangers were unofficially created by Stephen F. Austin in a call-to-arms written in 1823, and were formally constituted on October 17, 1835, by Daniel Parker as a member of the Permanent Council.[2] The unit was dissolved by the federal authorities during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, but was quickly reformed upon the reinstitution of home government. Since 1935, the organization has been a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety; it fulfills the role of Texas's State Bureau of Investigation. As of 2009, there are 144 commissioned members of the Ranger force.
Now that's funny. Most people heard that the Rangers were asking about who checked out digital tape recorders out about the time that they were testifying in front of the GJ.
So now, we're supposed to believe that the DA asked. What a joke. The ADA's involved went in and taped the GJ because they were told to do that.
Do you really think that they still have the recordings? Give me a break. They have no integrity. They spend their entire time making sure that's there's no evidence.
This thing is a total joke. Everyone knows the truth.
Any THIS, my friends, is why she's paying the PR people in the office the big bucks. "Turn this around and make it all my idea," she schemed. "I'll show them I've nothing to hide!"
The truth is this is politics all around. Why run down Zach when Carol Vance became D A with less experience than Zach. Things have gone downhill since Carol left.
Grammar cleanup on line 14.
Thanks Shirley!
Wow, I'm impressed Ms. Lykos, I think the next time I see an officer on the side of the road, I shall follow your lead and pull over and inform them that I was speeding and request they write me a ticket.
Judge Lykos did the right thing.
The readers need to support Zack.He is honest and will bring great ideas to Harris County.Why go back to the Rosenthal era with Mike? They were friends and of the same mindset. Zack Supporter
Anon 1:37 a.m.,
I agree completely. "Judge" Lykos did the right thing.
She just did it about four months too late.
From the Lykos Site:
Much Ado About Nothing
That is the title of her response to "all of this."
And - really - isn't this the crux of the problem?
Madam Lykos - You must realize this:
When you have your Tuesday meeting - look around the room - 95% of the people there do not respect nor trust you. In fact, a great many of them dislike you and a good many despise you.
When you had the investigator meeting in which you gave them a "surprise" (i.e. a shiny new badge), most of them were disgusted and felt sick at your lack of real understanding and support.
When you gave out longevity awards, most were simply annoyed at having to take time out of their day for your "photo ops." They were disheartened at the pathetic attempt to reward them - mostly because you had to tell them several times that that county doesn't pay for the awards anymore - but YOU - oh, gracious queen - did.
The public who pays attention must be getting tired of trying to figure out "just what you mean" because you say different things to different groups and your parse your words so carefully.
Much of nothing - is how you feel about us - the PEOPLE who make up the DA's Office. A bunch of NOTHING about who we are, what we can do, what we value, what we think and what we feel.
No matter how many awards, how much spin, how many gleeful feral grins - the fact remains:
You have been quite clear in your actions that the MUCH ADO is about YOU. And only YOU.
Lessons on Lykos Speak: On The Issue of The Elected DA's Trial Experience
From the website:
http://www.patlykos.com/news/lykos-i-want-to-earn-your-support/
"My opponent has chosen to personally attack me, saying I never made an arrest as an officer and never tried a jury case as a lawyer. At HPD I made arrests, went to crime scenes, wrote the offense reports and testified in court. My last jury trial as a lawyer occurred just before I went on the bench as the first Republican judge of a county court, (later I was the first Republican Criminal District Judge). The jury found my client Not Guilty."
So - let's deconstruct:
1) "Last" jury trial was before she became judge of a County Court - from her website: "In 1980, the Harris County Commissioners' Court appointed her to the newly-created bench of County Criminal Court No. 10." So - she tried her LAST jury trial BEFORE 1980 - at LEAST 32 years ago.
2) How long BEFORE 1980? 1975?
3) According to the Texas Bar website, she was licensed in 1971. So, if her LAST jury trial was BEFORE 1980 (we don't know the year), when was her FIRST?
4) Notice she only talks about her "last jury trial." So - how MANY jury trials has she tried in her career? More than 10, less than 10? What type?
5) Most important question - she has been the elected DA of Harris County for 3+ years. Why has she not tried a case in that time? Wouldn't that have been a great way to learn about the job? Or, how about sitting 2nd chair? Instead of being in the courtroom, where has she been?
Other elected DAs may not have tried cases either, once they were elected. The DIFFERENCE between them and her is that it hadn't been 30 years since their last trial AND they all had much more experience as practicing lawyers in the courtroom.
You can't be the leader if you haven't ever been on the team.
Anon 6:30
Mike Anderson was not "friends" with Rosenthal. If you don't know the dynamics of the office, don't comment.
So did Lykos originally invite the Rangers and FBI last week or are these two seperate events? Is her recent invitation a subterfuge - is this her way to get the Rangers to do a perfunctory "investigation" based on her own specious complaint and get a letter from them saying no criminal conduct was found? When the TR/FBI inquiry broke into the news this past week I was wondering who the complainant was and whether a fix was in.
You can't have it both ways. Seems like a pretty astute move on her part.
Not everyone was as enamored with the Holmes era as many of the posters here are.
My memories of Holmes were of him sitting in his darkened office, a single table lamp on behind him, with police scanner blasting. That was just bizarre.
Many people, including me, don't count the Rosenthal years as an "era" like the Vanca or Holmes administrations because Rosenthal had a machine that ran without him when he took over.
I regret voting for Rosenthal against Lycos the first time around.
It's unfortunate that some great ADA's left and that others were run off or fired. But there was also a few who needed to go.
As a former Public Integrity ADA, I can tell you that theTexas Rangers have an internal policy that requires a formal request to investigate a public official. As ridiculous a formality as it is, that is probably what is going on.
My assumption would be that the formal complaint to the Texas Rangers would have been done by one of the Grand Jurors, the special prosecutors and/or the judges Lykos decided to investigate.
FYI. The "Much Ado..." piece was authored by Gary Polland. It was his site referenced as the source that Lykos adopted.
So, it appears Jelly Jolly and Polland will be her paid megaphones to the public.
She still can't get around the fact that both her verbal statement and written statement on www.harriscountyda.com specifically tell us she will be eagerly bringing all the evidence to www.harriscountyda.com - and, she hasn't. I suppose Day 10 should be checking in soon.
Anon 8:42
Great post. An insiders view helps those of us that are not in the office to understand better what it is like. I wish more employees would write on this blog. Sharing, what it is really like to work in that atmosphere.
These are the posts that most of us outsiders read that we take to heart. Some of us get motivated to do whatever it takes to resolve this issue.
It is a shame that Lycos is using these employees for her photo ops. Of course she had to tell them that she bought the awards or whatever herself. As you said in your post it is all about Lycos. Sounds like it always will be.
She knows that DPS does not have that much experience in law enforcement nor in investigations.
They are kind of a joke in the community, and all they do is write traffic tickets and do accident investigations......when you can find them.
I'm glad someone pointed out that Anderson and Rosenthal were not buddies. I also knew they were not close friends.
What happens when the office loses access to TCIC when it's established they used it for non criminal investigations?
The FBI doesn't need a complaint to initiate 42 U.S.C. § 14141 investigations.
Anon 9:45
Do not question Johnny Holmes and his office. Please. His record stands on its own.
Dear Zack Fertita Supporter,
I am a Mike Anderson supporter who was planning to vote for Zack Fertita if, heaven forbid, Lykos wins the primary. However, you are so obnoxious and childish in your posts that I am seriously reconsidering ever voting for your candidate under any circumstances.
Zack, if you are reading this, you need to have a serious talk with this supporter. He is not doing you any favors, only turning people off from voting for you.
"We are eager to show the public all the evidence in this case." - Patricia R. Lykos (2/1/12)
Ms Lykos:
We realize you have never worked a weekend since joining the DA's office, but we thought we would let you know we are hopeful you will release the evidence to us.
By the way, belated congrats to you for the not guilty back in 1980. We did not know that.
Sincerely,
-the public
One, all this talk about running NCIC/TCIC on the Grand Jury seems pointless. Of course they didn't run them, the Grand Jurors had already been run as a matter of course - all Grand Jurors are run to ensure they qualify for the Grand Jury and I'm pretty sure Public Intergrity does that. And there is no need to run either Judge Brown or Mike and Devon Anderson as I'm pretty sure anything they would've done criminally since they left the D.A.s office would have warranted attention. So they can claim innocence in regards to those databases. Second, Accurint is no small time database. As anyone who uses it knows, it returns a PLETHORA of information. Which includes criminal history. Known relatives, addresses, vehicles, phone numbers, amongst a myriad of other information are all encompassed by that database. It seems to me that save Grand Jury subpoenas that's about as investigatory as one can get in this arena. The act itself is in violation of TPC 39.06.
How about 39.02(2)?
It is Zack Fertitta----If you are going to vote for him ,you should know his name.
What a joke this shithole county is.
Anon 12.19---You are not doing Anderson any favors with your posts. Get someone without baggage to be elected.No scandals,no divorces,no controversy.Murray,you should have run.--------- Elect Zack
Anon 4:05 p.m.,
Mike Anderson doesn't have divorces, scandals or controversy. I've at least got divorces and controversy!
I do agree with the previous poster that there is no need for supporters of Zack to be attempting to alienate anyone from Judge Anderson's camp. They are both better candidates than the current District Attorney. After the primary there will be plenty of time to engage in head-butting. I don't know why anyone would want to begin it early.
It's a long road to November.
It's all about perception and control. She is a ego-maniac
re: 10:21-
You obviously don't know much about the Texas Rangers. They don't investigate traffic accidents. They are made up of some of the best criminal investigators that DPS has. They also have something Pat Lykos doesn't and that is Integrity. If she has lured them into a political exercise, I think she'll regret it.
1:15-
You missed the point about NCIC/TCIC. It doesn't matter whether the Grand Jurors had already been run as a vetting procedure before their appointment. Same for Mike Anderson. You don't have to have a known criminal record. It's plain illegal to run NCIC/TCIC checks on anyone, whether they have a criminal history or not, unless it is done in the course of a legitimate criminal investigation.
What politicians have the rangers investigated ?
The Texas Rangers most often are called upon to conduct criminal investigations of politicians or their family members in smaller jurisdictions where there is a lack of qualified officers, or there is a need for objectivity. In most large counties or cities, there are plenty of agencies available to investigate claims of political corruption so they are less likely to take the lead role in these counties.
A unique problem exists when the DA or her staff become the focus of a criminal investigation because it requires the appointment of a Special Prosecutor who often will request the appointing Judge to provide them with the services of an experienced investigator. There is nothing wrong with an outside agency like the Rangers conducting an investigation of the DA but at some point, they may need the ability to issue Grand Jury subpoenas to obtain sworn testimony or evidence not subject to production under their power to issue administrative subpoenas. A Special Prosecutor would need to be appointed in order to assist the Grand Jury in preparing and issuing such subpoenas.
If you Google "politicians investigated by Texas Rangers", there are plenty of examples of their work in that area. At this time, it is still not clear what the extent of their investigation of HCDAO is.
Anon 10:25 - I believe it is you who missed the point of my comment. I understand it's illegal to run NCIC/TCIC if there's no official reason. My point was, while Pat et al. may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer they aren't going to do something as blatant as running NCIC/TCIC. They could have just looked at the records kept by public integrity if that was their concern (which I would assume it wasn't). The things they are looking for are more likely to be provided by Accurint.
Ergo, my point was I would bet good money they never abused NCIC/TCIC - of course, I would be more than happy to lose that bet since it would mean a swift departure for Die Hexe von HCDAO.
I wonder if Rangers realize that PL is about to manipulate them Big Time...?
Pat Lykos gives politics a dirty name.
Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't DPS fall under the Attorney General's Office?
Lets talk conspiracy: Since the AG's Office is ultimately investigating the DAO, how can it be independent?
The AG has an attorney assigned to the DAO in the same area that the Texas Rangers started their investigation. Special Prosecutions.
Isn't that Mini Patsy's (Vollman) so called area of expertise? Nothing like one of the Leadership Team members in charge of an AG attorney.
Now if the AG attorney is under the the umbrella of Patsy, isn't it clear that Patsy is running the AG's Office as well?
Conspiracy: a collection of easily proven facts and acts.
If I remember correctly, Ms. Lykos ran her campaign on honesty and transparency at the HCDAO. Again, if I remember correctly, she also inferred that Rosenthal and her opponent, Siegler, were not to be trusted and accused them of not being forthright with evidence. Isn't that ironic? Unlike Rosenthal and Siegler, I haven't seen Lykos do anything good for the office in the past three years. Sure, Kelly and Chuck may have raised some eyebrows at times, but you can never say they didn't fight for the victims. Patsy, I'm still waiting to see your passion for the DA's office and crime victims shine through....
DPS does not report to and is not in the chain of authority of the Attorney General. The AG is a statewide elected office. DPS is an executive office where the governor appoints commissioners to lead. There is no overlap.
Are the Rangers taking stuff from the DA's office today per written consent or has a search warrant been signed?
I wonder if the computers are being hauled away pursuant to a search warrant or if they were given up voluntarily?
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