Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

Just FYI, per HCCLA Head Coach Rick DeToto, today's game is STILL ON. Don't let last night's rains make you think differently. See you at 1:00 p.m. at the High School for Law Enforcement, located at 4701 Dickson, Houston, Texas 77007.

As I mention awhile back in this post , the Harris County Criminal Lawyer's Association and the Harris County District Attorney's Office have been training over the past month or so getting ready for their first annual Softball Game. Tomorrow, Sunday, April 28th is Game Day. The game is at 1:00 p.m. at the High School for Law Enforcement, located at 4701 Dickson, Houston, Texas 77007. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend!

I remember back in 2006 when Craig Watkins won the position of Dallas County District Attorney.  There was talk about his new post-conviction integrity policy and his going after prosecutors who had failed to disclose Brady  material. I was a prosecutor back then and I recall thinking that the newly elected D.A. seemed a lot more interested in prosecuting prosecutors than he was in prosecuting defendants.  My fellow ADAs and I talked about how tense things must be in Dallas -- the mandate had changed and the prosecutors were the new bad guys.  We felt bad for the prosecutors up there who suddenly had to sweat someone going over their old trial files and maybe prosecuting them criminally for mistakes they had made. I emphasize the word "mistakes" because that was what we -- the rank and file prosecutors of Harris County -- focused on.  I don't believe that any of us thought in terms of intentional acts done to hide things.  We thought about evidence that a police offi

As one of my classier commenters pointed out on my last post : " So post-Lykos, this is just an obituary blog an outlet for your lugubrious lamentions?"  After looking up what "lugubrious" meant, I decided that although the commenter picked a poor venue to take a pot shot, he was correct. The blog has been slacking pretty badly lately. There are a couple of reasons for this. The main one is that I've been working out of state on a consulting project for this program .  I can't say anything about the details on that, however.  I've been bouncing in and out of town quite a bit lately.  Maintaining a regular practice and working on the road takes up a lot of blog-writing time, just FYI. Being out of town also means that I haven't been in the position to get a lot of office scoop and gossip lately. I get comments from time to time regarding complaints about the Anderson Administration.  They pretty much range from griping about the "me

I was extremely saddened to hear today of the unexpected passing of former journalist and former Harris County District Attorney's Office spokesman George Flynn . I first met George through Mike Hinton, who loved nothing more than getting together with George and telling stories from the old days.  His war stories were priceless.  He was an amazing gateway to the history of Harris County's criminal justice system. He would write in to the blog on occasion over the years and he very much had a sense of right and wrong about the goings on at the Office.  I can't say that I knew him as well as his friends from those old days, but I knew him as a man who the truth mattered greatly to. Mostly, I knew George Flynn as a very kind and humble man. My thoughts and prayers go out to George's family.

After a several week hiatus, Reasonable Doubt  returns to live TV at 8:00 p.m. tonight with a ton of topics to talk about.  We are still working on getting a guest lined up but there is no shortage of topics to discuss from the Kaufman County arrests, the Montgomery County attempted murder-for-hire, and a lot of stuff going on with Legislature and in the Supreme Court. Tune in tonight with your questions.  I'll let you know when we get a guest.  As always, you catch us live streaming by clicking here .

In our world of the Criminal Justice System, we are constantly dealing with people running for things.  People run for Judge.  They run for District Attorney.  They run for HCCLA Board positions  (NOTE: that would be me).  We all have our reasons. My friend, Dorian Cotlar, has put his name in the hat to run for a position on the Harris County Bond Surety Board.  The position he seeks is one that is to be filled by a criminal defense attorney who helps oversee the practices of the bonding companies that work in Harris County.  His intentions are unquestionably altruistic: "My interest in this position began when I had a client’s mother pay a $540 NON-REFUNDABLE "premium” (fee) for a $500 bond.  For you non-criminal practitioners, the client’s mother could have simply gone to the Harris County Jail, posted $500 in cash, and then received a full refund (minus a small service charge) when her daughter’s criminal case was resolved.  A reputable bonding company would have charg

Today and tomorrow, prosecutors around the State of Texas will be wearing a black ribbon to honor the memory of Kaufman County prosecutors Mike McLelland and Mark Hasse, as well as Cynthia McLelland. Please take a moment to pay respect to the lives lost on this very sad day.