Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

I was a 7th grader in Bryan, Texas when I learned a fellow classmate had been killed by a drunk driver.  I didn't know the boy who was killed personally, but I had seen him around school for years.   A female student at A&M had been celebrating the end of finals by drinking all afternoon when she collided with him and his bicycle. When I read in the newspaper that the driver had been charged with Intoxicated Manslaughter, I was one indignant 7th grader.  It sure seemed like murder to me.  I didn't like to hear the word "accident," since it was no accident that she had gotten drunk and killed a kid. I was 12 years old back then, so I suppose I can be excused for not understanding the criminal charging process and how critical the levels of intent are when making those types of decision.  In law school, aspiring lawyers are taught the main levels of intent are Intentionally, Knowingly, Recklessly, and Negligently.  The type of crime a person is charged with is o

The Harris County Criminal Justice community was caught off guard today with the news that defense attorney Sandy Melamed had passed away .  Everyone that I talked to was stunned and had no idea that he had been ill. I first met Sandy when I was a brand new Felony Two prosecutor in Judge Ted Poe's court.  I tried my first case "Two case" against Sandy and Olivia Jordan, and we all got to know each other during the trial.  During the trial, Sandy always called me "Murray the K" and was surprised that I knew who the real Murray the K was.  After the trial, both Sandy and Dan Gerson routinely greeted me by that nickname. Sandy was a good and dedicated lawyer.  He managed a job that is often frustrating and aggravating, but never seemed to let it faze him.  He was a very gentle soul and a very kind man.  He always had a smile on his face and a kind word for everyone.   Sandy Melamed was a very sweet man and the courthouse will be just a little darker in his a

NOTE:  The subject of this post can thank Mark Bennett ,  Scott Greenfield , and Kathryn Kase for not being named in public.  They talked me out of identifying her, which I thought I should do as a public service to consumers. In the criminal defense world, it is not unusual for clients to decide to change attorneys.  As I've mentioned before, criminal defense attorneys are very often the bearers of bad news to their clients, and those clients will sometimes believe that changing the messenger will change the news.  Court-appointed attorneys and Public Defenders are frequently "subbed out" because clients wrongfully believe that a prosecutor will be more intimidated by a "Free World Lawyer" than the one currently assigned to them. Sometimes, clients who seek to substitute their appointed legal counsel will do their research and make a solid decision on whom they hire.  Sometimes a defendant may hire a lawyer who is a friend of the family that did a good job

The funeral for our friend, Jon Munier, will be on Tuesday, March 11th at 11:00 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church.  It is located at the intersection of Houston Avenue and Washington Avenue.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Jon Munier had been fighting cancer for the past year or so and had recently entered hospice care. I'm very sad to say that he passed away this morning. For those of you who never had the honor of meeting Jon, I don't know if I could find the words to adequately describe how loved and respected he was in the Criminal Justice world.  He was a big guy with long white hair and a beard.  Everything about his personality conveyed that he was the type of guy who didn't take any crap off anybody. But he was a nice man.  Incredibly nice.  As blunt and assertive as he could be, he was also the first guy to call you up and tell you that you did a good job with something.  He was the first to lend a helping hand.  He'd also let you know if he just respected the way you handled something. Having Jon Munier tell me he was proud of the way I did something is a moment that I will always remember and appreciate.  His words carried a large

I learned today (via Johnny Bonds) that former Harris County D.A. Investigator and HPD Homicide Investigator Eli Uresti passed away over the weekend. I first heard of Eli when I read The Cop Who Wouldn't Quit , where he was Johnny's partner at the onset of the investigation profiled in the book.  Although Johnny was obviously the central figure in the story, I was very familiar with Eli (as well as Dan McAnulty) when I arrived at the D.A.'s Office back in 1999. Eli was an investigator in the Misdemeanor when I first started and he was one of the first people I got to know there.  It was a cool feeling to get to work alongside someone who you had read about when you were a kid.  He was a very nice man who seemed pretty bemused at all of young rookie prosecutors who thought we knew everything there was to know about criminal law. I liked Eli very much and I'm sorry to hear of his passing.