Let me preface all of this by saying that like most white
kids growing up in my part of Texas in the 1970s and 1980s, I was raised
Republican. My dad is a business owner
and a Marine who served three tours of duty in Vietnam. Fiscal conservatism and strong national
security positions were and are important issues to my family. As I grew older and became interested (and
then involved) in criminal justice, I found that I identified more with the
pro-Death Penalty and high sentences that were typical of the Republican
platform.
In Harris County, the vast majority of my friends who seek
elected office run as Republicans – from the District Attorney to Judge to
Justice of the Peace. Quite frankly, it
is my personal (if biased) belief that the Republicans generally field the best
criminal justice candidates in Harris County.
If a candidate wants to get elected to a countywide office, they are
well advised to run as a Republican.
With the exception of 2008, the Republicans generally sweep. As of this writing, I’ve only voted in
Republican primaries.
While Getting Elected
in Harris County 101 has consistently required winning the Republican
Primary, it seems that more and more the key to winning that nomination is
making sure that Republican voters know that you are the candidate who is the
farthest to the Right on the political spectrum. Sadly, that has led to the death of the
moderate Republican candidate. Even in
the criminal justice system where issues like gay marriage, Syrian refugees,
and abortion rights have virtually zero effect, Republican candidates must let
the Party constituency know how violently opposed they are to all three of
those things.
The Republican kingmakers, Steven Hotze and Terry Lowry, audition all of the
Republican candidates for their “endorsement” which comes with some purchased
ad space in their “Slate” mailers. Any
candidate who hopes to gain their favor must toe the Party line if they want
their endorsements. Sadly the
endorsements of Hotze and Lowry do, in fact, make or break elections. I thought I knew the definition of the word
“unseemly” until I watched how the Republican Machine works in Harris County.
Absolutely NONE of the Republican Party platform crap has
any place in the Criminal Justice System.
Zilch. The Law is what the Law
is. Slimy kingmakers who don’t have law degrees
have no business attempting to dictate it.
The reason I write this long-winded preamble is because today,
the Harris County District Attorney’s Office under Republican D.A. Devon
Anderson showed that Law matters more than party politics.
Last year, Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Republican
(and currently indicted) Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the Harris County
D.A.’s Office to investigate a series of disturbing videos produced by a group
called the Center for
Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group led by David Daleiden and Sandra
Merritt. As you may recall, the videos
purported to have caught representatives of Planned Parenthood offering to sell
fetal tissue and body parts for a fee.
The videos drew outrage, despite Planned Parenthood stating that they
were doctored into a format that was extremely misleading.
Governor Abbott and General Paxton must have anticipated
that their Republican friend D.A. Anderson would get an indictment against
Planned Parenthood for attempting to sell body parts. It would be great to show what a strong stand
Texas is taking against those murdering
abortionists, right? If no indictment panned
out, Abbott and Paxton could say “hey, we tried” and point out it was Anderson
who must have dropped the ball.
Unfortunately for Abbott, Paxton, and the gang at the Center
for Medical Progress, the investigation didn’t turn out the way they
hoped. No indictments were issued
against Planned Parenthood or anyone involved with that organization. At that point, the D.A.’s Office and Anderson
could have just said “oh well” and moved on.
They could have done a little speech about how the evidence was
inconclusive and yada yada yada.
But the D.A.’s Office didn’t stop there.
“We
were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned
Parenthood Gulf Coast,” said [Devon] Anderson, a Republican. “As I stated at the outset of this
investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us. All the evidence uncovered in the course of
this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult
case.”
In a truly surprising move, the
Grand Jury investigating David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt’s accusations
against Planned Parenthood found probable cause to indict Daleiden and Merritt
instead. Both were indicted for the
second degree felony offense of Tampering with a Governmental Record and
Daleiden picked up an additional misdemeanor charge of attempting to buy a
human organ.
The rejection of indictments against Planned Parenthood,
coupled with the indictments of Daleiden and Merritt, tend to indicate that they
were trying to pull something over on somebody.
As of this writing, copies of the indictment aren’t available on the
Harris County website. Whether they
falsely made some identification to bolster their credibility, or whether the
videos they made were ultimately considered to be falsified evidence is unclear
at the moment. Daleiden apparently was
unaware that his attempt to purchase fetuses was illegal in and of itself. [UPDATE: The government documents that were falsified were fake California driver's licenses with fake names on them. They are charged with using them with intent to defraud.]
It would be easy to think that the credit for these
indictments goes solely to the members of the Grand Jury, but that would be
misleading. The District Attorney’s
Office did not have to present the Grand Jury with the option to indict
Daleiden and Merritt. But they did. And they should have. And it was what Justice required.
For those keeping score at home, that brings the score to
“Duty to Seek Justice: 1, Duty to Republican Party: 0.”
Make no mistake about this, Devon Anderson is about as pro-life
as they come. I’ve known her for a
little over 15 years and her personal beliefs very much align with the
Republican Party. No one could ever accuse
her of being a dreaded R.I.N.O. I’ve seen her give speeches at Republican
functions that would make Ronald Reagan pale in comparison. She doubtlessly knew this would not sit well
with her party, but she proceeded with integrity.
Governor Abbott, on the other hand, was a little less
dignified.
“Nothing
about today’s announcement in Harris County impacts the state’s ongoing
investigation,” Abbott said.
Really? Nothing? Your two star witnesses in this case just got
indicted for Tampering with Evidence and that doesn’t impact your
investigation, Greg? Didn’t you used to
be Attorney General? As a trial lawyer,
I gotta tell ya, that’s kind of a big kick in the crotch from the old
evidentiary standpoint.
Fortunately, it is too late for Devon Anderson to draw an
opponent in the Republican Primary this election cycle. The die-hard conservatives are already
foaming at the mouth. The conservative
website The Federalist is already
saying the indictments were unfair because Lauren Reeder, a prosecutor at the
Harris County D.A.’s Office, is on the board of Planned Parenthood. The
intellectually dishonest article insinuates that Reeder had something to do
with the indictments, when in fact, she was completely uninvolved with the
case. They post her personal
information in some attempt to shame her, and, I suppose, shame Devon Anderson
for employing her. The Federalist is going to be really mad when they find out the
D.A.’s Office hires gays, blacks, and Hispanics, too.
Things like Abbott’s boneheaded statement and The Federalist’s lame attempt at a smear
campaign are what make me feel so very alienated from the Party I grew up
in. That level of vitriol and
intellectual dishonesty is a far cry from the values I was brought up to
respect. Doing the right thing in the
face of dire consequences is a much more admirable character trait. That’s what true public service is about.
Today, Devon Anderson and her prosecutors at the District
Attorney’s Office reminded me of that.
And for that, I am profoundly grateful.
