Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

We're barely past the Ides of March, and Kim Ogg is already having a month that would make Julius Caesar feel sorry for her. First off, she began the month by getting blasted in the Houston Press  for participating in her March 2nd fundraiser, hosted by David Temple attorney Dick Deguerin. The very next day, her 1st Assistant, Tom Berg, inexplicably made comments to the media regarding the already-expunged case of prominent attorney Tony Buzbee.  This would seemingly be in violation of Art. 55.04 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which states: Art. 55.04. VIOLATION OF EXPUNCTION ORDER. Sec. 1. A person who acquires knowledge of an arrest while an officer or employee of the state or of any agency or other entity of the state or any political subdivision of the state and who knows of an order expunging the records and files relating to that arrest commits an offense if he knowingly releases, disseminates, or otherwise uses the records or files. Sec. 2. A person who knowingly

SCENE:  The Death Star orbits over Downtown Houston.  [INTERIOR] The Imperial Throne Room.  A shrouded figure peers over a desk, looking over important documents.  The door opens and an Imperial Officer shuffles in.  The shrouded figure looks up. SHROUDED FIGURE:  What is it, Corporal Leitner? CORPORAL LEITNER:  I'm sorry to interrupt you, Empress Ogg.  I know you are busy reviewing the Temple case. EMPRESS OGG:  I'm not reviewing the Temple case, I'm looking at cases that I want to have Vice-Admiral Berg talk to the media about. CORPORAL LEITNER:  Wait.  Aren't those the expunged cases?  I don't think we are allowed to speak about cases that are expunged.  I thought talking about an expunged case was a 3rd Degree Felony. EMPRESS OGG:  Silence!  "Expunged" means "talk a lot about" in Latin.  Everyone who went to law school knows that, Corporal.  Hmm.  This Buzbee case looks like a good talking point . . . CORPORAL LEITNER:  You are le

Back in 2009, when I was first starting my career as a defense attorney after nine years as a prosecutor, one of the first courts I received an appointment in was the 338th District Court.  At the time the chief prosecutor in the 338th was Craig Still (who now works at the Public Defenders Office).  After I had read over the new case that I had just been appointed on, I went to discuss it with Craig. When I started to hand him the case for him to review, he stopped me and politely pointed out that he was going to let his Two handle the case and he would not be involved.  He wasn't being rude. The reason he didn't want to involve himself in any case I was handling was because Craig was (and is) one of my best friends. Not that Craig would have ever done anything inappropriate regarding a case based on our friendship.  Nobody who knows him or his reputation in the courthouse would have ever accused him of such a thing.  However, Craig was savvy enough to realize that there w