Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

As most people who have met me know, I'm a very proud Native of Bryan, Texas.  Although I haven't lived there since August of 1996, it is my hometown and I hold it near and dear to my heart.  My wife is from there, too, and we visit pretty regularly. Every morning, I go through my news websites, which consist of checking CNN, the Houston Chronicle , and then the Bryan/College Station Eagle.   Although Houston is my home now, and the hometown of both my boys, Bryan is never too far away from me.  That's a part of my life that I am grateful for. Today, I saw two pieces of news from my hometown that made me stop and think about growing up, and how much those days shape who you are and who you will become.  Before I go too much further, let me expressly state that I am NOT reliving Glory Days   with this post.   Under no stretch of the imagination was I a star (or even semi-decent) athlete.  I was terrible.  I weighed 160 lbs, ran about a 3 minute 40 yard dash, and couldn&#

10.  Abruptly ends phone calls with elected District Attorney because "Dick is on the other line." 9.  Currently growing out his beard so that he can look more like Stan Schneider. 8.  Keeps bragging about his how his "buddy in Katy" is cooler than all of his old policeman friends. 7.  Received a prestigious award from a prominent Defense Attorney Organization for his work on the Temple Case. 6.  Keeps claiming that the Katy High School Football Team of 1987 was the greatest high school football team in Texas History. 5.  No longer cries in interview with 48 Hours about his old police friends no longer speaking to him. 4.  Currently investigating a group of people known as "the Katy Boys" on their ties to Russia. 3.  Denholm complains that all Temple ever talks about is "Steve.  Steve.  Steve." these days. 2.  Hanging out in felony dockets, looking for witnesses that can help him pin a murder on somebody else. 1.  Wears David Te

I received an e-mail today from one of David Temple's attorneys, Romy Kaplan , containing a copy of a motion filed by the Harris County District Attorney's Office today.  The motion, entitled Harris County District Attorney's Amended Motion to Recuse and for Appointment of District Attorney Pro Tem , contained the following pertinent sections: Now, it is somewhat funny seeing that the Harris County is amending  a Motion to Recuse themselves after the original  Motion was already granted and new prosecutors appointed .  It's a little bit of "water under the bridge" at this point and I'm not even sure that this Motion has any actual legal bearing.  It would kind of be like me asking to go back and time and claiming that Lykos didn't fire me, because I quit.   It's a small point.  Obviously the Office was trying to correct the impression that Chief D.A. Investigator Steve Clappart had ever been actually employed  by David Temple's d

One of the more interesting revelations from the Harris County District Attorney's Office's Motion to Recuse on the David Temple trial on May 5th was that now-Chief Investigator of the D.A.'s Office, Steve Clappart was actually retained  by the Temple defense team. From the Motion: Prior to this subtle, yet important, revelation, I think it is fair to say that most of us did not realize Clappart had actually been an employee of David Temple's.  We just thought he was looking into some information on behalf of his buddy, John Denholm.  The fact that the lead investigator for the D.A.'s Office actually used to work  for David Temple really begs the question "why did it take Kim Ogg so long to realize the tremendous conflict of interest the Office had?" Regardless of how insanely long it took Ogg to recuse the Office, she ultimately did do so and the Harris County District Attorney's Office is no longer involved in the Temple case at all. Righ

The Houston Chronicle 's Brian Rogers reported today that 178th District Court Judge Kelli Johnson has appointed prosecutors Lisa Tanner and Bill Turner from the Texas Attorney General's Office to prosecute the State of Texas vs. Temple . To say that Judge Johnson's choice is a good one would be a massive understatement. Lisa has been with the Attorney General's Office for over twenty years and has been their heavy hitter on tough cases across the State.  She most recently handled the retrial of Bernie Tiede , who was the subject of the movie Bernie .   Mr. Tiede is currently serving 99 years thanks to her efforts.  She was also responsible for trying the actual  killer for the murder of Michael Morton's wife.  In short, she is a bad ass. Bill is the former elected District Attorney of Brazos County where he served before retiring in 2012.  I spent two and a half years working as an intern for him when I was at Texas A&M, and I consider him to be a mento

Despite my predictions in my previous post about what I believed was going to happen today during David Temple's court appearance in the 178th District Court, the Harris County District Attorney's Office finally recused itself from the high publicity murder case. Regardless of the strengths or weaknesses of the facts of the case against Temple, it was unquestionably the right thing to do.  Although Kim Ogg took entirely too long arriving at (what many felt was) the obvious conclusion, the important thing is that she ultimately got there.  Whatever decisions are made about David Temple from here on out will be made without the improper influence of the members of Temple's defense team who now work within Ogg's Administration. It is human nature to still feel frustration about how long Ogg took to recuse herself from the case and how little she communicated with Belinda Temple's family during the ordeal.  Her explanation that she needed more time to "review

Last week, the Houston Chronicle  ran this article about the Harris County District Attorney's Office dropping charges against Dr. Robert Yetman.  As noted in the article, Dr. Yetman had been granted a mistrial after trial Judge Stacey Bond found that prosecutors had intentionally caused a mistrial by making inflammatory remarks during closing arguments. The District Attorney's Office under Devon Anderson had appealed Judge Bond's ruling, but the 14th Court of Appeals affirmed.  Last week, District Attorney Kim Ogg announced that the Office would not be appealing the case any further, and formally dismissed charges against Dr. Yetman.  The move was not surprising under the circumstances, and it was the right thing to do. I did find the press release from Ogg to be noteworthy: "We do not tolerate professional misconduct, lapses in discipline or excessive zeal to win a case," Ogg said in a press release.  "A prosecutor's special responsibility is