Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

A few years ago, I wrote this post about how much Facebook infiltrates our daily lives, even when we aren't accessing it. The issue back then was a rather odd "friend suggestion" of some random guy that I had just run into at the Ft. Myers, Florida airport.  I noted at the time how much information we voluntarily give away about ourselves while at the same time, adamantly defend our right to privacy.  I wasn't judging anyone.  I'm just as guilty (if not more so) as anyone else about oversharing on Facebook. Most of you have probably seen some of the little, cutesy things Facebook has been offering lately.  For example, they offer to post little video bits that they've created which celebrate your years of friendship with somebody else.   That seems like fair game.  They show pictures and comments you've made on each other's pages and repost them.  It's silly, but I see a new one almost every day.  I'm sure you do too. On things like that

Huge congratulations to former 177th District Court Judge Ryan Patrick on being appointed US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. As readers of this blog know, Judge Patrick is someone who I think very highly of.  When he was elected to the 177th bench, there were some who were worried that he was not old enough and didn't have enough experience for the job.  He was undaunted by the grumblings and quietly went about proving all to all the skeptics that he was a thoughtful, intelligent, and compassionate jurist.  He did a great job. I have no doubt that he will do the same as U.S. Attorney, and I look forward to him doing great things with the Office.

I had a couple of people ask me why I hadn't written anything lately, and I realized that it has been almost a month since I last wrote. There are two main reasons that I haven't written.  The first reason was that I was in trial on a felony murder case .  It lasted for five days, but stretched across two weeks, so it kept me preoccupied. The trial was largely fought over punishment, and it turned out pretty well, all things considered.  The prosecutors were above-board and did a great job, and I was very happy to try a case in front of visiting Judge Belinda Hill again. The second reason for the absence from the blog was probably the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life. I won't keep you hanging.  The story has a happy ending, but only after the longest six days I've ever lived through. Over the past several weeks, my wife and I noticed that our 3-year-old was really having a significant problem with bruising.   He was bruising easily and th