Kristin Guiney Appointed to 232nd Bench

In the midst of all the chaos at the courthouse(s) this week, there was a fantastic piece of news coming from Austin.  Governor Greg Abbott finally made the long-anticipated appointment to the bench of the 232nd District Court of Harris County.

Today, Kristin Guiney was formally announced as the Judge who would be filling the bench vacated by Judge Mary Lou Keel, who was elected to the Court of Criminal Appeals in November.  As most of you know, Guiney is a former prosecutor and currently practices criminal defense.  She previously served as judge of the 179th District Court, where she was highly respected by both sides of the bench.

Governor Abbott's couldn't have made a better choice!  Everyone from the CJC Community is looking very forward to seeing Judge Guiney back on the bench.

Congratulations Guiney!

The Shadwick Leave Of Absence

As we grow closer to the beginning of early voting, someone posted on the blog last week that Grand Jury prosecutor and aspiring judge Lana Shadwick has taken a leave of absence from the District Attorney's Office.  The "official" word is that the leave was done for Lana to spend the last few weeks before May 29th campaigning.

Other sources have indicated that the leave of absence may not have been for such simple reasons.

Apparently, a case was recently dismissed in one of the felony courts due to the Defendant having an alibi.  The co-defendant on the case was not so fortunate as to get a dismissal from the State.  After a court setting, that co-defendant's file was sent down to the Grand Jury Division to prepare for presentation to the Grand Jury.

As is the practice with co-defendant files, the dismissed Defendant's case file was rubber-banded to the pending active co-defendant's case.  My understanding is that the dismissal was properly marked and documented on the front of the Defendant's file.  Unfortunately, both files landed on the desk of Grand Jury prosecutor Lana Shadwick.

Who promptly got both cases indicted.  That includes the one that was dismissed and the client was released from jail.

Luckily, this extremely enormous error was caught by someone (not Lana) before the Defendant was wrongfully arrested.

Folks, the job of being a Grand Jury prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney's Office is one of the easiest (if not THE easiest) jobs in the Office.  It is not tricky.  Lana Shadwick has bounced through three different divisions before landing in this massively low-pressure job.

And yet, she still screwed it up.  She managed to find a way in her short time in Grand Jury to screw up something in the worst way possible for a Grand Jury prosecutor.

My understanding from several reliable sources is that her Leave of Absence may not have entirely been her choice.  It seems that even Pat Lykos realizes how bad it would be if someone got wrongfully arrested right before Election Day.  Political hire or not, Shadwick will be spending the rest of the campaign season on the sidelines of the D.A.'s Office.

Even though she can't manage being a Grand Jury prosecutor, Lana Shadwick hopes you will vote for her for judge.

Hopefully you are starting to see why that would be a really terrible idea.

Vote for Kristin Guiney, folks.  It is really a no-brainer.

Rules Only Apply to the Little People

I got back to my office from court on Monday to find a very impressive piece of campaign literature from aspiring judge Lana Shadwick.  Not impressive in the sense that it made me feel that her credentials had been somehow boosted, but impressed as the son (and former employee) of a printer on how much money Lana must have spent to get it published.

The target of Lana's mailers were clearly Houston attorneys who would possibly be voting in the upcoming Houston Bar Association poll, and she blatantly asks for the recipient of the mailer to vote for her as being well-qualified.  This kind of flies in the face of logic, since she just had to move to Grand Jury because she couldn't handle the pressure of campaigning and being in appellate.  Also, I'm hearing numerous reports that Lana has yet to figure out how to read Probable Cause to a Grand Jury.  It really isn't that tricky.

Given how badly Kristin Guiney has been outclassing Lana at public appearances, it is no wonder that Lana would feel the need to shell out a lot of money for these direct mailers.  Perhaps in her mind, a flashy print piece might help overshadow her bumbling through answers in person.

But here's what the title of the post is about -- Lana had her mailers sent to her fellow employees at the Harris County District Attorney's Office, in direct violation of Rule 2.11 of the Office's rule book, which states, in part:

    "Political activities are prohibited from within the office.  No campaign material will be mailed by an employee to personnel at a District Attorney's Office address."


Perhaps you remember how pissy Jim Leitner got when Chip Lewis invited all of the Assistant District Attorney's to come to the D.A. Reunion awhile back?  I wonder if Jim is feeling equally indignant that Lana is so flagrantly violating the rules.  I mean, hell, Chip was just inviting people to a reunion -- not to mention that he doesn't work for Pat Lykos (or Jim) and he isn't running for anything.

Yet again, we find that there are special rules for those political candidates that Jared Woodfill is trying to shove down our throats.  Pat Lykos is helping accommodate Jared, which is why Jared endorses Pat.  Isn't that convenient for everybody?

While we are all waiting for Lana to be called up from her cushy position in grand jury to be disciplined for this violation of Lykos' rules, I suppose we could go vote in the HBA Bar Poll.

Just remember when you are voting which candidate left the Office as a District Court chief after years of service, trying the most serious cases under the Texas Penal Code, and which one is asking around for a cheat sheet on how to read a probable cause statement to a Grand Jury.

An Anonymous Open Letter to the Pat Lykos Administration

NOTE:  I received the following Anonymous letter to the Pat Lykos Administration on Friday.  I do not know who the author is, and I won't publish any speculation about who it is in the comments section.  I did think it was an interesting perspective on how the trial court prosecutors are feeling these days.

An Open Letter to the 6th Floor:

Dear Admin[istration],

It is a little awkward to write this letter, but it is becoming even more awkward to pretend like we can keep going on like this.  So, I will say what we both know:  I am moving on.

It's true, this job has always been a sacrifice.  And long before you took office, many fine attorneys came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth that sacrifice.  And, although you never believed me, you really had no reason to be so jealous of my ex-admin.  Sure, some voted for Kelly, but almost none of us ever thought Rosenthal should have been anything more than a casual summer fling.

But here's what's different:  I just don't feel like you care anymore, Admin.  In fact, I know you don't.  You've had endless meetings with us where you demanded us to bring ideas, made us write memos, and then never implemented one change.  You conducted exit interview after exit interview (and there's been a lot of them now), with incredible feedback -- but still nothing.

Of course, I know about the economy, and I haven't been expecting steak dinners and roses and raises, but still, you don't even bother to do the easy free stuff.  When Commissioners' Court was talking about cutting us, all it would have taken was one meeting, just to say, "Here is the budget we were given.  We know you are short handed.  We know you are all now doing the work of 2 people.  And we want you to know that we recognize it and appreciate it.  And we want you to know we will do everything in our power to lay off as few people as possible."

That's it.  But instead, we labored for months thinking that there might be more layoffs to come.  And the only message coming from you has been "shut up and take it."  Oh, I guess there was one other message you conveyed at that time, which was that you wanted the division chiefs to tell us you felt we were not speaking to you in the manner befitting someone in your position.  Charming.

It's not just the lack of caring, or communication, it's also the lack of respect.  You have no idea the caliber of professionals you have (well, used to have) working for you.  There are so many people with incredible talents who could help you out.  All you would have had to do is ask, and we would have gladly worked for you and made you look like a super-star.  Instead, because you can't imagine anyone could possibly be smarter/better writer/media person/etc., you don't ask until it's too late.

For example, it would never occur to you to use any of the amazing statistics Kristin Guiney gathered about us being the lowest-staffed DA's office in the country when you presented to Commissioners' Court, even though this should have been the most important presentation of your career.  Never occurred to you to ask ADAs who are doing the work how to best implement policy.

Your stunning arrogance is the driving force behind your inability to think that anyone else has anything to contribute.

I guess when we first started our relationship, I just couldn't believe that all those bad things they said could be true about one person.  Tyrannical AND nasty AND arrogant AND worst-judge-ever-to-work-for AND poor attorney?  I didn't think it could possibly be true all in one person.  And so I stayed, to learn the brutal truth for myself.

I should have seen it coming.  As a student of Chairman Mao history, I knew the inevitable implosion of an entity run by a crazy and absolutist dictator, especially in times of famine.  Crazy reliance on manufactured meaningless statistics, inability to trust anyone, constantly being told it is our fault if we are starving, because everyone else is happy.

I know what you're thinking -- you're thinking "so what, there are other fish in the sea."  You've certainly mentioned the "300 resumes" on your desk enough times in our "Shut Up and Be Happy" meetings.  But those resumes won't file motions or make RIP calls.  And who is going to try all those murders and rapes and agg robs?  Because the people you are about to lose the most of are your Felony 2s and 3s.  You know, the people who were first time 3s for a year, then misdemeanor chiefs under the Regime of No Discretion, and the second time 3s.  Then maybe, if they're "lucky" they can go straight from that to being a new 2 in the trial bureau with no pay raise?

Honestly, I don't think you understand that of all your sins, one of the things that has the biggest impact on employee retention is your inability to move people wisely and when needed.  I know movement is stagnated, so just give people some predictability.  Felony 3s -- six months up, six down, for however long it takes.  Felony 2s -- 1 year in the trial bureau and then out.  Recognize the burnout courts.

So who's going to try all these cases when all the mid-level people leave?  Because now the office is so top-heavy, so stacked with people who don't handle cases, but simply second-guess those of us who do.

Well, I wish you luck with all your legions of new ADAs.  I am sure they will work out as wonderfully as the misfits who have been hired by your "hiring committee" of one.  Clearly, 15 minutes with Chow is such a great way to replicate the pressure of jury trial. 

Really, Admin, I wish it could have worked out.  And I wish I could say "it's not you, it's me," except, it is you.

It is all you.

Antoher Chiefly Departure

Tomorrow marks the last day on the job for 185th District Court Chief, Kristin Guiney.

Kristin, a 9 year veteran of the D.A.'s Office, is yet another tremendous loss for the County. Coming in as a pre-commit during the Summer of 2001, she established herself first as leader within her "starting class", and subsequently as a leader within the Office, as a whole.

Managing her duties in the Trial Bureau, Kristin became known as a highly skilled prosecutor in front of juries. She combined the legal knowledge to do research on complex issues without constantly pestering the Appellate Division (something I was very guilty of during my time there), and also maintaining a down-to-Earth and very common-sense approach in trying her cases. She was not only respected by her peers, but also by the "higher ups" in the Office.

Kristin was the kind of prosecutor that the Office needed.

Not only did she do an outstanding job in the duties assigned to her as a prosecutor, she sought out ways to make the Office better. When specialized projects needed analysis, she was the first person who volunteered.

Okay, well, maybe once or twice she got "volunteered" for a project by someone who was being lazy named Murray, but you get the point. She studied other D.A. Offices around the country to make requests for more personnel within the HCDA, and her work resulted in an impressive display to the Commissioner's Court that got the Office's budget substantially raised for many more (much needed) prosecutors.

She was the kind of person who wore the title of Public Servant proudly, and she embodied everything one would hope in a government lawyer. She was hard-working, honest, and talented. The work she did for the Office was out of a genuine love for the place that she worked.

So, it is very bittersweet to see Guiney headed out into private practice.

It's a tremendous loss to the Office and the County, but we all know she did more than her fair share for that general public during her tenure.

I wish her the very best of luck.

And for those prosecutors that may be facing Guiney in the future, make sure you cross your "t"s, dot your "i"s and are very, very prepared.

Because you can bet your ass that Guiney will be.