Whipped Cream Difficulties

The Texas Rangers searched the Harris County DA’s office yesterday, and took documents and computers with them.

DA Lykos says she asked the Rangers to investigate, and promised full cooperation.

More on this when we know more. Don’t hold your breath; you’ll just turn an unattractive shade of blue.

There isn’t a whole lot known at this point, but various news sources are reporting that the Texas Rangers and FBI are questioning staff members at the Harris County DA’s office.

Both the HouChron and KTRK are reporting that the questioning allegedly involves the DA’s investigation into the grand jury, and not the BAT vans that the grand jury was investigating.

More on this when we know more.

More 185th Grand Jury stuff:

Lykos and her defenders were claiming they didn’t do anything out of the ordinary; they were just Googling folks, which, after all, anyone can do.

Not quite. It seems that the Harris County DA’s investigator also used something called Accurint. Accurint is not a publicly accessible system; it is a service that the county pays for, and which requires that you certify a “permissible use” before obtaining information. Defense attorney Mark Bennett has more about Accurint over at his blog, “Defending People”, which I commend to your attention.

And, of course, The Hon. Murray Newman is on the case as well.

The 185th Grand Jury – that would be the one investigating the Harris County DA’s office – ended their term today. (Previously: here, here, here, here, and here.)

And?

No indictments. But the grand jury is not pleased with the DA’s office:

[Grand jury foreman Trisha] Pollard signed off on a one-page report blasting the DA’s office for “unexpected resistance” and accusing the office of launching an investigation into the grand jurors, the special prosecutors and judges.
The grand jury also harshly criticized Rachel Palmer, a prosecutor who invoked her fifth amendment right to refuse to testify.
“The stain upon the HCDAO will remain regardless of any media statements issued or press conferences issued by anyone,” according to the statement.

The current Chron article is a bit short; I expect a longer version later today. Murray Newman had a good piece up this morning with his predictions; I would expect commentary from him once he’s had a chance to read and digest the grand jury report.

Edited to add: The Hon. Mr. Newman has the statement, and his thoughts, up over at his blog.

Edited to add 2/1: Longer story from the HouChron. Note the fine copy editing (which I hope will be fixed when you see it):

We have previously covered the grand jury investigation into the Harris County DA’s Office. We have not posted on this in a while, mostly because up until the past few days, there was not much going on.

The latest development is that prosecutor Rachel Palmer was summoned to appear before the grand jury and refused to answer questions.

This Lisa Falkenberg column contains a good summary of the most recent developments. And The Hon. Murray Newman is still all over this as well.

Previously on “As The Grand Jury Turns”, two prosecutors and two court reporters were summoned before a judge to answer contempt of court charges. Specifically, the two prosecutors are accused of obtaining transcripts of confidential proceedings from a grand jury that is investigating the DA’s office; the court reporters are (as far as we can tell) accused of being the ones who gave the prosecutors the transcripts.

Anyway, the hearing was today, and…the judge in the contempt case ended up having to recuse herself, as she may be called as a witness in the contempt case as well.

Chalk up another point for The Hon. Murray Newman.

Two Harris County prosecutors are facing contempt charges after a judge learned members of the DA’s office were given information that may contain official transcripts from secret proceedings of a grand jury that is investigating the district attorney’s office, court records show.

Sounds like folks are sweating. And that’s leading them to make dumb decisions. The question is, how far up the chain of command does the dumbth go?

By the way, the two prosecutors in question are the same ones who got thrown out of the grand jury hearing.

(Subject line hattip.)

Here’s the longer HouChron story I expected about yesterday’s decision to bar the Harris County DA from participation in a grand jury investigation that may implicate the DA’s office.

I also wanted to note another story out of Houston: Roderick Fountain was convicted of murdering his 3-year old son. What makes this story noteworthy (in my opinion) is that he was convicted even though nobody has ever found the son’s body, and mostly based on the word of jailhouse informants.

Murder convictions without a body are not unheard of, but they are certainly rare and unusual enough to be noteworthy. (As a side note, the phrase “corpus delicti” does not mean the body of the victim, but the “body of the crime”; that is, all the evidence that indicates a crime has been committed. It is entirely possible to have a “corpus delicti” without a murder.)

It does seem, though, that the murder conviction without a body is becoming more common. This is the second case I can think of in Texas in the past year or so. (Here’s a link to some press coverage of the other case.) Does this point to improvements in forensic science? Or is there something more sinister going on?

Short piece in the HouChron: I expect a longer one in tomorrow’s paper.

State District Judge Susan Brown on Wednesday named attorneys Stephen C. St. Martin and James Mount as temporary prosecutors to assist a grand jury apparently investigating the Houston Police Department’s troubled mobile alcohol testing program.

The article goes on to quote the judge’s order as stating “that grand jurors are investigating ‘possible criminal conduct by members of the Harris County district attorney’s office.'”

“After considering the grand jury’s request and the applicable law, the court finds the Harris County District Attorney and her office are disqualified from participating in the grand jury’s investigation,” Brown wrote.

We have previously covered Harris County’s problems with their Blood Alcohol Testing (BAT) vans. Those problems can perhaps best be summed up as: they weren’t reliable.

Now comes word from the HouChron that:

1. A grand jury is apparently investigating the situation, and
2. The grand jury is taking testimony without prosecutors present. As a matter of fact, they’ve actually expelled the prosecutors from the grand jury proceedings.

The DA’s office is…not pleased. As Murray Newman, a former DA, puts it: “The Grand Jurors excluding the prosecutors from the testimony is kind of the equivalent of the President being booted out of a Cabinet meeting.”

The HouChron piece is short. The Hon. Mr. Newman’s piece over at his site provides more background: he has his own spin on things, but he’s also more familiar with the background and the people involved than I am. Summarizing his position, it seems like the DA was trying to get revenge on the BATVan whistle blowers by pushing for a grand jury indictment, but it looks like the grand jury is digging into the conduct of the DA’s office instead.

This could turn interesting real quick.