Whipped Cream Difficulties

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.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 21st, 2011 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Clippings, HCDA, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.