Protest too Much?

Harris County prosecutor Vic Wisner writes in public explanation of his dismissal of the grand jury’s indictment against Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina:

My decision to dismiss the indictments
Without violating my ethical restrictions on commenting on pending investigations, I would like to explain the following to the public: Regardless of my personal belief in the [...]

Damning with Faint Praise

From the anonymous prosecutor blogging at Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center: “The defense bar of Harris County does an equally good job. They defend their clients rights, and I’ve never seen a defense attorney who believed in his client’s innocence give up without a fight.“
Well alrighty then!

The Uncashed Check


The Six-Figure Negative Fee

Here’s an interesting one: The Conroe Courier reports a half-million dollar civil verdict against a criminal lawyer in Montgomery County, Texas (the county to the north of Harris County) whose client accused him of extortion. Apparently the lawyer charged the client $1000 for a motion to revoke probation on a felony DWI case and then, [...]

Is it Racist?

Anonymous Harris County prosecutor AHCL, in a post that illustrates the need that she remain anonymous, wrote yesterday about African-American Jurors, Batson, and the D.A.’s Office. She said,

prosecutors are very much aware of the fact that probably every African-American member of a jury panel has been treated like crap at some point during his or [...]

Mean Girls in the Blawgosphere!

I wrote recently about “Mean Girls” in the courtroom — lawyers (in my example, older female prosecutors, but Mean Girls can be any age or gender). Now we have Mean Girls in the practical blawgosphere (would it be uncharitable for me to suggest that AHCL accidentally brought the Harris County DA’s Mean Girls with him [...]

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc?

We lawyers are supposed to be reasonable, logical folk. We’re supposed to resist logical fallacies like post hoc ergo propter hoc. But sometimes it’s just too hard.
For example:

1987 - 2007 Prosecutor Kelly Siegler spends 21 years in Harris County DA’s office;
December 27, 2007 Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal is brought down by disclosure of emails;
January [...]

Another Popularity Contest

The anonymous AHCL is seeking nominations for the Hector Heathcoat Award:

The Hector Heathcoat Award is dedicated to the “Unsung Heroes” of the CJC. We are starting out with two categories - the unsung defense attorney and the unsung prosecutor. Sure, Rusty Hardin and Dick DeGuerin and Kelly Siegler all get a lot of attention as [...]

Four out of Four Candidates Agree: Change is Needed

Per the Chronicle:

In Wednesday’s downtown forum [of Republican candidates for Harris County District Attorney], sponsored by the Houston Professional Republican Women, [Kelly] Siegler said she would make the district attorney’s office more transparent to defense lawyers and the public.
“It will not be an office with prosecutors that win at all cost,” said the chief of [...]

Mean Girls in the Courtroom?

Here I mentioned “the usual older-female-prosecutor head games” that Kelly Siegler unsuccessfully employed against me in a two-kilo cocaine trial. Robert Guest commented, inquiring:

What are older female prosecutor head games? Like the jedi mind trick?

Not exactly.
“Older-female-prosecutor head games” are attempts by older female prosecutors to throw younger male defense lawyers off their game by finding [...]

« go back — keep looking »