Category Archives: Crime and Punishment

I don’t have anything to say this morning

Posted on August 4, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Twenty people murdered in El Paso by a racist piece of shit. Just families, out shopping for back to school supplies. You’re not safe anywhere from an asshole with an automatic weapon and a manifesto. I grew up in a … Continue reading →

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Once more with more prosecutors

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This time, it might work. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is asking county commissioners once again for more prosecutors to handle fallout from the botched Houston drug raid that left a Pecan Park couple dead earlier this year. The … Continue reading →

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Paxton wants to move his case back to Collin County

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Of course they do. Paxton’s defense team has asked that the case be moved back to his hometown of Collin County, years after it was moved from there to Harris County. The case was moved hundreds of miles southeast after … Continue reading →

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We return once again to the Paxton prosecutor pay fight

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is an interesting argument. The prosecutors appointed years ago to take Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to trial will continue to fight over their pay rate, lengthening a dispute that has already delayed the case for well over a … Continue reading →

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David Temple re-trial is now underway

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I continue to be fascinated by this. It’s 1999 in Katy, Texas. A seemingly perfect couple is falling apart at the seams. David Temple, a high school football coach, is having an affair with a beautiful teacher on campus. His … Continue reading →

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Did the Lege sort of decriminalize marijuana?

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Well, sort of. Because of a new state law, prosecutors across Texas have dropped hundreds of low-level marijuana charges and have indicated they won’t pursue new ones without further testing. But the law didn’t decriminalize small amounts of marijuana for … Continue reading →

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Still no more prosecutors

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I remain fascinated by this dynamic. Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday rejected District Attorney Kim Ogg’s request for more staff to handle fallout from the Houston Police Department’s botched Pecan Park drug raid, the second time this year commissioners … Continue reading →

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David Temple re-trial starts

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

The beginning of the next chapter in a long story. For the second time in 12 years, a former Katy-area football coach is standing trial in the murder of his pregnant wife, seeking exoneration after prosecutorial misconduct caused his first … Continue reading →

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Will Ken Paxton ever be prosecuted?

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

At this point, I’d have to say it’s very unlikely. After mulling the question for nearly six months, the nine Republican judges on Texas’ highest criminal court will not reconsider their 2018 ruling that threatens to imperil the criminal case … Continue reading →

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On prosecutor caseloads

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I’m still thinking about this. When a line of prosecutors stepped up to the microphone at Harris County Commissioners Court in February, they told tales of long hours, endless to-do lists and bloated caseloads well into the triple digits. Their … Continue reading →

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Lineup shuffling at the DA’s office

Posted on May 18, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This was a surprise. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s top lieutenant is out the door after the latest staffing shake-up at an office already plagued by high turnover and ongoing retention problems. Tom Berg, a former defense attorney who … Continue reading →

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The Sandra Bland cellphone video

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Wow. New cellphone footage from the now infamous traffic stop of Sandra Bland shows her perspective when a Texas state trooper points a Taser and yells, “I will light you up!” Bland, 28, was found dead three days later in … Continue reading →

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County brings charges related to ITC fire

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Bring it on. Responding to what it called “criminal levels” of contamination, the Harris County District Attorney’s office said Monday that it has charged Intercontinental Terminals Company with five misdemeanor counts of water pollution arising from a March plant fire … Continue reading →

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Prosecuting polluters

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

It really shouldn’t have to come to this, but here we are. The Harris County District Attorney’s office is calling for a tripling of the number of prosecutors dedicated to environmental crimes in the wake of a series of chemical … Continue reading →

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Ogg hires Bradford

Posted on April 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

A familiar face for the DA’s office. Former Houston City Councilmember and Police Chief C.O. “Brad” Bradford has joined the Harris County District Attorney’s Office as a senior adviser. District Attorney Kim Ogg has hired Bradford to serve in a … Continue reading →

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We need more than just bail reform

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Bail reform is based on the radical idea that locking up non-violent, low-risk people who have been arrested on minor charges is a very bad and very expensive thing to do. But let’s take a step back from that and … Continue reading →

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Marijuana diversions

Posted on April 2, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Good progress so far. What can we do to build on it? The Harris County District Attorney’s Office estimated on Friday that it’s saved $35 million and arrested 14,000 fewer people since the start of a program to divert low-level … Continue reading →

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Schlitterbahn indictments dismissed

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Some good news for the company, following the worst thing that ever happened at a Schlitterbahn water park. A Wyandotte County judge on Friday said that the Kansas Attorney General ‘irreparably tainted’ a grand jury with prejudicial evidence to obtain indictments … Continue reading →

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Ogg’s second ask

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see how this goes. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg is planning to head back to county leaders with another request for more prosecutors in light of the massive case review sparked by fallout from last month’s botched Houston … Continue reading →

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“How Baylor Happened”

Posted on February 17, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

From Deadspin: There’s not much to recommend spending four years in Waco. Driving into town up Interstate 35 from the south, the endless stretch of Texas nothing fills out slowly. It’s flat in the way you think Texas is flat. … Continue reading →

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Commissioners Court rejects Ogg’s request for more prosecutors

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I fully expected that Commissioners Court going from 4-1 Republican to 3-2 Democratic after the last election would signal big changes in how business was done in Harris County, but I didn’t expect this to be the first milestone on … Continue reading →

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The Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse problems

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Some excellent longform reporting from the Chron, with more to come. Thirty-five years later, Debbie Vasquez’s voice trembled as she described her trauma to a group of Southern Baptist leaders. She was 14, she said, when she was first molested … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Punishment, Society and cultcha | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

How many prosecutors do we need?

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Opinions differ, but it’s a big question in Harris County right now. Hanover is one of many prosecutors Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said are overburdened — the reason she has asked Commissioners Court for a budget that would … Continue reading →

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“Credible” abuse claims against clergy

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I’m just going to leave this here. Every Roman Catholic Diocese in Texas released a list Thursday of “credible abuse” claims against clergy going back decades, a move that comes as dioceses across the nation have released or prepared to … Continue reading →

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Joint processing center opens

Posted on February 1, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This was a long time coming, but it should be worth the wait. More than a decade after city voters approved a bond measure to fund it, Houston and Harris County opened a joint inmate processing center Thursday that officials … Continue reading →

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HPD and Ring

Posted on January 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We don’t have a Ring doorbell so this doesn’t affect me, but I do find it quite interesting. The Houston Police Department announced Monday that it is joining Ring’s mobile app, Neighbors, in a move officials hope will reduce crime … Continue reading →

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We really are about to do away with the old cash bail system

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I have four things to say about this. The new slate of Democratic judges has approved a drastic revision to Harris County’s bail system that could serve as a model for a settlement in the historic lawsuit in which a … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Punishment, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How legal pot affects Texas

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

It has many effects. In just two weeks in October, the legal landscape for marijuana use in North America changed dramatically. First, Canada opened sales of legalized pot for recreational use, and then Mexico’s high court delivered a definitive ruling … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Punishment, That's our Lege, The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Watch your packages

Posted on December 27, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

They’re disappearing off porches at an increasing rate. Package thefts have become a growing problem across the country, Texas and Houston as more people shop online. Nearly 26 million Americans have had a holiday package stolen, according to a study … Continue reading →

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One Stockman aide sentenced

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

He cooperated. A federal judge Wednesday sentenced an ex-GOP congressional aide to prison for 18 months for helping former U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman illegally pilfer $1.25 million in campaign funds from wealthy Republican political donors. Thomas Dodd, a 40-year-old Houstonian, … Continue reading →

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Paxton prosecutors want another shot

Posted on December 6, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Good luck. The attorneys appointed to prosecute Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton indicated in a court filing this week that they aren’t giving up a long-running fight to take the state’s top lawyer to court — at least not yet. … Continue reading →

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CCA may have killed the Paxton prosecution

Posted on November 22, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Ugh. Just, ugh. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday potentially imperiled the long-delayed criminal prosecution of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, ruling that payments to special prosecutors were outside legal limits. If they cannot get paid, the prosecutors … Continue reading →

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The Innocence Project and the prosecutor

Posted on November 18, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Fascinating case. Attorneys with the group that helped exonerate Texan Michael Morton two decades after he was wrongly convicted of killing his wife were back at the Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday. But this time, instead of uncovering prosecutorial misconduct, … Continue reading →

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More on the Woodfill raid

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Yeah. Former Harris County Republican Party Chairman Jared Woodfill is being investigated on theft and money laundering allegations, accused of misappropriating funds of at least two of his law firm’s clients, according to an affidavit by the Harris County District … Continue reading →

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