Category Archives: Crime and Punishment

Court is now in session

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Another aspect of the maskless mandate. The Texas Supreme Court on Friday lifted most restrictions on in-person state court proceedings after Gov. Greg Abbott this week reopened Texas. Almost all in-person court proceedings had been banned since the local onset … Continue reading →

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A poll about jailing people

Posted on February 20, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. New polling from The Appeal and Data for Progress shows that most Harris County residents support bail reform measures and want fewer people in the county’s overcrowded jail amid the COVID-19 pandemic The polling shows 59 percent of … Continue reading →

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Trump commutes Stockman sentence

Posted on December 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Crooks of a feather. President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday commuted the remaining prison sentence of former Republican Texas congressman Steve Stockman, who was sentenced to 10 years in 2018 after he was convicted of nearly two-dozen felonies, including fraud. … Continue reading →

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A closer look at the Aguirre/Hotze debacle

Posted on December 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

This WaPo story was pointed out in the comments here, and it’s worth your time to read. I should note that while the Houston Chronicle has not (at least so far) identified the air conditioning repairman that Aguirre attacked, this … Continue reading →

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Aguirre’s arraignment

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The latest update on the Aguirre/Hotze fever-dream “vote fraud” case. An ex-Houston police officer on Friday swore he is “done” with private investigations after being arrested and charged with assaulting an air conditioning repairman he claimed was involved in a … Continue reading →

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Hotze spews some BS

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

That could be a perennial headline, like a pinned tweet, but here it’s for a specific purpose. Conservative activist Steven Hotze said Wednesday he does not know if the former Houston police captain he hired to investigate voter fraud really … Continue reading →

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The real danger of unhinged conspiracy theories

Posted on December 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Because sometimes malevolent people act them out, with potentially deadly consequences for others. An air conditioning repairman was driving in south Houston around 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 19 when a black SUV rammed the back of his truck. When he … Continue reading →

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Why can’t we get our jail population down?

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I found this story from Thanksgiving weekend frustrating. Harris County’s efforts to reduce its jail population have flatlined, despite more than $7.5 million aimed at alleviating systemic burdens so that the county could attempt to reduce its inmates by a … Continue reading →

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More on police oversight boards

Posted on November 29, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Ours in Houston isn’t very good. Some other cities do it better. We can learn from them. Houston’s police oversight board is the weakest among Texas’ five largest cities and suffers from “a complete lack of transparency and public reporting,” … Continue reading →

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Paxton trial move back to Collin County on hold

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Delay is the natural state of being in this saga. I don’t know why we’d ever expect anything else. A Houston appeals court has pressed pause on a ruling that would have allowed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to stand … Continue reading →

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Judge sends Paxton case back to Collin County

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Pending appeal, of course. A Harris County judge on Friday moved Attorney General Ken Paxton’s criminal case to Collin County, handing Paxton a major win by placing the case in his hometown, where legal experts say he’s more likely to … Continue reading →

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Mayor will support the task force recommendations

Posted on October 11, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Good start, now let’s get it going. Mayor Sylvester Turner on Wednesday endorsed “almost all” the 104 recommendations laid out last week by his Task Force on Policing Reform. Speaking at a virtual city council meeting, Turner said a few … Continue reading →

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Here comes the police reform task force report

Posted on October 3, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Now let’s do something with it. Mayor Sylvester Turner on Wednesday rolled out his task force’s report on policing reform in Houston, but said he needed more time to digest the 153-page report before taking action on its recommendations. The … Continue reading →

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Turner signs cite-and-release order

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Mayor Sylvester Turner on Monday signed an executive order authorizing a new cite-and-release program for the Houston Police Department, aiming to let people accused of certain misdemeanors off with a ticket instead of a trip to jail. Turner and … Continue reading →

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HPD adopts cite-and-release

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Took them long enough. The Houston Police Department plans to join Harris County’s cite-and-release program, fulfilling advocates’ long-running request to implement the policy they say keeps low-level offenders out of jail and saves law enforcement resources for more serious threats. … Continue reading →

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Smoots-Thomas takes a plea

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

A sad but hardly unexpected end to this story. The ex-judge in an orange jail uniform stood before a judge in black robes, swore to tell the truth and tried to make sense of her predicament. “My world truly turned … Continue reading →

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Cite and release for Houston

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Houston is preparing a cite-and-release policy that could let people accused of certain misdemeanors off with a ticket instead of an arrest, perhaps the city’s most significant bid at criminal justice reform since the killing of George Floyd ignited … Continue reading →

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Yes, bail reform is good

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the first pieces of evidence, from Harris County, to support that. A new report examining the impact of recent changes to bail practices in Harris County found that releasing more misdemeanor defendants from jail without requiring cash bail did … Continue reading →

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Another example of why bail reform is needed

Posted on September 2, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

This is troubling in a lot of ways, but fortunately there is a path forward. Since November, eight defendants fresh out of jail on bond have walked into state District Judge Ramona Franklin’s court and been sent right back to … Continue reading →

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No new judge for Paxton

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry, Kenny. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is still fighting five-year-old felony securities fraud charges, has failed in his bid to kick a Democratic Harris County judge off his ongoing criminal case. An administrative judge in Houston, Susan Brown, … Continue reading →

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Where are we again with the IPOB?

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Are we moving forward, or are we standing still? A longtime member of Houston’s Independent Police Oversight Board has resigned, saying the organization’s structure prevents it from providing meaningful oversight of the Houston Police Department and should be disbanded. In … Continue reading →

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Paxton (again) wants another judge on his case

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Round and round they go. Defense attorneys for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — whose indictment for felony securities fraud is now more than five years old — are again asking for a different judge to oversee the case. It’s … Continue reading →

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A whole lot of Paxton case news all of a sudden

Posted on July 28, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Brace yourselves. A Houston appeals court on Monday abated a recent decision to move the criminal cases against Attorney General Ken Paxton from Harris to Collin County, giving a new judge on the case the chance to revisit that order. … Continue reading →

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Criticizing the HPD narcotics audit

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

It’s good that it was finally released, but that doesn’t mean that all questions have been answered by it. Standing outside the small house where Houston police officers conducted a raid that killed two and grievously wounded their department’s reputation, … Continue reading →

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More and better police data, please

Posted on July 2, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Like this. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement will ask nearly 2,000 Texas law enforcement agencies to resubmit information legislators intended be used to analyze whether police were treating minority motorists differently — but which turned out to be worthless … Continue reading →

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Kaylynn Williford

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Goodbye, and good riddance. The head prosecutor for Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s trial division resigned Monday after posting a meme on Facebook last week that equated protesters who remove Confederate statutes with Nazis. The meme posted by the … Continue reading →

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Here comes the police task force

Posted on June 26, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Now let’s see them do something. Mayor Sylvester Turner on Wednesday announced the appointment of 45 people to a task force that will review Houston Police Department policies for potential reforms. Laurence “Larry” Payne, a former staffer of Mayor Kathy … Continue reading →

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Back to Collin County for the Paxton trial

Posted on June 26, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Where it all began. Years after it was sent to Harris County, the criminal case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will move back to his native Collin County, a Harris County judge ruled Thursday. Paxton, a Republican, was indicted … Continue reading →

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Steps towards more transparency

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Step One: Mayor Sylvester Turner said Friday he is reviewing an internal audit of the Houston Police Department’s embattled narcotics division and will send the results of the probe to state lawmakers who have called for its public release. Turner … Continue reading →

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Release the audit

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

That’s my three-word response to this. A growing chorus of elected officials is calling on Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo to release the findings of an internal audit on his department’s narcotics division, arguing that the chief’s refusal to do … Continue reading →

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Meanwhile, the jail is filling up again

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

We really need to do something about this. The Harris County Jail population has been steadily rising since late April and is now approaching its pre-pandemic capacity despite early efforts to curb crowding, according to the sheriff’s office. With an … Continue reading →

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What are we going to do about that Independent Police Oversight Board?

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The easy answer is “make it better”, it’s how you do that that’s harder. As protests over George Floyd’s death swept the nation, activists in Houston cried out for police reform. Among their demands: Give us an independent police watchdog. … Continue reading →

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DA dismisses charges against most protesters

Posted on June 11, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Good. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday dismissed almost 800 cases filed against protesters arrested during the George Floyd demonstrations last week in Houston. In total, prosecutors dropped 796 charges filed against 654 protesters, District Attorney Kim Ogg … Continue reading →

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Let’s talk “meaningful reform”

Posted on June 5, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Chief Acevedo brought it up, so let’s go there. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo’s voice cracked several times and his eyes welled as he railed against the death of George Floyd beneath a policeman’s knee and implored protesters to demonstrate … Continue reading →

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