Bradley and the Texas Open Meetings Act

Rick Casey finds another way in which John Bradley, the Chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, is a failure.

Friday started badly for John Bradley, the Williamson County district attorney selected last fall by Gov. Rick Perry to ride herd over the troublesome scientists on the Texas Forensic Science Commission.

His first official act of the morning was to violate the state’s open meetings law.

Then his day got worse.

[…]

Bradley evicted an Austin-based documentary crew before the meeting started. One of its members called the attorney general’s office in Austin, which sent a message to Barbara Dean, the assistant district attorney who has attended all of the commission’s meetings, providing legal guidance since its inception.

An hour and a half into the meeting, Dean, seated behind Bradley, tapped him on the shoulder and quietly spoke into his ear. He announced a 10-minute break, and when the meeting resumed the film crew was in the room.

When I asked Bradley about the matter, he curtly told me to talk to the film crew. I said I had and he replied with annoyance: “Then you know.”

His defensiveness was understandable. Enforcement of the Open Meetings Act is the responsibility of local district attorneys such as himself.

Wayne Slater noted this as it was happening as well. Heck of a job, Johnny. Scott Cobb and the Statesman’s editorial board have more, and on a tangential note, State Rep. Pete Gallego is peeved with Bradley for preventing arson expert Craig Beyler from testifying before a recent legislative hearing that Gallego chaired.

It must be noted, however, that Bradley’s political mission, to protect Rick Perry, has been a success. Not only is the next meeting scheduled for after the primary runoff date, as Dave Mann notes the whole Willingham issue was never mentioned in either of the GOP gubernatorial debates. At this point you have to wonder if Rick Perry will pay any price for this. More from Casey here.

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