Deavis
Member
Good riddance.
Chuck Rosenthal getting the boot... (TX)
- Thread starter Bartholomew Roberts
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lanternlad1
Member
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Here's an update... Rosenthal RESIGNED!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080215..._s_downfall;_ylt=Aizfj_umXq7gNGwAJvtL8NFvzwcF
Houston DA resigns over e-mail scandal By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer
Fri Feb 15, 4:50 PM ET
HOUSTON - A district attorney who's considered the state's most powerful prosecutor resigned Friday under the weight of a scandal involving the release of dozens of pornographic, racist and political e-mails on his office computer.
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal blamed the bizarre inbox contents, which included love notes to his secretary and campaign strategizing, on a combination of drugs he had been prescribed that affected his judgment, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Alan Curry, chief of the district attorney's appellate division, confirmed the resignation to The Associated Press.
Rosenthal has endured a public outcry, including a street demonstration by hundreds of people, and calls from his own Republican Party officials for his own resignation since a federal judge mistakenly released the e-mails as part of a lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
On Friday, the lawyer who brought the lawsuit, Lloyd Kelley, sued to have Rosenthal removed from office on grounds of misconduct, incompetence and drinking on the job.
Rosenthal, whose office has sent more people to death row than any other local agency in the country, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Friday.
Rosenthal was forced off the March 4 GOP primary ballot by the scandal but steadfastly refused to resign, saying "stupidity" was not grounds for quitting.
The pressure built as hundreds of demonstrators protested outside his office and as his own assistant district attorney, Kelley Siegler, now a candidate to replace him, said publicly he should resign. Her husband, Sam, had sent Rosenthal several of the offensive e-mails.
Rosenthal also was under the threat of a federal contempt of court citation for the deletion of 2,500 other e-mails demanded as part of the civil rights lawsuit against the sheriff's department.
Rosenthal, 62, spent his entire career in the district attorney's office after attending night law school. The scandal brought out allegations of racist judgment within the district attorney's office: Black potential jurors were struck because, some defense attorneys and former prosecutors said, they were seen as soft on crime; code names for blacks were bandied about in e-mails, and black leaders believed that prosecutors under Rosenthal worked to punish blacks more harshly than whites.
Rosenthal was caught up in an unrelated but simultaneous scandal when he successfully asked a judge to dismiss an indictment of a state Supreme Court justice and his wife on charges they torched their house because of financial problems. Grand jurors took the unusual step of suing to get a judge to allow them to reveal the evidence that they believe implicated Justice David Medina.
Medina and his wife have denied the charges.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080215..._s_downfall;_ylt=Aizfj_umXq7gNGwAJvtL8NFvzwcF
Houston DA resigns over e-mail scandal By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer
Fri Feb 15, 4:50 PM ET
HOUSTON - A district attorney who's considered the state's most powerful prosecutor resigned Friday under the weight of a scandal involving the release of dozens of pornographic, racist and political e-mails on his office computer.
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal blamed the bizarre inbox contents, which included love notes to his secretary and campaign strategizing, on a combination of drugs he had been prescribed that affected his judgment, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Alan Curry, chief of the district attorney's appellate division, confirmed the resignation to The Associated Press.
Rosenthal has endured a public outcry, including a street demonstration by hundreds of people, and calls from his own Republican Party officials for his own resignation since a federal judge mistakenly released the e-mails as part of a lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
On Friday, the lawyer who brought the lawsuit, Lloyd Kelley, sued to have Rosenthal removed from office on grounds of misconduct, incompetence and drinking on the job.
Rosenthal, whose office has sent more people to death row than any other local agency in the country, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Friday.
Rosenthal was forced off the March 4 GOP primary ballot by the scandal but steadfastly refused to resign, saying "stupidity" was not grounds for quitting.
The pressure built as hundreds of demonstrators protested outside his office and as his own assistant district attorney, Kelley Siegler, now a candidate to replace him, said publicly he should resign. Her husband, Sam, had sent Rosenthal several of the offensive e-mails.
Rosenthal also was under the threat of a federal contempt of court citation for the deletion of 2,500 other e-mails demanded as part of the civil rights lawsuit against the sheriff's department.
Rosenthal, 62, spent his entire career in the district attorney's office after attending night law school. The scandal brought out allegations of racist judgment within the district attorney's office: Black potential jurors were struck because, some defense attorneys and former prosecutors said, they were seen as soft on crime; code names for blacks were bandied about in e-mails, and black leaders believed that prosecutors under Rosenthal worked to punish blacks more harshly than whites.
Rosenthal was caught up in an unrelated but simultaneous scandal when he successfully asked a judge to dismiss an indictment of a state Supreme Court justice and his wife on charges they torched their house because of financial problems. Grand jurors took the unusual step of suing to get a judge to allow them to reveal the evidence that they believe implicated Justice David Medina.
Medina and his wife have denied the charges.
damien
Member
I wonder what Kelly Siegler's opinion is of the preumption of traveling law. She is the new DA mentioned in the Chronicle article. Hopefully she understand's Chuck's failure to obey this law brought him a lot of the scruitiny that caused his downfall. Or maybe she will just support it because it is the law. Either way, it works for me.
Bartholomew Roberts
Member
I guess he can blame his faulty understanding of the travelling law on that as well - though it doesn't explain the other Texas DAs who adopted the same approach. Maybe the drug and drinking problems are more widespread than we thought?
wally
Member
What PO's me the most about the whole thing is no mention of his making illeagal arrests of armed traveler's in spite of a new law clarifying the issue. Total abuse of power being ignored, but he's basically taken down by some politically incorrect humor instead of the real abuses.
Still, good riddance I say.
--wally.
Still, good riddance I say.
--wally.
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