Charles Kuffner has an interview up with former Houston PD Chief C.O. "Brad" Bradford who's now the Democratic nominee for District Attorney. Bradford declared his support for a number of forward thinking ideas, including making the Houston crime lab independent from law enforcement, increasing use of personal bonds to relieve jail overcrowding, and letting police officers use new authority to issue citations instead of arresting for certain low-level offenses. Listen to the interview (mp3).
Kuff covered a lot of ground and got Bradford on the record about a number of subjects I'd not seen nor heard Mr. Bradford discuss, in particular the need to change the culture of the office and get away from judging success or failure solely on the basis of Ws and Ls in the courtroom, which he says is currently the main metric by which internal candidates for promotion are judged. Bradford also suggests creating a Conviction Integrity Unit modeled after the one famously created by Dallas DA Craig Watkins.
Kuff has only been interviewing Democratic candidates, so we may not see a comparable interview by him of Bradford's GOP opponent, former District Judge Pat Lykos. If Chuck won't mind the suggestion, this may be a good race to make an exception to the Dems only interview policy; it'd be good to get both candidates on the record regarding the topics covered in his interview.
Looking forward, AHCL over at Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center has promised previews of contested elections in Harris County related to criminal courts, so we'll surely be getting more bloggerly analysis on this race in addition to the usual MSM coverage as the November plebiscites approach.
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9 comments:
I don't mind the suggestion. If the opportunity arises, I'll see what I can do. Thanks!
This was a nice interview. This is good job done to present it here on the blog. This will let the people know about his abilities and his views. this will help them make right decisions where to go.
Man I wish we Democrats in Houston had a better candidate. It looks like Harris County may see a turnover in judges like they did in Dallas, and Bradford will ride their coat tails as well as the wave of scandals related to Rosenthal.
But Bradford was in charge of HPD during the period that the crime lab became so pitiful. He's just another of Mayor Brown's cronies who were put in place based on skin color instead of competence. And now he'll win solely because he's not Rosenthal and not a Republican.
Harris County will only get worse with him as DA. Or more likely, just be a different sort of bad.
Rage, they addressed the crime lab in the interview so be sure to give it a listen. He's saying the right things, in any event - he supports making the crime lab independent of law enforcement control and requiring annual, outside audits, which IMO is the right call.
There's a LOT of blame to go around on the crime lab, for sure, and he deserves some of it. But fate has decreed that these are your choices: either he or Judge Lykos will get the job. That's why I'd like to hear her answers to the same questions. Neither candidate's past I find particularly inspiring, so that leaves analyzing what, exactly, each of them says they'll do.
I do agree that coattails will matter more in the race than either candidates' merits, which is a particularly problematic aspect of having DAs and judges elected in partisan races.
I know what he's saying about having it be independent, but he has no control over that. If HPD doesn't run it, DPS or the feds will. They will never put their forensics in the hands of someone they can't control. Hell, they don't even want Defendants to have independent access to their own experts. They're dang sure not going to relenquish control of their own.
I do not believe Bradford can be trusted to even try to do what he says he's going to do. I dang sure don't believe he'll ever have the working consensus to actually get it done.
Fate is, like Rosenthal's secretary, a cruel mistress. Lykos is little more than a re-branding of Siegler/Rosenthal, and Bradford is a return to the inadequacies and corruption of the Brown administration. He's too engulfed in his own past to do an effective job from a policy standpoint. Anyone can get a conviction in this county. But he will not be able to make significant change in the culture down here.
Having the lab be in the oversight of someone other that HPD will cut down on the mistake and it's quite easy to do, so Rage, stop critizing and come up with some suggestiosn that will help. As for Bradford, to me is the lesser of the two evils. Almost anyone who is black and in a power position is a "spin-off" of Brown and Lanier. We need new faces and new idea, and rmember if we don't like what he's doing then he can always be voted out.
stop critizing
Why? This guy was in charge of the agency that was responsible for falsifying evidence, and fought to keep investigators out. And you think he's the guy to reform the DA's office?
I think Lykos may be one of the few republicans I vote for this go-round.
So Bradford's slimey buddy, super-mega defense lawyer, Rusty Hardin is having a fundraiser for him this eve.
If that's not a turn off enough, get a load of this - "Brad"'s charging supporters $500 a pop to get in the door...it gets worse; seems you're just an "Other" to Bradford if you can only cough up $250. And if you're a "Friend" forget about it -- it a $1000 shake down at the door .
With Friends like Rusty Hardin and Chief CO Bradford...who needs Friends.
VOTE PAT LYKOS FOR DA - WWW.PATLYKOS.COM
STRENGTH & EXPERIENCE FOR SAFER NEIGHBORHOODS
C. O."Brad" Bradford
for Harris County District Attorney
PLEASE JOIN RUSTY HARDIN & RICHARD MITHOFF FOR A FUNDRAISING RECEPTION HONORING
C. O. "BRAD" BRADFORD
CANDIDATE FOR HARRIS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2008
5:30 P.M -7:00 P.M.
AT THE HOME OF RUSTY HARDIN
2740 BARBARA LANE
HOUSTON , TEXAS 77005
YES, I WANT TO SUPPORT "BRAD" FOR DA:
o SPONSOR $5000
o PATRON $2500
o FRIEND $1000
o SUPPORTER $500
o OTHER $250
o DONATION___
PLEASE MAKE YOUR CHECKS PAYABLE TO: C.O. BRADFORD CAMPAIGN
ALSO CONTRIBUTIONS CAN BE MADE ONLINE AT WWW.COBRADFORD.COM
TO RSVP OR FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
COBRADFORD.COM
______________________________________________________________________
Paid Political Advertisement by the C.O. Bradford Campaign - Alan Rosen, Treasurer
C. O. Bradford Campaign For Harris County District Attorney | P O Box 321309 | Houston | TX | 77221
I'm late but hey Charles - do you think it is ethical to practice law privately while concurrently serving your duties as hpd acop as Bradford did from 93-95?
Do you also think think it is possible to attend law school while serving concurrently serving your duties as hpd acop as Bradford did from 90-93?
just wondering...
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