'We've had enough of courthouse cronyism'

The Houston Chronicle has an editorial today with the same title as this post criticizing alleged cronyism among judges in how they select attorneys appearing before their courts, particularly in juvenile arena, reacting to a pair of recent stories by columnist Lisa Falkenberg which found state Sen. John Whitmire on the warpath. See:

• We've had enough of courthouse cronyism
• Former judge Pat Shelton just won't go away
• A case of 'Oh no, not again'

The Chron reported that Judge Pat Shelton left office in the face of criticism "for directing most of his court appointments to attorneys who contributed heavily to his re-election campaigns. One of them, Glenn Devlin, won election as Shelton's successor in the 313th District Court last year when Shelton declined to run." Sen. Whitmire and others had criticized Shelton's "cozy relationship with attorneys he lavished with lucrative appointments, his hiring of bad attorneys over the more experienced, board-certified variety, and his apparent preference to adopt out children to foster families rather than consider placements with blood relatives first, as the law requires."

So "how did Shelton find his way back onto the bench and into the limelight?," asks the editorial board. "Turns out that although he is not on the approved list of visiting judges for the region, [Judge Glenn] Devlin had named him as a substitute judge using local rules that allow juvenile judges to appoint friends and former colleagues without oversight. Apparently one good ol' boy was rewarding a former judicial patron for past favors."

True that. (More soon, perhaps, on court appointment systems in Harris County.) But Chronicle editorial writers could have tagged the same title onto a series of nascent stories about an apparently rogue grand jury that may be investigating misconduct in the firing of former Houston crime lab supervisor Amanda Culbertson after she identified flaws in breathalyzer systems used in mobile blood alcohol testing units, colloquially known as B.A.T. vans.

• Grand jury may be targeting DA in HPD van probe"
• Retaliation, contracts and the DA
• Harris County DA's Office accused of retaliation

Murray Newman chimes in with a snarkily titled but probative explication of what's known from recent court filings in a missive headlined "Pat Lykos' Star Chamber Rebels." KTRK's headline was "Grand jury kicks out DA's office in BAT van case." At one point the grand jury apparently ordered the bailiffs to arrest Harris County prosecutors if they tried to enter the room while testimony was being taken related to alleged retaliation over exposing flawed DWI forensics.

Go read their coverage: Grits has little to add to either story for the moment except to find them both as remarkable as they are disappointing.