Here's an intriguing tidbit from East Texas. The Upshur County District Attorney's Office asked the Texas Rangers to investigate Wood County District Attorney Jim Wheeler, who abruptly resigned days later. A local TV station reported, sparsely, that an "administrative district judge" then named Upshur County DA Billy Byrd, the original complainant, "acting prosecutor" in Wood County.
I could find no more detail than that that online so far, but ... wowza!
To any journalist readers out that way, what gives? How do we not yet know details of such a juicy development? We need to learn more on this! That's a lot of drama, even for rural Texas, to have generated so little reporting.
MORE: A commenter suggested I should have read the appointment of the Upshur County DA as "acting prosecutor" to mean he was appointed to the case, not to run the Wood DA office. Maybe so. I thought that would be a "special prosecutor," and think of "acting" as temporarily filling a vacancy. But the point remains: we need more reporting. Trying to interpret from the few sparse lines linked above is fruitless. Somebody needs to go report what the hell's going on! Sorry if I got that wrong, but not for drawing attention to this big, fat un-told story just sitting there two hours east of Dallas.
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9 comments:
FYI Grits, an administrative regional judge is a real thing:
http://www.txcourts.gov/organizations/policy-funding/administrative-judicial-regions/
They do judicial assignments when one judge has been recused/disqualified and a new judge is needed on a case. They also supposedly review appointed counsel's appeals when fees are denied by a trial court (usually rubber-stamping the trial court's decision, in my experience). And a few other things.
I did know that, the quotes were bc the reporting didn't give the name of the judge, and offhand I didn't know which region. They're not the same as the Court of Appeals districts.
According to the East Texas Matters story, the Upshur County DA was made prosecutor of this case, which means the case being investigated against the Wood County DA.
It does not say that the Upshur County DA was given authority to manage the Wood County DA's office.
After reading the previously posted comments, I'm not sure any of you counselors know what you're talking about.
You could be right, 11:40. Looking at it again, it's written ambiguously.
I think of case-specific appointments in TX as a "special prosecutor," but he was named "acting prosecutor." To me, "acting" means a temporary replacement, filling a vacancy. All of which points to the need for more reporting. Per 12:24's observation, it's difficult to tell what's going on from the brief stories linked in the post.
Good. He did nothing to help several murder cases since he came into office. Several killers remaining free in the county
It's sad obvious killers remaining free and convicted an obvious innocent person. Such competence!!
I can in no way verify, but a co-worker who lives in Wood County said he cleaned out his office over night because a subordinates husband was extremely unhappy with him. That said I worked over ten years at Smith County and nothing would surprise me anymore in regards to peoples behavior and stupid decisions. I'm a whole lot less idealistic that when I started.
Nothing more on this in the news. Typical not-so-small-town East Texas journalism--only write about local government officials when a story falls in their laps. No digging, no substantive investigation. Interview whoever's name pops up, take their word for it, and go back to reporting on the Rose Festival, wrecks on I-20 and mobile home fires...
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