Roundup: Lawsuit alleges cronyism and corruption at DPS; murder indictment of Dallas cop no aberration under outgoing DA; informant testimony makes for messy innocence claims; Pam Colloff's favorite #cjreform podcasts, and other stories

Here are a few browser-clearing odds and ends of which Grits readers should be aware:

Dallas cop indicted for Botham Jean murder
In Dallas, former DPD Officer Amber Guyger has been indicted for murder in the shooting death of her unarmed neighbor, Botham Jean. You've got to hand it to outgoing Republican DA Faith Johnson: She's been more willing to charge officers in wrongful shooting episodes than any Democratic elected prosecutor in Texas, or for that matter, as she boasted in this 13-second clip from the campaign trail, any other District Attorney in the country:


Lawsuit: DPS suffers from 'cronyism,' 'corruption'
A federal lawsuit has been filed accusing the Texas DPS under Col. Steve McCraw of "a 'good old boy' culture of cronyism and outright corruption." See initial coverage from KXAN in Austin.

Corrections Committee Interim Report out
The TX House Corrections Committee has published its Interim Report. Topics studied included responses to Hurricane Harvey, the need for specialized programming for 17-25 year olds, flaws in the state jail system, and heat litigation. More on this soon after Grits has had a chance to read it thoroughly.

Creuzot looking forward to Dallas DA stint
D Magazine published an interesting interview with Dallas DA-elect John Creuzot, for those looking for clues as to how this party hopping fixture in Dallas justice politics might operate at the helm of the DA's office. See the October Reasonably Suspicious podcast for excerpts from a debate between Creuzot and his Republican-incumbent opponent, Faith Johnson; the full 1.5 hour debate is here. Note to Judge Creuzot and other incoming elected prosecutors: Consider hiring this guy for prosecutor trainings.

Forum promotes public defender option for Travis County
A public-defender office has been proposed for Travis County. Those interested should check out this recent community forum discussing the possibility. See prior, related Grits coverage.

TDCJ troubles lead to calls for independent oversight
At the Texas Tribune, see coverage of prospects for independent oversight at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in light of recent scandals, a rise in suicides, and gross understaffing at numerous rural units. House Corrections Chairman James White doesn't sound convinced.

Recanted witness, corrupt DEA agent won't sway Harris prosecutors on innocence claims
Especially in the context of the drug war, but also high-profile murders and violent crimes, the reliance of the justice system on self-interested testimony by confidential informants is one of the most significant causes of wrongful convictions. It's also among the hardest causes to prevent, and one for which the courts are loathe to provide redress. The Houston Chronicle's Keri Blakinger describes a case in which a DEA informant, who has since recanted his testimony, accused Lamar Burks of murdering someone at a dice game. But the Harris County Conviction Integrity Unit wouldn't budge. Now, one of the agents centrally involved with the investigation has been indicted in an unrelated case in New Orleans for perjury and falsifying evidence, evincing a similar fact pattern to what Burks' attorneys allege.

In The Dark shines light on amazing, terrible case
At Pam Colloff's recommendation, I've been listening to Season 2 of the podcast, In the Dark, focused on an apparent false conviction for a quadruple murder in Mississippi. This investigative tour de force is taking the form to new levels. Awesome work, as detailed in this Longform podcast interview about how the story was put together. When I interviewed her for the August episode of Reasonably Suspicious, Pam also recommended the second season of the Missing and Murdered podcast, and the podcast After Effect from WNYC, dissecting the aftermath of a tragic SWAT team raid. Just for fun, I excerpted her recommendations into a short, 2.5 minute clip, for anyone interested:


Sandra Bland documentary premiers on HBO Monday
Last, but definitely no least, on Monday, a documentary titled, "Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland," premieres on HBO. Grits simultaneously cannot wait to see it and dreads the broadcast. It's such a terrible, heart breaking story! Here's a review from the SA Express News, and the trailer:

Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland Promo Cutdown

Deal with the Devil? DEA allegedly overlooked Sinaloa cartel drug smuggling for intel on rivals

Simultaneously shocking and also utterly unsurprising. According to a report by Business Insider:

An investigation by El Universal found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs while Sinaloa provided information on rival cartels.

Sinaloa, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S.

There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered to be "the world’s most powerful drug trafficker," coordinates with American authorities.

But the El Universal investigation is the first to publish court documents that include corroborating testimony from a DEA agent and a Justice Department official.

See the full BI story for more details. My Spanish isn't good enough to closely parse the El Universal story, and the Google translate version is pretty raw, so I'm looking forward to followup reports. Certainly, it's not uncommon for law enforcement to cut deals with criminals for information. But this story alleges the US conspired with the Sinaloa cartel at the very highest levels. A few years ago, American intelligence officials were telling the press that Guzman and the Sinaloa cartel appeared to be "winning" the bloody feud with its rivals for control of smuggling routes into the U.S.. What they didn't say was that Sinaloa was "winning" because the US government was helping them!

MORE: From Forbes. AND: A rebuttal from the Washington Post. AND: Paul Kennedy adds his two cents.

Immigration courts, asset forfeiture, federal public defenders impacted by US government shutdown

I'd been thinking that the federal shutdown would have little effect on the criminal justice system because the criminal courts were exempted and it would be awhile before the shutdown would begin to impact federal grants. But this item from the Associated Press reminds me that the civil courts have been dramatically scaled back, which affects both immigration and federal asset forfeiture cases. Here are a few highlights:

The government shutdown is slowing the wheels of justice in federal courts by delaying civil cases, forcing prosecutors to operate with skeleton staffs and raising uncertainty about the system's immediate future if the stalemate continues past Thursday.

That's when federal courts officials expect the reserve funds they have been using since the Oct. 1 start of the shutdown will run out.

Criminal cases, which are required by law to go to a speedy trial, are still moving ahead, as are most bankruptcy cases and appeals. Civil cases and those in immigration court, however, are feeling the greatest impact from the shutdown. ...

Prosecutors, staff and experts from other federal agencies such as the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency needed to help try civil cases have been furloughed. U.S. attorneys requested judges to temporarily set aside some cases, while a few districts have requested a blanket halt to all civil cases.

In Los Angeles, 51 federal prosecutors and nearly 50 staff working civil cases have been sent home, leaving the Justice Department to file stay requests as deadlines approach. Some requests have been granted, others denied, U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr. said. ...

Federal public defenders also are feeling the crunch, deferring an increasing number of cases to private attorneys — a practice that had already been in the rise due to cuts from the automatic budget cuts earlier this year.

But the fund to pay those attorneys ran out in September and the shutdown has made the situation worse, Hall said.

What a cluster f*%k. MORE: From the Austin Statesman.

'The Police State is Here': Conservative critiques of Big Brother

 These few, disparate items with caught Grits' attention related broadly to limits, or the lack thereof, on government power:

Conservative critiques of Big Brother
A reader forwarded a link to an interesting pair of stories from the Rockwall County News (July 26). See here (pdf) - the articles in question are the second and third ones on the first page, scrolling down, with these headlines:

• Will you be the next peaceful traveler? A scenario and analysis of judicial practice
• The Police State is Here

The second story laments that "So-called fusion centers have popped up in 49 states, amassing files on ordinary Americans for doing the most ordinary of things." These articles interest me not because of their incisiveness - I could quibble with aspects of both of them - but because they portray critiques of the criminal justice system from the perspective of populist conservatism.

Texas let DEA install license plate readers
Speaking of fusion centers and gathering data on ordinary Americans, the national ACLU has launched a research effort to gather information about automatic license plate readers. Their press release mentions:

The Drug Enforcement Administration is planning to install a network of plate readers on major highway systems nationwide. The Department of Homeland Security clocks every car that enters the country. Local and state police departments operate many thousands of ALPR systems nationwide—how many and to what extent, we aren’t sure. Together these programs form a network of data points that can tell the government a lot about our lives.

The Texas Department of Transportation in 2008 rejected a DEA request to install license plate readers on Texas highways, however another recent ACLU blog post stated that "scanners are already in place on 'drug trafficking corridors' in California and Texas." I was unaware that 2008 decision had been reversed. Does data from license plate readers, one wonders, funnel up into so-called "fusion centers"? Who besides DEA has access to this information?

Cops get database with Texans' Rx prescription information
Texas is developing other large databases that a civil libertarian may fear would be uploaded into fusion centers or used by various government entities for reasons unrelated to the purpose for which they were created, particularly a "new state online database of patient prescription drug information." Reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "DPS officials say the database is secure and, beginning this month, available to registered users who provide licensing information, including law enforcers." And if it's available to "law enforcers," why couldn't the data be uploaded to fusion center databases?

On the political economy of the militarization of domestic policing
While we're on the subject of conservative critiques of the criminal justice system, check out this academic article critiquing the "the political economy of the militarization of domestic policing" from the perspective of the Law and Economics movement. Here's a notable passage attributing abuses to the government's near "monopoly" on use of force:

One reason governments are able to effectively exploit their citizens is because they maintain a monopoly, or near monopoly, on military force. It is the concentration of military power, with its weaponry, organizational structure, and tactics that serves as the ultimate tool of government abuse. The threat of violent force raises the cost of deviations from government decree and can be used to repress citizens. As per the paradox of government, this leads to the central concern that while force can, in theory, serve the function of protecting citizens from threats to their person and property, it can also be used by the political elite to undermine the very rights government is tasked with protecting.

Fourth Amendment as a campaign issue
Finally, Grits found it fascinating that legislative efforts to restrict TSA pat downs at airports became a campaign issue in the Texas GOP US Senate runoff, and it seems highly likely the topic will be revived next year when the Texas Legislature meets again. For many years the only time the Fourth Amendment came up in Texas campaigns was when politicians (from both parties) promised to scale back its protections in response to the "war on drugs" and/or the "war on terror." The measure turned out to be immensely popular with the GOP base and perhaps could open the door to more legislation aimed at bolstering Fourth Amendment protections (which couldn't happen soon enough to satisfy this correspondent).

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/08/02/4150020/state-launches-online-database.html#storylink=c

DEA refuses help in forensic investigation for fear of affront to prosecutors

As part of their investigation of the Austin PD crime lab, the Forensic Science Commission contacted the DEA lab in Dallas to ask them to re-test 23 controlled-substance samples for them. Darrell Davis, the manager of the Dallas lab, was enthusiastic and didn't believe it to be a problem, FSC general counsel Lynn Robitaille told commissioners at their meeting today, but felt he needed to ask permission from his superiors at the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. before he said "yes."

Later, though, the FSC was informed the DEA lab would not perform the testing. When they asked why, the FSC was told that DOJ managers in D.C. feared that, if they found any "discrepancies," it would "put prosecutors in a bad position." Robitaille emphasized that, in this case, the Travis County DA supported re-testing. But it didn't matter. DEA still said no, and refused to give their reasons in writing upon request.

Ultimately, Austin PD agreed to pay for re-testing and the samples were sent to a private Pennsylvania lab. No discrepancies were discovered, but just the risk of an adverse outcome was too much for the DEA.

In the end, none of the samples cited by the complainant which were re-tested came back as errors. The FSC found that one senior APD analyst had routinely reported results without properly documenting the underlying tests. (The analyst called it a "bad habit.") Another person was allowed to change an answer on a proficiency test after the fact (from saying they found no controlled substances to identifying one). Employees should not be performing "tech reviews" of their own analyses, commissioners said, as happened at APD in some cases. (APD said they've discontinued the practice.)

The FSC did not formally find negligence or misconduct at the APD crime lab, but they identified numerous "improvement opportunities" particularly regarding how they document their work. The commission concluded that lab failed to follow protocols that were in place at the time, but the infractions did not rise to the level of negligence because they did not affect the test outcomes. (Basically, the ruling was "no harm, no foul.") The Austin lab will be cited by their accrediting body, ASCLD-LAB, for non-compliance with standards, the commission was told.