Journalist Says “Conversation” With Ogg’s Comms Director “Left Me Feeling Bullied”
Ana Lastra is an investigative journalist at KPRC, Houston’s NBC affiliate, where she manages the reporters and editors who conduct the news outlet’s most in-depth reporting. In an email sent to Joe Stinebaker, the Director of Communications at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, which Houston Watch has obtained, Ms. Lastra writes:
“Thank you for the call earlier today. I’m glad we were able to connect with each other. Please don’t hesitate to call or email me should you ever have an issue with one of the reporters on my team … I can appreciate that you have concerns about Joel Eisenbaum [an Emmy award winning investigative reporter at KPRC whom Lastra supervises] …. However, the conversation left me feeling bullied to make a decision that would disrupt workflow and the faith in my team. It’s disappointing to see a tactic like this being used…”
Stinebaker communicated to Lastra that Eisenbaum’s reporting “crossed a line” and that “the DA’s office consider[s] Joel to be persona non grata,” illustrating a posture towards the press rarely exhibited by the administration of an elected leader save for the Trump Presidency.
Stinebaker accused Eisenbaum of shoddy reporting on a story about “shockingly low conviction rates for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in 2022.” Specifically, Stinebaker accused Eisenbaum of “not go[ing] into that there may be multiple charges, diversion, or deferred adjudication involved in these cases.” However, in her email to Stinabker, Lastra writes that she had reviewed the story herself, and that “Joel [had] included those points in his reporting.”
Stinebaker also complained to Lastra that Eisenbaum had committed a cardinal sin against District Attorney Ogg earlier in the year when he broke the news in an television interview that Sean Teare, the “well-known harris county division chief of vehicular crimes” had resigned and would “now challenge his soon-to-be former boss, District Attorney Kim Ogg, in the next primary [election].”
During the interview, Teare said that one reason he’s running against Ogg is that under her leadership “there’s a very big morale issue in the DA’s office.” Stinebaker accused the news station of not providing Ogg with enough time to respond. However, Lastra explained that Ogg’s communication department—via John Donnely, a public relations staffer for Ogg, who was busy handling his own pornography related scandal this year—indicated that the DA’s office did not want to comment:
“Joel informed Mr. Donnelly that Teare brought up claims of ‘low morale’ within the DA’s office. And when Joel followed up before 6PM with ‘I got nothing from you guys,’ Mr. Donnelly followed up with ‘That is correct.’”
In other words: Lastra felt bullied by Stinebaker’s call because it is bullying when a member of the leadership team of a powerful elected official calls a journalist to demand that she remove a reporter from a story and backs up that demand with provably false claims.
Zooming out: Stinebaker’s bullying of Lastra is just the latest in a chorus of claims that Ogg and her leadership exhibit a toxic pattern of bullying and intimidation against those who deign to disagree with Ogg’s track record or decision-making.
Just two weeks ago, For the Houston Chronicle, Jen Rice and Neena Satija reported that “Ogg has launched criminal investigations against county officials she was publicly feuding with at least four times since she took office in 2017 …. Taxpayers have covered nearly $1 million in legal bills for public employees who were pulled into the investigations but never charged with crimes.” The former county administrator told the Chronicle that Ogg used “explicit and implicit threats” of a criminal inquiry if she didn’t get the funding outcome that she wanted. And a local judge told the newspaper that his advice to anyone dealing with Kim Ogg would be—“don’t cross her, plain and simple … If you piss her off, you’re going to a grand jury and you may or may not be indicted.”
The bullying allegations are echoed by prosecutors and other staff who worked for the DA’s Office under Ogg’s leadership. For example, on GlassDoor, former prosecutors who worked in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office have referred to Ogg’s leadership as “toxic,” “horrible” and “hostile”.
Similarly, a trove of *190* resignation letters from DA’s Office employees—reviewed by Houston Watch pursuant to a public records request—included specific accusations that Ogg and the office leadership are “condescending” and engaged in “retaliation.” For example, on her way out the door earlier this year, Johna Stallings, Chief of the Human Trafficking and Adult Sex Crimes Division, urged Ogg to create an office where “supervisors at the highest level will begin to work with, not contrive against, other supervisors to create a happy, healthy environment for HCDAO employees” and not “marginalize or degrade investigators, support staff and others who allow us to do our best in the courtroom.”