Jury Foreman Dubs District Attorney’s Case A “Shit Show” and “Complete Waste of Taxpayer Dollars”
According to Jeff Tollett, a Houston area dentist, watching Kim Ogg’s prosecutors try to secure a shooting conviction was a lot like pulling teeth.
Dr. Tollett served as the jury foreman in a case where a grandfather—and U.S combat veteran—who “prior to this event, has never had any run-ins with the law” shot his son-in-law with a shotgun after the son-in-law:
beat up his teenage kid,
threatened grandpa that he would “kick his ass”,
drunkenly entered grandpa’s home without permission,
swinging his fists at his own mother (who, at the time, was at high risk of dying from liver failure); and
aggressively approached grandpa while drunk and shouting profanities.
An affidavit filed with the trial court reveals that Dr. Tollett called the trial a “shit show”, and explained that “in his opinion, the [prosecution’s] sworn witnesses were lying on the stand”, and that “the only witness he believed was the defendant.” When asked about the prospect of Ogg’s office bringing this case back for a round two, he said that he “hoped it would not be retried as it was another big waste of time and money.”
And yet, Ogg’s office has re-filed charges in the case. But now, the defense lawyer—a former senior prosecutor in Ogg’s office—has filed a motion to dismiss the indictment based on prosecutorial misconduct.
In other words, this former prosecutor has accused his old colleagues of committing three separate moral, legal and constitutional violations:
“knowingly and intentionally mischaracterizing evidence presented at trial to create a false impression with the jury,”
“failure to disclose evidence affecting the credibility of [a] state’s witness, including “inconsistent statements” about the shooting; and
“subornation of perjurious testimony.”
To borrow Dr. Tollett’s observation, what a shit show.
Beyond this case, though, Tollett’s observations provide another window into a District Attorney’s Office that even prosecutors within the office have called “bad”, “toxic,” “hostile” and “mismanaged beyond comprehension.”
When the former Chief of the Human Trafficking and Adult Sex Crimes Division, Johna Stallings, submitted her resignation to D.A. Ogg earlier this year, she begged the District Attorney 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.” And, as one former employee wrote on a public forum, “This place has the worst work environment ever, and caters to the incompetent and lazy.”