I think Houston needs a new District Attorney. This is terrible. A witness was treated as a prisoner rather than given protection in a safe house since she was vital to the prosecution of a rapist.
The current District Attorney Devon Anderson should have resigned. There are many problems in Houston including prison guards that rape inmates. This is a case for the federal Justice Department.
October 27, 2016
Defense lawyer Rusty Hardin, one of Houston's most renowned litigators who said he was outraged at political ads put out by Democrat Kim Ogg, (click here) said the entire criminal justice system — not DA Devon Anderson (click here) — failed a mentally ill rape victim who was jailed for almost a month last year while waiting to testify.
Hardin is representing Nicholas Socias, the trial prosecutor at the center of the controversy.
"What happened to the victim is incredibly horrible," Hardin told reporters on Thursday. "But Nick was confronted with the problem, absolutely convinced that if this man was not tried in this particular case, that he not only would continue to rape again, but his rapes were getting more and more violent."
At issue is the plight of a mentally unstable rape victim who made headlines this summer after filing a federal lawsuit because she was jailed over the Christmas holiday after breaking down on the stand while testifying against a serial rapist.
The woman, known as Jenny, was first taken to the mental health ward at St. Joseph's Hospital and then was transferred to the Harris County jail to be held as a material witness. She was accidentally misclassified as a suspect, instead of a witness, and put in general population, where, she said, she was beaten by another inmate and assaulted by a jail guard. She has filed a federal lawsuit over the handling of her case.
Anderson was roundly criticized for her office's action but has maintained that the rapist would not have been convicted if the woman had not testified.
The criticism has carried through to campaign mailers and television commercials from Ogg, Anderson's rival in the general election for district attorney, and Ogg's supporters. One commercial features Jenny's mother, in shadows, detailing her daughter's ordeal and urging voters to support Ogg....
