Judge issues rare monetary sanction against Harris County DA after 8-month delay in turning over evi

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by  Keri Blakinger Sep. 6, 2019

Judge issues rare monetary sanction against Harris County DA after 8-month delay in turning over evidence

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office was ordered to pay a rare sanction after a judge found that prosecutors acted in bad faith when they took eight months to turn over evidence that could have helped the defense in a misdemeanor drunken driving case.

Even though the accused man’s attorneys asked for the information — records showing the disciplinary history of a La Porte police officer involved in the arrest — in October, prosecutors still hadn’t turned over the material by trial’s scheduled start in July. When a judge finally ordered them to, the state’s attorneys insisted on a hearing to determine if they could turn over the information under seal.

“Withholding was inexcusable and then the judge told them to turn it over and they said, ‘No, not unless you give us a protective order,’” said defense attorney Jordan Lewis. “All of it just speaks to the very clear attitude that officers are above the law.”

The decision to levy a sanction — $500 due this month — against prosecutors is so uncommon that multiple attorneys and former judges said they’d never heard of it happening before. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office called into question whether jurists are allowed to impose sanctions over withheld evidence, saying Judge Andrew Wright instead should have just allowed the defense more time to prepare for trial once they got the materials requested.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Judge-issues-rare-monetary-sanction-against-14422157.php

[PeteS in CA]

The decision to levy a sanction — $500 due this month — against prosecutors is so uncommon that multiple attorneys and former judges said they’d never heard of it happening before.

The prosecutor is obviously playing a game, his/her budget vs. the defendant's ability to pay legal bills. That monetary sanction should be no lower than the defendant's legal bills up to the moment the prosecution finally delivers the information. Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect the prosecutor's bad faith has cost the defendant much more than just $500.

The purpose of this provision of the 6th Amendment, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial ...," is to forbid what this prosecutor has been doing, using delay as a financial weapon against the defendant.