For years there have been lingering questions about an improper relationship in the Charles Dean Hood trial. Hood is scheduled to be executed next week, and a former prosecutor has stepped forward confirming rumors of an affair between the trial judge and the prosecutor at the time of Hood's trial. The affidavit is here; the pleading, here.
In today's New York Times, Adam Ellick reports, "Texas Inmate Says Judge and Prosecutor Had Affair ."
Lawyers for a Texas inmate facing execution next week filed court papers on Thursday accusing the judge at his double-murder trial of having an affair with the prosecutor.
The papers, filed in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, argue that the relationship between the judge, Verla Sue Holland, and the man who was district attorney of Collin County, Tom O’Connell, should nullify the conviction of the inmate, Charles Hood, in 1990.
The filing says that Judge Holland had a “personal and direct interest in the outcome of the case” and that “the wall of silence that has long protected Judge Holland must now come down.”
“Under these circumstances,” Gregory Wiercioch, Mr. Hood’s lead lawyer, said in an interview, “Judge Holland had a clear duty to let the parties know about her relationship and to recuse herself, because anybody knowing these facts would be shocked that she presided over this capital murder trial.”
Neither Mr. O’Connell, 66, who has practiced law in Plano after retiring as a prosecutor in 2001, nor Ms. Holland, also 66, responded to phone messages.
The petitions include an affidavit from a former assistant district attorney, Matthew Goeller, who said that the six-year relationship between Judge Holland and Mr. O’Connell was “common knowledge” and that it raised “reasonable doubt on the judge’s capacity to act impartially.”
The relationship was reported by Salon.com in 2005.
In the Austin American-Statesman, Chuck Lindell writes, "Judge, prosecutor secretly dated, appeal says."
She was one of the longest-serving district judges in Collin County history and served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — the state's highest criminal court — from 1997 to 2001.
Ironically for an appeal involving judicial impartiality, eight of the appeals court's nine judges served with Holland, and they might have to consider whether they should recuse themselves from Hood's case.
Dianne Jennings has, "Attorneys seek reversal of execution, saying judge and district attorney were
romantically involved," in the Dallas Morning News.
The former judge, Sue Holland, did not return calls for comment. Neither did the former prosecutor, Tom O'Connell.
Rumors about a romantic relationship between the two have circulated for years, including in a Salon.com article in 2005. But Mr. Wiercioch says the issue is being raised officially for the first time five days before Mr. Hood's scheduled execution because a former assistant district attorney filed an affidavit about the alleged conflict.
The former prosecutor, Matthew Goeller, said in an affidavit filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that the relationship was "common knowledge" and casts "a reasonable doubt on the judge's capacity to act impartially."
The ABA eJournal has, "Death-Row Inmate Claims Trial Judge Secretly Dated Prosecutor".
"The wall of silence that has long protected Judge Holland must now come down," the appeal said. "An intimate relationship ... not only implies a special willingness of the judge to accept the prosecutor's representations and arguments, but also suggests extensive personal contacts beyond the confines of the courtroom."
Affidavits filed with the court said Hood’s lawyers tried to confirm an affair since the mid-1990s. They finally saw some success on June 3 when a former assistant D.A. signed a statement saying the relationship was “common knowledge” in the office.
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