In today's Houston Chronicle, Brian Rogers reports, "DA's office plugs onward."
Although District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal has struggled to maintain a business-as-usual atmosphere on the sixth floor of the Harris County Courthouse amid the fallout of the e-mail scandal that killed his re-election bid, his prosecutors are hoping juries won't paint them with the same brush.
Rosenthal's e-mails included love notes to his secretary, racist jokes, sexually explicit images and campaign materials.
"It's awful," said Luci Davidson, one of Rosenthal's division chiefs. "You never know when you wake up and turn on the news what they're going to be saying about us, globally. We're all clumped together on being unethical and racist and liars. It's very depressing, and it's hard to stay focused."
A day after Davidson's comment, the office was in the news for rejecting a grand jury's attempt to indict Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife in connection with a fire that destroyed their home last year.
A veteran prosecutor, Davidson said the rest of the office soldiers on while Rosenthal is criticized.
And:
Prosecutor Denise Bradley, who is slated to help Rosenthal pursue the death penalty in March for Juan Leonardo Quintero for the shooting death of HPD officer Rodney Johnson, said morale is low.
"There are over 200 fine, dedicated attorneys here who have worked for their entire careers in this office," Bradley said. "It's discouraging to think that your life's work is being judged by the actions of someone else."
Rosenthal vowed to prosecute the Quintero case himself, but hasn't told Bradley whether he plans to take the lead or will even be working on the case at all, Bradley said.
Rosenthal did not return calls for comment.
Now a lame duck, Rosenthal withdrew from seeking a third term after e-mails in a federal civil rights lawsuit surfaced. Rosenthal is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt later this month to answer questions about deleting thousands of e-mails after they were subpoenaed.
Although Rosenthal's part in the Quintero trial is uncertain, Bradley and other high-ranking administrators in the office said they aren't worried about securing a conviction.
Trial bureau chief Lyn McClellan said other cases attracting media attention are winding their way through the process, regardless of what the county's top prosecutor is doing.
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