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One reason police cited when the rift became public last year: District Attorney Stephen Tyler disrespected officers in reports explaining why he rejected their cases.
A five-day analysis of reports showed that the district attorney’s office is largely direct with, but not derogatory toward, officers and victims.
Of the 615 reports, which the district attorney’s office released to the Advocate 10 days ago, none were deemed blatantly unprofessional.
Most involved in the rift will not talk about the reports analysis, however. Tensions between the police and the DA’s office remain higher than ever, according to many observers.
Tyler said the criminal justice system, by its nature, can be a bit adversarial.
“The average guy who might take offense to the reports wasn’t the guy who took it public,” Tyler said Saturday.
Amid a highly publicized rift between Tyler and law enforcement that erupted last year, former City Attorney David Smith and Victoria Police Chief Bruce Ure said then that these case-decline reports often degrade officers, disrespect victims and were often unjustified.
Ure declined comment. Smith was unavailable on Saturday night.
DeWitt County District Attorney Michael Sheppard talked about the reports – a number of which were read to him – on Saturday. “I think the reports are straightforward,” Sheppard said.
The Advocate rated the reports based on how a reasonable and prudent reader might. All are posted online for public review.
These reports detail reasons why, and the manner in which, the district attorney’s office declined cases from January to August 2007.
Tyler and law enforcement publicly feuded about the number of cases the office declines to prosecute.
The Advocate could not measure whether a case’s declining was warranted – an officer’s police work was not contained in the reports, for example.
However, the newspaper did find 18 reports containing questionable remarks.
To be deemed questionable, the reports contain remarks that appear harmless – but also might be viewed as unprofessional by others.
These 18 case-decline reports represent 3 percent of all such reports.
“PLEASE READ THE PENAL CODE!” Tyler wrote after describing how a burglary charge requires intent to commit theft, assault or another felony.
Tyler wrote that emphatic request on multiple reports.
“How about canvassing the bar for witnesses and obtaining statements?” Tyler wrote on another case report, which he declined to prosecute because an officer filed an incorrect charge, his notes suggest.
It’s these types of statements, though, that infuriate some in law enforcement.
Sheppard said the questionable reports indicate frustration from Tyler.
“It doesn’t strike me as out of line at all. Prosecutors have to point out problems in the case to law enforcement,” Sheppard said. “If he’s repeatedly having to point out the same problems, at some point you’re going to say, ‘Please read the penal code.’”
The analysis of all the reports showed that as Tyler’s first year in office progressed, the frequency of questionable reports increased.
Sheppard said he understands frustrations about declined cases from both sides. Lawyers and officers work under different standards.
Laura Weiser, a Victoria County court-at-law judge and a former prosecutor, talked about those standards.
“Police use probable cause. Lawyers have to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt – a very different and much higher standard,” Weiser said.
Weiser wrote a letter in December pleading for both sides in the rift to come together.
Weiser wrote that she’d been forced to release inmates from jail because the rift – and a disagreement about the case intake process – caused the justice system to grind to a relative standstill.
As for the case-decline reports, she deems them OK.
“Could some of them been phrased better? Maybe. Again, I don’t see a problem with them,” she said.
The Advocate, meanwhile, received the reports after a nine-month court battle to obtain them.
In early August 2007, at the height of the rift, the Advocate submitted an open records request for the documents. Tyler denied the request.
Later, the Texas Attorney General’s office deemed the reports public.
Tyler filed suit against the ruling and lost.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Kelly, who compiled the reports for the Advocate, hand-delivered a box of more than 1,000 documents to the newspaper.
Also contained in the box were e-mails and letters to and from the district attorney and law enforcement, as well as other memos.
Victoria County Judge Don Pozzi declined to comment about the reports and the rift, saying that he is an outsider to it all.
“I want everyone to get along and to do their job as it’s supposed to be done for the protection of the public,” Pozzi said.
Gabe Semenza is Public Service Editor for the Victoria Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gsemenza@vicad.com or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.