Special Reports » Law & Disorder

Subscribe

DA Tyler has

  • Print
  • •
  • •
  • Post a Comment
  • •
  • Favorite
  • •
  • Report an error Report error
    • Thank you for your submission.
      Error report or correction
      Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  
      Sending report
    • Close
  • •
  • Originally published May 28, 2008 at 7:59 p.m., updated May 28, 2008 at 7:59 p.m.

At best, Victoria District Attorney Stephen Tyler is guilty of letting his ego run wild.

At worst, he’s poisoning the prosecution of his former chief of staff, Michael Ratcliff, who is accused of sexual assault on a child.

The district attorney revealed no evidence to support any other conclusion in announcing Tuesday’s indictments of Victoria Police Chief Bruce Ure and former City Attorney David Smith.

The indictments stunned the community because they named not only two top officials but – just as alarming – the indictments seem to be little more than a political vendetta. The district attorney became outraged that the police chief and the city attorney meddled into the Texas Department of Public Safety’s investigation of Ratcliff, a sheriff before he joined Tyler’s staff.

In their defense, Ure and Smith said then that they thought the Ratcliff investigation was being buried. They maintained it went forward only because the Victoria police department applied pressure.

Even if you accept the DA’s position that the police chief and city attorney had no business interfering in another agency’s work, no reasonable person would consider this a criminal offense. Instead, it would be a professional dispute that should be settled through an administrative process.

The meddling would be indictable only if Ure and Smith had criminal intent. Were they trying to poison the Ratcliff investigation for some sort of sinister reason? If so, Tyler offered no hint of that in his indictments.

Instead, the grand jury he led focused its charges on the fact that Ure and Smith talked to an Advocate reporter and editor about the Ratcliff investigation. Yes, they did share with the Advocate their concerns about the case against the former sheriff and the current DA chief of staff. The newspaper waited and watched, never reporting on the case until Ratcliff was indicted.

For that, Tyler decides Ure and Smith should be charged with a third-degree felony. The message the DA is sending is that he’ll go after anyone who criticizes his office. He will even prosecute whistle blowers.

Ure and Smith also face a felony charge for interviewing Ratcliff’s accuser. Again, they say they were concerned about the progress of the investigation. Perhaps they were wrong to intervene, but this hardly seems criminal – unless Tyler can prove some ulterior motive.

By wielding the considerable power of the grand jury around like a club, the district attorney contends he has caught Ure and Smith perjuring themselves when testifying about their actions surrounding the Ratcliff investigation. These charges hardly seem likely to stick if Tyler cannot show more substance to the other accusations. DAs go after police chiefs for deep-seated corruption, not for childish spats.

Sadly, the district attorney seems blinded by his own self-righteousness. He proclaims himself to be a prosecutor and not a politician. Yet, he has embroiled his office in a political prosecution only a month before his former employee is set to appear in court facing a much more serious charge. Surely, he can see the controversy is providing ammunition to Ratcliff’s defense.

What’s more important? Going after public officials who offended him, or ensuring the fair trial of a former sheriff accused of abusing the power of his office?

The DA and law enforcement supposedly had settled their differences in January when they sat down with a mediator, Victoria County Judge Juergen “Skipper” Koetter. “This could throw a monkey wrench back into all of the things we’ve tried to work out,” the judge said after Tuesday’s indictments.

A “monkey wrench” is a polite way of putting it. Tyler might as well have dropped a bomb on Victoria’s criminal justice system.

Unless he can better prove his case in subsequent court proceedings, the aftershock to Tuesday’s indictments could well consume his political career.



  • Print
  • •
  • •
  • Post a Comment
  • •
  • Favorite
  • •
  • Report an error Report error
    • Thank you for your submission.
      Error report or correction
      Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  
      Sending report
    • Close
  • •