Finally... Food!

 

The Harris County Civil Courthouse has been without a cafeteria for over six months.  This past Wednesday, that sad situation changed with the opening of a Luby's/Fudruckers and a Starbucks in the basement. 

The Starbucks is not a full service operation and its employees do not make the esoteric coffee drinks, but it is open from 6:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.

Judge Dean Knows How to Conduct a Jury Trial

Judge Sheri Y. Dean and I have not always seen eye-to-eye on her legal rulings in some cases.  But, after my trial with her weeks ago, I can certify that the woman really knows how to conduct a jury trial.  Judge Dean may waste time at docket call chatting with lawyers before they start discussing their cases, but she runs jury trials with efficiency and she starts early and on time.   Thanks to my days as a personal injury attorney, I have been involved in over 100 jury trials, so I can tell when a judge does not know what he or she is doing in a trial by jury.  Judge Dean is friendly with the jury, firm with the lawyers and she knows the procedures.  For example, she required the lawyers to provide an explanation even when we both agreed that a prospective juror should be struck for cause.  She pointed out errors in our jury charge and then was willing to reword the Pattern Jury Charge question on the geographic restriction based on the testimony in our case.  She immediately conducted the property portion of the divorce trial as soon as the jury went out to deliberate.   Judge Dean was strictly neutral with the lawyers and she made no comments that could have made the jury suspect who she was for.

I often write to criticize judges, so it is only fair to share praise just as often.  Judge Dean's staff, from the bailiff to the court reporter to the clerk, was just as efficient and highly skilled in how they handled the jurors and the lawyers.  They were very friendly with the nervous parties and Delores Johnson definitely helped out the lawyers with the audiovisual equipment.

I am still in my second jury trial in two weeks (fifth trial in four weeks), which explains my delay in getting another issue of this newsletter out to you. 

The Mongoose Effect

Click here to read the last issue of this newsletter which suggested Galveston County District Judge Lonnie Cox should be investigated for possible ethical and even criminal issues because Cox's lawyer in a civil case was allowed to practice in Cox's court, was appointed by Cox on criminal cases, his criminal fees were approved by Cox and then that lawyer gave the judge legal services for free or at a greatly reduced rate.  My story was the top headline in the Galveston Daily News the next day.


The next day, another front page article in the newspaper quoted a legal ethics expert, who agreed with me:

A third article in the Galveston Daily News provided more details of my complaint and essentially said that Cox has mislead the newspaper about how he paid his lawyer (my article revealed he used campaign funds to pay his attorney).  The News wrote:

A lengthy editorial in the Galveston Daily News also discussed my allegations and questioned the timing of my article. Click here to read this editorial.  I would explain to the editor of the News, whose reporters never do independent, in-depth investigative journalism that questions elected officials, that I published my article as soon as I discovered that Judge Cox had been appointing his own civil lawyer in criminal cases and only after I had spent a few weeks investigating and confirming facts. 

 

District Attorney Jack Roady is properly recusing himself from investigating Cox and he has turned the matter over to the division of the Texas Attorney General's office which assists DA's in similar situations.  The Attorney General is not taking any action before the March 6 primary and will not confirm or deny it is investigating Cox.  Two sources confirm the AG has the case.  It makes sense that the state prosecutors will start work after the primary election tomorrow where Judge Cox is running against County Judge Mark Henry.  Of course, an investigation does not mean any crime was committed.  Judge Cox hotly denies he did anything wrong, although his many e-mails about me fail to really respond to the 100% provable facts I outlined in my article.  Click here to read one of several e-mails Cox sent out about my investigation.  My newsletter story and my name are being mentioned a lot in advertisements and mass e-mails in this very nasty Republican contest.  My investigation even plays a role in the political sign wars.

 

Book Reviews

Directorate S

 

Sherlock Holmes' lodge-mate, Dr. John Watson, an injured veteran of the Battle of Marawand, knew in 1881 that the world's most powerful military could regret invading Afghanistan.  In fact, Britain invaded Afghanistan twice and each time experienced disaster and ultimate retreat.  The Russians learned that lesson in the 1980's and now it is the turn of the United States.  Our nation has spent over a trillion dollars on the longest war in its history and there is no end in sight to the conflict in Afghanistan.  In fact, it appears that we are currently losing that war as the Taliban gains territory and wreaks havoc in the cities controlled by the corrupt government we support.

Steve Coll is the dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and he has won two Pulitzer Prizes.  His second was for his 2004 book, "Ghost Wars," a history of conflict in Afghanistan from the 1979 Soviet invasion to the eve of 9/11.  "Directorate S" continues that story from 2001 through 2016.  The title, "Directorate S" refers to the arm of Pakistani intelligence that focuses on Afghanistan.  One of the many mistakes made by the American military when it invaded Afghanistan, was to totally misread Pakistan's influence with, and plans for, the Taliban.   Pakistan acted as if it was cooperating with the U.S. but it never stopped helping the Taliban.   While Washington paid subsidies to Pakistan amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars,  the Pakistanis were still actively supporting the Taliban.  Pakistan's military leaders were playing a double game, the U.S. military knew they were and yet could do nothing about it.  Coll explains why Pakistan feels Afghanistan and the Taliban are so vital to its strategy to contain their foe India and to disrupt Kashmir.  The wonder is that our military leaders were not able to figure out what Coll does such a great job of explaining in his book.

 Click here to buy the book from Amazon, which describes the book as follows:

Today we know that the war in Afghanistan would falter badly because of military hubris at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the drain on resources and provocation in the Muslim world caused by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and corruption. But more than anything, as Coll makes painfully clear, the war in Afghanistan was doomed because of the failure of the United States to apprehend the motivations and intentions of I.S.I.'s "Directorate S". This was a swirling and shadowy struggle of historic proportions, which endured over a decade and across both the Bush and Obama administrations, involving multiple secret intelligence agencies, a litany of incongruous strategies and tactics, and dozens of players, including some of the most prominent military and political figures. A sprawling American tragedy, the war was an open clash of arms but also a covert melee of ideas, secrets, and subterranean violence.

Coll excavates this grand battle, which took place away from the gaze of the American public. With unsurpassed expertise, original research, and attention to detail, he brings to life a narrative at once vast and intricate, local and global, propulsive and painstaking.

This is the definitive explanation of how America came to be so badly ensnared in an elaborate, factional, and seemingly interminable conflict in South Asia. Nothing less than a forensic examination of the personal and political forces that shape world history, Directorate S is a complete masterpiece of both investigative and narrative journalism.