Legal Commentary

Piling on Rosenthal

By Tom Kirkendall

It's become fashionable around Houston to be critical of outgoing Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal. Frankly, much of the criticism is deserved. But given what Rosenthal has been going through over in federal court over the past couple of days, one has to wonder whether the media firestorm over Rosenthal has reached the point that otherwise rational observers have taken leave of their senses.

Take this latest Chronicle article on the hearing over Rosenthal's destruction of emails that he had been ordered to turn over in connection with a civil lawsuit in federal court. The Chron article, which is representative of the newspaper's vitriolic coverage of Rosenthal's political demise, calls the hearing a "contempt hearing" in which the judge could "hold Rosenthal in contempt, . . .[and] put the DA behind bars for six months."

H'mm. I don't think so.

Although the plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit are having a field day excoriating Rosenthal in court and in the media, I can't see how the judge could hold Rosenthal in contempt of court, at least at this stage. The plaintiffs' motion (see here) essentially requests that the judge hold Rosenthal in criminal contempt of court because of Rosenthal's destruction of email evidence and failure to comply with the court-ordered procedure for reviewing the emails. The motion doesn't call for Rosenthal to be held in civil contempt. There is no need for the court to take coercive action and Rosenthal would not be able to take any action to purge the contempt, anyway. The destroyed emails are gone for good and Rosenthal can't do anything about that.

Thus, Rosenthal -- who isn't even a party to the civil lawsuit -- is accused of criminal contempt, but he has been provided none of the protections that due process of law requires for a criminal defendant. Inasmuch as Rosenthal's allegedly contemptuous conduct did not take place in the courtroom, the trial judge does not have the power to hold him in criminal contempt without a full-blown trial on the criminal contempt charges. Indeed, the trial judge cannot even be the judge in Rosenthal's criminal contempt trial because the judge is a potential witness in that trial.

Likewise, the plaintiffs' lawyer in the civil lawsuit cannot prosecute a criminal contempt case against Rosenthal. Rather, the contempt charge must be referred to the U.S. Attorneys' Office, which then decides whether to prosecute Rosenthal based on an evaluation of the evidence and and the charges. If the U.S. Attorney decides to do so, then Rosenthal is entitled to the due process protections that any criminal defendant is entitled to receive, including notification of the specific charges, trial by jury, and confrontation of the adverse witnesses. The circus going on right now over in federal court doesn't come close to fulfilling those Constitutional safeguards.

So, I don't think Judge Hoyt is going to hold Rosenthal in criminal contempt and throw him in jail. Even if Judge Hoyt were to do so, the Fifth Circuit would likely stay the commitment order and eventually overturn it. The Chronicle and Rosenthal's many other detractors can continue to revel in the lame duck DA being filleted in a public court hearing, but at least provide Rosenthal due process of law. We in Houston have already seen what happens to the unpopular public figures of the moment when those protections are ignored.

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on February 02, 2008 (boomark / email).