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29 June 2007
Mack: Clarence Bradford eyes run for DA post
In a column about Democratic aspirations to sweep Harris County in 2008, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack includes this bit of hilarity:
Former Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford will take on GOP District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.
[snip]
The most intriguing matchup will be the DA's race, given the long history between Bradford and Rosenthal.Bradford, who served as police chief in Mayor Lee Brown's administration, still has some battle scars.
Among them, a last-minute pay raise Brown gave Bradford that increased his pension, the crime lab debacle that began during his tenure, and an indictment on a perjury charge that eventually was dismissed by a trial judge.
Bradford was considering running for sheriff — going from the top cop in the city to the top officer in the county seems a more natural jump — but his strategists advised him that Thomas would be able to capitalize on each of those mishaps.
A matchup against Rosenthal would play like a grudge match, potentially giving Bradford some inoculation.
It will be difficult for Clarence Bradford to inoculate himself against his own record during the Lee Brown reign of error, not to mention the pointed criticism he received in the Bromwich reports on the crime lab fiasco.
Come to think of it, Bradford never really has answered to the public following the criticism from Bromwich. His campaign for DA ought to provide an excellent opportunity for him to answer all sorts of questions about his significant role in the crime lab fiasco.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Bradford eyes run for DA post"> 06/29/07 11:18 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)
03 February 2007
Former HPD Chief Bradford to run for Harris County Sheriff?
We hope he does. Aside from the Bromwich reports (which have gone largely unread by the broader Houston-area population), there has been little public discussion of the role that the dynamic duo of Lee Brown and Clarence Bradford played in the scandalous mismanagement of HPD's crime lab over the years.
A campaign for Harris County Sheriff ought to provide plenty of opportunities for Bradford to enlighten the public on his role in the matter.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Bradford to run for Harris County Sheriff?"> 02/03/07 02:57 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (3)
31 May 2006
House committee to assist Bromwich with subpoenas
The Chronicle's Steve McVicker reports that three key witnesses who have thus far refused to answer questions from Michael Bromwich about the HPD crime lab may soon be compelled to do so by a Texas House committee:
Three recalcitrant witnesses believed to hold key information concerning the root of problems at the Houston Police Department crime lab could soon be forced to tell what they know.
Michael Bromwich, the city's independent investigator, and Rep. Kevin Bailey, D-Houston, chairman of the House Committee on General Investigating and Ethics, confirmed Tuesday that an unorthodox agreement has been reached that would let Bromwich use the committee's subpoena power to compel the uncooperative former lab employees to testify under oath.
"We're pleased we've been able to reach an agreement with Chairman Bailey and the members of his committee that will advance our investigation," Bromwich said.
In his latest report on the crime lab released earlier this month, Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department inspector general, said DNA and serology analysts may have tailored their findings to support predetermined crime theories.
Bromwich also complained that the probe by his team of forensic investigators has been hindered by an absence of cooperation from three ex-crime lab employees: former lab supervisor Don Krueger, former DNA lab chief James Bolding and former analyst Christy Kim.
Krueger retired in February 2003 after the DNA section's widespread problems were exposed. Former Police Chief C.O. Bradford later recommended that Krueger be fired for his role in the lab's problems. Bolding resigned in 2003 to avoid being fired. Kim was fired, but the Civil Service Commission re-instated her and she later retired.
It will be useful finally to have detailed testimony from these three former employees.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Bromwich investigation.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Bromwich with subpoenas"> 05/31/06 09:39 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
13 July 2008
Bradford comes out of hiding, spreads the blame for the crime lab mess
Alan Bernstein's profile of Democratic Harris County District Attorney candidate Clarence Bradford (which has already generated discussion here and elsewhere) heads into almost virgin territory for this campaign, as Bernstein actually managed to entice Bradford out of hiding to talk about various scandals during his time as HPD Chief.
Given the (low) quality of the answers, one can certainly understand why Bradford's handlers prefer him hiding from the press.
Here are some sidebar comments on Bradford's notion of responsibility:
- "Anytime something goes wrong in the police department the chief is responsible. If the toilet doesn't flush in the police building, the chief has to take responsibility for that. That's part of the job"
- "9/11 happened when President Bush was president. I don't blame the president for 9/11 happening because he was president at the time, OK? Things happen"
Things happen, yes. But as the Bromwich reports made clear, life-and-death things happened with the HPD crime lab during Bradford's watch, and Bradford was part of the problem.
Bradford, though, admits that he hasn't read those reports -- reports for which area government spent millions so we could try finally to fix the problems of the crime lab -- and that he doesn't plan to:
The former chief, however, said he had no intention of reading all of the reports on the two-year, $5.3 million investigation of the crime lab by a team led by Michael Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department inspector.
Asked why, Bradford replied: "Because I was part of the process (of the investigation). I am familiar with the reports; I have read the summary of all of them."
The reports repeatedly fault HPD's "chain of command" for lax oversight. Bradford said he disagrees with some of the conclusions.
Any candidate for Harris County District Attorney who has pledged NOT to read more than a summary of the Bromwich reports on the crime lab should be disqualified from pursuing the office. That's just an astounding, damning, admission.
Moving on from the responsibility theme, Bradford does have in mind who's really to blame for mismanagement of the crime lab:
"What I should have done — which I didn't see until this all blew up — I should have at least annually gotten independent audits of the crime lab, as opposed to relying on, like the two previous chiefs had done, this particular supervisor ... stating the crime lab met all the federal standards," he said. "So, yes, that's when I dropped the ball. I relied too heavily on the people with the science and biology degrees."
The experts let Clarence the Delegator down! Oh, and so did the other member of Houston's Dynamic Duo at the time:
Bradford, 52, said he was unable to increase lab staffing because of tight budgets dictated by Lanier's successor, Lee Brown — whose law enforcement consulting company, Brown Group International, has employed him since his retirement.
So, this man who won't be capable of trying major cases in court because of lack of experience and has said -- in this profile even -- that as District Attorney, he will be a major public voice and manager rather than a prosecutor -- wasn't able to persuade Lee Brown, Council, or the public that perhaps funding to deal with some known issues at the crime lab would be a good idea? That seems like a guy who isn't likely to be a persuasive public-facing District Attorney either.
But he wants voters to know he's learned from the ordeal:
Bradford, with degrees in criminal justice, public administration and law as well as training by the FBI National Academy and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, considers the lab failures a plus for him now: "I am able to learn from those and move forward. ... That makes me more prepared to go in and deal with organizational issues such as these."
Defendants whose evidence was mangled as the leaders ultimately responsible for the Crime Lab fiddled, so to speak, will surely be pleased to know there's a silver lining to the mess.
Good for Bernstein for finally getting Bradford to answer some of these important questions. We suspect, given some of these disastrous answers, that we may not see Bradford answering many more press inquiries in the near future.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Bradford comes out of hiding, spreads the blame for the crime lab mess"> 07/13/08 10:48 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 June 2005
Crime lab investigator moves to next phase
KUHF-88.7's Jack Williams reports that yesterday's revelation that the HPD crime lab faked some test results may only be a precursor of more bad news to come later this summer:
The man in charge of investigating the Houston Police Department's Crime Lab says a new phase of his probe later this summer could uncover even more trouble, beyond his early finding that lab workers faked test results.
Independent investigator Michael Bromwich has been on the job for the past eight weeks and says the next phase of his investigation will begin in early July and include more in depth reviews of cases that involved forensic testing.
[snip]
One of the labworkers who was found to have fabricated test results has left the department. The other one still works in the lab under tighter supervision.
Isn't it reassuring to know that a crime-lab worker can fabricate test results that potentially are about life and death, and still remain employed by the City of Houston, no doubt accruing generous pension benefits?
The Brown/Bradford legacy continues to grow.
UPDATE (06-02-2005): The Chronicle runs additional coverage from Steve McVicker.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 11:19 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
Report details more problems with HPD crime lab
The Chronicle's Roma Khanna and Steve McVicker report on the latest damning revelations about the HPD crime lab:
Houston Police Department crime lab analysts fabricated findings in at least four drug cases, an independent investigator reported Tuesday, including one in which a scientist performed no tests before issuing conclusions that supported a police officer's suspicions.
[snip]
The report, released Tuesday, also casts doubt, for the first time, on the laboratory's largest division, controlled substances, which tests substances suspected of being drugs and performs about 75 percent of HPD's forensics work. The latest problems bring to five the number of crime lab disciplines where errors have been exposed — including DNA, toxicology, ballistics and the blood-typing science of serology.
" 'Drylabbing' is the most egregious form of scientific misconduct that can occur in a forensic laboratory," Michael Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department official leading an investigation of the HPD lab, wrote in the report.
"In the crime lab, the instances of drylabbing took the form of controlled substances analysts creating false documentation intended to reflect analytical procedures that were never performed."
Investigators reported finding four instances between 1998 and 2000 in which two analysts, whom they do not name, issued findings for tests they never conducted.
In each case, the analysts' supervisors caught the misrepresentations before the evidence could be introduced in court.
The supervisory structure of the crime lab is criticized in the report:
The report cited the absence of strong leadership and quality-control procedures as major reasons for DNA lab problems. Analysts in the crime lab complained to then-Police Chief C.O. Bradford about the lack of supervision as early as 1999, according to documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle in June 2003.
The legacy of Lee P. Brown and Clarence Bradford just keeps growing.
RELATED COVERAGE: Associated Press.
UPDATE (06-01-2005): KHOU-11 helpfully posts pdf files of the actual report. Additional documentation is located at the official investigator's site.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 06:28 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
19 March 2008
At least one area crime lab isn't a fiasco...
KHOU-11's Shern-Min Chow reports on one area crime lab that (unlike HPD's crime lab) isn't making news for all the wrong reasons:
The Harris County crime lab is recognized as one of the top labs in the state.
Mike Sutton ran the FBI’s Houston crime scene unit. Often he sent his evidence to a Houston lab.
“I could take it to them — I was certain I would get it back done right in a timely manner,” the 35-year federal agent said.
Not HPD’s beleaguered crime lab, but one a few miles away you probably don’t even know exists.
Harris County has a combined medical examiner and forensics lab that is the largest in Texas after the Department of Public Safety’s state lab.
“It’s one of the top labs in Texas and perhaps even in the U.S.,” Sutton said.
So what is Harris County doing right? Self-policing, certification and state-of-the-art equipment, kind of like on TV.
Like any successful program, you have to be willing to pay for it. Since 2003, Harris County has upped the budget from $10 million to $18 million dollars, nearly doubling the staff to nearly 200 employees.
Mayor White and other municipal leaders balked at even paying for the Bromwich investigation into the problems at the HPD Crime Lab, so we're not holding our breath for a serious commitment of resources to fix its problems. There are trinkets to be pursued, after all.
A Harris County Lawyer had this amusing reaction to the story:
It's worth noting that in all of the DNA scandals caused by the HPD Lab, that Harris County's Lab never ran into the same problems.
Then again, Clarence Bradford wasn't ever the head of the Harris County Lab.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/19/08 10:08 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
02 July 2005
New York Times, bloggers supplement local crime lab coverage
The New York Times has weighed in with coverage of Michael Bromwich's damning report on the HPD crime lab, and Ralph Blumenthal accurately conveys the report's criticism of management within the crime lab, as well as HPD and city officials, including Lee P. Brown and especially Clarence Bradford (not unlike your humble bloggers here).
Blumenthal apparently was unable to track down Bradford for comment:
A drug chemist who joined the laboratory in 1979, James R. Bolding, was pushed up the ladder under former Police Chief Lee P. Brown, who later became mayor, and his police successor, former chief Clarence O. Bradford, to fill vacancies in serology, despite inadequate training, the report said. It quoted Mr. Bolding as telling investigators he "took books home and did the best he could." Mr. Bolding did not respond to a phone message left with his son at home.And Chief Bradford, it went on, refused to spend a City Council grant to hire more workers because once the money ran out, the department would have to pay them. His phone number has been disconnected.
It seems strange that the Brown/Bradford consulting firm would not have functioning telephones. Perhaps the status of Brown Group International as a Houston minority business enterprise will be enough to gain it business, if past experience is any guide.
The Chronicle's main coverage of the report, in contrast, does not mention Lee Brown. It mentions Bradford's role in reinstating an analyst who was suspected of fabricating test results, but does not mention Bradford's decision not to use grant money to hire needed staff in the crime lab in order to avoid a future commitment by HPD to cover their salaries, or other parts of the report that deal with Bradford's decisionmaking. The authors of the Chronicle coverage were also responsible for what was effectively a hit piece on Chuck Rosenthal that appeared in morning print editions the day Bromwich's report was released.
Chronicle metro/state editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey wrote on Bromwich's findings yesterday. While Casey at least acknowledges the decision not to use grant money to hire needed staff, he refers to the decisionmaker as "the police chief." That would be Clarence Bradford, although Chronicle readers who didn't read the New York Times, blogs, or the report itself probably still don't know that the report cites Bradford specifically on the matter. Indeed, Casey mostly avoids naming any names, save one:
Michael Bromwich, the independent investigator hired by the city to investigate the lab after District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal refused to allow a special prosecutor to do so, yesterday issued the surprisingly readable 83-page report. (You can find a link to it at www.chron.com.)
For good measure, there's also this:
It could be a serialized TV drama — not L.A. Law but Houston Lab.
It couldn't miss being a hit, combining the intensity of a cop show, the idealism of science and the unfolding morality play of how the District Attorney's Office handles thorny issues.
We have previously commented on Rosenthal's position on the crime lab, but it's worth noting again in light of Casey's editorializing:
I followed up with Rosenthal, who explained that he actually had called for a Blue Ribbon Review panel to review the crime lab (which Judge Robert Eckels supported but then-Mayor Lee Brown opposed), and that he later wrote to then-police chief Joe Brashears urging a review of the entire crime lab. He admits that he has refused to recuse himself "unless there was evidence that any of my staff was involved in wrongdoing" and contends he's just doing the job he was elected to do. He has also opposed a "Cleveland plan" style review, contending that it is not appropriate to Houston's circumstance. Those last two points are certainly fair game for honest debate, but to characterize Rosenthal's position as outright opposition to an independent review is not honest.
Since Casey's editorial column and the Chronicle's straight news coverage of the Bromwich findings both misrepresent and underreport (respectively) the efforts of the Harris County District Attorney's office to deal with the crime lab fiasco, perhaps it is useful to turn to the Bromwich report itself for directly related information:
In early 2003, the District Attorney’s Office and HPD began a process with the goal of re-testing all cases resulted in a conviction -- whether at trial or through a guilty plea -- in which DNA evidence analyzed by the Crime Lab may have played a role. The central purpose of the re-testing program has been to identify any cases in which the results of DNA analysis performed by the Crime Lab cannot be confirmed.
[snip]
Ultimately, the District Attorney’s Office identified 407 cases to be re-tested. Four of these 407 cases identified for re-testing have subsequently been withdrawn from the re-test list because the District Attorney’s Office determined that they did not belong on the list, leaving 403 cases to be analyzed.
HPD has been responsible for sending the DNA evidence related to the 403 post-conviction re-test cases to one of the following three outside laboratories for re-testing: Identigene in Houston, Reliagene in New Orleans, and Orchid-Cellmark in Dallas. HPD reports that, as of June 13, 2005, re-testing has been completed on 333 of the 403 cases.
For obvious reasons, the optimal evidence for re-testing purposes is raw evidence, such as stains on clothing or bedding, that have not been processed by the Crime Lab. In cases where such raw evidence does not exist, the next best alternative is to test DNA that already has been extracted or already has undergone some form of processing. The bulk of the cases reviewed -- 248 -- have confirmed with raw evidence the original Crime Lab findings. Seventy-five cases have confirmed the Crime Lab’s findings with DNA extracted or processed evidence. In one case, there apparently was no remaining sample to be re-tested and only the Crime Lab’s case file was available for review. The results in eight cases have been confirmed by outside laboratories, but with significant differences in the statistics reported by the outside laboratories from those originally reported by the Crime Lab. In one case, involving Josiah Sutton, the Crime Lab’s findings were reversed by the outside laboratory.
Finally, the District Attorney’s Office has retained its own outside laboratory, Bode Technology Group of Springfield, Virginia, to review the analyses performed by the three laboratories originally involved with the post-conviction re-testing project. The Assistant District Attorney coordinating the re-testing for the prosecutor’s office told us that the purpose of Bode’s involvement is to serve as a second check on the cases and to assist the District Attorney’s Office in reviewing the reports generated by the outside laboratories involved in the re-testing program. (Pages 51-53)
People who rely only on the print editions of the Chronicle for their local news might have a very different impression of the efforts of Rosenthal and his staff to deal with the fallout of the HPD crime lab fiasco. They got to read a hit piece on Rosenthal that appeared in morning print editions the same day the Bromwich report critical of the Houston political leaders and HPD (but not Rosenthal) was released. The next day, they got to read news coverage of the Bromwich report by the same authors, who underreported the efforts of the District Attorney's office to retest cases and neglected to report some criticism of Chief Bradford in the report. And they got to read a Rick Casey editorial column on the metro/state news pages that was not entirely forthcoming in attacking Rosenthal by name, while declining to name any HPD or city officials criticized in the report.
Readers certainly can't be blamed for wondering if an anti-Rosenthal or pro-Brown/Bradford editorial bias is creeping onto the metro/state news pages, even though we've been assured that the editors of the newspaper fret over maintaining "division between the opinion pages and the news pages."
Here are additional thoughts from area bloggers:
Yee-haw, Saniflush!Pathetic.
Still, Lee P. Brown got a building named after him -- the Lee P. Brown METRO Administration Building at 1900 Main Street. Yeah, METRO.
To our knowledge, there are no plans to name any public buildings after Clarence "No Phone" Bradford.
The hefty pension that Lee Brown helped him secure is enough of a monument.
What I am saying is that [Brown and Bradford] didn't inherit a topnotch unit to begin with, and that if there's anything to be gained by pointing a finger at people who are no longer in a position of responsibility, then we ought not to be shy about pointing it at everyone who deserves it.
Their absence of leadership deserves plenty of criticism, but all bloggers should feel free to point away to other examples. Send this post your trackbacks.
Mayor Brown's legacy continues to grow sour as more and more details about the HPD crime lab come to the front in the Bromwich report....
See also his thoughts on the Casey column.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/05 08:47 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
13 June 2005
Crime lab analyst who made up results finally resigns
KTRK-13's Ted Oberg reports that the analyst who remained employed by the HPD crime lab after faking test results has finally resigned:
One analyst resigned instead of being fired. The second analyst was reprimanded in writing, suspended for three days and put back in the lab, where today he is suspended, but still collects a paycheck. His 7,660 cases are being reviewed to see if there are other false results.
"The first thing I'd like to see y'all do is get rid of that person," said Houston city councilmember Ada Edwards.
Councilmember Edwards got her wish late Monday afternoon. The analyst left the department.
"Today, Mr. Patel resigned from the Houston Police Department," said Chief Hurtt Monday. "He was neither asked, nor approached by the department in reaching his decision. What we need to concentrate on is what would be good for the Houston Police Department, the citizens of Houston, and our role in the criminal justice system in the future."
The chief knows this won't be easy to get over in the short term, but he and Bromwich both expressed that they hope it recovers in the long run. All of this was discovered during former Police Chief CO Bradford's administration. On Monday, he wouldn't answer any of our questions about it. As for a criminal fraud prosecution of the analyst, it's too late, says DA Chuck Rosenthal. The statute of limitations has expired.
Patel was neither asked nor approached by the department? Why not?
It's not surprising that former Chief Bradford doesn't want to answer questions about the level of ineptitude that permeated the crime lab while he was chief and Lee P. Brown was mayor. Unfortunately, they weren't held to account by local media -- especially the Chronicle editorial board -- even when they were still public officials.
PREVIOUSLY: Report details more problems with HPD crime lab (bH), Crime lab investigator moves to next phase (bH).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/13/05 08:27 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
30 June 2005
Bromwich releases damning Phase I report on HPD crime lab
Michael Bromwich, the independent investigator charged with analyzing problems at the HPD crime lab and property room, issued a damning final report (pdf) of Phase I of his investigation today.
The report is highly critical of leadership with regard to the HPD crime lab dating back more than a decade, citing leadership problems within the lab itself as well as HPD.
Having read the seven-page Executive Summary and the 68-page report itself, I have to recommend that interested parties at least read the Executive Summary (but preferably read the entire report at some point). Bromwich and his crew bring impressive credentials to the task, and the written report reflects work that seems to be extremely well-documented, organized, meticulous, and extensive. Because the report is lengthy and complex, I would suggest that media accounts (or blog posts) are no substitute for reading the report itself.
That said, KHOU-11's Doug Miller gives a good, brief summary. KHOU is cited in the report for its previous reporting on the crime lab.
Former Chief Bradford makes a number of appearances that don't exactly reflect well on his leadership, and even former Chief Lee P. Brown makes an appearance (yes, the problems date back that far). The report also documents the extensive efforts of the office of the Harris County District Attorney to analyze all cases where the HPD crime lab's treatment of evidence might have affected cases. Phase II of Bromwich's investigation will also analyze a sampling of such cases.
I plan on updating this post at some point with interesting excerpts from the report, but I don't have an easy way of converting the PDF file to text at the moment, so that will have to wait.
Incidentally, it is worth noting the Houston Chronicle's hit piece on Harris County District Attorney and Chronicle editorial board "bad guy" Chuck Rosenthal today. However much certain people at 801 Texas Avenue seem to dislike the Harris County District Attorney, the fact remains that Bromwich's report is highly critical of HPD and City of Houston leadership with regard to the crime lab, not Rosenthal or the Harris County District Attorney's office. The timing of the hit piece on Rosenthal is curious, since that's what Chronicle readers got to see this morning before Bromwich's highly critical report on the crime lab took over the news cycle later in the day, not-so-subtly connecting Rosenthal to a crime lab fiasco that Bromwich's report clearly identifies as an HPD/City of Houston fiasco.
That's another reason why there is no substitute for reading those reports, and why the technology that makes them available to anyone with an internet connection changes everything about media.
UPDATE (07-01-2005): Selected excerpts from the report follow below. In all instances, the excerpts have come from the main report (not the executive summary). The page(s) are identified above. Some footnotes have been omitted.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Bromwich releases damning Phase I report on HPD crime lab"> 06/30/05 10:29 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
05 February 2007
City of Houston Agenda 2-6-07
Readers might remember that for a few months, I summarized the City of Houston agendas, first on Houblog, and later, here on blogHOUSTON. However, work commitments and the fact that it took me upwards of six hours to craft those posts led to my abandoning the effort. It's past time I picked the task back up, though I'm not going to go so overboard this time. I will no longer attempt to post explanations or comments about each and every item on the agenda; instead I will select the items I think are most noteworthy and bring them to readers' attention each week. This will make the articles much shorter and easier to get through as well, perhaps inviting more comment.
The drawback is that the original style allowed the reader to decide what was important; now it's up to my judgment. I invite readers to bring any overlooked agenda item to my attention in the comments if they believe it is important; I'll endeavor to update the article prior to the meeting if I have any input to add.
Once again, readers are cautioned that I delete what I judge to be extraneous text, and often paraphrase in order to make the legalese a lot more readable. Such deletions may accidentally result in a key omission; if you wish to read the original text, please follow ths link to the currently posted agenda. Note that I use the full "backup"; the agenda with the actual Requests for Council Action appended. These are often quite illuminating, but are not available online to the public prior to council meetings.
It's a long agenda this week, and I've cherry-picked some really good items for you. Head below the fold and check it out.
Posted by Ubu Roi @ 02/05/07 09:53 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)
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