The Lykos Strikes Back

Heads are starting to roll at the Harris County Criminal Justice System.

[Brian Rogers, Chron.com]

Prosecutors sat by their telephones Tuesday to see whether they will remain employed in District Attorney-elect Pat Lykos' administration.

Lykos does not take office until January, but she already has begun looking at which lawyers and other staffers she wants on her team. She has demanded that all staffers submit resumes and reapply for their jobs. Monday was the deadline to do so, and on Tuesday heads started rolling.

Longtime first assistant Bert Graham, who led the office for a month after the resignation of District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal in February, was the first to announce he would retire at the year's end.

(snip)

Lykos would not confirm any of the ousters, or give reasons for the decisions.

"I'm not going to be critical of individuals — I'm not going to bad mouth anyone," Lykos said.

She said she wants to give as much notice as possible to employees whose contracts she is not going to renew when she takes office Jan. 1.

(snip)

When Rosenthal decided in January not to run for a third term, prosecutor Kelly Siegler threw her hat into the ring, only to lose to Lykos in the Republican GOP primary.

Graham, who supported Siegler's campaign, and several other friends of Rosenthal and Siegler were among those whose contracts wouldn't be renewed, including Assistant District Attorney Murray Newman.

"I was a very vocal Kelly supporter," Newman said.

Newman said he wasn't surprised, despite an e-mail from Lykos after the primary saying there wouldn't be retribution for supporting someone else.

Defense attorney Robert Fickman, who compared Tuesday's purge with the infamous World War II era "Night of the Long Knives," said the changes were political.

"It's the day of the long knives," Fickman said. "Political retribution ain't reform."

Other prosecutors who were given their walking papers didn't seem to have any political connections, including Joe Owmby, the head of the police integrity division, which prosecutes peace officers accused of official misconduct.

"I've been here 22 years, and I've never had a person come up to me and tell me I've done wrong by them or their relatives. I feel good about the 22 years," Owmby said.

Most notably, Owmby prosecuted Andrea Yates in 2002 and 2006 for the drowning deaths of three of her children.

Owmby said he wasn't given a reason why he was fired.

Graham and Anderson were no-brainers, Graham was all over the press in support of Seigler and Anderson maintained a thinly veiled (for those in the HCJS)anonymous blog where he was critical of Lykos and supportive of Seigler.

It will be interesting to see who else is a part of the shake-out. I agree with Robert Fickman however:

Political retribution ain't reform.

Other Eyes:

My Day [Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center]; The Lykos Political Purge Begins. [BlogHouston]; In Defense of Murray Newman [Ron's Insanity]; Lykos brings changes to Harris DA [Grits for Breakfast]