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Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Texas Lawyer

01-10-2008

As an e-mail brouhaha involving Harris County, Texas, District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal intensified, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett Wednesday announced that county officials have asked the Texas Office of the Attorney General to investigate Rosenthal to see if his actions may be grounds for removal from office.

During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Emmett said he wants Rosenthal, who is not seeking re-election this year, to resign from office, but Emmett noted he has no authority to remove the DA from office.

"We are clearly in a situation where Mr. Rosenthal has become a distraction to the office of district attorney," Emmett said Wednesday.

"I would hate for one person's actions and lack of judgment to take down the entire office," he said.

In a letter sent Wednesday to David Glickler, an assistant attorney general, Harris County Attorney Mike Stafford asks the AG's office to investigate Rosenthal's actions to determine whether they may be grounds for removal from office under Chapter 87 of the Local Government Code.

"I request your assistance in fully investigating all aspects of Mr. Rosenthal's actions, and if your investigation determines that a lawsuit for his removal is appropriate, to file to pursue such actions. My office is available to provide to you all information which we have to begin your investigation," Stafford writes in the letter to Glickler.

Stafford writes in the letter that he is asking for assistance, because his office is representing and defending Harris County in an underlying civil rights suit -- Erik Adam Ibarra, et al. v. Harris County Texas, et al. -- pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The e-mails at issue were made public as a part of discovery in that suit. Those e-mails include romantic e-mails between Rosenthal and his executive assistant that were sent on his county e-mail address, as well as others that became public on Tuesday that allegedly include racist humor and campaign-related communications.

Emmett said he is "disgusted and puzzled" by the e-mails.

Emmett said he spoke with Rosenthal Wednesday morning about the e-mails that were made public on Tuesday, but at that time he was collecting information and did not ask the DA to resign. However, after meeting with other county officials and learning about Chapter 87, Emmett said, "If I talk to him again, I will ask him to resign."

"My goal, my want, is to have Mr. Rosenthal out of the office. ... At this point, Mr. Rosenthal still says he didn't do anything illegal," Emmett said.

Emmett said he's most troubled by the e-mails related to Rosenthal's re-election campaign.

"Using county equipment to campaign is a crime, but what is campaigning?" Emmett said.

Rosenthal did not immediately return a telephone call or an e-mail message. His attorney in Ibarra, Ronald Lewis, a partner in Marshall & Lewis in Houston, declines comment.

According to Chapter 87, a county officer may be removed from office for incompetency, official misconduct or intoxication on or off duty caused by drinking an alcoholic beverage.

Rosenthal withdrew from the DA's race after pressure from the Harris County Republican Party.