Battles between the Montgomery County District Attorneys, office and the soon to be departing Judge of the 9th District Court have been punctuated with a series of successful writs of Mandamus as seen here, here , here , and here. Now another mandamus case has come to light this time originating with the County Court at Law No. 4 and its Judge Mary Ann Turner.
The case, which seems to have avoided publicity in the local press is notable in several ways. First, it appears to be a rare case in which the District Attorneys’ office lost in a bid to avoid being disqualified from participating in a case as a prosecutor. Second, the controversy of the case revolves around the dual status of DA Brett Ligon as both plaintiff in the case itself and his desire to be prosecutor in the case.
Reading through the details is extremely informative of behind the scenes operations of law courts and prosecutor interactions and a somewhat cautionary tale of how not behave when a very personal matter is at hand, which leads us to the third notable fact.
The case is told in a well written article published in Spring of 2014 in THE DEFENDER the journal of the HARRIS COUNTY CRIMINAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION. Incredibly, the story which begins on page 33 here kicks of with this ~
“As the court date approached it became clear to counsel that the District Attorney did not intend to recuse his office from prosecuting these cases. Moving forward, First District Attorney Phil Grant would direct the prosecution.”
But here is the final intriguing point. On one side is Phil Grant and The writer of the story and the defense counsel in the case is Attorney Kate Bihm and yet both are contending for Judge of the 9th.
Its great reading and very revealing. One of the those stories that leaves you asking questions.
