Lawyer of the Day: Chuck Rosenthal
We love tales of misbehaving DAs. And this one is a doozy. From the Houston Chronicle:
New e-mails released Tuesday show District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal sent and received racist jokes and strategized with political consultants and colleagues about his re-election campaign on his county e-mail account.Also within the correspondence obtained Tuesday by the Houston Chronicle were numerous sexually explicit images. It was unclear, however, if Rosenthal ever forwarded those files.
Those were just for his personal wank collection.
Among e-mails that concerned Woodfill were video clips of nudity and sex acts and a racist joke forwarded by Rosenthal that compares former President Bill Clinton to a black man. The e-mail says Clinton played the saxophone, smoked marijuana and gets a check from the government each month.
Pot always struck us as more of a white person's drug, but whatever.
Also included within the e-mails is heavy traffic between Rosenthal and Sam Siegler, Rosenthal's physician and the husband of Kelly Siegler, who is running for district attorney. In one e-mail from Sam Siegler to Rosenthal, an attached video shows women having their breasts exposed after men forcibly pulled down their blouses in public. The video called the act "sharking."Kelly Siegler dismissed her husband's e-mails. "He cusses like a sailor and his sense of humor is crude, to put it mildly," she said. "It's his computer and what he does at work is his business. He's the boss."
Stand by your man, Kelly. As long as there's no kiddie porn in those emails, it's all good.
Oh, and Rosenthal also sent "intimate e-mails to his executive secretary." More details, after the jump.
Some background on how this email scandal erupted:
The 860 e-mails are part of a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Office for a 2001 incident lodged by plaintiff's attorney Lloyd Kelley.Rosenthal said 130 were privileged and should not be produced. Those e-mails, filled with affectionate love notes from Rosenthal to executive secretary Kerry Stevens, were mistakenly released by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt.
Whoops! Even federal judges make mistakes. And we don't pay them enough to expect them to safeguard privileged documents -- that's why junior associates earn more.
From KHOU.com:
[O]ther e-mails in the district attorney’s office provide a glimpse of a possible ongoing attitude taken towards women. An e-mail from division chief Joe Owmby to general counsel Scott Durfee says, "we need to include some hot interns.”
No big deal. Who doesn't take hotness into account when hiring interns? See, e.g., Kumari Fulbright (the Arizona beauty queen who stands accused of kidnapping, who served as an intern to a federal judge).
More e-mails emerge in Harris County DA scandal [Houston Chronicle]
More damning e-mails uncovered in DA's office [KHOU.com]
(50) Comments
How are "intimate emails" privileged?
"Pot always struck us as more of a white person's drug, but whatever."
At the risk of dating myself, people used to link pot and jazz musicians, and jazz musicians were typically black men. Maybe this attorney is an old school racist!
Boy, that Kelly is one dumb bitch
Second.
Ladies and gentlemen, here's your Texas!
What is wrong here?
Send the picture of "Overdose" is offensive, but having it at the top of your blog in full display is ... "News"
Lat must be a pretty sheltered dood. Has he never listened to one shread of Reagge? Bob Marley with a huge spliff? Peter Tosh singing legalize it? The Dave Chapelle Show? Half Baked? Friday? How High?
The whole reason weed was made illegal in the first place was to "Keep the Negro from defiling 'our' White women"
The bottom line is that weed is for everyone man, God put it on earth for us all to enjoy. Take advantage man!
That picture is fucking classic, Lat. I've mailed it out to all my friends as well. Nice to see that you like to mock blacks as much as I do.
11:41 - Between Tosh and Chappelle, you left out Dre and Snoop Dogg and the rest of rap culture since the 90s. Anyone remember "The Chronic"?
Lat, what hole do you live in?
Pot is not a white man's drug. It's not a black man's drug.
It's an every man drug.
How depressing to know that a DA laughs his a$$ off at racist jokes, or at least thinks enough of them to keep them in his inbox for extended time periods. I'm sure his racist sense of humor doesn't affect how he does his job, right? I mean would a guy who keeps racist e-mails, and makes sexist comments ever let that spill over into plea negotiations? I'm sure every black face his office negotiates pleas with or investigates gets a really fair shake, right? I mean if he thinks of every black person he meets is like the person in that picture, then I'm sure he can separate that racist mindset and do his job completely free of bias, right? Probably not.
My point here is that a racist DA is not funny. It's dangerous. I'd hate to be arrested for anything in his county and not have a white face.
Hey 11:52, women love pot just as much, if not more, than men. Quit trying to exclude us.
How depressing to know that a DA laughs his a$$ off at racist jokes, or at least thinks enough of them to keep them in his inbox for extended time periods. I'm sure his racist sense of humor doesn't affect how he does his job, right? I mean would a guy who keeps racist e-mails, and makes sexist comments ever let that spill over into plea negotiations? I'm sure every black face his office negotiates pleas with or investigates gets a really fair shake, right? I mean if he thinks of every black person he meets is like the person in that picture, then I'm sure he can separate that racist mindset and do his job completely free of bias, right? Probably not.
My point here is that a racist DA is not funny. It's dangerous. I'd hate to be arrested for anything in his county and not have a white face.
Let's hope this guy loses his job like Nifong did.
Did that guy *pose* with the watermelon and KFC, or is this a doctored photo?
Ha ha ha. That pic is so funny. Post one of a black guy smoking crack, or better yet, post one of a black guy hanging from a tree. Ha ha ha. You fucking prick.
how many biglaw associates will get fired for dowloading that picture and forwarding it around the office in an attempt to get a laugh?
Lat, just where in the hell did you grow up? Are you a foreigner? It's hilarious that we hire people as sheltered as you to prosecute normal people.
"Pot" is for white people...but no group has cultivated an appreciation for "weed" aka "reefer" aka "ganja" (not to mention the saxaphone) like black folk. And I think the majority of us agree with the above-stated criteria, which support Bill Clinton's "honorary" status.
If you can't discern the difference between humor and bigotry in that comparison, you are probably more bigoted than you think.
Slowest ATL morning ever?
"[W]e need to include some hot interns.”
How is that different from, for example, saying that they need more T5 grads?
Well, this is Texas, after all.
Follow-up to 12:23...
For avoidance of confusion, I simply meant to point out a) that there is a difference between "pot" and "weed" and the relative attitudes of white and black folks respectively thereto and b) that there is a difference between the "Fatal Overdose" picture and the Bill Clinton comparison, namely that the latter has at least some genuine basis in humor to the extent one is not bigoted or ignorant.
Thank you.
How does Clinton measure below the waist?
That's not Lat's picture. It's from one of the news stories he linked to.
If a pic has appeared in an mainstream media source, it is not too edgy for a blog.
yeah, sexually assaulting women is hilarious.
what a f-cking pig.
"Pot always struck us as more of a white person's drug, but whatever."
Racist and - as one with experience in a US Atty Office should know - incorrect.
I'm an African-American and find the picture pretty humorous. I just love it when the white liberals tell "us" how "we" should react. Images like this are poking fun - that's it - if people are really sore over this it probably has more to do with that little chip on their shoulder. Oh, right, I must be an Uncle Tom! Don't get me wrong - there are definitely images that would raise my hackles - but this? Come on...
Oh, and by the way, I hate weed.
I'm an African-American and find the picture pretty humorous. I just love it when the white liberals tell "us" how "we" should react. Images like this are poking fun - that's it - if people are really sore over this it probably has more to do with that little chip on their shoulder. Oh, right, I must be an Uncle Tom! Don't get me wrong - there are definitely images that would raise my hackles - but this? Come on...
Oh, and by the way, I hate weed.
I'm an African-American and find the picture pretty humorous. I just love it when the white liberals tell "us" how "we" should react. Images like this are poking fun - that's it - if people are really sore over this it probably has more to do with that little chip on their shoulder. Oh, right, I must be an Uncle Tom! Don't get me wrong - there are definitely images that would raise my hackles - but this? Come on...
Oh, and by the way, I hate weed.
The feds don't do many pot cases. My guess is that Lat never worked on marijuana prosecutions.
In terms of a "black" drug, one might think of crack cocaine. One of the arguments frequently made against the harsher treatment of crack vs. powder cocaine under the federal Sentencing Guidelines was the racial impact.
(That sentencing regime has been superseded by the recent SCOTUS sentencing decisions.)
"Also included within the e-mails is heavy traffic between Rosenthal and Sam Siegler, Rosenthal's physician and the husband of Kelly Siegler, who is running for district attorney."
What? Which one of them is running for DA? The doctor? Huh? Or is the doctor's wife running against the incumbent? What?
12:40(1)(2)(3)
You've got you pejoratives confused. An Uncle Tom is a Black person who hates things Black and love things white. See Ward Connally and Uncle Ruckus (Boondocks). A Black person who finds humor in perpetuating Black stereotypes or the degradation of Black people is called a coon. See the Wayans Brothers and BET. Get it right, coon.
12:40
You *ARE* an Uncle Tom. The photo is inappropriate.
I agree with 11:57. A bigot DA is a very dangerous thing!
11:46: Exactly. No, marijuana and reggae aren't enjoyed only only by prep-school assholes.
I wonder if a lot of black defendants in this guy's jurisdiction will be able to use this stuff on a selective prosecution claim.
Gee, Lat--I'm sure the whole purpose of this post wasn't so you could share that "little" joke here without backlash, right? You are so clever! I really wonder sometime if Lateral Link knows who they're dealing with . . .
I hate it when people try to pose as members of a different ethnic group and claim something isn't offensive to them. It's always so easy to see through the bullshit.
This guy was the DA of Harris County!! Harris Co includes Houston & has a population of almost 4 million. No doubt but that this racist asshole had ample, ample opportunity to inflict his racism on thousands of prosecutions involving minorities accused, correctly or not, of various crimes.
Yet another reason why Texas should not be allowed to use a death penalty. Numnuts like this shitbag make its imposition far, far too untrustworthy.
A few points about this situation, which is too funny and too sad at the same time:
1) Rosenthal is a moralizing hypocrite of the first order. I have it on good authority he goes around and wishes people a "blessed day" all the time and was tight with the evangelical base here in Houston.
2) Seigler (the wife) is the one running for DA. She is the same ADA who crawled up on a bed and straddled one of the other ADA's to "demonstrate" how a woman killed her husband in an infamous case here in Houston. She is pretty straight even though I don't like her political stances.
3) Rosenthal was running as the incumbent. Then he wasn't. Then he was again. But apparently now he isn't.
4) Rosenthal has apparently gotten his chief investigator to go over the photo's of Seigler's press conference announcing her run. Apparently the ADA's present that are supporting her may be in for a rocky ride for the next few months,.
5) Another one of the DA division heads, Joe Ownby, apparently has been involved in some of these questionable "racist" emails. He also happens to be black.
6) The affair was common knowledge around the courthouse, apparently. It may have ended because Rosenthal wouldn't leave his wife. Many of the emails are quite pathetic attempts at rekindling that flame, but were rebuffed.
Where is the EEOC when you need them?
Who hasn't taken a nap on the pavement after downing a bucket of yardbird, a whole watermelon and a medium orange soda? White people aren't allowed a good meal?
11:57, you hit the nail on the head - considering how many capital cases from Dallas County have been overturned (thank you, science) where race was a factor in arrest and conviction, it's disturbing to note that DAs in Texas still harbor or even tolerate racist or biased views.
Yeah, ok. One man personally injected racial bias into thousands of criminal prosecutions. It's amazing how he had time to read offensive emails when he was trying to run a DA's office without any line ADA's, Bureau Chiefs, or supervisors to do any of the work there.
Shoudn't it be "numbnuts"?
I have personally smoked countless joints with a variety of folks including Blacks, Asians and Mexicans. I don't get the "white drug" characterization.
I love it when people associate racism with Texas's status quo. Because we all know that all the racists in New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadephia, and Los Angeles have been gone since the civil war.
Shit. The first four cities are so racist even the WHITE people are segregated by national origin. And LA is hardly a hotbed of racial tolerance.
Long story short: Condemn Rosenthal all you want. But don't think he's representative of everyone or Houston -- or Texas as a whole. Doing so shows off your ignorance more than his.
Wasn't this the Chuck Rosenthal who argued Lawrence vs. Texas at the Supreme Court? He defended Texas's anti-sodomy statute. Supposedly it was the worst oral argument in the last ten years.
Listen:
http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_02_102/argument/
"The whole reason weed was made illegal in the first place was to 'Keep the Negro from defiling "our" White women'".
Actually, that's why cocaine was made illegal. Pot was first criminalized in the southwest because those dirty, shiftless Mexicans were smoking it. In the future, please get your racist underpinnings for our pointless War on Drugs straight.
"The whole reason weed was made illegal in the first place was to 'Keep the Negro from defiling "our" White women'".
Actually, that's why cocaine was made illegal. Pot was first criminalized in the southwest because those dirty, shiftless Mexicans were smoking it. In the future, please get your racist underpinnings for our pointless War on Drugs straight.