The big elections overshadowed an interesting bit of news from county government that Bill Murphy reported for the Chronicle earlier this week:
Harris County commissioners voted unanimously Monday morning to pay $1.7 million to settle a lawsuit that led to the resignation of District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.
After an emergency, closed-door meeting, commissioners agreed to settle with Sean Carlos Ibarra, 37, and Erik Adam Ibarra, 28, two brothers who claim that they were wrongfully arrested by sheriff’s deputies, whom they photographed and videotaped during a 2002 drug raid at their neighbor’s home. Because of a subpoena filed in that lawsuit, Rosenthal’s personal, romantic e-mails to his secretary surfaced.
The settlement comes as the sheriff’s deputies were scheduled to testify this week in the Ibarra’s civil trial in U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt’s court. The Ibarras were seeking $5 million in damages for the alleged civil rights violation.
[snip]
The Ibarras’ lawyers made the offer over the weekend — before Monday’s scheduled testimony from deputies involved in the case, said County Judge Ed Emmett.
[snip]
Emmett said, “The rational thing to do was to accept this settlement offer. Sometimes you make the best deal you can and move on. It allows the sheriff’s office to get back to being the sheriff’s office.”
One suspects that Chuck Rosenthal wishes the deal had come just a few weeks earlier.
The entire fiasco has certainly provided an enlightening — albeit expensive — look into county government. Here’s hoping that the local media will remain interested in covering county affairs, even in the absence of titillating legal action.
(Old) Forum Comments (15)
