The Dallas Dilemma

When I moved to Dallas in December of 2010, I wondered what it would be like to leave prosecution and begin defending people. I'd always known that I was a little too reasonable as a prosecutor. I took more time than others with the victims. I'd spend time talking to the defendant's family. I'd talk to the friends of the witnesses in the cases. I actually was accused of being "too fair" by a District Attorney.

In fact, some of the endorsements I've received on my Avvo site reflect those sentiments. (http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/75204-tx-philip-ray-3343333.html?ref=header)

I loved being a prosecutor. I liked doing the right thing for the right reasons. Most of the time, the elected officials I worked for didn't stand in the way of my beliefs. I didn't know how that would translate ethically into defending people in Dallas.

Then I went into the Crowley Courthouse.

Let me be clear: There are good people in the DA's office in Dallas. Fair prosecutors who understand the value of a case. Felony prosecutors who will sit with you and talk through the facts of your client's problems and come up with what they believe is a resonable response to the actions the defendant took that landed them in court.

But this system is stacked against them. The court attorneys don't get the file until it is indicted. They don't get discretion over how the cases are charged until after the client is facing the District Court. The Trial Court prosecutors only have jurisdiction over the cases that are assigned to them. The special topic prosecutors have too many cases on too many floors to make them effective at managing their docket. Files can't be found for MONTHS in the misdemeanor courts. (One client was charged as a felony; the intake prosecutor recognized that the evidence wouldn't sustain a felony conviction and kicked it down to a misdemeanor court. The misdemeanor prosecutor still hasn't seen anything on the case two months later. - Keep in mind this is supposed to be a 'paperless system'.)

Doing the right thing in Dallas means keeping your client from being lost in the shuffle, bullied by lack of information, and transferred down the road into a corner where their version of what happened is never heard. Defending in Dallas is having a voice loud enough to be heard over the bureaucratic capriciousness that is the logistical nightmare of the Frank Crowley building.

Defending in Dallas is a little like screaming at a hurricane to stop for a minute and listen.

I think I'm going to like it here. As a prosecutor I was always looking out for the vicitms, standing up to the bullies that have commited crimes against their fellow citizens. Here in Dallas, the bully isn't the individual prosecutors, it's the broken system that takes cases from Garland and Irving with little discretion and understanding. It's too many files piled on one desk for thoughtful intake. It's taking your qualified leaders and demoting them or running them off. It's watching all the defendants in the hall way wonder what the hell is happening without a single person to explain, "It will be ok. We'll figure this out."

Yeah, there's a place for me here. One case at a time.