Cleaning house at the Williamson County DA

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There have been a couple of John Bradley sightings this week as he prepares to turn over the reins of the Williamson County District Attorney's office to Jana Duty following a bitter primary campaign. After Duty announced her intention to fire a dozen staffers at the DA's office, including five prosecutors, Bradley said her decision showed she was “blinded by her political hatred” of him and his crew. By contrast, reported the Austin Statesman ("Next Williamson County DA already shaking up staff," Nov. 16), Rob Kepple of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association said, “It’s not unusual to have a lot of changes early on. Everybody gets to set their office up and get the people in that they want.” For her part, “Duty said the reasons for the other planned terminations departures in the office varied. 'Some people were rude. Some are unprofessional. Some I do not trust.'”

Further, "Duty said she didn’t want to keep some of the prosecutors because they were 'indoctrinated in the John Bradley school of thought,' what she called a closed-file policy under which defense attorneys weren’t allowed to see the evidence against their clients until shortly before trial." Bradley, for his part, insisted his office implemented an open file policy about a year ago, but local defense attorneys say that in practice that's not true. It'll be interesting to see what changes Ms. Duty makes to the policy once she's in charge and what files become open that aren't presently being released. (Grits will try and remember to check up on that point next spring.)

In other Bradley-related news, Wilco Watchdog reported that, "according to sources, Bradley has met with District Judges and is attempting to meet with county commissioners to garner support for creating two positions for indigent defense appellate work; one for himself and the other for Kristen Jernigan," an appellate lawyer who handled the Michael Morton case for the DA's office. We knew Bradley had applied to run the Special Prosecution Unit at TDCJ, so here's another datapoint regarding his job hunt, though I'm admittedly surprised to see him seeking to do indigent defense. The Watchdog says Bradley sought the county-level position because he is unlikely to be hired at the State Prosecution Unit, whose overseers consider him "toxic."

Another of the fired prosecutors, Lindsey Roberts, reported the Watchdog, "has stated he has future political aspirations to run for District Judge in 2014." 

Notably, according to the Watchdog, "Bradley has only been seen at his office a handful of times since his May 29^th defeat," perhaps as a result of his active job hunt. Since these two gigs may be slipping away from his grasp, I encourage readers to suggest other employment options for Mr. Bradley in the comments.