Judge's Recusal Postpones Contempt Hearing for 2 Texas Prosecutors in Runaway Grand Jury Case
A Texas judge has granted a recusal motion by a veteran prosecutor and stepped aside from determining whether he and another senior member of the Harris County district attorney’s office should be held in contempt.
Judge Susan Brown’s action postponed a scheduled 9 a.m. show-cause hearing today for prosecutors Carl Hobbs and Steve Morris and court reporters Katherine Chagaris and Javier Leal, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Brown has expressed concern that the DA’s office may have obtained official transcripts of witness testimony after Hobbs, Morris and the general counsel of the DA’s office were excluded from the courtroom by a grand jury on Oct. 18.
In his recusal motion, Morris argued that Brown could be called as a witness because, he said, the judge had ordered Chagaris, a court reporter employed by the DA’s office, to record the grand jury’s proceedings on Oct. 18.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Judge Sets Contempt Hearing for Prosecutors and Court Reporters in Runaway Grand Jury Probe”
