Chuck Rosenthal Resigns

Chuck Rosenthal stepped down as Harris County district attorney Friday after six weeks of mounting pressure and intense scrutiny brought by the exposure of embarrassing e-mails that prompted calls for his resignation from all but his closest allies.

His announcement came just hours after his political enemy, attorney Lloyd Kelley, filed a lawsuit seeking to remove Rosenthal from office on the grounds of official misconduct, incompetency or intoxication.

Siegler Wants Chuck Rosenthal To Resign

Kelly Siegler, an assistant prosecutor, has joined the go Chuck go bandwagon. Although she hopes to replace Chuck Rosenthal, she has recognized that he is bad for the district attorney's office. Here are some recent statements she made about old "Chucky Boy":

Rosenthal “has made a lot of serious mistakes. Everybody here knows that; everybody in my office knows that,”. It's sad. It's tragic. And it's time for Chuck to resign.

“He's also my friend. He's not a bad man. He needs to go.”

“But do you really think that Chuck Rosenthal is me?” she asked. “And if you could only know how many conversations I have had with him to try to get him to do things differently or to listen. The problem is, Chuck quit listening to all of us a long time ago.”

Perhaps the only thing Chuck Rosenthal would hear is being found guilty for tampering with evidence and perjury. Sometimes it takes a tough strong message of impending prison time to get someone like him to listen.

Chuck Rosenthal Admits To Deleting Email Messages

The embattled Harris County district attorney admitted before a federal judge here Friday that in violation of two subpoenas and a court order, he deleted as many as 3,500 e-mail messages sought in a civil rights lawsuit. He said he thought the messages were available on backup files.

Appearing at a contempt hearing in Federal District Court, the district attorney, Charles A. Rosenthal Jr., appeared to open himself to possible perjury charges by acknowledging that in earlier sworn testimony he had provided false information about how he deleted some messages. He called his earlier testimony “an error.”

What Will Happen To Chuck Rosenthal?

Harris County District Attorney, Chuck Rosenthal could be fined or jailed if U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt finds him in contempt of court. He did not testify Thursday but was expected to take the stand when the hearing resumed Friday. He declined to comment as he left the courtroom.

An attorney handling a civil rights lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Department had requested all the e-mails Rosenthal sent and received between July and mid-October.

Rosenthal has handed over more than 1,500 e-mails that remained on his computer or were recovered. Hoyt released a batch of them in early January, including messages that contained pornographic, racist and political messages. Love notes between the married prosecutor and his secretary also were mistakenly released and then resealed.

Grand Jurors jab at lawyer

The long weekend failed to quell the rhetoric as a lawyer for state Supreme Court Justice David Medina and two of the grand jurors who voted to indict the jurist continued to jab at each other.

Attorney Terry Yates continued to accuse the two grand jurors, foreman Bob Ryan and assistant foreman Jeffrey Dorrell, of breaking the law by publicly discussing the case outside the grand jury. Among the accusations was the suggestion by Yates that Dorrell was a gay activist and may have been trying to use the case to embarrass conservatives like Medina and Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.

Two Grand Jury Members On The 'Hot Seat'

If you speak out against the actions of prosecutor, Chuck Rosenthal, you may find yourself in a whole lot of trouble:

The lawyer for Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina asked a judge Friday to sanction two grand jurors for discussing their secret proceedings, saying the two men brought about the indictment of Medina and his wife to embarrass District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.

Medina's attorney, Terry Yates, said grand jury foreman Robert Ryan and assistant foreman Jeffrey Dorrell acted illegally when they told reporters Thursday that Rosenthal's unwillingness to prosecute was politically motivated. Ryan said the two broke no laws and were careful not to mention anything discussed in secrecy.

What power does Chuck Rosenthal hold here in Houston? There seems to be more to this story than we will ever know.

It Is Time For Chuck Rosenthal To Go

How much longer will we have to put up with Chuck Rosenthal? It is time for him to step down. I thought he would be gone after his scandalous emails but now he is dismissing the case against Medina.

What will it take to finally get rid of him?

Stubborn DA Refuses To Back Down

It has been reported that Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal has "rejected calls by the county Republican Party to give up his 2008 re-election campaign because of a scandal over affectionate e-mails he sent to his secretary."

Maybe he does not feel that this is a serious matter but it is time for the citizens of Houston to show him that it is. If he won't step down, then we still can show him that his behavior will not be tolerated by not re-electing him.

Harris County DA Refuses To Step Down

The local Republican Party has asked DA Chuck Rosenthal to step down and not seek re-election but he refuses to do so. More of story--here.

Do you think he should abandon his re-election bid?