Tommy Thomas Clips

The Harris County Sheriff's Office has disbanded its surveillance unit, which came under criticism after it was revealed its officers watched two brothers who sued the county for civil rights violations.

The Investigative Support Unit's image has become so tarnished that it cannot be repaired, said Chief Deputy Danny Billingsley, who dismantled the squad Monday after discussing the issue with Sheriff Tommy Thomas.

Its duties consisted mostly of surveillance requested by various sheriff's divisions, such as homicide, internal affairs, narcotics and vice - as well as by smaller police departments asking for help, he said.

Insufficient supervision

The squad - which conducted surveillance of homicide suspects before their arrests and some sheriff's office employees suspected of illegally collecting worker's compensation - was not supervised as closely as it should have been, Billingsley said.

But he denied its officers were deployed for political purposes as some have alleged.

"Contrary to what some may believe, this unit was not out going around spying on innocent citizens just trying to gather dirt," Billingsley said Tuesday. "We have enough real cases that come in with information that we just don't do that. There's no need to do that."

The unit drew criticism after it was revealed its officers watched Sean and Erik Ibarra for three days last fall before the brothers' civil rights lawsuit went to trial - even though both already had been cleared of criminal charges.

The Ibarras had sued Harris County, alleging they were wrongfully arrested by sheriff's deputies at their southeast Houston home. The county settled with the pair for $1.7 million earlier this year.

Under investigation

The Harris County District Attorney's Office since has opened an investigation of that surveillance to determine whether the sheriff's office broke any laws.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis called the squad's disbandment good news, but said he still wants a full investigation of its activities - who it investigated, why and at whose direction.

"There just ought to be a level of transparency there," Ellis said Tuesday. "There's a world of difference between an investigation in a worker's comp case and an investigation because somebody filed a civil rights complaint."

Billingsley, who said he has requested a full report of the squad's activities, said he believes much of the criticism is unfair. But he acknowledged the squad's reputation had become a problem.

"It gets down to perception. If people perceive these (deputies) are out doing stuff they shouldn't be doing, how do you repair that image?" he said.

Since the squad was formed in the early 1990s, it had watched several high-profile murder suspects before their arrests, such as David Mark Temple, the former high school football coach convicted of killing his pregnant wife, Belinda, at their Katy home in 1999, and Robert Fratta, the former Missouri City public safety officer now on Texas Death Row after his estranged wife, Farah Fratta, was shot to death in a murder-for-hire scheme at their Atascocita home in 1994.

Billingsley said he was unaware of the squad watching any other citizens who had sued Harris County.

The squad's duties now will be performed by other sheriff's office divisions. Its sergeant and four deputies will be transferred to other assignments.

Lloyd Kelley, the Houston lawyer who won a $1.7 million civil rights settlement for two brothers who took photos of a 2002 drug raid, has asked a federal judge for $4.4 million in attorney's fees.

Harris County leaders voted two weeks ago to pay Sean and Erik Ibarra and get out of the four-year-old case. The settlement calls for the county to hand over the money by early April or as soon as practical - and to pay all attorney's fees, costs and expenses related to the case.

The Ibarras will not share their lump-sum payout with Kelley, who must get his fees approved by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt.

The brothers initially sought $5 million in damages.

In a lengthy fee application filed late Monday, Kelley argues that the county fought an "indefensible" case, by its own expert's 2005 admission, that turned into a landmark blow to the county's legal defense tactics.

Harris County has 15 days to respond to Kelley's filing.

County Attorney Mike Stafford said he expects the county to question Kelley's basis for the fee and dispute many of his other assertions.

His application asks the court to double the $2.2 million in standard fees under a multiplier that accounts for a case's complexity and riskiness. Lawyer compensation in civil rights claims can be enhanced for those factors and because the lawyers who accept such cases often spend thousands up front. Kelley said he personally invested $130,000 because his clients were poor.

The $2.2 million includes: $2 million for Kelley's work, $86,000 for a legal assistant and $54,000 for the help of Houston lawyer Benjamin Hall.

Stafford said he doesn't think Kelley is entitled to the multiplier.

`Frivolous defenses'

Kelley's request also mentioned that for the past four years, he and a legal assistant, for the most part, have been fighting the county's vast resources. He alleged Tuesday that the county overstaffed the case by using up to 15 lawyers at a time to defend those targeted by the Ibarras' lawsuit.

"If the government is willing to pay for 15 lawyers, then how much should they be required to pay at the end of the day when they've lost?" Kelley said. "In the last decade, courts have been very punitive about frivolous lawsuits, and they should be equally punitive about frivolous defenses."

The Ibarras said sheriff's deputies stormed their southeast Houston home without probable cause, destroyed film in their camera and arrested them after one of the siblings took pictures of a drug raid at a neighbor's house.

The brothers sued in January 2004.

The Ibarras' lawsuit is a historic civil case in which an appeals court, for the first time, denied the Harris County sheriff qualified immunity - which often shields government officials from being sued when carrying out their duties - and declared that the actions of county employees violated the Fourth Amendment, the constitutional right that guards against unreasonable search and seizure. Kelley said most of the Ibarras' legal fees were racked up during appeals.

A deterrent?

The county settled the lawsuit to "avoid the possibility of a historic multimillion-dollar verdict," Kelley wrote in his request.

He added that $4 million in attorney's fees would deter the county from fighting other legitimate civil rights claims.

"If everything was the way Lloyd Kelley describes it in his motion, there never would have been a trial. A jury was called upon to resolve disputed fact issues," Stafford said. "Neither side won on the issues, but obviously, Lloyd Kelley won on the money."

The settlement came as Sheriff Tommy Thomas and the deputy who initiated the confrontation with the Ibarras were preparing to testify.

Kelley writes that the offer was the first by the county in the case, but Stafford said the county made a "substantial" proposition at mediation last year.

"The mediator declared an impasse because we were too far apart (in dollar amounts)," Stafford said. "To say we didn't offer a dollar is just incorrect."

Triggered resignation

After the settlement, Thomas said he didn't see where his deputies did anything blatantly wrong. Under the deal, the county accepts no liability for what happened to the Ibarras and makes no admission of guilt. The brothers were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.

The case also led to the recent resignation of Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, whose e-mails were subpoenaed in connection with the Ibarras' lawsuit.

Several messages to and from the former top prosecutor included sexually explicit and racially demeaning content.

Others raised questions about whether Rosenthal was illegally conducting his re-election campaign from his office, using county equipment. Some e-mails also revealed the married prosecutor's amorous overtures to his secretary.

Hoyt is still investigating a possible contempt charge against Rosenthal, who admitted deleting more than 2,500 e-mails subpoenaed in the case.

Deadly detention;
Federal probe of Harris County jail inmate deaths and questionable sanitary conditions is justified.

March 12, 2008
Editorial

FOR more than two years, news stories by Chronicle reporters have raised troubling questions concerning the mortality rate among prisoners held at the Harris County Jail. At least 138 deaths occurred between 2001 and the end of 2007. In January, three more county jail inmates died.

Now that the Department of Justice's civil rights division has opened an investigation, perhaps Houstonians will get some much-needed answers. Although a government spokesman did not explain the reason for opening the probe, it is likely that the prisoner deaths and numerous complaints of jail overcrowding, staff shortages and unsanitary conditions sparked it. The aim of the probe is to determine whether jail conditions systemically violate inmates' constitutional rights.

A team of federal investigators will be dispatched from Washington to examine all aspects of the downtown facility, including prisoner supervision, holding conditions and quality of medical care. A similar probe of the Dallas County Jail in 2005 produced a critical report detailing staff failures to monitor inmate illnesses and provide adequate care. It was followed by a federal court order specifying what improvements must be made to bring the jail into compliance.

Families of some of those who died in Harris County custody claim that unsanitary conditions, lack of adequate medical treatment and neglect by jailers contributed to the deaths of inmates. In the case of 44-year-old Calvin Mack, the homeless drug addict lay bleeding on a cell floor for four hours as fellow prisoners pleaded with guards for help. Mack died later after being taken to LBJ Hospital.

A Chronicle survey of circumstances surrounding prisoner deaths concluded that almost one-third involved allegations of inadequate responses by guards and staff; 11 involved infections suggestive of poor sanitary conditions; and another dozen might have been caused by lack of proper medications. More than 70 percent of those who died in county custody had not been convicted of the crime for which they had been charged.

Jail administrators have downplayed the number of prisoner deaths in Houston, saying they are not out of line with other large penal facilities. Sheriff Tommy Thomas defended the quality of health care provided to the nearly 10,000 jail inmates and said his office is committed to improvements.

Unfortunately, that commitment hit a roadblock last November when voters did not approve a bond issue that would have expanded county jail capacity and devoted more space and resources for medical facilities, including emergency care for drug addicts and the mentally ill. Defeat of the jail referendum resulted from the widespread belief that rather than building more jails, the criminal justice system should reduce the inmate population by employing pretrial release and expedited processing for defendants charged with nonviolent offenses.

Harris County officials should welcome the federal probe, which will document if there are county jail shortcomings that must be rectified. Such a report would provide an effective argument in a future bond issue to convince citizens to support upgraded jail facilities.

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