Waco Criminal Law Blog : Waco Criminal Lawyer & Attorney : Walter Reaves Law Firm : DWI, DUI, Drug Crimes, Appeals : Waco, McLennan County, Texas

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Thanks to Scott Benson at Grits for Breakfast for letting us know about the decision holding the head of the Texas Parole Board - Rissie Owens - personally liable for violating an inmates rights. The case involved an inmate who was serving time for a non-sexual offense. As the parole board is fond of doing, they looked through his record and decided he was a sex offender, and imposed sex offender conditions of parole. They did so without a hearing, and without letting him review the evidence they used to  make that decision.

The fact that the board violated his rights wouldn't be enough to impose personal liability though. The problem was that the same judge - Sam Sparks - had previously held (twice), that such hearing were necessary, and ordered the board to provide them. Owens defied those orders, apparently on the advice of her lawyer. Few people have the lack of sense to tell a federal judge to F'off, but she and her legal counsel did. They shouldn't be surprised that the judge didn't appreciate it.

Imposing personal liability on a public official is extremely rare. It's not enough to show they violated they law - you usually have to show something more. It shouldn't be that way though. The doctrine of immunity was meant to protect public officials from frivolous suits that were based on nothing more than policy disagreements, or errors in judgment. It shouldn't protect from them from knowingly violating the law. If everyone else is accountable, why shouldnt they be?

I wonder why the lawyer wasn't sanctioned - admittedly he told his client to ignore the judge. He's not the first lawyer to disagree with a judge's decision; for many of us its an almost daily occurrence. There is a remedy though - which is the appellate system. I assume they have appealed those decisions; if they worried about the impact on other cases they could have tried to get an order putting everything on hold. In other words, there are things they could do short of defying the judge.

What happens is the parole board appeals the decisions, and they are upheld. Are they going to ignore that also?

The problem with immunity is that can create an attitude of arrogance and absolute power. Some Officials equate immunity with wisdom - they lose sight of the fact that they aren't being protected because they always right. Take the wrong type of person, and its easy to imagine the abuses that can follow. It's not a new thought - we have long been told that "absolute power corrupts absolutely". Nowhere is that more apparent than in the criminal justice system.

Any time you talk about crime, people are willing to look the other way. After, we are talking about criminals right? They deserve what they get. That attitude exists until you or someone in your family is in trouble. Then you wonder why you are being treated so unfairly. Don't you know Ms. Owens expects a full hearing before the judge imposes sanctions on her. The same type of hearing she and the board are routinely denying inmates.

Earlier this week we saw an inmate - Richard Miles - released after serving 14 years for a murder he probably didn't commit. He was released because the police didn't disclose evidence that someone else claimed to have committed the offense. Prosecutors have a duty to disclose favorable evidence, and we have recently seen a number of case where they failed to do so. While that can be the subject of separate post, there are seldom consequences to failing to disclose evidence.  A court can find the evidence wasn't material (i.e. important) and uphold the conviction. In short, there are seldom consequences. Would the obligation to disclose evidence be taken more seriously if there were real consequences to not doing so?

Whether or not the award is upheld, it serves a purpose. There are limits, even on public officials. May if liability was imposed more often they would think twice before taken actions they know are either unlawful or at least questionable.