Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey spent a large portion of a recent debate responding to accusations that he has mismanaged the office he has held for the past 17 years.
The debate, featuring Republican candidates Healey, Richard Raymond and Nina Schaefer, was sponsored by the Spirit of Freedom Republican Women’s Club and held in Missouri City Jan. 15. According to information from the Fort Bend County Democratic Party, no Democrat filed to run for district attorney, and the three Republicans will face off in the March 2 primary.
While all three candidates touted “swift” justice, long sentences, no tolerance for crime in the county and the prosecution of white collar crime, Raymond and Schaefer repeatedly accused Healey of being “stagnant,” creating a backlog on the court dockets, mishandling the office’s budget and not working well with police and the courts.
“Every police chief, they can get in touch with the district attorneys, but the assistant district attorneys and the officers themselves aren’t communicating,” said Raymond, a partner in the Cohen and Raymond law firm. “If there is something missing from a trial, there isn’t enough time. This is where the DA’s office needs to retrain individual assistant district attorneys to have the right attitude to work with police officers to get these criminals behind bars.”
“We work with the police – police investigate crime, we prosecute crime,” said Healey, who added that a new policy was in place that makes a prosecutor available at all times. “Day or night, a prosecutor is assigned.”
“If Healey has instituted a program where assistant district attorneys are available to law enforcement twenty-four seven, it has just happened,” said Schaefer, associate municipal judge of the City of Sugar Land and former presiding municipal judge of the City of Stafford.
When asked how each planned to deal with the number of drug violators in the court system and in the jails, Healey said the county has “diversionary” programs, which include drug court and DWI court, and that he does not support the decriminalization of crack cocaine.
“They need drug court, which we have, and the drug rehabilitation along with it,” said Healey. “In the event they can’t lick the drug habit, I’m sorry, they belong in the penitentiary, because you don’t want them breaking into your house to support their drug habit. I think the voters want to pay for protection – if that involves incarcerating a drug addict, they will support that.”
“I think there is a place for diversionary tactics, for probation to help some of the younger, less experienced violators, but that should the exception, not the rule,” said Raymond. “Just slapping them on the wrist, I don’t want that to be the signal we are sending. Just because you have a young suspect or someone who looks like they come from a good family, if they are breaking the law repeatedly, send them to prison.”
“Until we address the underlying issue, you are just going to have a career criminal on your hands,” said Schaefer. “I firmly adhere to and believe in our programs that our judges in the county have instituted. Healey is misleading when he says his office participates in those programs. I have heard many complaints on the lack of cooperation.”
Both Healey and Raymond said they do not support term limits, but Schaefer said is she is elected she will only serve two terms.
Raymond accused Healey of wasting money on politically motivated “witch hunts,” “stagnant mismanagement,” and a backed up court docket.
“As good as John (Healey) might have been 15 years ago, the office has just outgrown his ability,” said Raymond. “You can’t just go seek every political favor you can just because you have the office.”
Schaefer said the office was in need of innovation and new ideas, and said she would find “new ways to look at old problems.”
“You would think this is an office gone wild by what is being said,” said Healey. “Come down to the courthouse and see how we manage the dockets…take a look at our budget…we do not mismanage our budget, the vast majority of our budget is in salaries and we manage that and the rest of the budget. As to the issue of whether or not we play favorites, the answer is no. I have successfully prosecuted three police chiefs, a former county treasurer, and continue to prosecute the high and the low. We don’t play politics in the DA’s office because I am a public servant, I am not a politician.”
