Story Archive

There Was Definitely a Dope

Prosecutors were “trying to give my guy six years over a dopeless dope case,” lawyer Paul Morgan said. They wanted his client to plead guilty, but a deputy constable had already destroyed the evidence in the case in order to free up space in the Harris County, Texas, Constable Precinct 4 property room. The night before the case would have gone to trial, prosecutors decided to dismiss it. And that wasn’t the only case affected: so far 90 have been dismissed due to lack of evidence, and the district attorney’s office says it has decided to review even the cases from that precinct that have been resolved — going all the way back to 2007. “Once we have identified disposed cases where evidence was improperly destroyed, disclosures will be made to the defendants and their counsel,” the DA’s general counsel said. (AC/Houston Chronicle) ...So people who could have been proved guilty may end up better off than people there wasn’t enough evidence against to begin with.