Kim Ogg - Former Harris County DA Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good one seven twenty three, our time here in Houston's
boy News, former Harris County DA Kim Obb joins us
to talk about hopefully a couple of cases here. I
guess let's start with the ones where you had broad
charges against members of Lena Hildago's staff that they got
ended up getting tossed by the Attorney general. Did that
surprise you, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I would say it's a shocker, Jimmy. The cases were
strong against all those staffers. It's pretty clear that the
communications they wrote each other and criminated themselves. You know,
make sure that ut Health doesn't get this bid. Nothing
super complex, just bid rigging at the cost of about

(00:40):
eleven million dollars a million four which went out the
door and taxpayers didn't get back. So no restitution, dismissals,
and we'll see some sweet plead deal I'm sure for
Alex Trent Phyllis today. I you know, I think that
the taxpayers of Harris County deserved to hear the fact

(01:00):
of those cases. So it's disappointing, but prosecutors see things
different ways, and we don't control each other. It's discretionary,
and so that's evidently what the assigned prosecutor from the
Attorney General's Office thought of these cases.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
You see a.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Similar trend though, in Shawn Tier's new administration, pulling these
water department cases out for no restitution, no money coming
back to taxpayers, even though many of the vendors made
a lot of money, and of course Patrice Lee and
her family did very well. You take the money they
stole and divided into the time she's doing, and I

(01:38):
wouldn't call that much of a deterrent to people who
are stealing from taxpayers.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Absolutely not. I mean that that's the sad part of
both of these cases. What kind of message does that send,
not even to taxpayers, but to would be criminals, Hey,
just go ahead and do it. It looks like it's
worth it.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, I mean, I know that Mayor Whitmyer is really
trying to clean up eruption left over from the last
administration under Mayor Turner. And these were prime examples of
very simple schemes that netted a lot of criminal proceeds,
over eight hundred thousand dollars to the principles involved, But

(02:16):
the vendors got contracts worth millions and they were direct
bribery cases. So why they're not being ordered to pay
back the people of Harris County. That is remarkable, and
I think that's just part of the relationship based plea
dealing that you're going to see under this new administration
instead of evidence based prosecution, which was my administration's hallmark.

(02:40):
You know, these charges were brought after regular people who
live in Harris County indicted these folks on crimes. So
it's not a strong message. It's a low bar for criminals.
And I just want people to know that we think
public corruption is one of the biggest problems in America.
It's elections, whether it's sealing from the government, whether it's

(03:04):
taking advantage of other people. This is a way that
it's a crime that really hurts people and hurts their
trust in.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Government, and more than often enough they get away with it.
Than that's of course the big problem. Let me quickly
ask you because we're as usual running out of time,
but I do want to kind of pick your brain
here as a former DA, what goes into the decision
making or what went into the decision making process for
you about whether or not you would do a plea
deal on a case.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
It's the strength of the evidence, and that's why prosecutors
can see it differently. Some are less aggressive than others.
I rely a lot on our community response. Since I'm
never personally in the grand juries, I have to rely
on what our prosecutors say and about how regular people
receive the information. But I'm a big believer in regular

(03:52):
people deciding the fate of other regular people who decided
to commit crimes. Of the evidence is the main one.
But I think here you're seeing a lot of relationship
based decisions by this new administration. Look to who the
lawyers are and you'll see a lot of commonality. In
the Elevate Strategies case, Sean Tier and Dan Cogdale were

(04:14):
in business together, and of course mister Cogdale represented General Paxton.
And it just looks wrong even if it's not. It appears,
like you know, it appears, appears to be a conflict
of interest, improper It does it does all right?

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Thanks is always good to talk to you appreciate it.
Former Harris County Da KiB Ogg seven twenty seven here
on news radio seven forty KTRH