PROSECUTOR'S REMARK DRAWS ANGER, APOLOGY

A Harris County prosecutor apologized Friday for a remark he made about an
appellate court ruling that angered a group of local defense lawyers.

Calvin Hartmann, the chief of the appellate division of the Harris County
district attorney's office, said he did not intend to insult or intimidate
a panel of 14th Court of Appeals justices who overturned a conviction
against Robert Demond Lavern.

Lavern was a drug dealer involved in a 1998 gunfight with two undercover
Houston police officers that left one of them partially paralyzed.

The appellate panel ruled Thursday that one of the convictions against
Lavern involving the aggravated assault on a public servant must be
overturned because jurors in one of his trials were not given a special
instruction on self-defense.

Hartmann told the Chronicle on Thursday that the ruling might not bode well
for officers who do undercover work and in the process he cracked: "If I
was a police officer, I might think twice about drawing a gun to protect
those judges."

Richard Frankoff, the president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers
Association, said his organization was considering filing a grievance with
the State Bar of Texas.

"This was an absolutely outrageous comment, totally unprofessional and
maybe unethical," Frankoff said. "We're taking a real serious look at this
... . This is almost an intimidation of the judges."

Hartmann said Friday he was only trying to make a point about how officers
would see the ruling, considering that the case against Lavern involved an
assault on public servants and judges are public servants. But he added
that his mention of the justices in that context was probably unwise.

"I think people misread the statement," Hartmann said. "The statement was
not intended to state that anybody should go shooting up judges or that
police should not perform their duties in protecting judges."

Hartmann said he was trying to say that the opinion might be sending a bad
message to police officers about when they have the right to draw their
weapons.

"Clearly, I'm sorry that the statement might have been misconstrued,"
Hartmann said. "It bothers me to think that people would think I was saying
anything else ... . If a public apology is necessary, please construe this
as a public apology."

Harris County District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr., who himself has a
penchant for remarks that can inflame, said he met with Hartmann after
seeing the quote in the newspaper.

Holmes said he feels lawyers have freedom of speech rights and an
obligation to comment on the quality of the judiciary, but he was concerned
about the remark because it appeared to hint at some kind of retribution.

"It read bad," Holmes said, "but when he explained it to me I understood
what he meant to say ... . He explained to me what he was trying to
communicate, and I'm satisfied with that. I regret what he said, and I
think he does, too."