INTERVIEW NOT EXACTLY IMPROMPTU

There are news interviews, and then there are news interviews. And then
there are attempts to do a news interview with Harris County Court-at-Law
Judge Janice Law.

Wander up to her bench in the Criminal Courts Building on San Jacinto and
ask to speak with her, and an altogether new sort of phenomenon begins to
unfold.

For openers, Law insisted on her court reporter, Eliza Madrigal, not only
being present but also getting every word down on the court-reporting
machine. Then, as an afterthought, Law further decided that "my lawyer" had
to be there.

That brought Marshall Shelsy, counsel to the misdemeanor judges, to Law's
chambers, looking thoroughly confused. He usually gives judges opinions on
what they can and can't do legally, not referee news interviews.

The topic was an incident last month where a policeman testified he could
smell marijuana in a teen's car, even though no one was smoking at the time.
In his closing remarks, defense lawyer Victor Blaine suggested jurors smell
the baggie of weed themselves and decide.

Prosecutors complained that it was improper to let jurors do their own
"investigation" of the evidence. But Law still sent the marijuana back to
the jury room and before long Blaine's client was found not guilty.

When Shelsy and Madrigal were ready and Law was sitting in her robes at her
desk in her chambers, the interview commenced. Sort of.

"I had thought that I could not comment to you on this, and Mr. Shelsy
confirmed that, that the legal canons prevent me from commenting on my
rulings on why I rule a certain way; but Mr. Shelsy has graciously agreed to
give you some background on the issues," Law said, according to Madrigal's
official transcript.

For a quarter-hour, questions directed at Law were answered by Shelsy in a
strange show that probably would not have occurred in conversations with any
of the county's other 14 misdemeanor judges and 22 felony judges.

It was clear Law did not break any set-in-stone rules by giving jurors the
evidence to sniff. And both Shelsy and the judge were satisfied no juror
slipped any of the illegal weed into his or her pocket or took any of it
into a restroom to test it by fire.

John Makeig