Lykos falls to Anderson in Harris Co. DA race

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Pat Lykos has lost her position as Harris County district attorney. The incumbent fell to her opponent, retired judge Mike Anderson, in the GOP primary.

Late Tuesday night, Lykos conceded to Anderson after he garnered 63 percent of the vote, with 99 percent of the precincts reporting.

Lykos had started off Tuesday seemingly confident about her chances for winning, telling us, "My challenger has run a very negative campaign against me and so we're going to find out tonight whether people want you to run a positive campaign -- as I have -- or what he's done."

But after the polls closed and more votes kept going to Anderson, she became more realistic and told Eyewitness News that she did not run a good campaign, saying she spent too much time working as a district attorney and not enough time on the campaign trail fighting against her opponents.

"All the things that we've accomplished, I reckon I should've bragged about it. I should've started my campaign earlier to get the word out to the people but there was so much to get done, and so I focused on the office," Lykos said. "Regardless of what the final outcome is, I'm going to continue as district attorney until December 31 and we're going to do great things."

Meanwhile, the mood was very upbeat over at Anderson's headquarters at Blanco's in the Galleria. A lot of his supporters were clapping and hugging, feeling optimistic about how the race will turn out.

Anderson called this a grassroots campaign and thanked his supporters.

"I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, all of you people who are here, all of my friends," Anderson said.

Anderson was a prosecutor for 17 years and has handled cases ranging from misdemeanors to capital murders. He's also been a special crimes prosecutor and worked in the major offenders division. Most recently, he was a state district judge for 12 years.

OTHER HARRIS COUNTY RACES

In another Harris County judicial race, Elaine Palmer has likely defeated incumbent Steven Kirkland for 215th civil court. With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Palmer garnered 62 percent of the vote.

Palmer had waged a campaign war against Kirkland, with a radio ad and flyer highlighting the incumbent's two drunk driving arrests more than 20 years ago. Kirkland, who's been sober for 27 years, had called the campaign ads offensive and untruthful.

In the race for Harris County Precinct 7 Constable, incumbent May Walker has defeated her four challengers. She had garnered 69 percent of the votes with 99 percent of the precincts reporting.

Controversy arose in this race when Hayes accused one of Walker's employees of harassing him when he tried to place an election sign next to Walker's.

In the crowded GOP race for Harris County sheriff, the race is too close to call. However, with 99 percent of precincts reporting, Louis Guthrie are Harold Hueszel are leading with 31 and 21 percent of the vote, respectively. They will face off again in a July 31 run-off election, and that winner will then face Democratic candidate and incumbent Sheriff Adrian Garcia in November.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Get more Politics »

politics
// perform JavaScript after the document is scriptable.OTV.common.modules.promoCarousel.promoCarouselInit("/ktrk/xml?id=5758258&ptnr=promoCarousel");

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

View the original article here

DA Lykos testifies before grand jury in BAT vans case

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- For months, a Harris County Grand Jury has been looking for crimes inside the District Attorney's Office. On Tuesday, that grand jury finally put Pat Lykos, the DA herself, under oath.

We were hoping to talk to the DA, but she stayed out of the public eye. Using a private entrance available only to district attorneys, the publicly elected DA avoided having her picture taken. But she couldn't hide from the questions.

It seems Harris Co. DA Pat Lykos would like nothing better than for us to forget about the investigation into possible criminal activity inside her office.

"Have you done anything wrong?" we asked Lykos back in October when the grand jury started.

"Of course not," she replied at the time.

But since then, we know BAT van technicians, DWI prosecutors and county commissioners have all testified. And we know one of Lykos' supervising prosecutors refused to answer grand jury questions out of concern she would incriminate herself.

"Why did you take the Fifth?" we had asked Asst. District Attorney Rachel Palmer.

"You know that's not an appropriate question," she replied.

All of it cleared the way for the woman at the top, the elected DA, to take her turn in the uncomfortable seat. But last week, after she'd been subpoenaed to testify and was just days away from being put under oath, she told Eyewitness News Reporter Miya Shay, "I don't know what you're talking about."

But she did, and so did we. The grand jury might be secret, but the fact she was called to answer questions in front of grand jurors wasn't to us.

On Tuesday, we were there waiting for the DA to walk in, but she didn't. Instead, she used a back door available only to district attorneys.

"A witness testified, questions were asked, questions were answered," special prosecutor Stephen St. Martin said.

In other words, Lykos talked. She didn't take the Fifth inside, but we don't know exactly what the questions were.

On Tuesday afternoon, she emailed us saying, "The Harris County District Attorney's Office continues to respect the secrecy of the grand jury process."

We don't know exactly what the questions were. We do know there are at least two areas of concern -- whether the DA or her staff sat on the knowledge that BAT van DWI evidence may have been sketchy, and if the office retaliated against the technician who blew the whistle in the case.

The DA's assistants deny both claims. Our numerous requests for comment from the DA herself have gone unanswered.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

local, ted oberg

View the original article here

DA Lykos subpoenaed to testify before grand jury

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Her office has been under investigation for months, and now the Harris County District Attorney herself is called to testify before a grand jury.

A grand jury investigating possible wrongdoing within the DA's Office has officially subpoenaed DA Pat Lykos. The probe centers around problems with the Houston Police Department's DWI testing vans.

The DA's Office will neither confirm nor deny that there's been a subpoena issued. They say that due to the secrecy of the grand jury proceedings, they can't talk about it. But we do know that the DA has been subpoenaed and that some time in the next few weeks, she will be testifying.

This is an ongoing grand jury investigation that's already seen some of the DA's top assistants take the stand. At question are the DA's use of so-called BAT vans used in drunk driving cases, and whether the DA's Office knew of flaws with those testing vans without informing defense attorneys of those potential problems.

Back in March, 13 Undercover's Wayne Dolcefino first reported about maintenance problems with those mobile testing units. DA Pat Lykos told Eyewitness News in October that she was unaware of any problems with the BAT vans, that she had issue with HPD and asked that the Department of Public Safety take over administration of those vans.

"I want the Texas Department of Public Safety to supervise the technicians so that we can be assured that everything is done according to protocol," Lykos said in October 2011.

Now she'll be talking to a grand jury.

"Very unusual. I don't know of another case where a DA has been called by a grand jury to testify in a criminal matter," said KTRK Legal Analyst Joel Androphy.

He says it's not only unusual, but it's also potentially dangerous for the DA to have to answer questions about what she did or didn't know then, and does or doesn't know now.

"Here, a prosecutor is being called to testify to a grand jury that is investigating her office. So, you know, she, number one, could tell everything that she knows, but, two, she runs the risk of incriminating herself," Androphy said.

Lykos could choose to plead the Fifth, but Androphy says that would be akin to political suicide.

You can read more about what led to this grand jury investigation by clicking on the Related Links in the box on the upper left-hand side of this story.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

local, tom abrahams

View the original article here