Time flies like an arrow

Kristin Mack makes an interesting claim in her column about who's thinking about running for what next year.

[Former HPD Chief CO] Bradford, who served as police chief in Mayor Lee Brown's administration, still has some battle scars.

Among them, a last-minute pay raise Brown gave Bradford that increased his pension, the crime lab debacle that began during his tenure, and an indictment on a perjury charge that eventually was dismissed by a trial judge.

Emphasis mine. All I can say to that is "Say what?"

Independent investigator Michael Bromwich outlined a series of steps he said officials should take to determine what role blood-typing and DNA evidence played in securing convictions against as many as 600 defendants -- including 14 already executed -- whose cases were processed at the Houston Police Department's crime lab between 1980 and 2002.

1980 was a long time ago - I was a high schooler living in New York back then. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure that CO Bradford was not Houston's chief of police at that time. I have no idea who it was, but it wasn't Bradford.

Perhaps this was just an inartful construction. It is true that the HPD crime lab problems came to light during Chief Bradford's tenure - maybe that's what she meant to say. One could then also say that this makes that an asset for Bradford, not a liability, since we wouldn't be at the point of finally resolving this debacle had it not been for Bradford. Perhaps that's a stretch, but it's closer to the truth than saying the problems began while Bradford was chief.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on June 30, 2007 to Crime and Punishment