Oh, those emails

Remember how I said it looked like things might get worse for Chuck Rosenthal? Well, they just did, and this time there's collateral damage.

11 News has obtained hundreds of other Chuck Rosenthal e-mails, some that are racially and sexually charged.

Some of the most disturbing e-mails were exchanged between Rosenthal and his friend Sam Siegler.

Including one Aug. 16, titled "Slick Willy." The e-mail describes Bill Clinton as the closest thing to having a black man as president, because, "He played the sax..." "He smoked weed," and "He had his way with ugly white women."

It also said he doesn't work, but still gets a government check every month.

The very day after, Siegler e-mailed Rosenthal a video of unsuspecting women attacked on public streets. Men wearing hooded sweatshirts and sunglasses rip their clothes off, leaving them stunned and naked in public.

Rosenthal's office prosecutes sex crimes against women.

And who is Siegler?

Besides being Rosenthal's personal physician, Dr. Siegler is the husband of Assistant District Attorney and Republican Party District Attorney candidate Kelly Siegler.

His comments to us?

"I'm a private citizen. I'm a doctor, I'm his doctor, we're friends," Siegler said. "It's the United States of America, and I didn't think there was anything illegal about that particular e-mail.

"I didn't intend for it to be offensive. I didn't e-mail anybody that I thought would be offended by it."

Yeah, that sort of excuse always flies. And if Chuck Rosenthal really wasn't offended by such bigoted, sexist emails, then that tells us quite a bit about him, does it not?

Let's put aside the fact that many workplaces, presumably including Harris County workplaces, have restrictions on this kind of email, for which the sanctions can include termination. I'm actually willing to cut Chuck a bit of slack here if he was simply the recipient of these emails from his bozo friend. We all have someone in our lives who sends us emails we don't care for, right? As long as Rosenthal never forwarded them, or replied to them, that would mitigate his sins somewhat, at least from an HR perspective. It still speaks very poorly to his character, but it probably wouldn't get him fired.

But it turns out there are other problems:

Numerous messages deal with organizing his re-election barbecue fundraiser as well as finalizing his bio for his campaign website.

All of the e-mails surfaced during a federal civil rights lawsuit, in which two brothers claimed they were beaten and arrested by sheriff's deputies.

The district attorney's office provided hundreds of documents and video attachments. But in many of the e-mails, it's unclear exactly who sent what.

Including several files of hardcore pornography, too graphic to show on TV or on KHOU.com.

Campaign emails from government accounts is a big no-no, one that may violate election laws, and once again raise the question of who would be in charge of an investigation - hell, who would order one? As for the porn, well, I think we know why that would be bad. I should note that I'd heard some rumblings about the campaign emails last week, but didn't have sufficient confirmation to run with it. Good to see that it panned out.

So what's next? Remember, Chuck still has to face the judge on January 31 and explain why some 2000+ emails were deleted. Who knows what may come out between now and then? Stay tuned. Mark Bennett has more.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 08, 2008 to Scandalized!