Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Judge Coffey: 'You don't fix a car that's not leaking oil.'

Why didn't Terri Moore run against Curry as a Republican in the March primary, as many advised her? "Because I'm a Democrat, and I ain't lying to anyone about that," she said. "I'm not one of those liberal Democrats. Hell, I've put too many people on death row to be considered a liberal. I'm a Democrat because I believe that justice should be held to a high standard, whether the victim is a poor criminal or a millionaire. Too often I have seen money determine justice, and I've seen the prosecutor's office have little interest in victims who are poor. That's not what justice is about."

As the only race in the county with any juice, this one, obviously, is already getting nasty. Moore is clearly willing to attack her former boss. Meeting with her advisors at a North Side Fort Worth Mexican restaurant, she repeatedly referred to the 63-year-old incumbent as "that old geezer."

Curry's response begins with that contention from Moore that he told her he would step down in 2002 and throw his support to her. "I would have never told her my political plans, one way or the other," he said.

As for the idea that he would have supported her candidacy, "Terri is a good trial lawyer, one of the best," he said, "but she has no administrative skills to run an office this size with a budget of $27 million."

So far he hasn't attacked Moore's record, but she's already bristling over a recent fundraising letter calling her a liberal.

"Sheeit," she said in her trademark Texas twang. "Was I a liberal when I won all those murder cases for him and put all those people on death row? Do you think the criminals care whether the D.A. is a Democrat or a Republican when they are committing their crimes? If his campaign strategy is to call me a liberal, I'm going to win big."

Moore said that Curry's courtroom avoidance makes him an absentee landlord.

"What Curry is doing is a fraud," she said. "He hasn't even been in a courtroom since he lost the Cullen Davis case in 1977. You can't defend that. He has no idea who is good and who isn't. He has no input on death penalty cases."

"What happens is that justice becomes uneven when you run an office like that," she said. "The fact of the matter is that the D.A. in Tarrant County is just a hollow name. The prosecutors only know him as that old dude they meet when they get hired or when they leave. The public only sees him when he runs for office. Why should the taxpayers pay a salary for a man who does nothing?"

Judge Coffey's defense of Curry on that point is succinct: "You don't send your generals into battle, if you're smart." As for death penalty cases, both Curry and Levy said that Curry and his three top felony chiefs review each capital case, with Curry making the final decision on whether to seek the death penalty. "No decision is made on a capital case without his full knowledge and approval," Levy said.

However, one former assistant D.A., who asked not to be identified, acknowledged that the lack of courtroom presence by Curry is an issue in the office. "The prosecutors never see Tim, and at times that is OK," said the lawyer. "But he is so disengaged that too much power is in the hands of his mid-level managers. That's where the problem is."

Curry's absence from the courtroom isn't the only topic on which this campaign echoes his 1972 race against Crouch. There are also questions of favoritism and failure to prosecute some cases.

Judge Coffey said rumors of favoritism for Curry's friends are wide of the mark. Curry's actions in 1991 when his 27-year-old son was put on trial for amphetamine possession prove his fairness, Coffey said. "Tim called in a special prosecutor, and never interfered." The son, Cullen, was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

Thirty years ago, Curry hammered the incumbent for "excessive dismissals" of cases and his refusal to prosecute two high-profile narcotics dealers. This time around, it's the families of several murder victims who are complaining about Curry's alleged inaction.

The group, called Parents Of Murdered Children, is campaigning for Moore. Robert and Sandy Houston, Bob and Barbara Arnett, Lee and Janie Saldivar, Jackie Ancrum, and Hector Carrillo say the D.A.'s office had the evidence to bring the killers of their grown children to justice, yet it refused to attempt to do so. The Houston and Saldivar families said Curry insulted them further by not returning their phone calls or responding to their letters, an accusation he doesn't deny. "I sent their requests to the prosecutors handling their cases," he said.

The Houstons' son, Chad, 20, was killed in the parking lot of a local bar in 1998; numerous witnesses said three young men grabbed him from behind, and one knocked him to the ground, where he hit his head so heard that the witnesses said they heard his skull crack. He never regained consciousness. The fact that the assailants were no-billed by two grand juries doesn't satisfy the Houstons. They said that the D.A.'s office took a "boys will be boys" attitude about the fight, didn't want an indictment, and let the jurors know it.

Prosecutor Jay Lapham denied the charge. "We took this case seriously," he said. Lapham took the case to a second grand jury after the Houstons brought him evidence that hadn't been presented to the first panel. "I tried hard for an indictment. But you can't make a jury indict, and the law is clear; you can't keep presenting evidence 'til you get the result you want." NEXT »

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5