Sheriff admits he has regrets
Sex scandal in department, his comments in Goforth case weigh on him
Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said Thursday he was embarrassed by a sex scandal rocking his department in the wake of the unprovoked killing last summer of sheriff ’s Deputy Darren Goforth and regretted linking his death to national hostility toward law enforcement officers.
In his first detailed comments about the growing disarray clouding the prosecution of the man accused of killing Goforth, Hickman said the revelation that at least two deputies had relations with Goforth’s former mistress, a witness to his killing, obviously complicates the case.
“Yes, I am concerned about it,” he said, “but confident in the DA’s team assembled to attack the issues associated with this case.”
In addition to the mis-
conduct of the two deputies, another issue complicating the prosecution of Shannon Miles on capital murder charges is the fact that earlier this week he was found incompetent to stand trial and committed to a state mental hospital for 120 days.
Goforth, 47, was shot last August in an unprovoked attack at a gas station. Weeks after his death, it emerged that he had been having an affair with a woman who was with him when he was killed.
Shortly after that, Hickman fired Sgt. Craig Clopton, a homicide detective who admitted to an improper relationship with the witness, prompting the department to revise and strengthen its sexual misconduct policy. And this week, the department announced the dismissal of Deputy Marc DeLeon for lying about having a relationship with the woman and said it is investigating a third deputy.
“Given that some of these people were from a variety of different places in the department, certainly you have to wonder if that’s the end,” the sheriff acknowledged. “When we have a relationship with a citizen about an investigation, we need to treat that like a doctor-patient relationship and conduct ourselves in such a manner as above reproach. While you wouldn’t think you’d have to say that — that it’s a bad thing to sleep with witnesses — apparently in this day and age you have to spell it out.”
In an interview with KTRK (Ch. 13) on Thursday, the woman at the center of the scandal admit- ted she had been involved with Goforth, Clopton and DeLeon but not the deputy currently under investigation by the sheriff ’s office.
The woman told the television station she contacted Hickman after the deputy tried to force a relationship with her with inappropriate calls and emails.
Asked about her assertion, Hickman said the witness had contacted him about another matter and that they had never spoken about the deputy currently under investigation.
‘I stand by that’
Hickman also said he regretted saying on the day Miles was arrested and charged with capital murder that anti-police rhetoric nationwide had gotten out of control and that Goforth had been targeted simply for wearing a uniform, but he asserted his remarks had been taken out of context.
“I do regret how people interpreted (my comments),” he said. “But my meaning was very clear. I was leading up to emphasize that cops lives matter, too.”
Though no evidence has specifically emerged as to Miles’ motive, Hickman reiterated his belief that Goforth was killed solely because he was in uniform.
“At the press conference, I drew a conclusion based on the absence of any other information,” he said. “I stand by that.”
Nevertheless, local civil rights activists are still smarting at what Hickman said.
“Its handling has been outrageous from the very beginning,” said LULAC Civil Rights co-chair Augustin Pinedo. “He tried to blame the Black Lives Matter movement and other civil rights efforts to bring clarity into the system and protest against the many shootings of unarmed African-Americans and other minorities.”
As to how the current events will impact the outcome of the case, Hickman drew praise from some Thursday for how he is handling the scandal, but some experts warn the saga involving his deputies could complicate the prosecution, if there is one.
“He’s trying to take over a department that had some difficulties prior to his rising to that position,” said Larry Karson, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Houston-Downtown. “As far as current problems with the Goforth investigation, or investigators, he’s addressing them, he’s fired people. He can’t control ... the idiocy of some of his investigators or deputies.”
Privately, sheriff ’s deputies say their colleagues’ behavior has embarrassed the department.
More importantly, Miles’ defense attorneys have seized on Goforth’s relationship with the woman to argue he was at the gas station to meet her and was therefore not on duty, which means their client should not face the death penalty.
Jeff McShan, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said little about the accusations or the repercussions except that prosecutors discovered the alleged misconduct and turned their findings over to the Sheriff ’s Office.
He said the allegations obviously make the case against Miles more difficult but noted that every criminal prosecution has obstacles to overcome.
Scandal to be part of defense
Miles’ defense attorney, Anthony Osso, said the scandal will certainly be part of any eventual trial.
“Basically, you’ll have 12 jurors who will have to determine the weight of their credibility,” Osso said. “Certainly, it’s a twist in this case, and this case has seen more twists than any case I’ve ever seen.”
He said the disclosures reveal why the district attorney and not the sheriff ’s office is leading the investigation.
“I think this is one of the reasons the DA’s office took over the investigation,” he said. “I’ve been trying murder cases for 33 years, and this is one of the only cases where the DA’s office has been the primary agency for the investigation.”
Around Houston’s criminal courthouse, defense lawyers not connected to the case were relishing the thought of cross-examining deputies and detectives about a culture of inappropriate behavior.
“It shines a light on the whole department,” said Vivian King, a prominent defense attorney. “If two officers are bad, can’t an argument be made that there are a lot of dirty cops — in high ranks — because homicide detectives are in the higher ranks?”
King said prosecutors should be considering offering a deal.
“I think they need to try to plead it,” King said. “If he did it, and I don’t know if he did, I think they need to minimize the negative drama for the family of the decedent and for the sheriff ’s department — by getting it out of the media.”
Other lawyers agreed that each disclosure is more damning to an eventual death penalty case.
“It taints everything that was done in the investigation,” said JoAnne Musick, the president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. “If they’re willing to cross those ethical lines, what other ethical lines are they willing to cross?”
Other experts said the revelations may become fodder for trying to impeach the investigators’ reputations, but it probably does not affect the underlying evidence, like forensics, surveillance video or statements to police.
“Ultimately the jury is going to look at the evidence,” said Geoffrey Corn, a professor at South Texas College of Law. “You can have investigators behaving unethically in their personal relationship with a witness, but it doesn’t mean the witness is lying.”