Fort Bend DA’s race pits former judge vs. defense attorney
Vacek, Middleton vie to replace longtime officeholder Healey
Cliff Vacek knows Fort Bend County like the back of his hand. The former state district judge, 71, has lived his whole life in the fast-growing, diverse suburb southwest of Houston, where he also has served as a teacher and had his own law practice.
“The criminal justice system ought to be fair,” said Vacek, a Republican. “I hope people feel like I do, that they want the prosecution to be swift, they want it to be vigorous, but they want it to be fair. That’s what I offer.”
Brian Middleton once worked as a prosecutor for longtime District Attorney John Healey, but the Houston native wears many hats — running his own law firm in southwest Houston in addition to working as a municipal prosecutor for the cities of Meadows Place, Jersey Village and Wallis, and as a judge for Jacinto City.
If elected, Middleton would become the first African-American district attorney for the county of more than 765,000 residents, which is 35 percent Anglo, 21 percent black, 24 percent Hispanic, and 21 percent Asian and other.
“I think it would send a signal to the rest of the world that we in Fort Bend County have very strong values and value diversity,” said Middleton, 46, a Democrat. “People of color can succeed.”
Whoever wins, it will represent a major change in Fort Bend County, where Healey, a Republican, has presided over the district attorney’s office since 1992, the year Bill Clinton was elected president. The race is being closely watched as the county backed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 but has continued to elect Republicans to top county offices.
Other key contests include for county judge, where Republican incumbent Robert Hebert is trying to stave off a challenge from Fort Bend ISD board member KP George. At the federal level, meanwhile, Democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, a Republican who has re-
presented the 22nd Congressional District since 2009.
As the son of an attorney who has practiced for nearly half a century, Middleton said entering the legal profession was on his mind from a young age. After graduating from Lamar High School in 1990 and the University of Houston with an economics degree in 1994, he attended Texas Southern University’s law school, where he works as an adjunct professor. During his third year of law school, he interned at the Harris County district attorney’s office.
Sitting inside the office of his Middleton Law Firm, he said he welcome the chance to serve as a prosecutor again and bring improvements to the district attorney’s office.
“Doing criminal defense, much of what you do … is ensuring and protecting their rights. In that process you learn how the district attorney’s office works and how it doesn’t work,” Middleton said. “I feel like I’m better situated than my opponent to improve the DA’s office because I’ve been studying their flaws for years.”
Middleton said he thinks the intake process can be reformed so that cases are more thoroughly reviewed before trial, improving the quality of cases going to court.
Bail reform advocate
He also is passionate about bail reform, noting how a risk assessment tool could be created to determine what type of bond should be set for a suspect.
He also wants the district attorney’s office to set specific criteria when reviewing cases and complete internal statistics to prevent biases from occurring within the office.
“What you see a lot of times is poor people languishing in jail, unable to afford a bond and ultimately pleading out even if they contend their innocence because they’ve just been in jail for so long and they’re desperate to get out,” said Middleton, a married father of three.
Vacek survived a grueling primary contest against Sugar Land attorney Shawn McDonald to win a place on the November ballot.
The Sugar Land native served in the Texas Army National Guard and as a teacher at his alma mater, Needville High School, before pursuing a legal career.
He began taking night classes at the University of Houston while he worked full time as a maintenance technician. Vacek went on to open his own law practice firm, employing 18 attorneys and 50 clerical staff members.
He also served as managing partner at another law firm with five attorneys.
Managing employees at different law firms provided Vacek with the knowledge and wherewithal to oversee attorneys within the Fort Bend DA’s office, he said.
He also noted that he oversaw hundreds of criminal jury trials as a judge for the 400th District Court for more than a decade.
“I had a reputation as a judge of being picky, particularly with search warrants or arrest warrants,” Vacek said this month at a restaurant in Richmond. “I wanted the warrant to be good and not just issue a warrant that had false facts or false statements in it.”
Vacek said he would like to revamp the docket system, so that cases for trial can be set in a timely manner and witnesses won’t get called down to the courthouse just to have the case reset.
“The public are the eyes and ears of the police and if they quit cooperating, then our criminal justice system is not going to work,” Vacek said.
‘Let the jury decide’
Vacek, who lives in Simonton and has been married for 34 years, said he’ll be a hands-on district attorney who will go into the courtroom and monitor attorneys and case proceedings.
His bid comes 16 years after he unsuccessfully ran for DA in
2002.
Then, he said, he had suspicions that Healey’s office was not complying with Brady v. Maryland, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that says prosecutors must disclose exculpatory evidence that could be favorable to the defense.
In 2015, the State Bar of Texas’ Commission for Lawyer Discipline filed a petition against Healey and an assistant district attorney in his office alleging professional misconduct and that they delayed informing a man that evidence used against him in a drug possession case might be tainted. The petition was eventually dismissed by a district court judge.
“It’s not going to be a culture there of win at all costs,” Vacek said of the DA’s office should he be elected. “It’s going to be — Let’s be fair, lay the facts out there and let the jury decide.”