Prosecutors’ security weighed after killings
Travis district attorney’s office has 19 specially trained officers on staff.
HOUSTON — After two North Texas prosecutors were slain in two months, law enforcement agencies across the state are considering steps to better protect attorneys who go after violent criminals, including providing round-the-clock security details and withholding personal information from public records.
Last weekend’s fatal shootings of the Kaufman County district attorney and his wife in their home were so alarming that county officials assigned a 24-hour security detail to the interim prosecutor who took over the job. In Houston, District Attorney Mike Anderson and his family also have round-the-clock security from the sheriff’s office. Another prosecutor in the state’s Panhandle region encouraged his staff to request that property records not list their home addresses.
In Austin, the Travis County district attorney’s office has 19 commissioned peace officers on staff who are trained in dignitary protection, including on firearms, active shooter and critical incidents, said Dawn McLean, chief of investigations for the office. Officers participate quarterly in training for active shooter situations, she said.
“Of course, given the Kaufman County situation, we are all saddened and somewhat uneasy,” McLean said. “We are currently more vigilant, and we constantly have to be alert, but we cannot be paralyzed with fear.”
Indeed, current and former prosecutors acknowledge that nothing will eliminate the risk of confronting society’s most dangerous offenders in the courtroom.
Former Houston prosecutor Clay Rawlings received a death threat in 1984 from a tattoo-covered 19-year-old charged with murder in a fatal stabbing. The experience, he said, motivated him “to make damn sure that guy is never getting out.”
Rawlings, now a personal-injury lawyer, said the threat made him realize two things: that “this guy was dangerous” but also that “I’ve got to do my job.” The teen was sentenced to life in prison.
Authorities continue investigating the deaths of Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, who were found shot to death Saturday just outside the town of Forney, about 20 miles from Dallas. At a brief news conference Wednesday, investigators said they have no suspects.
Speculation about possible culprits has swirled around a white supremacist prison gang known as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, which had been targeted by a task force that included McLelland’s office. Mexican drug cartels have also raised suspicions.
The slayings were especially jarring because they happened just two months after one of the county’s assistant district attorneys, Mark Hasse, was killed near the courthouse.
Law enforcement figures were also targeted in at least two other states. Colorado’s prison chief was shot to death March 21 at his front door, apparently by a white supremacist ex-convict who died in a shootout with deputies after fleeing to North Texas. And on Wednesday, a West Virginia sheriff known for cracking down on the drug trade was fatally shot in the place where he usually parked his car for lunch.
Since McLelland’s death, law enforcement agencies across Texas have been beefing up security or reviewing their procedures.
In Houston, federal prosecutor Jay Hileman informed defense attorneys Tuesday that he was withdrawing from a case involving the Aryan Brotherhood because of “security reasons,” said Richard Ely, a defense attorney who represents one of the gang members who has pleaded guilty. The indictments were the result of the task force’s work.