Assistant DA ousted in Galveston County
“When news of what happened with our case spread, lots of other individuals expressed concerns with similar issues.” Defense attorney Thomas Overhouse
An assistant district attorney has been fired and officials are reviewing about 100 felony cases in Galveston County because he did not disclose that a witness had recanted during a murder trial.
Clayton Hearrell was fired from the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office in July after the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office completed an investigation into his conduct, according to a spokesperson for the Galveston office.
The former assistant district attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Thursday afternoon.
A grand jury took no action against Hearrell and the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office has closed its investigation into his actions, said Wesley Wittig, a spokesperson for the office.
Thomas Overhouse, one of the defense attorneys representing the man in a murder trial that was the source of the initial complaint against the prosecutor, painted Hearrell’s alleged conduct in starker terms, saying attorneys in Galveston County were concerned about what this might mean for other cases he oversaw in his time.
“When news of what happened with our case spread, lots of other individuals expressed concerns with similar issues,” he said.
“Nothing we know of has risen quite to the same level. But yes, it’s a concern.”
The initial complaint stemmed from a September 2022 murder trial, Overhouse said Thursday. Ahead of the trial, prosecutors had had issues with uncooperative witnesses. The day the trial started, Hearrell approached defense attorneys and said that one of the victims had said he’d never been shot, but they dismissed it because he’d obviously been shot , Overhouse said.
Then the state called two other uncooperative witnesses, who did appear, but left the surviving victim off the list to testify and rested their case, Overhouse said.
It was then that defense attorneys went to the jail to interview the surviving victim, who told them the defendant wasn’t the person who shot him, and he’d said so to prosecutors weeks before.
Defense attorneys then called the surviving victim as a witness, at which point Hearrell provided the required disclosure document, Overhouse said.
“It was almost like he’d put it together,” Overhouse said.
After the man testified in the trial, a jury found the defendant not guilty, Overhouse said. But defense attorneys are worried about what the incident might mean for other cases.
The Galveston County District Attorney’s Office is conducting an audit of the cases Hearrell oversaw, which numbers around 100 felony cases, said Kevin Petroff, first assistant district attorney.
Prosecutors have reached out to defendants and defense attorneys in each of those cases to inform them of the review and the audit is ongoing, Petroff said.
Thus far, prosecutors haven’t found more evidence of Hearrell not disclosing exculpatory evidence.
Petroff wasn’t sure how much longer it would take to complete the audit.
Defense attorneys have requested documents from Fort Bend County about the investigation into Hearrell’s actions and could still file a complaint with the state bar based on what they learn from those, Overhouse said.
Overhouse said they contacted the Texas Rangers and the District Attorney’s Office shortly after the trial ended with their concerns about Hearrell’s actions, but the Galveston County District Attorney didn’t recuse itself and refer the case to Fort Bend until April.
In the interim, Hearrell continued trying cases for Galveston County, Overhouse said.