Dear Editor:

How strange that police officers would take the side of criminal defendants against the State of Texas! I refer to the recent letter supposedly written by Tim Green, an investigator with the Gainesville Police. My first impression as I read this letter was that it seems a very bad policy for officers to alienate themselves in this fashion from someone that they may have no choice but to continue to work with for years to come.

But, there is greater irony in the premises for his argument. The fact of the matter is that whoever serves as District Attorney will not like what Haverkamp is doing. On behalf of the State of Texas, Stormer sought review by higher courts of two sets of dangerous rulings by Haverkamp. First, her decision that if someone were being held in jail he could obtain a hearing merely by alleging the police acted without probable cause. At that hearing, the judge decided to place the burden upon the State to prove probable cause; decided this could be done only by calling a witness with personal knowledge (even though credible information received from someone else is normally a proper basis for an arrest); and finally ruled that once the witness testified, any prior statement of that witness must be produced to defense counsel. These hearings (more like miniature trials) represented great inconvenience, were contrary to law, and threatened to close down the criminal justice system in Cooke County. They are not routinely conducted anywhere else.

Second, Stormer successfully proved that Haverkamp was issuing discovery orders in criminal cases which exceeded her authority. Compliance with those orders threatened to make pretrial disclosure of evidence so burdensome as to make it impossible for our office to perform its other duties.

One would have expected the police to recognize the problems for criminal prosecution which Haverkamp’s rulings posed, and that every effort was made to resolve the dispute before either mandamus petition was filed. The petitions for mandamus relief were filed because we genuinely felt Haverkamp was abusing her discretion and refusing to follow the law. That she thinks otherwise does not mean she is right. Stormer was merely performing her public duty under difficult circumstances. The cost would have been far greater if nothing had been done to change those rulings. The police have no basis to think Warder can do any better job as our felony prosecutor. They do not know. She has been retired for more than a year and last prosecuted a case in 1992. She has no experience in Cooke County, with the police or anyone else.

Green apparently does not appreciate the fact that in the last three years 34 cases were tried to juries (which might be compared to the 47 tried during Haverkamp’s 12 years as District Attorney). For some reason the Gainesville Police Association (whoever they are or whatever their number) apparently do not care that as many as 600 more criminals were prosecuted in 2005 thru 2007 than in any prior three year period in Cooke County history. If that is not the right direction, what direction does Green want to see us go? We have "battled" the District Judge so as to have more time to battle the criminal element. It is as simple as that. My guess is the desired change is for a return to the ways of the past, which will not bring a better future. Green’s analysis seems flawed to me even though I am sure he believes in what he says. Our office has frequently complimented the Gainesville Police for their work, but not this time. 

Martin L. Peterson

1005 Wheeler Creek Dr.

Gainesville, Texas 76240

940-668-7014