John Bradley Attempted to Interfere in Hearing Held by House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence

by: Scott Cobb

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 11:51 PM CST

As I wrote yesterday in a post on BOR, John Bradley "should be removed as chair of the Texas Commission on Forensic Science. He has proven by his handling of the first meeting that his main goal was to cover-up and impede the investigation into whether Texas relied on faulty arson evidence to execute a person who did not kill anyone".

Now, Gary Scharrer in The Houston Chronicle reports:

(State Rep. Pete) Gallego had a committee hearing on Jan. 11 to focus on rules of evidence. He invited Beyler to testify.

In a Jan. 26 letter, Beyler told Gallego: "Mr. Bradley.... asked me not to appear before your committee. He was apparently concerned about your motives in inviting me and was very concerned that you wished to do the Commission harm."

"I was not at all convinced by his concerns and decided to come to Austin. As it turns out, his fears were wholly without merit. I very much appreciated that the committee members did not ask questions about the pending TFSC work," Beyler wrote in the letter to Gallego.

The veteran lawmaker said it's its improper to tell witnesses not to show up for a hearing.

"I'm really disappointed that he (John Bradley) would attempt to interfere in a legislative hearing in that fashion," Gallego said.

But Bradley, the district attorney in Williamson County, say he simply told Beyler "that his status as an expert in a case pending before the Forensic Science Commission made it potentially a conflict to serve as a witness in a hearing related to such matters before the conclusion of an investigation."

"Mr. Beyler had already damaged his reputation for impartiality by publicly commenting on the recent appointment of new commissioners. By entering the political arena, he gave ammunition to those people who might question his impartiality," Bradley said. "Having heard Mr. Beyler's presentation to the House Committee, it appears that he wisely edited his remarks to avoid further damaging his reputation. No one prevented him from testifying. It is naive to think that his invitation was unrelated to his work for the commission."

But Gallego said: "Our hearing was about the rules of evidence, and we told everybody that up front. There was no effort on my part to talk about anything else. If those cases came up by name, they came up peripherally."

John Bradley Violated Texas Open Meetings Act at Forensic Science Commission Meeting

by: Scott Cobb

Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 01:36 AM CST

One of the Commission members should offer a motion at the next meeting of the Commission to recommend that Rick Perry replaces Bradley as chair. Bradley is an elected district attorney. He knows about the TOMA. He obviously violated the act on purpose as part of his cover-up of the Willingham investigation. The commission members should also read up on Robert's Rules of Order to make sure they know how to exercise their own authority to control Bradley.

From Rick Casey:

Friday started badly for John Bradley, the Williamson County district attorney selected last fall by Gov. Rick Perry to ride herd over the troublesome scientists on the Texas Forensic Science Commission.

His first official act of the morning was to violate the state's open meetings law.

Then his day got worse.

This was the first meeting of the commission under Bradley, who was appointed last September. His first official act was to cancel a meeting three days later at which the commission was scheduled to receive a report from a nationally renowned arson expert hired by the commission in its first high-profile case.

The meeting had drawn national attention because the expert found that the arson investigation that helped lead to the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the murder of his children was badly flawed. It was especially controversial because Perry had rejected a request to delay Willingham's execution based on similar expert analysis.

Bradley unilaterally wrote the agenda for Friday's meeting to focus on new policies and procedures, omitting the Willingham report. He also unilaterally chose Harlingen (which is as close to Mexico City as to Fort Worth, where three of the nine uncompensated and busy commission members live), making wrong my snide prediction that he would hold the meeting in Presidio to discourage reporters.

The session took place in a modest meeting room at a Marriott Courtyard Hotel. A few area reporters were seated around the walls, as well as a handful of protesters carrying signs. A camera crew from the national Innocence Project streamed the meeting live on the group's Web site.

But Bradley evicted an Austin-based documentary crew before the meeting started. One of its members called the attorney general's office in Austin, which sent a message to Barbara Dean, the assistant district attorney who has attended all of the commission's meetings, providing legal guidance since its inception.

Film crew admitted

An hour and a half into the meeting, Dean, seated behind Bradley, tapped him on the shoulder and quietly spoke into his ear. He announced a 10-minute break, and when the meeting resumed the film crew was in the room.

When I asked Bradley about the matter, he curtly told me to talk to the film crew. I said I had and he replied with annoyance: "Then you know."

His defensiveness was understandable. Enforcement of the Open Meetings Act is the responsibility of local district attorneys such as himself.

Grits also has a post listing reasons why the commission members should be upset by Bradley's handling of the meeting.

Usurping power from commissioners: Bradley refused to put "action items" on the agenda that were designated in the minutes from the last meeting.
Hijacking the meeting agenda: The chairman arrived in Harlingen with a detailed set of "rules" that were never authorized by the commission and insisted they focus on them exclusively.

Concealing key activities from commissioners: Most FSC members were never told the chair was drafting rules nor did they authorize him to do so. They were first informed of the rules' existence and given a draft the day before the meeting.

Wasting commissioners' time: After spending all day on "rules," the chairman revealed at the end of the meeting that the commission had no rulemaking authority, announcing that these were only voluntary "guidelines" representing an informal agreement that is "not even enforceable on ourselves."

Ignoring "process": Though the Commission historically operated under Robert's Rules, Bradley ran the meeting on a "consensus" basis, which removed limits on the chair, obfuscated members' right to control the process, and allowed Bradley to railroad through his agenda.

Dissembling: When a commissioner told the chairman her vote hinged on whether old cases already in the pipeline - including ones where the Commission had already paid outside consultants (there are only two) - would be subjected to the new committee process, Bradley said no, they would not.

After the vote, when the meeting had nearly ended, Bradley insisted that Willingham's case must go through "part of" the new committee process. If he'd been honest about that during the debate, IMO a majority of commissioners present wouldn't have supported his rules.

The next meeting of the Forensic Science Commission is set for April 23, which is not only after the March 2 primary, but after the April 13 date for a runoff, which would be held if no one wins a majority in the Republican primary.

John Bradley to Serve as Rick Perry's Puppet on Texas Forensic Science Commission

by: Phillip Martin

Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 01:03 PM CST

This morning, I attended the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing. The hearing was called, largely, to hear testimony from the new Texas Forensic Science Commission Chairman, John Bradley.

Two things strike me as clear after attending the hearing:

1. The Democrats on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee -- Chairman John Whitmire, Senator Rodney Ellis, and Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa -- are going to do everything in their power to make sure that the Texas Forensic Science Commission begins to fulfill its role as an independent state agency that reviews mishandled and questionable forensic science in the Texas criminal justice system.
   
   
2. The new Texas Forensic Science Commission Chairman, John Bradley, is going to serve as Governor Rick Perry's puppet on the Commission, and work with Republicans like Senator Dan Patrick to deflect any of the public controversy brought to Rick Perry for his controversial mismanagement of the agency in the recent months and years.

From listening to Bradley's testimony in person today, here are the ways I think he will be nothing more than Perry's puppet:

1. Ignorance and Inexperience
   
   John Bradley testified before the Committee that he knew nothing about the Commission before he was appointed by Governor Perry.
   
   
2. Blaming the Legislature - With No Proof
   
   John Bradley accused the Legislature, on multiple occassions, of not having providing the Commission with the resources they needed to do their job. This was obviously a strong talking point that he had decided to pursue -- despite these obvious facts:
   
   
   • When pressed by State Representative Tommy Merritt about the specific budget issues the Commission was facing, he knew of none.
     
     
   • When pressed further about proving -- with a letter, or a phone call, or anything -- when the Legislature has denied the Commission more funding, he could offer no proof.
     
     
   • The Forensic Science Commission is only investigating three cases right now. When asked during the hearing and in a follow-up press conference he held outside the Committee room if the Commission had the necessary resources to fulfill its work on those three cases, Bradley answered, "Yes we do."
   
   
3. Continuing Perry's Political Cover-Up and Privacy
   
   John Bradley believes the Commission should be allowed to meet privately. From the Texas Lawyer:
   

   Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, the new chairman of the Texas Forensic Science commission, says he will recommend, among other things at the Senate committee hearing, that during an ongoing investigation, the commission should be allowed to meet in private to discuss the matter being investigated and that reports to the commission on an investigation be withheld from public release until the commission concludes its deliberations.

   “It’s not a good idea to conduct an investigation in a public forum,” Bradley says.

   Bradley did not back away from that during the hearing, until he began to hedge his bets when Senators Whitmire and Hinojosa pushed him on why an investigation on a process needs to be protected. He admitted that that should be transparent, but then -- when Senator Dan Patrick asked his Perry-friendly questions -- went back to talking about holding the initial parts of the investigation in private.

   Texas Democratic Party Chairman, Boyd Richie, himself a former prosecutor, issued this statement:
   

   It’s obvious the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to Rick Perry’s political appointees.  Perry’s politically motivated cancellation of an essential review of Texas’ forensic science methods threatened the ability of our criminal justice system to work properly for Texans.

4. Delays, Delays, Delays
   
   John Bradley intends on taking the coming months to write rules and guidelines for the agency -- a task that should have occurred already, but under Rick Perry's watch never occurred. Of course, Bradley refused to acknowledge that Perry was at all responsible for any delays, choosing to act like the Commission was performing its duties in recent years without a net.
   
   Until, that is, that Senator Ellis pointed out that the Texas Attorney General's office had a person in every one of the Commission's meeting, to ensure that they had the legal authority to carry out all their decisions. The excuse of delaying the Commission's work for months is no excuse at all, but another stall and delay tactic from Rick Perry's hand-picked appointee, John Bradley.

Eventually, the bigger picture left the hearing -- that going forward, the Texas Forensic Science Commission should be a place where the best forensic science can be determined, where mistakes can be evaluated, and where the work done by law enforcement across the state can be guaranteed to be the best work imaginable. But that's only going to happen because of the work of Senator John Whitmire, Senator Rodney Ellis, and Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa. Of the Senators attending the hearing, the three Democrats carried the lion's share of the work. Republican Senator Dan Patrick asked questions that would have made a Rick Perry criminal justice staff person proud, and Senator Glenn Hegar sounded like he wrote his remarks while taking a bus to school in the morning.

Ultimately, I have faith that our Democratic State Senators will be able to kick-start this Commission into moving in the right direction. I also believe that John Bradley actually wants to make that happen. But that's only his second job.

Bradley's first job, which was made clear during today's hearing, was that he is to work as Rick Perry's puppet and delay the Commission's work for as long as possible -- at least until it is no longer politically damaging to Governor Perry.

The answers the people of Texas and, indeed, across the country are looking for from Rick Perry's cover-up are well protected and hidden with John Bradley chairing the Texas Forensic Science Commission.

Previous Coverage on BOR:

• Rick Perry Lawyer During Willingham Arson Case Was Indicted for Arson Fraud
• CNN Airs Ten-Minute Feature on Rick Perry Investigation Cover-Up
• Rick Perry Cover-Up: Either He Didn't Know, or Didn't Care
• Glenn Smith: Forensics Expert Beyler Planned Public Airing of Willingham Report
• Juror in Willingham Execution Case: "Maybe this man was innocent."
• TX-Gov: Archiving Rick Perry's Cover-Up of Investigation into Execution of Todd Willingham
• CNN's Anderson Cooper: Texas Governor Rick Perry Covering Up Innocent Man's Execution?
• Rick Perry May have Violated Federal Law in Willingham Execution
• Gov. Perry Begins Cover-up in Todd Willingham Case: Replaces Chair of Forensics Commission
• TX-Gov: Did Rick Perry Fire Prosecutors to Avoid an Embarrassing Public Hearing