Judge & Lawmaker Tussle in Cop-Killer Case

Osso states in the motion that Whitmire's position on a state finance committee that plays a key role in funding state hospitals could influence doctors to prematurely declare Miles competent.

But Brown said at the hearing: "I don't really know how I would preclude Whitmire from interfering in the case."

She did, however, instruct Osso to draft an order immediately for her to sign stating that the Harris County Sheriff's Department and state health department cannot order Miles to be moved on the hospital waiting list.

"So if someone moves him [in line] I can ask for a show cause hearing and ask for contempt of court," Osso said in court.

Whitmire, who attended the hearing, said afterward that he's disappointed the judge didn't expedite Mile's transfer to the hospital.

Whitmire said he did not get involved in the case when Miles was arrested in late August because there were no grounds for him to intervene until Feb. 9, when Brown declared Miles incompetent.

"If you look at the judge's order from the date they determined he was incompetent, it says 'He shall be assigned to the State of Texas, to the Department of Health, for assignment when they're ready for him,'" Whitmire said.

"In other words, after he left court that day, I thought they were serious about getting Mr. Miles to a hospital. It was my understanding that with the judge's incompetency order he became a ward of the State of Texas and he would be taken to a state hospital when the state agency is ready to receive him. That's why I intervened."

Whitmire became more riled up the longer he talked to reporters, until he was almost shouting, his frustration showing in his red, perfectly shaved head.

"It was not emphasized in court today that he is a very unique defendant. He's the only one on the waiting list charged with taking the life of a co-worker of the people at the Harris County Jail who are in charge of his safety and welfare," Whitmire said.

The senator said Osso doesn't know what goes on at the jail at 2, 3 or 4 a.m., and that he's seen video of Harris County detention officers letting "defendants come into contact with each other," as a way to dole out punishment.

"They don't have to be the one to abuse a person. They let other people do their dirty work," Whitmire said. "The bottom line is a sick man belongs in a hospital and I'm disappointed, but I have done my job and now it's in the hands of the people who conducted this hearing today."

Whitmire said state lawmakers have asked the University of Texas Health Science Center to start a program by which competency restoration can be done in Harris County so mentally troubled inmates will not have to be transferred to a state hospital.

Whitmire said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asked him to commission a study on conditions of state jails in response to the death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who was found dead in her Waller County Jail cell in July last year, three days after an altercation with a state trooper during a traffic stop. Officials say she hanged herself with a plastic bag, but her family disputes the story.

Whitmire cited the case of Terry Goodwin, a mentally ill man whom Harris County jailers let languish for weeks in a cell with a toilet clogged with feces.

Goodwin's case came to light when whistleblowers contacted KTRK, Houston's ABC affiliate. The county paid Goodwin a $400,000 settlement in June 2015.

"For two months, there was a sign on the cell that said 'Do Not Enter,'" Whitmire said. "[Goodwin] had 150 food trays in his cell. His family said he didn't want to meet with them. The Harris County Jail isn't a safe place on any given day for anyone."

After Whitmire finished venting and got on the elevator, Osso had some choice words for the senator.

"We cannot have politicians interfering with the judicial process and utilizing their power and authority as a legislator asking for things to be done within the judiciary," Osso told reporters.

Whitmire's involvement is the latest wrinkle in a case filled with them.

A woman told investigators shortly after Goforth's slaying that she was his mistress, that she saw the murder, and that she was meeting with him at the gas station, according to a Brady disclosure filed with the court.

Osso says that if he can prove Goforth was not at the gas station in his official capacity as a police officer, then Miles' capital murder charge could be reduced to murder, which could save him from the death penalty.

Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman fired two sheriff's officers, one in October 2015 and another in early February, for having sexual relations with Goforth's alleged mistress. One of the fired officers was assigned to investigate Goforth's murder.

Hickman fired a third deputy on Feb. 12 for sending the same woman emails soliciting her for sex.

Follow @cam_langford

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