HOUSTON—District Judge Al Bennett laid down the law Friday, ordering the embattled Metropolitan Transit Authority to stop shredding and start saving all of its documents.
The order comes after Metro tried to argue against it, but the judge had apparently been watching our ongoing 11 News Defenders investigation.
JUDGE: I watch the TV news like anybody else.
He may have been watching, as we broke the news that former Houston Controller Lloyd Kelley and his attorney Michael West got a tip that Metro was destroying documents Kelley had requested under the Public Information Act.
That led to Metro President Frank Wilson to admitting to this last Wednesday:
FRANK WILSON: There has been some shredding.
Which led to calls from Houston's mayor for a district attorney investigation, and on Friday the D.A. Public Integrity Division answered the call.
ASST. D.A.: The Harris County District Attorney's Office has begun an investigation.
Inside the courtroom, Judge Bennett had his own hard questions for Metro's lawyer:
JUDGE: How do you prove something's missing if it’s not there?
ATTORNEY: Well there are things like travel voucher requests…
JUDGE: There's also email requests … so if email have been destroyed and is not there how do you prove it’s missing if it's not there?
ATTORNEY: It's very difficult.
Judge: I would say so. (Laughs)
And the judge himself talked about what only the 11 News Defenders dug up Wednesday, when we told you how the state says Metro has been violating the law for years-- never developing or filing a policy describing how it will protect public documents from being destroyed. And the judge also took note of a videotape we got our hands on about Metro’s policy for handling documents:
ATTORNEY IN VIDEO: If we're getting rid of documents as we should, then our response can truthfully, honestly, and legally be, that we don't have certain documents.
JUDGE: This makes it seem as if this destruction policy she's talking about on tape as the policy of Metro is designed to overcome these requests that are made from the public.
But with Friday’s Metro's lawyer says they will make sure they'll keep their emails, and not follow the policy that now infamous videotape described.
One person who didn't take the stand on Friday was Metro's former general counsel, Pauline Higgins, who Metro first fired before this scandal broke and attacked in a public filing related to Friday’s hearing.
HIGGIN’S ATTORNEY RUSTY HARDIN: They did it, only because, to try to ruin her reputation. To try to defame her.
HARDIN: I was disgusted. And I was glad to see the judge was too. They were instructed, as you know, not to do that anymore. I don't think we really have anything else to say except Metro revealed its true colors today and they will be held accountable.
Metro Chairman David Wolff also showed up and we tried to ask about the videotape.
CHANNEL 11: Did you approve the deletion of emails right away that Jakki Hansen…
METRO CHAIRMAN: You're gonna speak to our lawyers. That's who you're gonna talk to.
CHANNEL 11: You're the chairman of the board, why will you not answer questions?
METRO CHAIRMAN: I answer questions all the time
CHANNEL 11: I'm asking you to answer this question as the chairman of the board, sir. (Wolff walks off)
And apparently we're not the only ones Metro doesn't want to answer to -- Houston Mayor Annise Parker responded to our story from Wednesday and said: "The agency is difficult to work with, not transparent and not accountable. I am not convinced everything is above board."
As for Metro's President Frank Wilson, well as the scandal heats up, he didn't show up, sending a couple of brand new personal lawyers he hired Thursday in his place.
