Rough day for Central Texas prosecutors: Anderson, Lehmberg headed to jail

Today was a rough day for Central Texas prosecutors:

Re: Judge Ken Anderson and the Michael Morton court of inquiry:

Former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson was ordered arrested and booked into jail for the “intentionally harmful act” of hiding favorable evidence to secure Michael Morton’s 1987 conviction for murder, the court of inquiry found.

“This court cannot think of a more intentionally harmful act than a prosecutor’s conscious choice to hide mitigating evidence so as to create an uneven playing field for a defendant facing a murder charge and a life sentence,” District Judge Louis Sturns ruled. [Ed. note: See his findings.]

Sturns found probable cause to believe that Anderson broke two state laws and committed criminal contempt of court, then ordered Anderson to be arrested.

Re: Travis DA Rosemary Lehmberg, sentenced to 45 days in jail for DWI:

Attorney David Sheppard, representing Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg at her plea hearing, said Lehmberg's punishment is “without a doubt” the “harshest” sentence for a first-time drunken driving charge in the history of Travis County. Lehmberg pleaded guilty Friday to drunken driving and was sentenced to 45 days in jail before being immediately taken into custody. Lehmberg’s driver’s license was also suspended for 180 days.

Between these extraordinary events and the crazy news out of Kaufman County, where the murderer of the DA, his wife and another local prosecutor allegedly turned out to be a former Justice of the Peace (as opposed to the Aryan Brotherhood or Mexican drug cartels, as widely speculated), it's been a truly remarkable week for Texas prosecutors. I can't offhand think of another one like it.