My last post was about how I was affected by the news of my abuser getting off of probation nearly 15 months early. It has been a long road for answers.
When I was finally able to get answers as to why he was let off of probation this is what I was told, “it was a mistake” and that “no one thought to check for a second set of evidence”. The Dallas County DA took my abuser’s attorney’s word on the matter of whether or not my abuser should be on probation without doing any fact checking. So when the matter went before a judge the judge made a ruling based off of inaccurate information due to the inability of the Dallas County DA Office to do simple fact checking.
I wrote a letter to the Texas Attorney General asking for help. I wanted to see if there was any way to correct the situation by getting my abuser back on probation to finish serving the 15 months of probation that he should be serving. I was told by the Texas Attorney General’s Office that they have no oversight control over District Attorneys. They told me you cannot make a DA do anything. You cannot make them prosecute a case or impose a sentence on anyone. While I can understand why that may be; I simply wished for the DA to reexamine the ruling with all the facts. Something that wasn’t done in the original ruling. I was told that if I wanted to I could file a complaint. Which I’m planing on doing. In addition, I was informed that I could seek out advise from a lawyer to see if there were any additional options available to me. After reaching out to several attorneys, and not really getting anywhere with that, I used the Attorney Referral Program. I paid $20 to be referred to any attorney where I would get to talk to that attorney for 30 minutes for that $20. Again, I was told you cannot make the District Attorney do anything. If they have made a ruling, even if it was by “mistake”, then it is done. So, that’s it. There is nothing that can be done.
This is what I struggle with, where is the accountability for bad rulings? By admission, the ruling was a mistake. To my understanding this ruling does not aline with the rule of law when all the facts are taken into account. In my search for answers I was even told by someone the ruling didn’t seem legal, but yet there it was. All I wanted was a way for this to go back before a judge where this time all the facts would be known, and then let the judge make a decision. I wish the Dallas County DA Office would have held themselves accountable, and taken steps to rectify their mistake.
So, here I am with no avenue of recourse, but to file a complaint. A complaint that I’m sure will do little good. An attorney may be reprimanded for failing to do their job, but I won’t hold my breath on that. At the end of it all my abuser has still gotten away with getting off of probation 15 months early. As a victim I feel I still deserve to see him serve out his full sentence.
Susan Preston
March 11, 2020 at 2:48 pmThis is heartbreaking and unfare to say the least.
Leah K.
March 14, 2020 at 2:37 amFor the complaint I had to list a specific attorney. So I listed the one who called me because I was under the impression he was in the court room when the ruling happened. The problem with listing a specific attorney is that it is hard to tell exactly which Assistant District Attorney was assigned to my case when this ruling came up, and the review committee isn’t going to do the research to find out which attorney was assigned to my case during this time. In the end I was told what happened was not a punishable offense. So, again, no accountability for the mistake they made, and that sucks.