Yet Another Departure

While today is the last day at work for District Court Chiefs Stephen St. Martin and George Weissfisch, yet another long-time member of the District Attorney's Office had his last official day at the Office yesterday.

Edward Porter, a 27-year veteran of the Harris County District Attorney's Office turned in his resignation a week or so ago, and his last day on the job was yesterday.

Edward had an interesting career path.

He started as a clerk in the 174th District Court while in law school, before ultimately coming to the District Attorney's Office in July of 1982. (NOTE: I'd like to point out that I was 9 years old when Edward started at the Office). He began working in the Child Support Division back when the D.A.'s Office still handled those matters routinely, and then went on to become the Division Chief of the Family Law Division.

In 1989, he went to the Office's Civil Rights Division where he would stay for the next 19 years. During the course of his career, he personally made the scene of over 200 officer-involved police shootings. Odds are that if you ever saw a guy on the news wearing a hat and a fanny pack at an officer-involved shooting, it was probably Edward.

His most high-profile case that he tried was that of Joseph Kent McGowan, a Harris County Sheriff's Deputy who illegally obtained a warrant and then shot a woman named Susan Smith. The story of that case was detailed in "A Warrant to Kill" by Katherine Casey.

Rumor also has it that Edward was the constructor of the legendary harpoon presented to Casey O'Brien (aka Jigmeister) upon completion of one of Casey's notorious "whale cases".

The Office is losing a great character and a lot of Institutional Memory with Edward's departure.

Best of luck to you, Edward. You're a good friend and a good prosecutor. You will definitely be missed.