With Jessica Tata absconding off to Nigeria (and totally undermining my attempt to achieve a more Ghandi-like view of the Criminal Justice System with my previous post), a War of Words has broken out between the Harris County District Attorney's Office and the arson investigators with the Houston Fire Department. It was inevitable, really. The deaths of four children and no one to hold accountable for it is a tragedy, and God forbid a tragedy ever happen that we couldn't blame on somebody, right?
So, let's do a quick breakdown on some of the things that are notable with the Tata escape.
Point 1 -- There is generally nothing wrong with the D.A.'s Office wanting to make sure a case is well-built before accepting it from a Police Agency.
Houston Fire Marshal Richard Galvan is blaming prosecutors for Tata's flight because they were being too picky about what they wanted done on the case. Galvan cites that investigators with the Arson had to make four approaches to the D.A.'s Office before charges were accepted.
Whichever prosecutor was handling the case for the D.A.'s Office wanted to make sure that the case would stand the test of time once it got filed. Asking the investigating agency to do more work on what is going to be one of the more high-profile cases is smart. Avoiding the knee-jerk reaction of filing something because it is high-profile is even smarter.
Advantage: D.A. Office
Point 2 -- That being said, an Injury to a Child case with this fact pattern isn't going to be all that tricky, in the big scheme of things.
They weren't investigating Tata for Arson (at least, not yet). They had to answer one simple question. Was she home or not when the fire broke out? In the article DA Spokesperson Donna Hawkins states that they wanted to establish that no other adults or workers were in the house either.
Ok. Fair enough, but how much time do you really need to spend doing that? It would seem to me that a preliminary investigation that satisfies Probable Cause against Tata could have been done within a couple of hours and at the scene of the fire.
Its nice to have a well-made case, but being too picky on charges is not good.
Advantage: Arson Bureau
Point 3 -- The D.A.'s Office disregarded information that Tata was about to leave the country
Wow. If this is true, I don't know how much defending can really be done for the D.A.'s Office. The Special Crimes and Intake Division are open year round, 24/7. A warrant could have been drawn up pretty quickly on exigent circumstances and Tata could have been brought into the fold.
Advantage: Arson Bureau
Point 4 -- If the Arson Bureau had a tip that she was going to flee, why weren't they sitting up on her?
I know that manpower shortages affect us all, but when we are talking about a potential fugitive who is going to be taking off and leaving four unaccounted for dead children in her wake, do some surveillance dammit. This isn't a case where somebody burned up a Ford Pinto in the hopes of getting insurance money.
Advantage: D.A. Office
Point Final -- the real person to blame for this is Jessica Tata. She is clearly a responsibility-avoiding low-life. Could more have been done to make sure she stuck around? Yep. But at the end of the day, she's the one that ran.
I hope some day they catch her. I hope she faces Justice.
But in the meantime, I don't see a whole hell of a lot of good in playing the Blame Game.
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