The Big Jolly Conspiracy

As some of you may have noticed, I de-linked from Big Jolly's blog yesterday.  It wasn't an easy choice to do so, but one that I ultimately believed had to be done.  I have no problem printing contrary opinions to my own and I link to several websites that I have a different outlook on Criminal Justice than the author does.

But Big Jolly jumped the shark the past couple of days, and I just don't feel right about linking to him anymore.  I like Dave Jennings as a person, but he has become so grossly misinformed about what is going on around the CJC that I just can't put a link up there that might imply I find his information even intellectually honest.

Back in November, when Rachel Palmer was whooping and hollering about pleading the 5th and recusing Judge Brown, the District Attorney's Office took time out of its busy (and budget-strapped) schedule to hire David Benzion as a media spokesperson.  It was a savvy political move by Pat Lykos.  After all, Benzion had been the editor of Lone Star Times, an influential Republican website in Harris County politics.  By hiring Benzion with our taxpayer dollars, Lykos could claim that it was a needed position in the Office and hopefully scoop up all of Lone Star Times' followers as well.

I don't know if Lykos was able to scoop up all of Benzion's followers, but she damn sure seems to have scooped up Big Jolly.  You see, Big Jolly used to work with Benzion at Lone Star Times.  As a matter of fact, when Benzion shut down the Lone Star Times website, he encouraged his readers to get their Republican Reading needs fulfilled by going and checking out Big Jolly's blog.  These guys are friends and there is nothing wrong about that.

At least there is nothing wrong about that until Big Jolly ends up becoming a shill for Pat Lykos via David Benzion and doesn't think we are smart enough to notice it.

Benzion's first day at the Harris County District Attorney's Office was on Monday, December 19th, 2011 -- right when Rachel's Motion to Recuse hearing was going on.  Keep in mind that during this period of time, Lykos was hiding from the media.  The normally attention-hungry District Attorney simply could not be found.  She was dodging every media outlet that she possibly could.  Those who even have the faintest familiarity with Lykos know that her dodging the media is a gross deviation in her character.

Can't say that I blame her.  The media wanted to know the answer to the pesky question of "How exactly do you keep employing a prosecutor who just invoked the 5th Amendment in front of the Grand Jury?"  Lykos had no answer to that quiz, so she didn't show up anywhere that she would have to answer it.

Thank goodness, she had the newly-hired David Benzion, though!  He could utilize his Republican ties and find some sort of "journalist" that could get some positive spin out there for his boss, right?  And on December 27th, 2011, Dave Jennings AKA Big Jolly cranked out this piece of fluff.  After two weeks of hiding from the media, the District Attorney appears for an obscure local blogger who would write an article entitled:

Pat Lykos:  Vigorously prosecuting the guilty while seeking justice

Seriously.  That was the title of it.

I guess the title of "Pat Lykos:  Super Awesomest District Attorney in the History of District Attorneys is Eradicating Villainy and Providing All Harris County with Safety and Looking Very Lovely While Doing It" would have been a little too over the top.

And then Dave jumped in with his conspiracy theories and political motivations for the 185th.  I tried to talk to him, and we had polite conversations.  But he just kept on coming with it. A self-serving District Attorney who allows a 5th Amendment-taking-prosecutor to remain on the job is just fine and dandy, but suddenly a volunteer citizen who serves as a Grand Jury foreperson is treated like the Anti-Christ?

Do you have any idea how much crap was made from allegations and innuendo about Patricia Pollard because of the mere fact that she was serving as the foreperson of a Grand Jury?!  That poor lady signed up to serve on a Grand Jury along with 11 other citizens back in August and the next thing you know, our elected District Attorney is portraying her to be the second coming of Lee Harvey Oswald.  Mrs. Pollard hadn't even said a thing and the Grand Jury hadn't issued a single finding; yet the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight was going after her like she was John Gotti.

And there was Dave Jennings calling it like Lykos saw it.

The conspiracy theories surrounding the 185th Grand Jury became so ridiculous that I don't even know where to begin.  I honestly don't know what the Grand Jurors could have done to appease the conspiracy-minded Dave Jennings short of setting themselves aflame in front of the CJC.  Even when they issued no indictments, they still got blasted and insulted for issuing a First-Amendment-protected-letter saying they felt the D.A.'s Office had attempted to intimidate them.

In his dramatically entitled post "Harris County DA Lykos stands up to Runaway Grand Jury," Big Jolly called Mrs. Pollard a "Wyatt Earp wannabe" and then cleverly refers to her as "Mrs. Earp" through the remainder of the post.  Dave ridiculed a respected volunteer serving as Grand Jury foreperson for doing the job she was entrusted to do because she had the audacity to question Lykos' intimidation tactics.

It just gets worse from there.   The thing that just kills me about the way Big Jolly writes these stories for Lykos is that he isn't just excusing Lykos' behavior, he's commending it.

Today, he even implicated Bert Graham!  Seriously, Dave.  Have you ever even met Bert?

It troubles me greatly that Big Jolly believes the joining of people who believe that Pat Lykos is a terrible (if not criminal) District Attorney must be a huge political conspiracy based on speculation.  Since when did having common sense become participation in a conspiracy?

The reason I unlinked from David Jennings' (AKA Big Jolly) blog is that I found it to no longer be credible or trustworthy.  A blog that condones the malicious attacks on ADAs by half-wits like Don Hooper while praising the Mafia-esque tactics of Pat Lykos is just not one that I care to affiliate my blog with anymore.  The slamming of good people's names because they dared to investigate Lykos didn't really do much for me either.

But what really and truly bothers me is that Big Jolly's affiliation with Lone Star Times and David Benzion, coupled with his sudden unprecedented access to Lykos (for the purposes of writing fawning articles) sure makes it look like Big Jolly has become a shill.

Remember, I don't sell advertising on this blog.

Perhaps I'm wrong.  Maybe Dave really does think that Pat Lykos is the "most awesomest" District Attorney ever and none of this really was a conspiracy on behalf of her Administration to use taxpayer money to write campaign pieces for her.

You know how crazy people can get with their conspiracy theories.

Then again, I did just receive a copy of this in my e-mail: