Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk resigned Tuesday to focus on her mental health after less than two years in office.

Her tenure was overshadowed by three long-term hospitalizations for depression and a mood disorder.

"It is with a heavy heart that I must tender my resignation as Dallas County District Attorney," she wrote to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who will appoint her replacement.

"It's been an honor and a privilege to serve this office and the citizens of Dallas County alongside you, but my health needs my undivided attention. More than my words could express, I appreciate the grace I've been shown as I've tried to balance my health and my duties. This has been a very difficult decision for me. "

Rumors had abounded for months that Hawk, 46, would resign. Some had called for her to step down. Right up to the end, supporters remained indignant at the suggestion she should give up her post because of her prolonged absences. They said no one would suggest Hawk quit if she had been suffering from cancer.

Others said they supported her if she could continue the high-stress job of DA and take care of her mental health.

After three hospitalizations, she decided she couldn't carry on.

"I've dedicated my life to serving our criminal justice system. I believe our office is making a difference and I want to continue that good work," she wrote. "But last fall upon returning from treatment, I made a commitment to step away from the office if I felt I could no longer do my job. Unfortunately, I've reached that point and my health needs my full attention in the coming months."

Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk (center) greets supporters while standing near Charla Aldous (right), who is part of her legal team, after State District Judge David Peeples, of San Antonio, dismissed a lawsuit to ouster Hawk from office at the George Allen Courts Building in Dallas Friday January 8, 2016. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer)

Had Hawk resigned a little over a week ago, there would have been an election in November for a new district attorney, leaving it likely that a Democrat would retake the office in a predominantly blue county. As is, Abbott will almost certainly appoint another Republican.

In the meantime, the office will be run as it has for long stretches of the last 20 months: by First Assistant District Attorney Messina Madson, a veteran prosecutor who joined the office in 2004 after graduating from law school at Southern Methodist University.

Madson said Tuesday that she couldn't speak to Hawk's personal reasoning for resigning now after being so determined to treat her mental health and remain district attorney. Madson said Hawk "made the decision to give her health her undivided attention."

Hawk sent an email to the staff and did not meet with them personally, Madson said. Top administrators met with employees Tuesday afternoon.

Friends and rivals said it was important for Hawk to recover from her illness.

"The decision Susan took is what's best for her family and the citizens of Dallas County," said Dallas County GOP Chairman Phillip Huffines. "The job of defending liberty and serving the people of Dallas is one that should be taken seriously, and I salute Susan's willingness to place herself in the public spotlight."

But not everyone simply wanted to wish Hawk well.

Pete Schulte, a Democrat who has said he plans to run for DA in 2018, questioned why Hawk stepped down when she did. If she truly wanted to focus on her health, he said, she should have done so months ago, before the Aug. 26 deadline to have an election this year to determine the next district attorney.

"It robs the citizens of Dallas County of an election in November to be able to choose her successor," he said. "Her actions are all about what's best for Susan Hawk."

Hawk's rise

Hawk, a first-term Republican, took office in January 2015 after Democrat Craig Watkins lost what amounted to a referendum on his own two terms in office.

Watkins entered office as the first black DA in Texas, and was soon a burgeoning national figure known for joining the fight for the exoneration of the wrongly imprisoned. He was also the first Democrat elected to the post in decades.

But Watkins, who suffered from his own demons, personal and professional, was drummed out of office after Democrats abandoned their party to vote against him.

He’d rear-ended another car in his personal vehicle and used county money to negotiate a secret settlement. He bought and lost the office’s candy red Porsche. An attorney alleged the DA’s office under Watkins threatened criminal charges against a man who bought it — if he didn’t return it.

Former Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins testifies at a hearing where he was accused of prosecutorial misconduct. He was held in contempt of court. He was later acquitted. (File Photo)

And then there's the federal investigation into his office during his time as DA. The chief investigator under Watkins recently pleaded guilty in federal court to taking a bribe to dismiss a case.

Hawk, once close friends with Watkins’ wife, Tanya, resigned from her seat as a state district judge in fall 2013 to run against Watkins.

During her run for office, she, her parents and her supporters trumpeted her as the anti-Watkins. They said she would bring openness to the office and end what they deemed as Watkins’ shenanigans.

Shortly after Hawk joined the race, she left the campaign trail for what she said was back surgery. Much later, The Dallas Morning News reported that she actually spent about a month at a rehab facility for her reliance on prescription drugs.

The absence did nothing to hinder the public’s readiness to be rid of Watkins. Not widely known to the public, Hawk was soon catapulted into office promising change and integrity. She became the first woman elected to the post, and the GOP was able to retake the only countywide office the party now controls.

She was the first Republican elected to a countywide race in more than a decade and a rising star in the party.

Her bio on the DA’s website reads: “Susan Hawk is committed to raising the standard of ethics at the DA’s office, taking the spotlight off of personalities and politics, and refocusing it on what really matters: upholding our laws and keeping families safe.”

Trouble at the start

But Hawk’s tenure was tumultuous almost from the beginning.

Within three months, she parted ways with several well-respected, high-ranking prosecutors she'd recruited. Second-in-command Bill Wirskye was ousted amid allegations that Hawk acted paranoid and unstable while on the job.

Special prosecutor Bill Wirskye points at Eric Williams as he gives closing arguments during the punishment phase of the Eric Williams capital murder trial in December 2014. Williams was sent to death row in the murders of Kaufman District Attorney Mike McLelland, his wife, Cynthia, and prosecutor Mark Hasse in 2013. (Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)

Within days of Wirskye’s firing, Hawk was also forced to admit that she had secretly gone to rehab for prescription drug addiction during her campaign for DA.

Then, in May 2015, Hawk checked herself into a Houston clinic to seek treatment for depression. Her representatives covered for her absence at first, saying she was taking “time off” and on a “summer break.”

That was all within the first few months of a term mired by a failed lawsuit to oust her from office, irregular attendance at work and perennial questions about her mental competency.

Former employees complained that Hawk believed her phone and computer were being bugged. And, they said, she feared that her employees were plotting against her. She asked to see employees' phones if they received a text message, former employees said.

She’d become DA after more than a decade on the bench, where as a judge she presided over a specialty court program for defendants with mental illness and drug problems. She always spoke passionately about wanting to help participants succeed, as though someone she knew closely battled mental health problems.

She never let on that it was her.

"I refuse to be ashamed," Hawk said of her mental illness after her she returned from her first hospitalization as district attorney. She said she hopes her experience helps even one of the 14 million other Americans who suffer from major depressive disorder.

Dallas County DA Susan Hawk (right) and political adviser Mari Woodlief (center) sit down with television reporter Meredith Land (left) of KXAS-TV (Channel 5)before discussing her nine-week break from work and her plans going forward in Dallas Wednesday, October 7, 2015. (Nathan Hunsinger/Staff Photographer)

Past hospitalizations

Talk of Hawk's behavior whirled through the courthouse for months, culminating last summer when she mysteriously disappeared on the job without explanation. After The News reported her absence, she revealed that she had been hospitalized for severe depression.

“I thought, ‘I’ll resign, and then I’ll just kill myself,’ ” she’d later say.

Instead, Hawk sought help at the renowned Menninger Clinic in Houston and returned to work in October, taking pains to assure the public that she was fine.

She did a round of media interviews and personally helped try a murder case, an unusual move for a district attorney in a major metropolitan area. But it was a promise she made while running for office.

Hawk fought — and won — the lawsuit that sought to boot her from office because of her mental health issues.

She faded out of the spotlight momentarily in the first half of this year, but she may have been struggling even then. Records show she used her key card to access the courthouse only sporadically.

Then, on May 20, Hawk checked herself back into the Menninger Clinic. A spokeswoman said Hawk felt ill after returning from a two-week vacation, which she took to "relax and refresh" in May.

She was released in mid-June but didn't return to work. Days later, Hawk announced she was seeking additional inpatient treatment at Sierra Tucson in Arizona. The facility is an internationally recognized treatment center for mood and anxiety disorders, as well as addiction.

Dallas County First Assistant Prosecutor Messina Madson had run the office during Hawk's long absences. (Dallas County)

Though she struggled with prescription drug addiction in the past, Hawk has said her treatment while in office has been for mental illness.

“Mental illness is a fluid and dynamic disease that calls for unexpected and prolonged treatment,” Hawk said in a written statement earlier this summer. “I did not choose this disease, but I am choosing to treat it aggressively and openly.”

Madson ran the office each time Hawk sought inpatient treatment.

Hawk returned to work last month. It's unclear whether she was paid for the time she was gone.

She said that she chose not to be paid for her time away in 2015, but she has not explained how she plans to handle her absences this year. Hawk made about $210,000 a year.

Back but not really

Hawk was a frequent no-show in the office, either because she was in treatment or just wasn’t coming to work.

The district attorney's office announced Aug. 11 that Hawk had returned to the office after her most recent hospitalization at the Arizona clinic. But Hawk did not use her access card at the courthouse that day, according to county records released to The News after an open records request. She did the following day.

She could have accessed the building if someone else drove her or scanned a different card to give her access to a secure parking garage. To be at work but not use her card, someone else would have to scan a different key card each time she entered the courthouse from the garage or used the elevator inside the DA’s office. That elevator would be the easiest and quickest way to access her office on the 11th floor.

Susan Hawk celebrates with supporters after winning her race against current Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins during an election results watch party for Hawk, the Republican candidate for Dallas County District Attorney, at Mesomaya in Dallas Tuesday November 4, 2014. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer)

Hawk used her key card four days the following week on Aug. 15-18. She did not scan her card on Friday of that week nor on any day the following week that ended Aug. 26. Usage late last week was not immediately available. Madson would not say where Hawk was last week.

Before her return from her third hospitalization, Hawk had not regularly been in the office since April and spent only two days there in May.

Before that return, Hawk had shown up for work at the courthouse 66 days this year, The News reported. In 2015, her first year in office, Hawk worked about 79 percent of possible workdays.

When Hawk announced her return, she issued a statement the DA’s office said she had written. Hawk spoke of wanting to be "completely transparent about my fight with my disease." But she has never offered statements or information from her doctors about her diagnosis or treatment. She also hasn't granted any interviews since returning from her most recent hospitalization.

A sad goodbye

In her resignation letter, Hawk noted that while "my personal health issues have received much attention over the past months, it's my hope that those issues do not overshadow the great work of our office over the past 20 months."

She then listed what she said were the highlights: $2 million in grant funding for sexual assault and family violence units, including money to test rape kits; six town hall meetings, including the office's first such meeting in English and Spanish; creation of a program to steer mentally ill and young adult offenders away from prison; decreased costs per case disposition and the expansion of the Conviction Integrity Unit. The office also became the first in the state to declare bite mark evidence junk science.

Hawk's letter to Abbott had a wistful tone. Although embracing the need to focus on her mental health, she said she was sad to leave the job and the courthouse she loves.

"I've loved serving the citizens of Dallas County for the past 22 years as an intern at the DA's office, as a prosecutor, as a judge and as district attorney. The courthouse has been my home. My purpose has been to help people, and I've loved every minute of it."

Staff writer Sarah Mervosh contributed to this story.

Susan Hawk

Age: 46

Hometown: Dallas

Education: Bachelor's degree, Texas Tech University, 1992; law degree, Texas Wesleyan University, 1995

Career: Dallas County District Attorney, 2015-16; state district judge, 2003-13; assistant Dallas County district attorney, 1995-2002

Timeline

Jan. 1, 2003: Susan Hawk takes office as a state district judge on a Dallas County felony court bench.

September 2013: Hawk resigns as a judge to run for district attorney.

Jan. 1, 2015: Hawk is sworn in as Dallas County's first female district attorney.

March 2015: Hawk fires her first assistant and longtime friend, Bill Wirskye, who accuses her of being unstable. The Dallas Morning News reported that Hawk secretly went to rehab for prescription drug use in late 2013, while campaigning for DA.

June 2015: Hawk fires several key employees, raising further allegations of paranoia.

July 29, 2015: The DA begins what is initially called a "summer break" from work. She later acknowledges that she was hospitalized for severe depression.

Oct. 1, 2015: Hawk returns to work.

Jan. 8: Hawk wins a legal battle initiated by a fired employee who attempted to oust the DA because of her mental health issues.

May 20: The DA is hospitalized for a second time at the Menninger Clinic in Houston. She is eventually released but does not return to work.

June 20: Hawk seeks treatment at Sierra Tucson in Arizona without returning to work after the May hospitalization.

Aug. 9: Second-in-command Messina Madson says Hawk has no plans to resign.

Aug. 11: The DA's office releases a statement that Hawk returned to work. Records show her key card access to the courthouse has been sporadic since then.

Tuesday: Hawk announces her resignation.

More DA Susan Hawk coverage:

Republicans and Democrats wish Hawk well, hope for a solid replacement

DA Susan Hawk prioritizes personal health over professional future

Madson seen as perfect fit as first assistant district attorney

Read the text of Hawk's resignation to Gov. Greg Abbott