Harris County's probation director resigns

Paul Becker, the director of Harris County's probation department, resigned Wednesday. Paul Becker, the director of Harris County's probation department, resigned Wednesday. Photo: Cody Duty Photo: Cody Duty Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Harris County's probation director resigns 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The head of Harris County's probation department resigned Wednesday in the wake of allegations that the department has for years mismanaged thousands of drug tests used to decide the fates of probationers and suspects on bail while awaiting trial.

In a two-sentence letter addressed to the 37 criminal court judges, Paul Becker announced his retirement, effective Friday.

State District Judge Denise Collins on Monday called for Becker and his three deputies to resign after hearing three days of testimony about the Community Supervision & Corrections Department during a probation revocation hearing.

It was unclear late Wednesday if Gilbert Garcia, Ray Garcia and Kim Valentine would also resign. An email from the department's media relations division said no information would be released Wednesday.

Becker's ouster began last week when defense attorney Lisa Andrews commandeered a routine hearing in which one of her probationer clients was expected to be sent back to jail for four positive drug tests.

Andrews called several employees from the department, including Becker and his deputies, to show that the agency's drug test results cannot be trusted.

Oversight challenged

She had subpoenaed thousands of pages of documents and emails to prove the myriad problems at the department, including a lack of oversight and human errors that sent at least one man to jail for a false positive.

In that example, Andrews found a batch of test results that were altered when a technician manually entered the wrong number into a database, with no quality control to check for mistakes. The error changed the results for 32 other defendants, which the department knew about in late July, but she said no effort was made to notify the judges or the people who were tested.

"God knows what else is out there," Andrews said.

The agency tests more than 25,000 urine samples a month for probationers and defendants awaiting trial. After his testimony Monday, Becker said he thought the department was "working very hard and doing well - big picture."

At the conclusion of the three-day hearing, the judge disagreed and issued a moratorium on results in her court. She also called for the department's leaders to resign.

Reliability in question

On Tuesday, the Harris County District Attorney's Office joined the judge in refusing to use any of the division's drug test results in the 36 other criminal courts until further notice because they have questions about the reliability.

After Becker resigned Wednesday, Andrews said she hopes there will be more resignations.

"It's the first step in cleaning up this big mess," Andrews said. "They need to bring in someone from outside the probation department … who will be completely independent."

Collins, the judge who heard all of the evidence in the case, also agreed that resignation was the right decision for Becker.

Other judges, however, said the problems can be fixed and suggested that it would have been easier if Becker had stayed on as director.

'A daunting task'

"Most of the judges feel this decision was premature - perhaps inevitable, but premature," declared Criminal Court-at-Law Judge Sherman Ross. "Mr. Becker had a distinguished career, and I wish him well."

The criminal court judges must now find and agree on a new director.

"With over 800 employees and a $70 million budget, it will be a daunting task for the judges," Ross said.

Chronicle reporter Mike Morris contributed to this report.

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