Two Harris County prosecutors are facing contempt charges after a judge learned that members of the District Attorney's Office were given information that may contain transcripts from secret proceedings of a grand jury that is investigating the office, court records show.

Assistant District Attorneys Carl Hobbs, chief of the grand jury division, and Steve Morris, chief of the government integrity bureau, along with two court reporters have been summoned to appear before Judge Susan Brown's court at 9 a.m. Monday.

"It has now come to this court's attention that members of the Harris County District Attorney's Office may be in possession of official transcripts of testimony from witnesses who appeared before the Harris County grand jury for the 185th District Court August term," according to a motion issued by Brown and obtained by the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday.

In recent weeks, Brown has not only issued an order denying prosecutors access to the grand jury, but also disqualified the DA's office from participating in the grand jury's investigation of possible criminal conduct by members of the District Attorney's Office.

According to the latest motion requiring the four to attend the hearing, the prosecutors and court reporters must show why they should not be held in contempt and sanctioned by the court for violating Brown's orders.

Some local defense attorneys expressed shock that members of the DA's office may have violated the judge's orders and the directives of the grand jury, whose proceedings are generally so confidential that even witnesses are not allowed to bring their defense attorneys into the room while giving testimony.

"If it is proven to be true, it is absolutely a flagrant violation of the sanctity of the secrecy of the grand jury," said Murray Newman, a defense attorney and former Harris County prosecutor who writes a blog on the Harris County Criminal Justice Center.

Newman also said he was stunned that prosecutors might have tried to unlawfully obtain transcripts from a grand jury that is investigating the DA's office.

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"It's like a guy robbing a liquor store with a cop standing outside," he said. "It's just stupid."

Officials with the DA's office declined to comment on the possible contempt charges, which are misdemeanor crimes.

HPD and the DA

Suspicions by defense attorneys involved in the case and court records have indicated that the grand jury's investigation centered on issues surrounding the Houston Police Department's troubled breath alcohol-testing vehicles - known as BAT vans - and possibly the DA's office's involvement.

Defense lawyers and former HPD crime lab supervisors have raised concerns about the integrity of results from tests performed in HPD's BAT vans, which experienced problems such as overheating that could potentially comprise evidence in dozens of DWI cases.

When defense attorney Brent Mayr, a critic of the vans, was called to testify Oct. 18, the grand jury ejected Hobbs and Morris along with the general counsel for the DA's office, John Barnhill, threatening to have the bailiff arrest them if they did not leave, according to court records.

Brown, who empaneled the grand jury, refused prosecutors' pleas to be present during the testimony. Her ruling was upheld by the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston.

2 attorneys assisting

In a subsequent order disqualifying the DA's office from the grand jury's investigation, the judge also granted the grand jury's request for a temporary special prosecutor.

She appointed attorneys Stephen C. St. Martin and James Mount to assist the panel. Both are former veteran assistant district attorneys.

Chip Lewis, an attorney representing a former HPD crime lab supervisor who testified before the grand jury last month, said Brown's latest motion shows that the court is concerned with prosecutors circumventing the grand's directive for the DA's office to stay out of the secret proceedings.

"They were ordered out of the grand jury on the threat of arrest," said Lewis, who also was formerly a prosecutor. "For them to turn around and attempt to get the transcripts flies in the face of the grand jury."

If the prosecutors or court reporters Javier Leal and Katherine Chagaris are found guilty of the contempt charges, they could face up to a $500 fine and up to six months in jail.

anita.hassan@chron