ACCEPTED
14-14-00863-CR
FOURTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS
HOUSTON, TEXAS
6/4/2015 9:10:53 AM
CHRISTOPHER PRINE
CLERK
No. 14-14-00863-CR
In the FILED IN
14th COURT OF APPEALS
Court of Appeals HOUSTON, TEXAS
For the 6/4/2015 9:10:53 AM
Fourteenth District of Texas CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE
Clerk
At Houston
No. 1442738
In the 337th District Court
Of Harris County, Texas
JAMES RIVERA
Appellant
v.
THE STATE OF TEXAS
Appellee
STATE’S MOTION FOR EXTENSION
OF TIME TO FILE BRIEF
To the Honorable Court of Appeals:
The State of Texas, pursuant to Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure 2 and
10.5, moves for an extension of time in which to file its appellate brief. The
following facts are relevant:
1. The appellant was indicted for aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Appellant pled not guilty, but a jury found him guilty of the charged
offense. The jury assessed sentence at 65 years confinement in the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Appellant filed timely notice of
appeal.
2. Appellant filed an appellate brief on May 8, 2015.
3. The State’s appellate brief is due on June 8, 2015.
4. This is the State’s first request for an extension in this case.
5. The State requests this extension of time in which to file its brief, and
the undersigned attorney believes that a brief can be filed by July 31,
2015. The undersigned requests a lengthier than usual extension for
the reasons addressed below.
6. The following facts are relied upon to show good cause for an
extension of time to allow the State to file its brief:
a. At present, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office
employees 15 appellate prosecutors, but one is presently
deployed on active military service and unable to carry a
caseload, and the Division Chief is unable to carry a full case
load because of his many administrative duties. Accordingly, the
remaining members of the appellate division are currently
assigned a caseload of approximately 61 active cases, including
2 death penalty cases which has lessened the number of cases
which can be assigned to 2 prosecutors resulting in an average
of 4.5 briefs per prosecutor for those not handling a death
penalty case.
b. The attorney to whom this case is assigned has three
outstanding briefs assigned to her including this one, and one
matter on abatement which is expected to return to active
status any day now. A second brief that had been abated was
returned to active status and changed the order in which she
anticipated responding to her caseload.
c. Between the time that the appellant filed his brief in this case
and this State’s motion for extension, the undersigned filed two
briefs, namely: Feanyichi Uvukansi, No. 01-14-00527-CR and
Forest Penton, No. 14-14-00406-CR. She was also required to
prepare a bench brief on a pending trial matter in State v. Alas,
No. 1437254 this month which further slowed progress on the
assigned cases.
d. Additionally, the undersigned has been ordered to present oral
argument in Patrick Earvin, No. 14-14-00702-CR & 703-CR on
June 22, 2015, which will require time away from briefing to
prepare. The workload of this prosecutor is not out of the
ordinary in the appellate division of the Harris County District
Attorney’s Office.
e. In addition to its assignments in responding to appellate briefs,
the appellate division of the Harris County District Attorney’s
Office also answers questions from trial prosecutors. These
questions frequently occur in the middle of or immediately
before trial, and therefore other work must be put aside to
answer these pressing questions. Harris County has 25
Criminal District Courts and 15 County Criminal Courts at Law,
and this particular prosecutor is tasked with answering
questions related to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article
39.14 regarding discovery changes, is one of two prosecutors
tasked with answering any juvenile law related questions, and
answers questions from five felony courts in addition to the
three juvenile courts.
f. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office Appellate Division
is experiencing a significant workload at present. Appellate
prosecutors, including the undersigned attorney, are working as
quickly as possible to complete as many briefs as possible as
quickly as possible while still addressing all the issues raised by
appellant’s as thoroughly as necessary to see that justice is
done on each appeal. Accounting for varying staffing levels, the
output of the division is not significantly different than it was
this time last year. However, because of the high workload per
prosecutor, as well as the greater length and complexity of
appeals being brought in this county, it often takes longer to
process all of the assigned cases, and more cases thereby
require multiple extension or more lengthy extensions before
the completion of each brief.
WHEREFORE, the State prays that this Court will grant the requested
extension until July 31, 2015.
Respectfully submitted,
/s/ Jessica A. Caird
JESSICA A. CAIRD
Assistant District Attorney
Harris County, Texas
1201 Franklin, Suite 600
Houston, Texas 77002-1923
(713) 755-5826
caird_jessica@dao.hctx.net
TBC No. 24000608
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I certify that I have requested that efile.txcourts.gov electronically serve a
copy of this motion to:
Joseph Salhab
Attorney at Law
2028 Buffalo Terrace
Houston, TX 77019
josephsalhab@mindspring.com
/s/ Jessica A. Caird
Jessica A. Caird
Assistant District Attorney
Harris County, Texas
1201 Franklin, Suite 600
Houston, Texas 77002-1923
(713) 755-5826
caird_jessica@dao.hctx.net
TBC No. 24000608
Date: March 27, 2015
James Rivera v. State
Combined Opinion