James Rivera v. State

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