Texas AG investigating DA's e-mails

The Texas Attorney General's office agreed Thursday to investigate whether a powerful prosecutor should lose his job for sending and receiving inappropriate messages through his county e-mail account.

GOP officeholders and party leaders are calling for Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, a Republican, to resign following the release of hundreds of his e-mails, including love notes to his secretary and racist jokes.

He also used the county e-mail account to plan his now-aborted re-election campaign. Those e-mails, while tamer, may be more damaging to Rosenthal's career because such messages may violate Texas laws barring the use of government property for political activity.

Tom Kelley, a spokesman for Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, declined to comment beyond confirming the investigation would occur.

Neither Rosenthal nor his attorney, Ronald Lewis, returned telephone calls from The Associated Press.

Rosenthal, who was first elected in 2000, presides over an office that sends more convicts to death row than any other prosecutors' office in the nation; Harris County includes Houston. He has said the death penalty is God's law as well as the state's and that he follows both.

Rosenthal told top county officials Wednesday he would not resign despite admittedly poor judgment.

Rosenthal withdrew from the Republican ballot for the March 4 primary last week at the urging of local GOP leaders after the affectionate e-mails between him and his secretary were released.

This week, more e-mails surfaced from public information requests by local media. Rosenthal forwarded a racist e-mail comparing former President Clinton to stereotypes of black men and received other racist e-mails.

Another e-mail, sent to Rosenthal by Assistant District Attorney Kelly Siegler's physician husband, included a video of men forcibly pulling down women's clothing in public.

The 860 e-mails emerged as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Department.

Under Texas law, judges may remove district attorneys from office for incompetence, official misconduct or intoxication on or off the job. Official misconduct is defined as "intentional, unlawful behavior" relating to official duties.

County attorneys are normally responsible for investigating district attorneys and taking the case to court if necessary. But Harris County Attorney Michael Stafford asked the state attorney general to look into the case because his office is representing the county in the lawsuit through which the e-mails were discovered.