Cindy Stormer was the chief of the Administrative Division of the district attorney’s office. She was fired last month. Now she thinks the DA should lose her job. You can read the petition and accompanying 16-page affidavit that Stormer filed yesterday. But here’s my take. I ran it by a lawyer who has been watching the situation closely. He confirmed that I am much smarter than I appear to be in pictures and that if I moved to one of the states that lets you sit for the bar without having gone to law school, I’d probably pass it on my first try.
The petition reads:
DA Hawk should be removed from office for incompetency. DA Hawk has demonstrated gross ignorance of official duties; gross carelessness in the discharge of those duties; unfitness and inability to promptly and properly discharge official duties, and official misconduct because of a serious physical or mental defect that did not exist during her election. DA Hawk’s depression and severe mental illness incapacitates her ability to perform the duties of that office.
The petition requests a jury trial and that Hawk be removed from office pending that trial. Doing the filing on behalf of Stormer are attorneys Kelly Puls and Mark Haney of Puls Haney. What would be nice to know is who is paying for this effort and how deep his or her or their pockets are. I’ll explain why in a minute. But first, on to Stormer’s affidavit. After laying out her lengthy C.V. (without providing every detail of her time as DA in Cooke County), she describes Hawk’s demeanor:
“I observed her at the office in a floridly psychotic state or what appeared to be a drug induced psychosis on countless occasions. She had a complete inability to comprehend basic concepts. She would briskly walk into my office and make demands and ask questions, then turn quickly and leave before I responded. When called to her office, she would type on her computer while asking questions, reading stories on the internet or engaging in some other distracting conduct while her eyes wildly darted around the room.”
“Floridly psychotic”? Puls and Haney are really working to earn their billable hours. After that preamble, I was ready to read about outer-limits nutbar stuff at the DA’s office. But you know what? Stormer’s affidavit fails to deliver. Now, she does make some allegations about “financial improprieties” that deserve scrutiny. Stormer claims that Hawk asked for a credit card in her name that would be paid for with funds from the DA’s office. That’s not cricket. And there’s the matter of a $22,500 check that Stormer says went missing. But it went missing while Hawk was in treatment for depression. The DA, by her own account, was struggling with suicidal thoughts. Handling a check that needed to be deposited in the office’s account probably wasn’t at the top of her to-do list. Anyway, yes, given Stormer’s former position in the DA’s office, her claims on this front should be taken seriously and investigated.
Much of the affidavit, though, is filled with what comes across as workplace gripes, complaints about Hawk’s management style. She asks for things to be done on an unreasonable time table. Stormer says that Hawk “literally hissed” something to her. On another occasion, Stormer writes, “[Hawk] came to my office rambling rapidly about the appellate division. She suddenly stopped, glared at me and furiously stated ‘don’t interrupt me.’ She continued glaring at me silently for an uncomfortable length of time.”
Personally, I wouldn’t want to work for the woman that Stormer describes in her affidavit. But is there enough here to warrant temporarily removing Hawk from office? No, there is not. Stormer’s affidavit is an unfocused mess. Stormer writes about the many people who’ve been fired from the DA’s office:
“The fired attorney was also a psychologist with not only a genius-level IQ, but also an IQ that was several points above the minimum level to be a genius.”
Huh? What does that even mean? First, who cares if a genius was fired? Some geniuses are horrible at their jobs and don’t work well with others. Second, what is the minimum level to be a genius? I don’t even know what Stormer is talking about. She wraps up with this:
“There is an atmosphere of terror, fear, and intimidation in the Dallas DA’s office. It is unhealthy and unproductive. There are many other instances of sick, psychotic behavior by DA Hawk. It is too frequent to document here.”
Again, the affidavit is 16 pages. She had plenty of space to document whatever she wanted to document. I wanted some floridly psychotic behavior! Nothing in this affidavit comes close to florid. I wish I could say the prose is florid. Can’t even say that.
The petition was filed in the 101st, which is Judge Staci Williams’ court. She’s loyal to the previous DA, Craig Watkins (who, by the way, was also pretty paranoid when he was in office and who also fired people whom he suspected of disloyalty). Williams might recuse herself. Either way, the big news here isn’t that Cindy Stormer has all sorts of damning stories to tell about Susan Hawk’s mental state (she doesn’t), it’s that Stormer and her lawyers will likely get to conduct discovery. This is a rare case. A judge could decide that this petition has no merit and throw it out. But if this thing is allowed to proceed, Puls and Haney are going to ask for everything. That’s why it matters who’s footing the bill. Because there’s going to be a lot of material to review. Not just every email and text sent around the DA’s office but every email and text sent between Hawk and her onetime consultant and current close friend, Mari Woodlief.
A judge will get to decide what is and what is not fair game, but given the broad claims made in this petition, it would seem that dang near everything will be discoverable. Is there something in Hawk’s private communications that would convince a jury to remove her from office? Is there something potentially embarrassing enough that she would resign to preempt that discovery? We shall see.
