Kim Ogg

Ogg began her legal career working for a District Attorney Johnny Holmes in 1987.[1] She was appointed as the first director for Houston's Anti-Gang Task Force in 1994 and unsuccessfully ran for district judge in the 1996 election.[2] Ogg was the executive director of Crime Stoppers of Houston from 1999 to 2006 before leaving to practice law with her father.[3]

Kim Ogg ran on a moderate Democratic platform against Republican incumbent Devon Anderson, using her inauguration ceremony to announce that all misdemeanor marijuana cases would be diverted from arrest or prosecution.[4][5]

Her Guiding Principles as District Attorney instruct all prosecutors handle each case on a case by case basis, based on the evidence not relationships, and to treat all accused of crimes with dignity and fairness[6]

Her programs have helped approximately 4,000 people with mental illness to get the help they need rather than a jail cell as part of an effort program to end cycles of arrest. She also received the Lone Star Award in December 2021 for her "outstanding leadership and distinctive contributions" to substance abuse and recovery support.[7]

Her Office has fought to ensure that no one who is found by a court to be Intellectually Disabled faces execution. She has brought a reform mentality to a punishment that she says constitutes the most serious action a government should take and as it is permitted under Texas law should be reserved for the worst of the worst. [8]

In an effort to see that public safety resources are used to actually keep the public safer, Kim Ogg in early 2017 initiated a program that took a new approach: no one caught with under four ounces of marijuana, a misdemeanor amount, is subjected to arrest and the possibility of a criminal record. Prior to her program, previous DAs prosecuted approximately 10,000 misdemeanor marijuana cases a year. The program has given police more time to be in the streets instead of court or taking suspects to jail. The program has given people the ability to avoid a criminal record and still be eligible for a job, an apartment or federal financial assistance. [9]

Kim Ogg has required that every instance in which a police officer shoots a civilian that the shooting be independently reviewed by prosecutors and that each case be presented to a grand jury to determine whether criminal charges are warranted. Civil Rights Division prosecutors handle the cases and go to the scene of each and every shooting. She has said that this is done to ensure that the community determines whether an indictment is warranted, and thus the officer is prosecuted, or the shooting be declared legal and thus, the officer cleared. [10]

Kim Ogg has been criticized by some defense lawyers for her office's handling of the Harding Street Raid fallout - a botched Houston Police narcotics raid that resulted in a murder indictment if one of the officers for the murder of two homeowners. Prosecutors asked a judge to make a determination on what material to release to defense lawyers.[11][12]

Houston Watch, an activist organization that focuses nearly exclusively on Ogg, reported that she accepted over $25,000 of campaign contributions from Ali Davari, who owns strip clubs.[13] In July 2019, Ogg's office recused itself from an investigation of a local gambling ring and handed over all material to federal authorities to ensure an impartial review of allegations about off duty actions by contract employee Amir Mireskandari. Mireskandari and his wife contributed $14,475 in monetary and in-kind donations to Ogg's campaign between 2016 and 2017.[14]

During Ogg's tenure as district attorney, she has been praised by some, including Crime Stoppers and crime victims for her many reforms as well as efforts to focus resources on public safety while criticized by some activists for insisting public safety be adequately considered by judges prior to anyone being released on bail. Her office continues to ask judges to consider "sufficient" bond amounts and conditions for all offenses in every instance. She does not prosecute any cases of possession of misdemeanor amounts of marijuana.[15]

Born in 1959 in Houston, Ogg attended the University of Texas at Austin and South Texas College of Law Houston, graduating with her BA in journalism in 1981 and her JD in 1986 respectively.[16][17] She and her longtime partner met while studying at South Texas College of Law, and they have one son.[1] She is the daughter of Texas legislator and Democrat Jack Ogg, and philanthropist Connie Harner Ogg.[16]