Harris County paid a private attorney $1 million to represent hundreds of low-income people accused of crimes last year, according to a recent Houston Chronicle investigation . That eye-popping sum is one of many: The 10 highest-paid court-appointed attorneys in Harris County all pocketed more than $450,000 last year, which is more than three times the average salary of a full-time, county-employed public defender.
In all, the Chronicle found that the county paid hundreds of private attorneys a total of $60 million to represent poor criminal defendants in 2022. That’s prompting calls for reform , as well as a county audit.
Several of top earners took on far more cases than the county’s public defenders are allowed, but a few were paid for their work on just a handful of capital murder and other serious felony cases. For some, last year was an outlier because they were able to finally resolve cases that had been languishing in the courts system for years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
MORE: Houston leaders demand reform over attorneys' giant salaries, caseloads: 'Whole damn thing's broken'
Thirty-eight attorneys in the county took on at least twice the felony caseload recommended by state guidelines, data show . Most of them aren't even in the list of top earners.
Here are the 10 attorneys who earned the most from Harris County on court appointments last year.
10) Tucker Graves
Pay: $472,659
Cases: 364 felonies
The Texas Indigent Defense Commission has found that attorneys can reasonably handle at most 128 felonies in a year – less than half of Graves’ caseload. But Graves said that many of his cases had actually been pending for several years due to Hurricane Harvey and the pandemic. He also said most of his clients have multiple felony cases that prosecutors filed based on the same incident, which inflates the caseload numbers.
“Last year was an anomaly because the backlog finally started to ease,” said Graves, a past president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. “Cases were being set for trial, they were getting dismissed.”
That explanation is in line with state data. In 2021, for instance, Graves earned less than half the money and reported less than half the caseload that he did in 2022.
Houston lawyer Tucker Graves, left, and Wade Smith talk during a round table discussion about the dropping of charges in the infamous Waco shootout in 2015 at the Twin Peaks restaurant. They discussed the case last week at his law office on April 3, 2019.
Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer9) Lisa Andrews
Pay: $490,833
Cases: Four capital murder cases and 30 felonies
Andrews’ earnings on just a few dozen cases are an example of an issue that has long plagued Harris and other counties: The taxpayer burden of capital murder cases, which can lead to the death penalty. A single case can cost millions to prosecute and defend, and hundreds of those cases are pending in Houston right now.
Andrews said each one of her capital cases had been pending for years due to the pandemic, inflating her caseload and earnings last year when they all resolved. Prosecutors dismissed one case, and in another, they changed their position mid-trial and offered the defendant 20 years in prison, Andrews said.
8) J. Julio Vela
Pay: $514,980
Cases: 119 felonies and 266 misdemeanors
Like Andrews and Graves, Vela said last year was an outlier year for him since many cases stalled during the pandemic. State data support this explanation, showing lower earnings and caseloads for him in previous years.
Vela is one of the top-performing criminal defense attorneys in Houston. According to the web site showmethejustice.com , which monitors attorneys’ wins and losses in the Harris County courts, he took 18 cases to trial last year – more than any other Houston lawyer. He won 12 of them, also a record.
Vela added that he has asked not to receive any new felony court appointments, but judges still ask him to take certain cases because no one else is available.
7) Jerome Godinich
Pay: $585,950
Cases: Four capital murders, 296 felonies, and one felony appeal
The Chronicle has reported on Godinich’s workload as far back as 2009, when a Chronicle investigation found he had missed deadlines to file appeals for three separate indigent clients on death row. In 2020, he was paid $539,000 for his work on 309 felonies and a whopping 18 capital murder cases.
Godinich did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Silverman and other defense attorneys described him as hardworking and diligent.
“He literally gets up at 5, goes to the Y, works out, is sitting in the office by 6:30 and leaves at 7, six days a week,” said Patrick McCann, an appellate attorney who has worked on some cases with Godinich.
(l-r) Attorney Jerome Godinich walks alongside, Alexander Olivieri, 18, as he locks eyes with Bob Frisbie's eyes as he walks into the 263rd District court for the murder of Bob's daughter Bridgett Frisbie Monday, April 11, 2011, in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center in Houston. ( Nick de la Torre / Houston Chronicle )
Nick de la Torre/Houston Chronicle6) Riddhi Desai
Pay: $586,972
Cases: 620 felonies, 121 misdemeanors and three felony appeals
According to state data, Desai’s caseload last year is quintuple that of what an attorney could reasonably handle while adequately representing clients. Her caseloads were somewhat lower in previous years, but still around double or triple what state guidelines recommend.
The largest share of Desai’s earnings came from work on 168 felony cases assigned by Judge Nikita Harmon, who declined to comment. An additional 79 of her cases came from District Judge Kelli Johnson.
Johnson said that her staff tries to avoid assigning indigent cases to anyone that might be overloaded, but that it’s sometimes unavoidable due to the shortage of attorneys.
In an email, Desai said that she is currently working on 172 open misdemeanors and 199 open felony cases. “I am not accepting any new cases,” she wrote, adding that more than half of her indigent clients are facing more than one charge.
5) Cheryl Shooks Brown
Pay: $593,023
Cases: 470 felonies and 85 misdemeanors
Brown’s workload last year is about as much as what four full-time attorneys should be handling, according to state data. County court-at-law Judge David Fleischer assigned all her misdemeanor cases, for which she earned just $32,460. Fleischer said that Brown has not accepted any new misdemeanors in his court in several months.
“It’s good, because if you’re too busy and you’re taking too many felonies, you have to be able to recognize it,” he said. “It’s not fair to the client in misdemeanor court if you can’t really handle their case with the time and care that’s needed.”
District Judge Brian Warren, who assigned 50 of Brown’s felony cases, said Brown gets a significant number of cases because she speaks Spanish. “Unfortunately, there is a shortage of lawyers [who] both speak fluent Spanish and accept appointments in the criminal courts,” he wrote in an email.
Brown did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
4) Todd Dupont
Pay: $642,853
Cases: 291 felonies
Dupont’s caseload is more than twice what state guidelines recommend. It was higher in some previous years, according to state data; he was paid for work on 458 felonies in 2020, for instance.
Dupont did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Several defense attorneys praised his work and pointed out that he recently won a “not guilty” verdict for an indigent client accused of indecency with a child.
“Todd is a very respected trial lawyer who is often appointed on habitual offenders and serious first-degree felonies,” said McCann. “He is someone I would call if I were in trouble.”
3) Anthony Osso
Pay: $667,027
Cases: Eight capital murders and five felonies
Like others, Osso said his earnings last year are an outlier because so many of his cases languished for years with no resolution. Last year, two of his cases finally went to trial, and a handful of others were dismissed or resulted in pleas.
“Everything that was worked out last year had been pending, just on average, maybe three to five years,” Osso said. At least one of his cases had been pending since 2016.
Lisa Andrews and Anthony Osso, defense attorneys for Arturo Solis, speak to the press after Solis appearanced to Judge Danilo Lacayo at the 182nd Judicial District Court at Harris County Criminal Justice Center on Monday, Dec. 9, 2019, in Houston. Solis, 25, is accused of shooting and killing Houston Police Department Sgt. Christopher Brewster on Saturday.
Yi-Chin Lee/Staff Photographer2) Jimmy Ortiz
Pay: $748,450
Cases: Two capital murders and 213 felonies
Ortiz did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Other attorneys praised him as an excellent trial lawyer and pointed to his work on several challenging death penalty cases, including that of a man convicted of killing a sheriff’s deputy who chose at the last minute to fire his attorneys and represent himself. By then, Ortiz had worked hundreds of hours on the case – 144 of which were spent questioning prospective jurors with two other lawyers, according to expense claims.
The defendant, Robert Solis, was ultimately convicted and sentenced to die .
Ortiz expensed nearly $100,000 in 2022 for his work on Solis’ case, records show.
“He’s in demand because he’s a good trial lawyer,” Osso said.
Defense attorney Jimmy Ortiz tells the jury about Lucky Ward's horrible childhood that put him on bad path during closing statements in the punishment phase of Ward's death penalty trial inside Harris County Criminal Court on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, in Houston. The jury last week convicted the Houston man of strangling to death a transgender woman, Charlie Rodriguez, and a homeless woman, Reita Long, in 2010.
Godofredo A. Vásquez/Staff photographer1) Jeanie Ortiz
Pay: $1,006,007
Cases: 399 felonies and 207 misdemeanors
Ortiz’s earnings last year set a statewide record among court-appointed attorneys, according to the Texas Indigent Defense Commission. Her caseload is four times what an attorney should handle based on state guidelines. It has also been high in other previous years. In 2019, she was paid for work on 562 felonies and 144 misdemeanors. The Chronicle also reported on her caseload in 2014.
Ortiz did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
More than $100,000 in payments to Ortiz came from her work as a contract attorney in a single misdemeanor court. Such contracts are no longer allowed under a new "managed assigned counsel program" in Harris County. Ortiz also has not opted to participate in the new program, which means she won’t be receiving anymore misdemeanor cases.
Nicole Hensley contributed reporting.