Lee Rosenthal
 Lee Rosenthal    (judge) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||
| Born | 1952 Richmond, Indiana, U.S. | |||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Chicago | |||||||||
Texas judge ruling that the DEA was not liable for damages they had incurred to other people's property during a drug sting.
| ||||||||||
Reputation
Rosenthal was selected as the trial judge of the year by the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists in 2000 and again in 2006. She has received the Houston Bar Association’s highest bar-poll evaluation for judges three times — in 1999, 2005 and 2007. In the 2007 poll, 80.5% of respondents rated her "outstanding" and 16.5% rated her "acceptable."[1]
Controversial rulings
In 2007, she ruled that Charles A. Briggs, who purjured the "Briggs affidavit", on the strength of which Edwin P. Wilson was jailed for years, was immune from prosecution, as were others who covered up his deception.
On April 27, 2015, she ruled that the DEA was not liable for damages they had incurred to other people's property (in this case, a truck owned by a Texas trucking company) that they had used without permission in a drug sting. As one website reported it:
A federally deputized corporal from the Houston Police Department decides to pay your small company’s driver to drive your truck to the Mexican border, load it up with illegal drugs, and try to catch some bad guys. He knows that the driver is lying to “the owner” – although he doesn’t know your name or identity and doesn’t bother to find out. The bad guys outwit the cops. Your company’s driver is killed. Your truck is riddled with bullet holes.
Query: is our federal government liable to pay for the damages to you and your property?
Answer: Nope.[2]
