El Paso County public defender weighs in on DA’s allegations against her

EL PASO, Texas -- The El Paso County public defender, Kelli Childress, is weighing in after the District Attorney's office made some allegations against her.

On Friday, ABC-7 spoke with Douglass Tiemann, the chief of the intake department at the District Attorney's office about the ongoing criminal case dismissals.

Since August close to 900 cases were dismissed after the DA's office did not indict the cases within a certain time period.

Last week, the public defender motioned to dismiss another 400 criminal cases because of inaction.

On Tuesday, a judge will decide whether or not to dismiss the cases.

When ABC-7 spoke with Tiemann, he said the DA's office was working around the clock to address the ongoing cases.

Tiemann was not able to provide specifics on how many cases they have refiled. He said the are still reviewing them.

One allegation that Tiemann made was that the public defender was motioning to dismiss cases that had already been signed off by a judge.

He said, "Why are we dealing with these? A decision has already been made, judges have signed off on this already. This is tremendous use and reuse of county resources."

Tiemann went on to say, "A lot of this can be dealt with just some communication."

In an interview with the public defender on Monday, Childress told ABC-7 she was shocked to learn of Tiemann's statements about her.

Childress said for the past few months she has reached out to the DA's office multiple times, but she has not heard back from them.

"It is really frustrating. We find it very, very difficult if not impossible to get any response from most of the executive leadership at the DA's office," she said.

As for those allegations, she said in some cases the DA's office can have a judge dismiss the cases without her knowledge.

She said that impacts her clients because they don't know what is happening with the case.

Childress said she has reached out multiple times to ensure that she is added to an e-mail list the DA's office sends out regarding dismissal notices. She said still hasn't been added to that list.