By Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX – Suzanne Sprague, Reporter: When Tim Curry was first elected Tarrant County District Attorney in 1972, he was just nine years out of law school. A promising criminal defense attorney, Curry was celebrated by some lawyers as a reformist. Now, three decades into his relatively unscarred tenure, Curry is embraced by the legal establishment, but sharply criticized by a younger, dynamic D.A. hopeful.
Terri Moore, Democratic Candidate for District Attorney: Mr. Curry is not running the office. Mr. Curry is showing up for his paycheck but he's not running his office. A management team is doing that. I know because I was one of them.
Sprague: Terri Moore, a former assistant district attorney and federal prosecutor in Fort Worth, is running on the Democratic ticket to unseat Curry, who is a Republican. Moore has raised at least than $125,000 in her campaign, making her perhaps the most serious opponent Curry has faced since he switched political parties in 1990.
Moore: I know I'm up against a big task. Anytime you take on somebody who's been there 30 years, then I'm taking on 30 years of name ID. But I think people know that there is a time and there is a season for change.
Sprague: But Curry and his backers, which include many county, state and federal officials, say change is exactly what Tarrant County does not need.
Tim Curry, Tarrant County District Attorney: I think the issue in this race is who's best able to manage the largest law firm in Tarrant County. I've been doing it for a long time and I think I'm the best qualified to continue to do it.
Sprague: Tim Curry was Terri Moore's boss for ten years at the D.A.'s office. He promoted her to the felony section and eventually to lead the county's new gang unit, where she earned a reputation as a tough lawyer. But she wasn't a one size fits all prosecutor, according to attorney Art Brender, who is also the chairman of the Tarrant County Democratic Party.
Art Brender, Tarrant County Democratic Party: I don't think she was inappropriately tough, as some prosecutors try to be or at least their public persona is. She doesn't have to be that way. She's tough where it counts but she also understands and will use that understanding to help the system work best.
Sprague: Moore says as an assistant district attorney, she had virtually no contact with Tim Curry, whom she rebukes for not participating in courtroom trials.
Moore: That's one of the reasons I'm running for District Attorney. I think there should be a face on justice and that the people are entitled to have a district attorney that's a hands-on district attorney who's not just some name without a face.
Sprague: Curry admits he's personally prosecuted few cases. And he lost his most renowned trial, the 1977 murder case against wealthy businessman Cullen Davis. But Curry says none of that matters.
Curry: This is a management job. My experience is you can't do both or if you try to do both, you can't do either very well. If you look at any major metropolitan district attorney's office in the state, probably in the country, you'll see that the elected official is very seldom in the courtroom. That's not the job. My job is to hire trial lawyers.
Sprague: Christy Williams, a former prosecutor in the Dallas D.A.'s office, who does not have ties to the Tarrant County election, says there's some truth in that.
Christy Williams, Dallas Lawyer: I don't think there's anything wrong with the district attorney trying cases. I just think in a city the size of Dallas or a city the size of Fort Worth, I can't imagine that with all the other duties they have, they have time to try very many cases.
Sprague: But Williams adds prosecutors are most comfortable working for a district attorney who does have a solid courtroom background. Terri Moore says under that criteria, she's the most qualified candidate for Tarrant County D.A. In addition to her felony and gang cases, she also helped prosecute the largest internet child pornography case in U.S. history.
Moore: And we tried that case and that culprit got 1,335 years in federal prison and quite frankly, I feel good about that.
Sprague: If elected, Moore says she'll establish a new review committee for death penalty cases and begin what are called vertical prosecutions, where one lawyer is assigned to follow a murder case from the moment an investigation begins, at any hour of the day or night, until the case is finished. Tim Curry insists his office already does that.
Curry: We've been doing it for years. We have lawyers available on a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week basis that the police can contact and do contact so we've been doing that for many years. That's nothing new.
Sprague: During his tenure, Tim Curry has launched special units to prosecute family violence, child abuse, and gang crimes. He's overseen the office grow from 25 to 154 lawyers, making it, effectively, the largest law firm in Tarrant County. But Curry's campaign manager, attorney Don Curry, who is not related to the candidate, says the incumbent District Attorney doesn't seek out personal publicity or fame.
Don Curry, Campaign Manager: Very low profile. Very different from your average politician. In other words, he enjoys the job. He's good at it. He has a long history being good at it.
Sprague: Still, a Terri Moore campaign commercial is alleging the D.A.'s Office is unresponsive to the rights of victims.
Moore Campaign Commercial: I'm Sandy Houston. This was my son Chad. When he was 20, he was murdered. District Attorney Tim Curry refused to prosecute his killers. Then, he wouldn't even open his door to tell me why.
Sprague: Chad Houston was killed after trying to break up a 1998 bar fight. A grand jury refused to indict the suspects in the case. Prosecutors have said witnesses were drunk and unreliable. But Curry admits he didn't explain this to the victim's mother.
Curry: I didn't, but this office talked to that lady numerous times. We did everything in the world to explain to her what the situation was and when she says we were unresponsive, that's just not true.
Sprague: Curry supporters say the commercial is a desperate campaign tactic, but Terri Moore says the D.A. could have done better in this case.
Moore: You have a public official that is not accessible by the public. And I think that's wrong.
Sprague: The Curry campaign has been relatively quiet during the election season, trying to downplay his opponent's legitimacy. But even if Terri Moore loses this year, some observers in Fort Worth believe her record and tenacity may win her the District Attorney's seat when Tim Curry retires. For KERA 90.1, I'm Suzanne Sprague.
To contact Suzanne Sprague, please send emails to ssprague@kera.org.