I took a leave from the King County Prosecutor’s Office from 1979 – 1981 and served as the Director of Training for the National College of District Attorneys (NCDA – then the education division of the National District Attorneys Association), which was based in the University of Houston Law Center on the University of Houston campus. The College provided quality educational programs for prosecutors, which I believed then and believe now is the key to reforming the criminal justice system and ensuring that justice is done.
Back then, the College offered a three-week-long course for career prosecutors. The course was in the Law Center and prosecutors would come from around the country and stay in dormitories on the college campus. Pictured above is the class of 1981. Dean John Jay Douglas is in the center of the front row. I’m in the third row back on the right. Down in the first row on the right is then Assistant Dean Fertitta.
Later, Bob Fertitta became the Dean and he and NCDA moved to Columbia, SC near the National Advocacy Center. Below he is pictured sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of the NAC.
When I was in Houston with the NCDA, it was a boom town (oil) with 5000 cars added to the road each week. It was the time of Urban Cowboy and John Travolta. Faculty and attendees wanted to go to Gilley’s to ride the bull, shoot pool and dance the 2-step. As you can tell from this photo, I got into it with hat, cowboy boots and all.
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