The criminal case against Harris County’s elected treasurer, Carla Wyatt, will go before a grand jury following the repeated postponement of a hearing aimed at deciding whether her burglary of a vehicle charge should proceed, according to court records.
Bringing the case before a grand jury, whose members predominantly decide on felony cases, shifts the decision behind closed doors rather than airing evidence before a judge in open court.
READ MORE: Harris County treasurer Carla Wyatt arrested, charged with misdemeanor for car burglary
Prosecutors filed the misdemeanor charge against 56-year-old Wyatt following her Dec. 27 arrest in the parking lot of the Forget Me Not restaurant after employees reported seeing her rifling through a colleague’s unlocked vehicle, according to prosecutors. A security guard from the Washington Avenue restaurant confronted Wyatt as police were called.
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The treasurer remained in the vehicle as police arrived, said her attorney, Christopher Downey, who argued that although Wyatt showed “unusual behavior,” nothing was stolen and she had no plans to steal anything.
Delays in the criminal case
During the treasurer’s initial appearance before Judge Shannon Baldwin in County Criminal Court at Law No. 4, the judge declared the allegations ambiguous enough for a probable cause hearing to determine whether the evidence was sufficient for the case to continue.
The hearing was scheduled for late January, but a cold-weather closure postponed the proceedings until Monday. The hearing did not happen then either, meaning probable cause remains unsettled in Wyatt’s case.
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A court scheduling form indicates prosecutors plan to take Wyatt’s case to a grand jury.
“We also often choose to present misdemeanor cases to the grand jury, particularly when the defense is challenging probable cause,” said Damali Keith, a Harris County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson.
The office did not immediately provide data on how often low-level cases are presented to a grand jury or say when Wyatt’s case will be presented. Wyatt is scheduled April 7 to return to court.
Coby DuBose, a defense lawyer who mostly handles misdemeanor cases, said the prosecution’s plan to present Wyatt’s case to a grand jury is unusual. Prosecutors are not statutorily required to bring most low-level cases before grand jurors.
“If I can start a case by just filing it — why on Earth would I jump through a hoop to have a grand jury look at it?” DuBose said. “It makes no sense to have a grand jury check your homework.”
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Misdemeanors and grand juries
Had the public court hearing happened, the decision on whether Wyatt’s case continued would have been in Baldwin’s hands. If she found the case lacked probable cause, the district attorney’s office could have taken the proceedings to a grand jury anyway. Baldwin herself said in 2024 that prosecutors rarely do that.
Prosecutors took only 118 misdemeanor cases to a grand jury after a judge found probable cause didn’t exist during a 10-year period starting in 2013, according to county records.
One such example included former misdemeanor judge Franklin Bynum determining a case against a Houston doctor accused of stealing COVID-19 vaccines lacked probable cause. Prosecutors took the theft case to a grand jury, but the grand jury opted against an indictment.
Another lawyer, Murray Newman, also a former Harris County prosecutor, suggested prosecutors may be treating the case differently because it involves a public official. The grand jury process, Newman said, can be used as “a safety valve to get rid of trash cases and be shielded from public view through grand jury secrecy.”
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The district attorney’s office also has the option to dismiss the case.
‘Not a bad approach’
Downey on Tuesday said he and prosecutors had previously discussed a grand jury considering the case, but he hadn’t realized the idea would come to fruition.
“It’s not a bad approach,” Downey said. “It gives you a forum to air things out.”
Wyatt was previously arrested for driving while intoxicated in December 2023, but the charge was dismissed last August after she completed a yearlong pretrial diversion program.
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Wyatt’s latest arrest preceded a vote by Harris County commissioners to hand her office’s responsibility in reviewing checks for potential fraud to another county agency after two vendor checks totaling nearly $53,000 were intercepted and altered. The county, which has since gotten the money back, may seek to abolish the treasurer’s office during the next legislative session.
Wyatt ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, but she is expected in November to face Marc Cowart, the Republican candidate and current chief of staff to Fort Bend County Judge KP George, who was convicted last week of money laundering, during the general election.