https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Harris-prosecutor-accused-of-hiding-evidence-1742910.php
Harris prosecutor accused of hiding evidence
Hearing today on prosecutor misconduct claim
By Brian Rogers
Published 5:30 am CDT, Friday, October 23, 2009
A state district judge scheduled a hearing for today after defense attorneys on Thursday accused a prosecutor of withholding evidence in the middle of a trial of a Houston man charged in the sexual assault of a child. Lawyers for Glen Kahlden on Thursday accused prosecutor Denise Oncken of hiding evidence that the child at the center of the case originally said a black man assaulted her. Kahlden is white. "The state has buried evidence," Kahlden's lawyer Bill Stradley said in court. "In addition to hiding evidence from the defense, she's lying to us." Oncken, who heads the Crimes Against Children Division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office, did not return calls for comment Thursday. First Assistant District Attorney Jim Leitner denied there was any misconduct. "In a case like this, there's a lot of evidence to look at. Whether they looked at this particular piece of paper when they looked at the file, how would our office know whether they looked at it?" Leitner said. "Denise Oncken is an experienced prosecutor with a good reputation, and I trust that she did the right thing." He said defense attorneys often ask to see information from prosecutors' files that would take hours to read but only spend a fraction of that time looking at it. Visiting state District Judge Van Culp scheduled a hearing for today on motions from Stradley and co-counsel Lisa Andrews. The two want a mistrial and the charges dismissed. The case originated when a 13-year-old girl told authorities she was assaulted five years before. She ultimately accused Kahlden, 54, who was a friend of the girl's family. According to court records, a grand jury declined to indict Kahlden in October 2007. A subsequent grand jury indicted him in July 2008.
brian.rogers@chron.com