Former Leander Police Chief Bolton Linden apparently decided the best way to respond to journalist David Flash’s scrutiny of law enforcement was to repeatedly post an old newspaper article about the fatal shooting of Flash’s 19-year-old brother in the comment sections of unrelated stories.
Linden posted the Austin American-Statesman link multiple times and on multiple posts. The article concerned the prosecution and eventual acquittal of Flash’s stepmother after she fatally shot Flash’s younger brother.
The stories where Linden posted the link had nothing to do with Flash’s brother, his death or the criminal case.
Instead, Linden had been criticizing Flash’s reporting about law enforcement and previously suggested that Flash attend a police academy before questioning police conduct.
“Perhaps you should go to a police academy and learn about Texas law and the Texas penal code that they have to follow,” Linden wrote in one exchange.
Linden’s own background adds considerable context to the comments. He is a former Leander police chief who served with the department during the 1990s.
The article Linden repeatedly posted concerns a 2011 shooting in which Flash’s 19-year-old brother was killed by his mother. She was prosecuted and later acquitted.
The prosecution of the case was criticized even by the defense attorney who won the acquittal.
Veteran Austin criminal defense attorney Joe Turner represented Flash’s stepmother. Turner had represented prominent clients including actor Matthew McConaughey and musician Willie Nelson.
“We see it repeatedly where prosecutors over charge the case in order to force the plea bargain. Unfortunately, a lot of defendants are scared and take the plea bargain,” Turner told the American-Statesman following the trial.
The state pursued its homicide case without giving jurors lesser-included offenses to consider, effectively leaving jurors with an all-or-nothing decision on the charge prosecutors selected. Turner criticized the prosecution’s charging strategy following the acquittal.
The prosecution also experienced a significant personnel change as the case approached trial. According to Flash, the prosecutor who had been preparing the case left the district attorney’s office as the case was going to trial, leaving a more junior prosecutor who had not originally been preparing to try the case against Turner.
The jury acquitted Flash’s stepmother.
For a former police chief attempting to defend law enforcement and the criminal justice system against scrutiny, repeatedly pointing to that particular case presents an unusual argument.
“If your argument is that I shouldn’t scrutinize police, prosecutors and the criminal justice system, pointing me toward what happened after my brother was shot in the head is a remarkably strange way to make it,” Flash said. “The prosecution dropped the ball. Even the defense attorney who won the case publicly criticized the state’s charging strategy. That’s an example of why scrutiny matters.”
The original story that prompted the dispute concerned an entirely different person.
A man’s family contacted Flash after the man was arrested following an encounter with law enforcement. Flash obtained public records and reported that the criminal charges described conduct allegedly occurring after deputies initiated the encounter.
Flash questioned the legal justification for the initial interaction and whether the resulting charges primarily concerned the man’s reaction to deputies rather than criminal conduct that preceded the encounter.
Linden disagreed.
But rather than confining that disagreement to police procedure, constitutional law, public records or the facts of the case, the former police chief repeatedly posted the Statesman article about Flash’s dead brother in unrelated comment sections.
“My brother called me Bubba,” Flash said. “He died at 19. What happened isn’t a secret. Anybody can Google my name and find it. But repeatedly dragging my dead little brother into unrelated discussions because you don’t like my reporting is beyond ugly.”
Flash said criticism of his reporting is welcome.
“Bring records. Bring statutes. Bring court decisions. Tell me exactly where I’m wrong,” Flash said. “But if you’re a former police chief and your response to scrutiny of law enforcement is to spam a journalist’s comment sections with an article about his dead 19-year-old brother, that says considerably more about you than it does about the journalism.”
Police, prosecutors and courts wield extraordinary power over the public. The criminal case Linden repeatedly invoked demonstrates that those institutions, like every institution operated by human beings, can make consequential decisions subject to legitimate criticism.
That is precisely why journalists scrutinize them.
Williamson Reporter 