'It can all be fixed': Sean Teare discusses plans as potential Harris County DA with ABC13

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Sean Teare says he has a plan to fix Harris County's criminal justice system. For years, the largest county in Texas has been plagued with a cobweb of intersecting crime problems, from court backlogs to an overcrowded jail to prosecutors stretched too thin.

The former Harris County prosecutor told Eyewitness News it's all easily fixable.

The new Democrat-elect for Harris County sat down with ABC13 after defeating two-time incumbent DA and his former boss, Kim Ogg, by a nearly 50% margin in the March 5 primary. Teare is expected to win the November election in Democrat-heavy Harris County over Republican challenger Dan Simones and take office on Jan. 1.

"What we have to do is be smart about crime and hold violent criminals accountable," Teare said.

But with such deep-seated problems in Harris County, how will he actually implement change?

Teare said it starts with overhauling the intake system that determines if and how charges will be filed.

Deferring more misdemeanor and lower-level felony cases and retaining more experienced prosecutors are all pointed criticisms from Teare's campaign of Ogg's tenure.

"You have to attack it from all sides, but they're things that have all been shown to work before. You just have to do them together. When you put all of those together, you're going to see the backlog shrink to nothing and the jail overcrowding go away," he said.

ABC13 asked Teare whether he would go to the county for more funding to increase the number of staff and prosecutors. He previously criticized Ogg for lacking accountability when the soon-to-be-former DA did the same in 2022.

"Before we go in and start demanding that, we have to create an environment in that office where we can become fully staffed, where we can maintain and retain talent until they get to the point where they're good enough and experienced enough to prosecute. Then, I think within the first year to 18 months, we can go collaboratively, talk to commissioner's court with real data instead of scare tactics," Teare said.

The potential DA could find himself in a bigger legal fight. Teare staunchly supports the reproductive rights of women and opposes the state's sweeping anti-abortion legislation, which are laws that could soon allow for the removal of district attorneys who refuse to prosecute women and doctors who violate the laws.

Is Teare prepared for that battle, one that could subsume other critical work in Harris County?

"I truly believe as an individual, if people in positions of power don't come out very aggressively against these draconian laws around women's reproductive health, women either aren't going to seek the healthcare they need, or they are going to die in back alleys. That's going to happen because of these laws. I can't say that I will patently not prosecute cases, but I'm going to decide what to utilize my resources on, and prosecuting doctors and women for seeking reproductive healthcare is going to be very, very, very low on my list," he said.

Much of Teare's battle with Ogg centered on their identities as Democrats, with Teare casting himself as the progressive Democrat and the two-time incumbent accused of turning on her party for more conservative policies. ABC13 asked Teare about the perception that his proposed policies of deferring lower-level cases and reforming cash bonds show he's soft on crime.

"I think being labeled a progressive prosecutor has really gotten a bad rap. What I intend to do is focus on both at the same time. Meaning, giving people another chance, and another avenue to not follow that life to where you wind up becoming a violent criminal. But also, I have spent the last seven years of my career prosecuting nothing but violent criminals, prosecuting capital murders. And I absolutely will continue that. You're not going to see violent criminals running the streets in Harris County. That is not something that I will abide by. It's something we have seen in the last seven and a half years because of the failures at the top of that office. But that stops on Jan. 1, 2025. We are going to hold people accountable," Teare said.

Watch the sit down with Teare and ABC13 Anchor Jonathan Bruce in the video above.

For updates on this story, follow Jonathan Bruce on Facebook, X and Instagram.