After she was sworn in as Harris County district attorney Thursday morning, Pat Lykos said her top priorities are to “restore public trust and confidence” in the DA’s office and to establish a victims' rights division. Lykos, a Republican, was sworn in by Gib Walton, the immediate past president of the State Bar of Texas and a partner in Vinson & Elkins in Houston. Close to 1,000 onlookers, including employees of the DA’s office, packed the Harris County Jury Assembly Room for the mass swearing-in ceremony. After she officially became DA, Lykos gave the oath of office to about 250 assistant district attorneys and about 70 investigators who made up about a third of the crowd in the room. Lykos, who defeated Democrat Clarence “Brad” Bradford, a former Houston police chief in the November election, told the assistant DAs that together they will do “great things.” In addition to the victims' rights division, Lykos told the crowd she hopes to fill Harris County jails with convicted criminals from international gangs operating in the Houston area and with “homegrown thugs.”
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
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