In
February of 1996, Hon was appointed Assistant Criminal District Attorney in
Polk County by John Holleman and was assigned to the felony division. As Felony
Division Chief, Hon personally handled well over one thousand felony cases as a
prosecutor and served as lead prosecutor in nearly one hundred felony jury
trials. He has also served as lead appellate counsel for the State and has
argued numerous appeals before the Ninth, Sixth, Eleventh, Twelfth, and
Thirteenth Texas Courts of Appeals; and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in
Austin.
At the 2003 annual meeting of the
Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Litigation (AGACL) in New Orleans,
Hon was one of only 15 prosecutors in the United States to be awarded the "Board of Directors' Trial Advocacy Award" which was presented in recognition
of excellence in the litigation of capital cases. He has presented lectures
to other prosecutors concerning the litigation of death penalty cases at
meetings of the Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Litigation and
the Oklahoma District Attorney's Council. In 2003, he authored a legal
article entitled "Focus on...Determining Mental Retardation in Capital Cases"
which appeared in The Texas Prosecutor, a publication of the Texas District and
County Attorney's Association. Hon has testified before House and Senate
committees of the Texas Legislature on death penalty legislation during the 1999,
2001 and 2003 legislative sessions; and has been a member of the Legislative
Committee of the Texas District and County Attorney's Association since 2003.
In 2007, Hon was instrumental in the passage of House Bill 872 which amended
Section 37.09 of the Texas
Penal Code and increased the penalty for the offense
of Tampering with Physical Evidence where the evidence tampered with is a human
corpse.
In his first term as Polk County
Criminal District Attorney, Hon has prioritized the prosecution of child abuse
cases and has advocated the creation of a Sexual Assault Response Team and a
Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program for Polk County. Hon has also
participated in the creation of the Polk County Child Fatality Review Team in
conjunction with other local health and law enforcement agencies.
In addition to his public service
as a prosecutor, Hon has served as a fireman with the Livingston Fire
Department since 1999. He is an instructor at the annual Livingston Area Fire
Training School held each spring, and has received advanced training in
firefighting tactics, vehicle extrication/rescue and trench rescue at Texas
A&M Municipal Fire Training School. In addition, he has completed advanced
SCBA or "Smokediver" training at the Southeast Texas Fire Academy in
Beaumont, Texas. He is also actively involved with the Livingston Youth
Baseball and Girl's Softball Associations, has coached boy's baseball and
girl?s softball, and served as a member of the Board of Directors of the
Livingston Youth Baseball Association.
Hon is a member of the Texas
District and County Attorney's Association and was appointed in 2008 to serve
on the Board of Directors of that organization. Hon is also a member of
the State Bar of Texas, The Mississippi Bar, the Polk County Peace Officer's
Association, the National Rifle Association, Ducks Unlimited, the Texas Farm
Bureau, the First United Methodist Church of Livingston, and is a past member
of the Livingston Rotary Club. Hon is married to the former Juliana
Dunnam and they are the proud parents of Caroline, Will, Timothy, Allison, and
Carson.
You can email Lee at: lee@polkcountyda.com
