Ed Chernoff

I was born in 1962, and grew up in Florida. I lived in a trailer, and that is about all I remember from my childhood. I attended University of Florida and received an accounting degree in 1984.  University of Houston Law Center offered me a scholarship, and since I couldn’t afford law school any other way, this is where I went. I paid for living expenses by working nights at a pest control company. I didn’t have a car, and rode a scooter down the feeders of the Gulf Freeway to get to work. I liked Houston and made plans to stay. After law school I was recruited by the Harris County District Attorney’s office, and I joined that group in 1987. At the “office” I tried 70 jury trials. I won all but one felony trial, and surprisingly, this is the only case I can remember after all this time! I had a good career with the Harris County District Attorney. At the time, the “office” kept statistics on trial numbers. A list was passed out at the end of the year, ranking various levels of trial success. I was the lead Assistant DA for cases tried and won until 1991, when I left the DA’s office. Before I left the office, I could see a philosophical difference developing between my fellow prosecutors and me. It was at the tender age of 28 when I began questioning some of the policies I was asked to enforce. For instance, small drug possession cases were first-degree felonies back then. An individual arrested for three crack pipe cases had the potential to go to prison for 25 years to life. We were instructed not to drop enhancements in those cases, but I did so anyway. Fortunately, nobody ever called me to the mat on that one. In 1991, with dramatic flare, I took a leave of absence from the DA’s office. I bought a motorcycle and took a three-month tour of the United States. I survived, which I considered a good sign. When I returned, my heart was no longer in prosecution. I left a few months later and started my own law practice, dedicated to representing those unfortunate souls accused of running afoul of the law. To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. I was “loaned” an office and I began taking appointments as a criminal defense lawyer. I got a phone line, which I still have today! My first appointment was for a man charged with robbing a Stop n Go. The robbery was on video, though it wasn’t of very high quality. This was 1992 after all. My client told me he was innocent and I had no reason to disbelieve him, other than that the person in the video looked a hell of a lot like him. Nevertheless, we tried the case and he was acquitted. I liked the feeling. This poor guy was depending on me to save his future, and although he hadn’t chosen me per se, he was depending on me. I really liked my role in all of that.