Kim Ogg

Kimbra Kathryn Ogg (born 1959) is an American attorney and former prosecutor. A member of the Democratic Party, from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2024, she was the District Attorney of Harris County, Texas. As District Attorney, she was the top law enforcement official responsible for overseeing all prosecutions in Harris County. Before being elected District Attorney, she held a senior role under former District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr. as a Chief Prosecutor, was the City of Houston’s first appointed Anti-Gang Task Force Director, and the executive director of Crime Stoppers of Houston. Born in 1959 in Houston, Ogg attended the University of Texas at Austin and South Texas College of Law Houston, graduating with her BA in journalism in 1981 and her JD in 1986 respectively.[2][3] She is the daughter of Texas legislator and Democrat Jack Ogg and philanthropist Connie Harner Ogg.[2] She and her longtime partner met while studying at South Texas College of Law, and they have one son who attends the University of Texas School of Law.[4] Ogg began her legal career working for District Attorney Johnny Holmes in 1987.[4] She was appointed as the first director for Houston's Anti-Gang Task Force in 1994 and unsuccessfully ran for district judge as a Republican in the 1996 election.[4][5] Ogg was the executive director of Crime Stoppers of Houston from 1999 to 2006 before leaving to practice law with her father.[6] Kim Ogg ran on a moderate Democratic platform against Republican incumbent Devon Anderson, using her inauguration ceremony to announce that all misdemeanor marijuana cases would be diverted from arrest or prosecution.[7][8] During her tenure, dismissal rates increased greatly with approximately half of felony cases ending in dismissal and over 70% of misdemeanor cases being dismissed by judges. Her staff suggested this may have been a sign of successful pretrial diversion programs, however critics countered this by pointing to a high backlog of people including those charged with misdemeanors. Other criminal attorneys and advocates argued this may have been due to aggressive and overzealous prosecution and poor selection of cases, worsening the case backlog in the Harris County courts.[9]