A Fox Rothschild partner, who’s worked 12 years pro bono for a wrongfully convicted black man in Texas, found himself in the crosshairs of Houston police, who sought to make him the subject of a criminal inquiry.

Brian Stolarz of Washington, D.C., who won habeas corpus relief that freed Alfred Dewayne Brown from death row, was the target of a criminal complaint by the Houston Police Officers’ Union. That complaint came shortly after the union also urged Texas politicians to deny compensation for Brown’s wrongful incarceration on charges he murdered a Houston police officer.