LOCAL Houston | The City Guide FEBRUARY 2016 | Page 50

KELLY

SIEGLER
GETTING

IT

RIGHT

Known for her dramatic performances in the courtroom and on the hit TNT show Cold
Case, KELLY SIEGLER is a household name both in Houston and nationwide. But the
matter-of-fact former prosecutor says she doesn’t always agree with her reputation for
being a drama queen, at least in her decades-long role as a prosecutor.
Siegler grew up in a small town southwest of Houston, studied international business
at The University of Texas at Austin, and settled back in Houston to earn her degree
at South Texas College of Law shortly thereafter. She took a job as an intern in the
District Attorney’s office after she heard a friend was leaving his position there. “I just
fell in love with the job.”
Siegler explains that what has come across as dramatic antics in the courtroom was
simply a need to show jurors exactly what took place. “When people say ‘drama
queen,’ it makes me crazy. That’s just being super-specifically factual to show the
facts. It’s never about being dramatic. To me, it’s just being very thorough. A lot of
what I’ve done is down to being organized, being a nerd, being prepared and making sure I show the jurors exactly what happened.”
The Harris County prosecutor gained notoriety for trying twenty capital cases, securing death penalty sentences in nineteen of those cases. But the cases that stick with
her are those that never made national news. “So many cases that I worked on never
made a story. The families were just as affected, and just as hurt. And just because
it never made the news doesn’t make those relationships any less special or unique.”
Siegler explains she enjoys knowing how well the families are doing now, years later.
Siegler herself is surprised that her career has taken the turns it has. “I never thought
I’d become a prosecutor. And then I never thought I’d leave.”
But Siegler did leave her position as Harris County District Attorney in 2008 and took
on a different dramatic experience, revisiting cold cases for the TNT series Cold Case.
Siegler reads case files each week, sent by producers in LA, to determine whether
cases would be solvable in the show’s format. “There are so many cases out there
that I can say, ‘Yes, there is enough evidence now.’ But there’s gotta be hope. As we
used to say in the office, there has to be play, like if there are witnesses still around
or new dynamics to make us potentially solve it now.”
The format of Cold Case relies on local law enforcement asking for assistance with a
case in order to have the show review it. Siegler travels around the country filming
the show, working closely with law enforcement. She explains, “It reminds you that
cops have cases that haunt them. In every city we’ve done a case, I can picture the
cops who have cases they can’t solve.”
But it isn’t necessarily the thrill of solving a cold case that Siegler enjoys the most about
her role on Cold Case. “Meeting people in law enforcement and outside of it from
all across this country and seeing how much we all have in common in trying to do
the right thing is something I will remember the rest of my life.”

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| february 16

By Emily WestbrooksPhotography by Jenn Duncan