Montgomery County prosecutors have dropped the felony assault charge against former Harris County Assistant District Attorney Gabriel Kabak, closing out a case that cost him his job earlier this year.
Court records filed Tuesday show the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office determined it could not meet its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the charge was dismissed before it ever reached a grand jury.
Kabak, 32, was arrested by the Panorama Village Police Department on February 22 after officers responded to a disturbance at a children’s birthday party.
According to the police department’s account, Kabak was intoxicated, pushed several attendees, and got into an argument with his girlfriend after she raised concerns about him driving drunk. Officers alleged the dispute escalated to Kabak pushing her against the side of a house and grabbing her by the throat, leaving her briefly unable to breathe.
He was booked into the Montgomery County Jail on a charge of family violence, impeding breath or circulation, commonly referred to as strangulation, a third-degree felony. A magistrate set his bond at $35,000.
Party attendees reportedly stepped in to separate Kabak from the woman and children before law enforcement arrived. Deputies from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and a Texas Game Warden unit responded to the scene along with Panorama Village police.
During the arrest, Kabak identified himself as a Harris County prosecutor and made additional unsolicited comments about his position, according to Panorama Village Police Chief Chris Holcomb.
Within 24 hours, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Kabak was no longer employed there. He had served as an assistant district attorney in the office’s Special Victims Bureau, prosecuting adult sex crime cases, and had previously worked in the domestic violence division during Kim Ogg’s final year as district attorney.
Kabak’s defense attorney, Shelby Burns, argued at the time that the termination was premature, calling it a rushed decision made before any evidence had been tested in court. Following this week’s dismissal, Burns said the outcome vindicates his client, telling KPRC 2 that Kabak had been defamed and that the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office sent a clear signal of his innocence by declining to pursue the case further.
The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office offered a more measured explanation for the dismissal.
A spokesman said that a lack of cooperation needed to move the case forward limited the admissible evidence available to prosecutors, and that the office is ethically bound to pursue charges only when the evidence meets the required burden of proof. The spokesman added that every case is evaluated individually and that the same standard is applied consistently across all prosecutions.
