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LEAD-IN BY HOST RENEE FELTZ: The recent indictment of Houston Police Chief Clarence Bradford has gathered national attention. But the Harris County District Attorney's office rarely indictes police officers. Robert Cardenas examines the different treatment of Chief Bradford:

STORY: Houston Police Chief Clarence Bradford has been indicted for aggravated perjury - stemming from an accusation that he lied while under oath about whether or not he cursed at his fellow officers. The indictment came on the heels of a much-criticized mass arrest of youth gathering in a Kmart parking lot earlier this year.

In the past, police officers in Harris County have not found themselves indicted for any charge. Still, veteran Democratic political consultant George Strong hesitates to say the perjury charges against Bradford are politically motivated:

"I would find it very hard to believe that the DA, the district attorney, would indict anybody for political reasons. I think there is some question whether if other people who lied under oath in a civil matter whether if they were prosecuted or not."

South Texas College of Law Professor Neil McCabe believes Bradford's position may have contributed to his indictment:

"You know sometimes when you're a government official and much in the public eye, things can actually go harder on you because no one wants the public to think that they're giving you a break that the ordinary guy would not have gotten."

But in the past, the trend has been for ordinary police officers who have lied under oath to get a break.

Legal scholar Jim Skelton, who served in the Harris County district attorney's office, and later as a criminal defense attorney for over 30 years in the area, offers this example:

"There have been police men who have lied under oath, the DA office knew they lied and nothing was done. I'll give you a classic example: A number of years ago there was a case involving the admissability of a confession. A police officer testified, raised his right hand, swore to tell the truth, that he took a defendant by a JP's office to get him warned. It so happened that the day he claimed to take him by was a holiday and the JP's office was closed. I mean there's been lying cops for years and very few of them ever get indicted."

Professor McCabe is of the opinion that the DA's office will have a difficult time convicting Chief Bradford of aggravated perjury because the facts in the case are not serious enough to warrant a conviction. However, even in if Bradford is acquited, McCabe believes the indictment may have other practical significance:

"Practically speaking, as a matter of law, an indictment can be dismissed, and then the law doesn't concern itself with you anymore. But the public perception, just the fact that you've been indicted, is going to go a long way with many people to taint you and cloud your name. And even if you wind up being acquitted in the end, there's going to be a good amount of people who are not convicned of your innocence."

Is the reckless indictment of Houston Police Chief Clarence Bradford a flesh wound or has the chief's career been mortally wounded, derailing him from the same track Lee Brown took from being police chief to the mayor's office? Jim Skelton offers another example from Houston's history:

"You remember years ago back in history Sam Robertson, assistant DA, the DA Frank Brisco were all indicted. Later the indictment was dismissed for a reason that the Grand Jury had held over that indicted them. When Brisco ran for mayor, if you recall, that file disappeared from the Clerk's office. And that resurrected his head again that he had been indicted, because once people have been indicted it gives an automatic assumption that they did something wrong and that they're a crook."

Robert Cardenas, KPFT News, Houston