HOUSTON -- Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal recently approved an $11,000-a-year raise for his secretary to whom he had sent a series of romantic e-mails. However, he said he was not showing favoritism, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.

The raise for Kerry Stevens, the embattled prosecutor's executive secretary and former lover, took effect Saturday, according to county payroll records.

The raise boosts Stevens' salary from about $78,000 per year to about $89,500.

Rosenthal told KPRC Local 2 that Stevens' raise went into effect with 150 others in his clerical and administrative support staff.

The district attorney said he pushed for pay raises for all of his staff members after his attorneys and investigators were given increases earlier this year.

Rosenthal recently admitted that he and Stevens had an affair in the 1980s, but he said that is not the reason she was given a raise. He said it was because she has not had a pay hike since 2003.

"No, she wasn't granted any favoritism because of any relationship we had or you'd have to say that all these other 28 percent of the staff that got increases also got special favors because they were close to me," Rosenthal said.

Stevens' pay raise puts her at the top of her pay grade. Rosenthal has also been criticized for allowing Stevens to use one of the department's pool cars.

But in terms of percentage, other employees received larger raises than Stevens.

Payroll records show that many of Rosenthal's support staff saw salary ceilings increase 12 to 15 percent.

Harris County commissioners approved the salary increases on Dec. 18. Joe Stinebaker, spokesman for County Judge Ed Emmett, said commissioners usually follow recommendations of the county's elected officials.

The e-mails to Stevens were among a batch of racially and sexually charged electronic messages sent or received with Rosenthal's county e-mail account.

The romantic e-mails were briefly and mistakenly disclosed in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Department. The racially and sexually charged notes were released later, after a judge ruled they were not subject to a protective order.

The messages led to Rosenthal's abandonment, under Republican Party pressure, of his GOP re-election campaign and brought calls for his resignation.

"This is just the latest reckless example of county politics as usual, where everybody scratches everybody else's back using our tax dollars," said Charles Bacarisse, a candidate for county judge.

Rosenthal has said that he had an affair with Stevens in the 1980s when he was married to his first wife, but the relationship did not lead to his divorce. He has said he told his current wife about the affair before hiring Stevens when he took office in 2000.

Rosenthal also used his county e-mail account to plan his now-aborted re-election campaign. Such messages may violate Texas laws barring the use government property for political activity, and the Texas Attorney General's Office has begun investigating.