HOUSTON -- Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal admitted Friday that he deleted more than 2,500 e-mails after they were subpoenaed, KPRC Local 2 reported. But Rosenthal will have to wait to find out if U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt finds him in contempt of court and if he will be fined or jailed.

Hoyt abruptly recessed the hearing Friday before Rosenthal finished testifying.

Hoyt admonished attorneys and witnesses to not discuss the case.

"I cannot answer those questions. I would love to. I would debate. You know me for a long time. I would love to talk. I can't talk," plaintiff attorney Lloyd Kelley said.

During cross-examination by Kelley, Rosenthal admitted that he made false statements in affidavits submitted to the court.

KPRC Local 2 legal analyst Brian Wice said that might be the reason Rosenthal's testimony was stopped.

"Why? Because it's defense to a perjury prosecution if before the end of the proceeding, you correct, retract or amend a material misstatement. That's why I think this matter has been continued," Wice said.

Rosenthal said he thought the 2,500 e-mails he is under order to produce were backed up elsewhere. He said he thought the e-mails could be recovered because it had allegedly been done before and because the county upgraded its computer system after Tropical Storm Allison hit in 2001.

Hoyt: "Are you telling the court that you did not know the backup tapes that contained the information you believed they contained were recycled every five to 10 days?"

Rosenthal: "I did not know that then."

The judge wanted to know why Rosenthal waited three weeks to notify the court that the e-mails had been destroyed.

Hoyt: "If this had been an innocent lapse in judgment, would it have not been simpler to notify the court?"

Rosenthal: "That's exactly what it was but I did not know to do that. And I might add, we were still looking to concentrate e-mails."

Hoyt: "It can be a crime can't it? It's called obstruction of justice. That's what we call it over here. What to you call it?"

Rosenthal: "It can be tampering with evidence."

"He essentially admitted that he hit the delete key again and again, deleting e-mails that were the subject of a subpoena in a federal court order," Wice said. "Quite frankly, it's the 21st century version of the dog ate my homework, except there wasn't any dog involved."

Rosenthal turned over hundreds of e-mails, which Hoyt released to the media for a short time before ordering them to be resealed. The e-mails contained pornographic, racist and political messages, along with love notes between the married prosecutor and his secretary.

The hearing was requested by Kelley, who sought the e-mails as part of a civil rights investigation against the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

Kelley said he wants the judge to hold Rosenthal in contempt or sanction him for the destruction of the e-mails.

"It certainly doesn't look good," Wice said. "Chuck Rosenthal looks no different than any other befuddled criminal who's testified in state court around the corner from the federal courthouse."

The judge did not set a date for the hearing to continue. He asked attorneys to submit briefs first.

Rosenthal, who was first elected in 2000, presides over an office that sends more convicts to death row than any other prosecutors' office in the nation.