Saturday, August 28, 2021

Bad White Judges: Country Edition

Number one, is the Texas Supreme Court which continues to overturn jury verdicts for campaign money.  As far as I’m concerned any judge who takes money from attorneys with pending cases is a criminal, without qualification.  Yet that is Standard Operating Procedure for Texas Judges because they have to have money to run for election.  I would say they should use their own money, but that would mean only rich people could be judges.  Oh wait…

 

When you think about the 258th Judicial District Court, the real criminals are more often on the damn bench than in the gallery.  Judge Liz Coker texted one of the prosecution team members how to examine a witness in a criminal prosecution and that was barely sufficient to cause her to lose her bench.  The prosecuting attorney who received the message instead of being horrified, this cold calculating bitch thought it was a great way to take strategic advantage.  And she was disciplined.  Yet this prosecuting attorney, Kaycee Jones, got elected to a bench herself in the 411th! Guess the ignorant provincials thought this was a heroic service instead of a blight on our Anglo-Saxon legal system.  Kaycee Jones got voted out yet she still sits as Visiting Judge on the 258th, presiding over the same voters who voted her out of the 411th!  Voted her out presumably because she messed up again by telling the judge of the 258th, Travis Kitchens, that a certain defendant on a case Kitchens was presiding over stole her car.

 

But wait, why did I still find this terrible woman sitting on the bench, next to the district clerk who never smiles? Yep, there she was, on the bench, complete with her unrepentant tongue too large for even her piggy cheeks.  And on one day she was presiding as visiting judge, the only person who objected was a defense attorney who had an outcry hearing in child rape case.  Bet that objection took .2 seconds to make. 

 

The differences between rural and major city could not be more apparent.  In Montgomery County JP 1 you have a self-aggrandizing judge Wayne L. Mack who wastes everyone’s time with his insincere patriotic politics.  He has the pledge of allegiance to the Texas and American flag said, which is bad enough, but he also invites some crazy preacher on a rotating interfaith basis to offer a prayer.  One time I was in there and it was this little old demure black lady who was mousy and reserved but boy she really let loose on that prayer like a whirlwind.  These scenes are not appropriate decorum.  And then there was this jury trial where a panel of 24 jurors was summoned because a defendant in a civil case paid the jury fee.  The defendant didn’t appear for trial.  But there was a lot of space reserved on the docket for this, so rather than letting the jury go when I waived jury trial to try a liquidated claim for under $10,000 when the defendant had defaulted, the judge kept me and the jury waiting while he went through all these motions just because jury trials are a great way for judges to meet voters and impress them with their BS patriotism.  And it’s because dumb white conservatives eat this shit up.

 

You also have the old school judges and attorneys who need to get busy and die, taking the old system with them.  There’s some judges who preside over their Court as a Supreme Village Elder, making peace instead of judicial decisions, crafting solutions they think is best instead of following the law.  The other Boomer problem I run into is the “gotcha lawyer” This is definitely the province of old school good ol’ white boy courthouse gangism, especially in the ignorant and provincial counties.

 

 

Here’s one example of this:

 

Me: Judge, the defense’s argument that he is making today, while it is meritorious, it is the first time we are hearing about it because the defendant did not include this allegation in his answer.  In fact, if you read the defense’s answer it actually makes a frivolous argument which defendant is not insisting on today, just to throw us off the scent.  We can amend our case to meet these arguments”

 

OC: Judge, I have included this argument in my answer.  You can interpolate it from the vague generalizations that I have thrown in there.  There’s no surprise here.”  He shouted shrilly.

 

The Court: I’m going to deny your motion without leave to amend and jettison this case in violation of the Texas Rule against general demurrers.  I’m also going to ignore the special exceptions procedure as set out in the Rules.  Good luck on appeal, son. 

 

OC: Gotcha.

 

This is entitled boomer white trash stuff.  Go take that discovery trial by surprise shit to your ever-nearing grave where it should stay buried.  This why local boys do better in provincial counties, cause they contribute to the judge’s campaigns.

 

Yeah, there’s a lot of problems.  It’s not just race.  Unqualified judges on the bench is bad no matter what, but we shouldn’t be afraid to explain why that happens, even if we don’t like the explanation, and even if that explanation is race. 


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