And they're off!

Boy, that didn't take long, did it?  Within only a couple of weeks of me writing this, we have news of a primary contest for the Republican candidate for the 432nd District Court.

Local Fort Worth attorney Tom Zachry has now thrown his hat into the ring for the Republican nomination for the 432nd District Court.  While I have no idea if it had anything to do with this recent ridiculous sentence imposed by Judge Gonzalez, it's interesting that there is already an opponent for a bench that hasn't been filled for two months yet.

I will be honest.  I don't know Tom Zachry.  I know who he is, and he seems like a very nice, affable gentleman.  But I don't know him personally, so I can't speak to what he's like.  But I have some help.

Today I received a letter from Mr. Zachry asking to support him for the bench.  To be honest, it's really just a campaign flier.  Mr. Zachry apparently doesn't realize that here at the Matlock Blog, we are fair and balanced, and will happily post information about candidates and their campaigns if they will just let us know.  Yeah, I have a mouse in my pocket.

According to the flier, Mr. Zachry has 43 years of experience in criminal law and is Board Certified in Criminal Law.  Apparently, also from the flier, Judge Gonzalez has but 13 years of experience and is not Board Certified.

At first glance, this seems like an impressive comparison.  I mean, an extra 30 years is a long time.  It's practically my entire lifetime.  But, how much of that is really in criminal law?

You see, when you check out Mr. Zachry's website, it claims that he began his career in 1967 as an Assistant District Attorney.  Interestingly however, while in the D.A.'s office, he developed his own family law practice.  (You could do that?  Really?  WTF?)

He developed this practice to such an extent that he left the D.A.'s office to start his own family law practice.  It doesn't say what percentage of his practice is devoted to criminal law.  But it does say that since 1970 he has represented hundreds of people accused of crimes.  Even assuming that is 999 people, over 39 years that's only about 25 criminal cases per year.  Is that enough experience to be a felony court judge?

Mr. Zachry also points out that he is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbard where as Judge Gonzalez is not rated at all.  Too bad for Mr. Zachary that he didn't notice that it's really Martindale-Hubbell.  But despite that glaring error, it's still impressive.  But I don't know that it's that big of a deal.  I mean Mr. Zachry is not rated at all by avvo.com, whereas Judge Gonzalez was rated something like an 8.0 before being appointed to the bench.  Decisive?  No.  (At least not until you're rated something like a 9.7.)

There were some that believed Judge Gonzalez was appointed because of his connections within the local Republican party, and that he had made it known that he was interested in running for District Attorney to replace the late Tim Curry.  My sources within the party told me they had their eye set on former judge Bob Gill as the heir apparent.  So in exchange, the party impressed upon His Excellency the Hair the governor to appoint Judge Gonzalez.  I don't know.  I like to think it was because I told him to.  In any event, I think the judge has done well so far, 75 years notwithstanding.

But now it seems there are those looking to dethrone Judge Gonzalez.  Will there be more Republicans doing this?  Where are the Democrats on this?  J.R. Molina?  Maureen Tolbert?  Random prosecutor?  Mr. Zachry is the first, but something tells me he won't be the last.  

But what the hell do I know?

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