It's official. Well, as official as these things get, I suppose. Judge Elizabeth Berry will not be running for reelection in 2010 for Criminal District Court 3. That means we will have a new judge. Who will it be?
I have it on very reliable information that Assistant Tarrant County District Attorney Robb Catalano will make a run for the bench. Robb is an excellent prosecutor, and perhaps more importantly, a good person.
My sources within the Tarrant County Republican Party have told me (although it was some time ago, but I was out of town) that Robb is the party's choice to take over the seat. I'm not sure if Robb has announced yet, but if he hasn't and would like to here, I'm happy to oblige. If he already has, well, better late than never?
We'll see if any legitimate contender puts their name in the hat for CDC3. Short of an out-of-left-field candidate entering the race, I think it would be safe to say Robb will be the next judge of CDC3.
Long-time Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry died this morning at his home after a long fight with lung cancer. Diagnosed in mid-2008, Mr. Curry had been undergoing an aggressive form of cancer treatment. For the last several months, Mr. Curry had been working primarily at home.
Tim Curry served as the elected District Attorney of Tarrant County since 1972. He was the longest-serving district attorney in Texas. Through that time, the Tarrant County District Attorney's office became arguably the best district attorney's office in the state.
Although often overshadowed by the larger cities in Texas, Mr. Curry saw that the district attorney's office was never second-best to those of Dallas and Houston. Mr. Curry implemented many ground-breaking and untraditional procedures and policies to the Tarrant County District Attorney's office. Many of these have since been followed by other counties in the state. Most have benefitted the criminal justice system in whole.
Often described as a gentle, kind-hearted gentleman, Curry's shadow will be hard to miss in Tarrant County for years. Whomever fills the position as Tarrant County's chief law enforcement official will inherit one of, if not the best prosecutor's offices in the state. However, it will certainly be difficult to live up the legend of Mr. Curry.
“Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure - that tears a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets”
Queen with David Bowie.
Democratic candidate for Criminal District Court Number Two doesn’t like the way things are being handled by the sitting judge, Wayne Salvant. That’s good to know. At least she isn’t running to be judge just to be judge.
Ms. Tolbert, whom I’ve never met by the way, has a series of YouTube “interviews” available. They appear to be radio interviews which were visually recorded. The respective “topics” are “How Tolbert is different,” “All Judges Are Republican,” “Judge as a Referee,” and the video above, “How Cases are Tried.”
There is also a video of a pancake breakfast fundraising, but although I tried to watch it, I couldn’t finish it. It was so mind-numbingly boring I had to turn it off. It didn’t even have background music. I mean, come on! But back to “How Cases are Tried.”
First of all, I don’t think the title of the video has anything to do with the substance of the video. Ms. Tolbert doesn’t really discuss trying criminal cases in Criminal District Court Two, but rather seems dissatisfied in the manner in which Judge Salvant appoints attorneys to represent those charged with State Jail Felonies.
It appears Ms. Tolbert is uncomfortable with the idea of what is referred to as a “Jail Run.” It is generally more common in misdemeanor courts than felony courts, but it certainly happens. Essentially a jail run is when a number of incarcerated defendants who have yet to be able to post a bond and have no attorney to represent them are brought to court and appointed lawyers to represent them. No problem so far.
However, often what happens is that the appointed attorney is “expected” to resolve the case that day. In a misdemeanor case, this is generally accomplished by pleading the defendant to time served. I have personally experienced this, as I’m sure most criminal defense attorneys have.
The problem arises in felony court. Felonies, even State Jail Felonies, are serious offenses. While the person cannot be sent to TDC, they can be sent for up to two years to a Texas State Jail Facility. This time is day-for-day, meaning there is no credit for good time or any type of parole. So being confronted with a new State Jail Felony case can actually cause some problems because it is a lot for the defendant to understand in the extremely short amount of time he has spoken, in fact known, his newly-appointed lawyer.
Ms. Tolbert believes Judge Salvant has engaged in this type of behavior by appointing attorneys (Ms. Tolbert refers to them as “favorite lawyers”) and “exptecting” them to dispose of the case that day. This is, as Ms. Tolbert says, referred to as Same Day Disposition. And Ms. Tolbert is right, it shouldn’t be a practice to engage in this type of appointment process.
The problem here is this. The judge doesn’t negotiate the plea bargain in the case. The judge doesn’t meet with the defendant and ascertain what is best for the client. The judge doesn’t represent the defendant. The defense attorney does.
Of course, it can be very difficult for any attorney to stand up to a judge in that situation; actually, in many situations. But at the end of the day, that is our job. We can complain about. (God knows we do.) We can go on and on that the judge doesn’t understand what it is like to be a private defense attorney. (The majority of the time they don’t.) And if it bothers us enough, we can refuse to accept appointments so as to eliminate the possibility of it happening to us again. (That is an option because no one is required to represent court-appointed clients.) But it doesn’t change the fact that it is ultimately up to us.
If an attorney is appointed to a client and the judge expects that case to be resolved on the same day, there is only one question; what is in the client’s best interest. As it turns out, it is the same question for all clients, appointed or not, judge-involved or not, whether we like it or not. It’s our job.
Judges make our lives difficult. Water is wet. The sky is blue. No one said this job was easy. If a judge wants us to resolve a case the same day, all we can do is what is in the client’s best interest. If the client wants to take the state’s offer, then it’s resolved. If not, then so be it. To complain that judges put too much pressure on defense attorneys is missing the point.
If the client doesn’t want to plead guilty, for whatever reason, then you set your case for trial, and you make the state prove each and every element beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury. You fight and scratch and claw, and then do it some more. In short, you do your job.
This is a sign posted in the visitation area of the Tarrant County Greenbay Detention Facility. A free prize for anyone that can spot what's wrong with this picture.
My apologies to Judge Salvant for stating that he had no website. It didn't take a reader long to point out that the judge does in fact have a website for his reelection to the bench of Criminal District Court Number 2.
I know I stated that when I Googled the judge, and Ms. Tolbert for that matter, that I found no website for them. The same is still true. Sort of. Sometimes it pops up, and sometimes it doesn't. Again, my aplogies.
You will find all the information you might need (I suppose) on his website.
And yes, before anyone points it out, that is a sharp bowtie.
There is only one contested criminal court judicial race this year in Tarrant County. That race is for judge of Criminal District Court Number Two. Republican incumbent Judge Wayne Salvant faces Democratic challenger Maureen Tolbert.
First, why are Tarrant County’s judicial races predominantly set in off-year elections? If there is anyone that can explain this to me, I would love to hear. But that’s another story for another day.
If you are a regular, everyday person in Tarrant County, you might not even know that there is a judicial race this year. I travel an average of 45 miles a day commuting from my downtown office to my house. I see two signs regarding this race. Two. They are both Judge Salvant’s.
We are only 39 days from the election. Granted, there are probably more important issues to be decided by your ballot on November 4 than a local felony court race, but could someone campaign?
Some will argue that Judge Salvant needn’t campaign as much because, after all, he is the incumbent. I agree with that to an extent. But, how about this wrinkle? Judge Salvant is one of only two African American judges in all of Tarrant County. He is also a Republican.
From my understanding, there is genuine concern (although I think unnecessarily) that an ironic twist could occur; one of only two African American judges could lose his seat because of a groundswell of African American votes going for Senator Obama in the presidential election.
The concern that I have heard of is that African Americans will be voting straight-ticket and will potentially “take away” votes from Judge Salvant. I don’t see that happening. Even assuming every Democrat and African American in Tarrant County votes straight-ticket, and in turn for Ms. Tolbert, is it really enough? Based on the numbers I’ve seen, Republican out number Democrats in the county by almost two-to-one.
But again I ask, where is the campaign? It’s great that a candidate might speak to the local party meeting, but those people are going to vote anyway. What about the others?
If I had to guess, I would think the candidates are looking to simply ride the coattails of the presidential candidates. It’s worked before. Well, actually it usually works.
But wouldn’t you like to know where the candidates stand on the important issues of being a judge in Tarrant County? Yeah, me too. With that in mind, I went Googleing.
Neither candidate has a website that I could find. In fact, I didn’t see anything designed for support for Judge Salvant. Ms. Tolbert apparently has a sister with a MySpace page and four snippets of a radio interview on YouTube.
Ms. Tolbert discusses how she is different in this interview. (Short version is that she is a Democrat and that because every judge is Republican, there is corruption.) Here, she discusses how it is bad that all the judges are Republican. Here, Ms. Tolbert discusses how a judge should be disinterested in the outcome of a case and should be more like a referree. (Interesting that she even mentions Dallas County.) Finally, here Ms. Tolbert discusses attorneys being pressured to dispose of a case. (I found this to be so interesting that I might post about this one later.)
So, is there an important judicial race this year in Tarrant County? Yeah, there is. Maybe someone could tell the candidates.
In yet another in what has been a string of questionable deaths at Tarrant County Jail, a 35-year-old Dallas woman died on June 13th while in the custody of the county. Adrienne Lemons died of an apparent untreated staph infection while sitting in custody for traffic tickets and a DWLI. Despite requesting her previously-prescribed antibiotics, Ms. Lemons was apparently never given the medication.
Although no cause of death has been cited by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner, both Lemons' ex-husband and brother claim she had the infection prior to going into custody. Both claim that although she requested her medication, it was never provided.
Lemons complained of pain in her shoulder, and actually threatened to cut her wrists to avoid the pain. At that point, she was transported from the minimum security Cold Springs facility to the downtown Tarrant County Jail. However, JPS hospital staff never provided the medication.
JPS Health Network contracts with Tarrant County to provide medical services to inmates. But over the last several years, their medical care has been under fire. In 2005, a Star-Telegram investigation revealed "staffing shortages, inadequate supplies, broken and obsolete equipment, and patient records, including inmate requests for medical care, in tatters." This came on the heels of 10 inmate deaths that year.
Although JPS has revised their plans for inmate medical care, clearly problems still exist.
When asked about his sister's death, Lemons' brother Shannon Woodrome said "I can see an infection killing someone in the 1600s or the 1700s, but that shouldn’t happen today."
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