Private Admonition and Order of Additional Education to a Municipal Court Judge. (03/25/13).
03/25/2013
The judge failed to follow the law and demonstrated a failure to maintain professional competence in the law when he: (1) failed to afford defendants the opportunity to enter a plea of not guilty and to ask for a trial prior to questioning them about the merits of the case and their defense; (2) failed to advise defendants at their first court appearance of their constitutional rights; (3) required defendants to appear for status hearings each month in order to monitor their conduct at school, without having the defendants enter a guilty or no contest plea and/or without placing the defendants on deferred disposition; (4) failed to issue proper deferred disposition orders informing defendants of the terms of their deferral; (5) conducted criminal proceedings, including the questioning of defendants and witnesses about the merits of the case and their defenses to the charges, outside the presence of the prosecutor; (6) dismissed cases without a motion from the prosecutor; and (7) failed to maintain docket sheets containing the requisite information set forth in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. [Violation of Canons 2A, 3B(2), and 6C(2) of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct.] Private Admonition and Order of Additional Education to a Municipal Court Judge. (03/25/13).
