Texas

A ‘Disappointed & Shocked’ Top Judge Is Reprimanded for Refusing Execution-Eve Appeal

The top criminal appeals court judge in Texas was reprimanded today for refusing to accept a late appeal hours before an inmate was executed and hence failing in her duty to maintain open access to the courts. The Commission on Judicial Conduct found that Presiding Judge Sharon Keller of the…

Jul 17, 2010 3:14 AM CDT

Battered By Months in Jail, Onetime Billionaire Stanford Says His Defense Is Suffering

Blind in one eye after a jail fight, suffering from other ailments and taking anti-depressants, onetime billionaire R. Allen Stanford is finding it tough to defend the criminal case he is facing over an alleged $7 billion fraud from his cell at the federal detention center in Houston. Denied bond…

Jul 16, 2010 5:26 PM CDT

Law Prof’s Article Not Just a ‘Pebble’ as UT Drops Klansman’s Name from Dorm

The University of Texas will remove the name of a dead law professor from one of its dorms because he was once a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. The university’s governing board voted today to change the name of Simkins Residence Hall, according to the Houston Chronicle and the…

Jul 15, 2010 3:14 PM CDT

Black Criminal Defense Lawyer Tells of Being Cuffed, Suspected as Getaway Driver

Houston criminal defense lawyer Jacquelyn Carpenter and a male friend were in the wrong place at the wrong time Monday evening. She and the friend, who are both black, were on their way to go swimming after a trip to Walmart to buy swimsuits. Suddenly a swarm of police cars…

Jul 15, 2010 10:29 AM CDT

Recent Law Grad Files New $1M Suit Against Lawyer in Prove-Me-Wrong Dare

A South Texas College of Law graduate has filed a new breach of contract suit against a lawyer who promised to pay $1 million to anyone who could prove the prosecution’s theory of a case against his client. Former law student Dustin Kolodziej filed suit late last month in federal…

Jul 12, 2010 12:04 PM CDT

Houston Requires Prosecutors’ OK Before Police May Speak to Defense Lawyers

A new Houston police policy bars officers from speaking with defense lawyers unless they get “express permission” from prosecutors. The critics include defense lawyer Murray Newman, the Houston Chronicle reports. He told the newspaper that the policy “is absolutely destroying any last vestiges that a police officer is a neutral…

Jul 8, 2010 12:29 PM CDT

Schools’ Confiscation of Candy Cane Pens Was Unconstitutional, 5th Circuit Says

Two Texas school principals may be liable for violating students’ constitutional rights by confiscating candy cane pens and other Christian materials that the children planned to distribute, a federal appeals court has ruled. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the principals interfered with the students’ clearly…

Jul 2, 2010 1:20 PM CDT

Sandra Bullock Divorce Now Partially Secret, Rather than ‘Super-Secret’

Did Sandra Bullock get a “super-secret” divorce? A story published Monday by the Austin American-Statesman suggested that was the case. The Travis County divorce decree had been sealed, the story said, as were the minutes that would record the sealing. The only documents available were the initial filing, made under…

Jul 1, 2010 10:30 AM CDT

Too Close for Comfort

Texas murder case raises questions about conduct for judges, lawyers

Jul 1, 2010 7:50 AM CDT

Solo Lawyer & Office Manager Wife Accused of Stealing $2M From Guardianship Clients

A 71-year-old solo practitioner in Texas and his 70-year-old office manager and wife are facing a 26-count federal indictment for allegedly stealing more than $2 million from the accounts of disabled military veterans for whom he served as a guardian. Joe Phillips, who practices in Houston, and his wife, Dorothy,…

Jun 30, 2010 9:00 PM CDT

Unanswered Question in Husband’s Apparent Murder of Texas Judge: Why

It was a Father’s Day much like any other for orthopedic surgery resident Dustin Loveland, who spoke with his dad a couple of times over the phone in the morning. Then, around 5 p.m., Loveland got a stunning text message from this father saying that he had apparently killed Loveland’s…

Jun 23, 2010 8:38 PM CDT

Husband Kills Texas Judge in Apparent Murder-Suicide

Updated: Authorities say a Texas juvenile court judge in Rowlett was killed by her husband yesterday in an apparent murder-suicide. Judge Belinda Loveland, 52, was found dead in her Lake Ray Hubbard home, along with her husband, Richard, 59, reports the Dallas Morning News. The Rowlett Police Department says Richard…

Jun 21, 2010 10:46 PM CDT

Judge Is Arrested for Allegedly Using Traffic Fine Money to Pay Personal Credit Card Bill

A municipal judge in southern Texas was arrested today for allegedly using traffic fine money orders he received from three individuals who appeared before him to pay his own personal credit card bills. La Joya Municipal Court Judge Joe Henry Garza, 55, is to be arraigned this afternoon on a…

Jun 17, 2010 9:03 PM CDT

Jones Day Lays Off Staffers in Dallas and LA as ‘Last-Resort Alternative’

Jones Day has laid off an unspecified number of support staffers in its Los Angeles and Dallas offices. Washington, D.C., partner Joe Sims tells the ABA Journal that about two-thirds of those laid off are secretarial workers, and the rest are other legal support staffers. Sims wouldn’t give out specific…

Jun 16, 2010 5:08 PM CDT

Judge Orders DNA Test of 1-Inch Hair That Led to Texas Man’s Execution

Claude Howard Jones was executed a decade ago. But a DNA test is now going to be conducted to determine whether a 1-inch hair that was relied on to convict him of capital murder was actually his. A retired Texas appellate judge hearing a Dallas case seeking to prove that…

Jun 15, 2010 10:50 PM CDT