I was prepared to write the headline, "Houston, We Have a Problem" during the second week of newly elected Judge Julia Maldonado's term, but I truly think things have turned around in the 507th. I am ready and willing to criticize a Democratic judge if the facts warrant, but I am starting to be impressed by what I am seeing. Judge Julia Maldonado cannot raise campaign funds for a while as she is not up for re-election until 2020. Usually, once a lawyer is elected judge, attorneys swarm to contribute money after the fact. However, Maldonado’s post-election fund-raising was surprisingly anemic, despite the fact that a large number of family law attorneys are progressive and really Democrats. Maldonado had to stop raising funds on March 8 and I think that some of the unusual and concerning procedures she initially adopted upon taking office discouraged many lawyers and dampened financial support for her. Currently, the 507th is not, thank goodness, requiring the filing of sworn ... Read More >
Judges & Money: The Races for 2018 – Part One
Our family law judges can start fund-raising in May if they are up for election in 2018. Lawyers can expect to be hit up from many of different directions for contributions during the next year and a half. Democrats sense that the unpopularity and incompetence and policies of the Trump administration may change the usual voting patterns in Harris County, where Republicans usually win in non-presidential election years. It is easier to motivate voters with anger and fear than it is civic duty. It is well known that demographic changes in Harris County will mean that sooner or later all of our judges will be Democrats. The Legislature is considering eliminating straight ticket voting for trial judges, but it is not clear to me which side that will really help. Judge Roy Moore is far ahead of the judicial pack in organization and he has a fund-raiser planned for Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at B&B Butchers, located at 1814 Washington Avenue. Judge Moore has for months been sending out ... Read More >
Enos Schools County Auditor and Harangues County Judge Emmett
This is a reprint from the September 3, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. Lawyers are stealing tax payer dollars and the system in place at Harris County allows it. Here are the problems: 1. A paper based system from the 1950's is still in use. Lawyers fill out the pay vouchers by hand, the judges sign the vouchers and then they go to the County Auditor, who pays the amounts approved by the judges, no questions asked. 2. A judge, who may approve dozens of pay vouchers a week, cannot see what an attorney is billing in other cases in that same court or in other courts. 3. No one until me ever took a mass of vouchers from one single attorney and extracted the fees charged on all cases for a particular day to see what the attorney is billing the county for on that day. This is how Alicia Franklin got busted billing 23.5 hours in one day. If I can "audit" vouchers, why can't the County Auditor? 4. The real problem is that no one has any incentive to closely monitor the CPS pay ... Read More >
Alicia Franklin Scandal – County Five: Falsely Asking to be “Re-Elected”
This is a reprint from the September 3, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. Someone actually reads this little newsletter. Sherri Cothrun complained that Alicia Franklin was improperly using the phrase,"Re-Elect Alicia Franklin" on her website, but the naive Chronicle editor thought Cothrun was just being picky and "hyper technical." Franklin apparently saw no need to change her web site after their Monday meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board. However, after my newsletter that pointed this "re-elect versus keep" problem out was published last Thursday, Franklin quickly changed her website. Franklin's problem is that it was simply not true and it was unethical for her to ask to be "re-elected" if she has never been elected in the first place. I checked with the Commission on Judicial Conduct and confirmed that an appointed judge cannot use the phrase ... Read More >
Alicia Franklin Scandal – Count Three: Accepting A Campaign Contribution from a Party to a Case She Was The Amicus Attorney On
This is a reprint of the September 3, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. My first published book might not be set in London in the Spring of 1881 after all. It could well be about Judge Franklin and her predecessor, Judge Pratt. I have more than enough information to fill a book. Click here to read about this truly too-sleazy-to-believe scenario: an amicus attorney appointed to represent a child in a nasty custody case decides to run for judge and accepts a large campaign contribution from a party to the case. Sadly, Alicia Franklin, is the protagonist in this wretched story as well. Ms. Franklin was appointed an amicus attorney for a young boy in a hotly contested custody case by Judge Lisa Millard in case no. 2012-04106 on April 20, 2012. This case involved parents and grandparents. On October 15, 2013, Ms. Franklin and the grandparents' attorney filed a joint motion for enforcement against the mother for not obeying a court order on visitation. It is extremely unusual for an ... Read More >
Judge Alicia Franklin: Please Provide an Explanation!
Reprinted from August 26, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. I take a fair airing of facts about Judge Alicia Franklin and her work as an appointed CPS attorney very seriously. I played a significant role in the chain of events that resulted in Franklin becoming a judge and I genuinely like her. I have helped Franklin in ways no other lawyer could and I contributed financially to her campaign when she was running against Denise Pratt. I also know and really like the Democrat running against Franklin, Sherri Cothrun. Cothrun provided me most of the information described below, but I have done my own home work as well. I write below about facts I have verified, not partisan attacks from the opposing candidate. I now have a box of copies of every fee invoice Ms. Franklin ever submitted to the county and I have someone doing my own independent, non-political analysis of those vouchers. I really hope to announce soon that I have found a sterling example of how ad litem attorneys should do ... Read More >
Ted Cruz and the Gary Polland Scandal
It was a dark, but not a stormy night. Toni and I were up late, enjoying a Dr. Who view-a-thon, and my phone was on vibrate, so I missed the text message from Senator Ted Cruz. During commercials, I picked my phone up off the bedside table so I could Google to confirm the name of the 4th Dr. Who (Tom Baker) when the phone started vibrating. It was Ted calling. 11:41 p.m. in Houston meant it was way past Teddy's usual bed time in D.C. "Enos, you up watching some Hubert Humphrey documentary?"the Senator growled. I could hear the clink of ice in a glass and thought I heard a female giggle in the background. "Ted, it's late, I am kinda busy here,"I grumbled back. Toni paused the DVR and shot me one of her typical "I ain't putting up with late night calls from high ranking federal officials" looks. "Look, Enos, you simply gotta keep me out of this Polland mess," Senator Cruz said to me on the phone. "The fine Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire think tax dollars should ... Read More >
The Republican Problem with Judge Pratt
(This article appeared in the September 25, 2013 edition of my newsletter, The Mongoose) On the local level, I support and socialize with many Republican elected officials. In the last election cycle, I hosted seven parties at my office for judges or judicial candidates -- all were Republicans and all won. I contributed to and supported many other local Republican candidates. I speak several times a day with GOP candidates or elected officials (the incumbent judges I confer with ALL like and support The Mongoose). Republicans may disagree with me on national issues such as The Affordable Care Act, but it is clear that we totally agree on the following: Elected officials are public servants and they should work full time. Judges should know and follow the law. Judges should accurately date their orders not create the appearance of committing the crime of tampering with a government record. Judges must be respectful of the mothers and fathers who litigate in their ... Read More >
Could The Democrats Possibly Win Harris County in 2014?
I am a liberal Democrat when it comes to national and state-wide politics. However, I would be really sick to see some of our wonderful Republican family judges go down in defeat in November 2014 if changing demographics and a well financed, high tech Democratic get-out-the vote effort does what we all know will happen sometime in this decade. I also do not want to see a spectacularly bad judge like Denise Pratt bring her really good Republican judicial colleagues down with her. Under the headline, "Harris County Republicans in Trouble in 2014?" David Jennings wrote in his Houston Chronicle blog (click here to read the full story): Then, you have a problem with some gosh awful incumbent judges (who will cost some very good incumbent judges their benches). I, and many of us in the party, will not push a "Vote Straight R" message unless these judges are upset via the primary, which is a very difficult thing to do. The Straight R campaign has been the bedrock of the last ... Read More >