Following several weeks of protest by local attorneys in the form of official letters and formal Motions…
ALL criminal cases were removed from the 87th District Court in Freestone County last week by Judge Deborah Oakes Evans, following several weeks of protest by local attorneys in the form of official letters and formal Motions.
At issue is the mother-son relationship between Judge Evans and newly elected County Attorney Brian Evans.
A camera crew from KWTX Channel 10 News of Waco visited the county seat of Fairfield last week to investigate the matter. News reporter, Ke’Sha Lopez, interviewed one Fairfield attorney, but stated during the Tuesday evening broadcast that neither the judge, nor the county attorney, made themselves available to speak with her, on or off camera.
(A link to the Channel 10 video broadcast is provided online at www.FreestoneCountyTimes.com with the Top Headlines article, “Judge Showered With Motions.”)
As reported in last week’s Freestone County Times edition, Groesbeck attorney David E. Moore filed one of the Motions to Recuse on behalf of one of his clients.
Though, in his December 27th letter to Judge Evans, Moore relates consulting with every one of his Freestone County clients, stating that, “…not a single one of them believes it would be in their best interest to have their case presided over by the mother of the prosecutor trying to send them to prison. I don’t disagree with their belief.”
The Motion filed by Moore requested that Judge Evans either recuse herself within three days, or forward the matter to Administrative District Judge Olin Underwood for a hearing on the matter.
According to court documents, Judge Evans granted the recusal on January 9, 2017 without the need for an administrative hearing.
Fairfield Attorney Chad Morgan had also filed Motions to Disqualify or Recuse Judge Evans on behalf of four of his clients. These were granted by the judge, as well.
In fact, all of the eighteen criminal cases originally scheduled for Judge Evans’ court last week on Friday, January 13th were transferred to the court of 77th District Judge Patrick Simmons – even those cases that did not include a formal Motion to Recuse.
According to the Channel 10 news report, legal experts say that a judge with such a close family relationship should have recused herself without attorneys being forced to file motions.
Up until her actions last week, Judge Evans has maintained that the mother-son relationship was not a conflict, based on the alleged advice she says she received from the Judicial Ethics Commission.
Initially, Judge Evans had proposed reducing her court’s criminal case load by presiding over State jail and 3rd degree felonies, with cases being presented by the Assistant County Attorney.
According to the judge’s November 22nd letter to local attorneys, the scheduling change was to avoid any appearance of any impropriety.
However, according to Waco attorney Stan Schwieger, during a recent on-camera interview with Channel 10, this would not have been a viable solution. “Basically, if your elected District Attorney is disqualified, your entire office is disqualified,” he stated.
With all of Judge Evans’ criminal cases being reset for the Tuesday, January 24th with Judge Simmons, this brings his total docket to 82 criminal cases, involving 60 defendants, to be heard in that one day.
Considering that court begins at 9:00 a.m., this would mean processing a case every 5-6 minutes (without a break for lunch) if Judge Simmons hopes to be done by 5:00 p.m.
“It’s a disaster,” remarked attorney Morgan, saying a docket of this size is very rare.
Whether such a large docket could be cleared in a timely manner depends on many variables, continues Morgan, who once served Freestone County as an Assistant County Attorney. While some cases could be addressed within just a few minutes, Morgan says that other cases, such as a plea deal, normally take more time.
Regardless of how many of the defendants, set to appear in the 77th District Court next Tuesday, require prisoner transfer, Freestone County Sheriff Jeremy Shipley says his office stands ready to provide the necessary security. “We still have to do our jobs,” he says.
Of course, if shuffling criminal cases to Judge Simmons’ court creates too much of a backlog, the County does have to option of bringing in a retired judge to preside over some of the cases.
Another option would be to bring in a visiting prosecutor, with no relation to Judge Evans, who could prosecute criminal cases in her 87th District courtroom.
However, both options would come at a cost to taxpayers — a scenario that was discussed at length during the Primary Election season by former Freestone County Attorney Chris Martin and Navarro County Assistant DA Andrew Wolf, both of whom ran for office against the judge’s son, Brian Evans.
How this quagmire manifests itself in the Freestone County courtroom remains to be seen.
