The Briefing Room
State Chapters => Texas => Topic started by: Elderberry on August 11, 2018, 11:46:32 am
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Houston Chronicle by Gabrielle Banks 8/10/2018
The former Harris County judge who jailed a mentally ill rape victim will be sanctioned with public admonition, the Special Court of Review announced Friday.
Stacey W. Bond, who presided over Harris County's 176th state district court from 2013 to 2016 and is now campaigning for a seat in the 185th district court, was sanctioned for violating the Code of Judicial Conduct and the Texas Constitution, as alleged in March by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The commission cited the 50-year-old former judge for her treatment of a witness who had a mental breakdown in December 2015 while testifying in a sexual assault trial against serial rapist Keith Edward Hendricks.
She issued a bench warrant to secure testimony from the witness, known as Jane Doe or Jenny, according to commission's findings. However, the witness was not under a subpoena at the time, so the commission found that action improper.
The commission found that Bond violated canons of the code of law, as well as the state constitution, when she issued a bench warrant with a $10,000 bond for Jenny, who did not meet any prerequisites for such action and which resulted in her confinement.
Jenny "was given no due process regarding either the validity of the writ of attachment or her subsequent confinement," the commission found.
More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Former-judge-to-receive-sanction-after-jailing-13148208.php (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Former-judge-to-receive-sanction-after-jailing-13148208.php)
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Hope the judge loses the up coming election.