A special investigation of two federal judges in Texas is nearing completion, but one of those judges recently violated the law again by concealing his attorney-client relationship with a lawyer who regularly appears in his courtroom. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appears to be stonewalling my complaint against U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle (more on that below, plus the latest news about the Booger County Mafia).
On Saturday, I supplemented my judicial complaint against U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith, Jr. of Waco after learning that Judge Smith had an undisclosed attorney-client relationship with local attorney Greg White. Ironically, Judge Smith hired Mr. White to represent him in the judicial misconduct proceedings that resulted from my original complaint, a fact that both of them concealed from the attorneys and parties who were appearing opposite from Mr. White in Judge Smith’s court.
As reported on this blog and at DirtyRottenJudges.com, my original complaint arose from a female deputy clerk’s testimony that Judge Smith sexually harassed and groped her while he was drunk in the federal courthouse. According to that former clerk, she reported the misconduct through her chain of command, but then-Chief District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth covered up the incident. I filed complaints against Judge Hudspeth as well as Judge Smith, and the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals appointed a special committee to investigate both of them.
I recently heard rumors that a report was targeted for release in mid-November, and a letter dated October 20, 2015 seems to confirm that timeline. In the letter, a deputy clerk informed me that the committee’s report for “Case No. 05-14-90120” had been submitted to the judicial council. That’s the case number assigned to Judge Smith (Case No. 05-14-90121 was assigned to Judge Hudspeth).
In addition to the supplemental grievance against Judge Smith, I filed a bar grievance against Mr. White, who also serves as an adjunct professor at Baylor Law School. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled 35 years ago that judges should disqualify themselves from cases when they have an attorney-client relationship with one of the attorneys in a case, and state bar rules prohibit a lawyer from assisting a judge in violating the rules against judicial misconduct. Purely as a matter of common sense, Judge Smith and Mr. White should have known better. Would you want your case tried by a judge who was secretly being represented by your opponent’s lawyer? … Read more