Articles Posted in Kaufman County Criminal Defense Lawyer

Kaufman county chief public defender Andrew Jordan is going to run for Kaufman District Attorney. My source? Andrew told me Friday. The GOP primary/de facto election is in March. Candidates have until January to file.

Mr. Jordan and Kaufman DA Rick Harrison met Friday to discuss the election. I was told that Andrew and Rick are both hoping for a clean campaign. I’m not sure how much the candidates can control the tone of the upcoming race. Reading the comments on other sites leads me to believe that ship may have sailed.

I have purposely not written about Mr. Harrison’s DWI arrest because of the vitriol. I don’t want to be a platform for sewer gossip. However, it’s important to cover the Kaufman DA election so I’m not going to avoid the topic.

Today was the monthly Kaufman County Bar meeting. We had an excellent civil law roundup by Crandall, Texas Attorney Keena Greyling. I’m very limited in my civil practice and I don’t follow all the latest developments in insurance law etc. That being said, it’s easy to predict the trends in Texas civil cases.

Anyone can predict 90% of the decisions that the Texas Supreme Court will make by answering this question- What verdict will help big business? (For the Court of Criminal Appeals just ask- what verdict saves the conviction?)

I remember this trend from my consumer law class at Tech. The neutering of the DTPA (consumer protection act) was in direct correlation to a big business/GOP takeover of the Supreme Court. Funny how that happens.

Kaufman is unique among Dallas bordering counties. Ellis and Rockwall have similar population numbers but Kaufman demographics are more rural. For example, Ennis (where I live in Ellis County) is larger than any city in Kaufman county. Kaufman is a spread out mix of ranchers, farmers, and smaller communities along with the commuter/family friendly cities of Crandall and Forney. It makes for a unique mix of jurors. It’s always difficult to generalize about an entire county’s jury pool, but that’s what criminal lawyers do.

Locally, Dallas county has the reputation for more defendant friendly/skeptical of government jurors, Collin and Denton are regarded as the more prosecutor oriented jurors. Kaufman is somewhere in between.

Two recent verdicts show Kaufman jurors are open to probation and rehabilitaion, even for reprehesnible offenses. Both cases were open pleas (some call this a slow plea) where the defendant pleads guilty and then both sides present punishment evidence to the jury.

I’m proud to announce the First Annual Kaufman County Bench Bar Conference will be held October 9, 2009. We are going to have at least 5 hours of CLE with a heavy dose of ethics.

President Booker and I are working out the final details. I am currently soliciting CLE speakers. If you are interested in speaking, either solo or on a panel, shoot me an email. It doesn’t have to be ethics either, just interesting.

Today was the Kaufman county bar meeting. Our speaker was Kaufman district attorney Rick Harrison. Mr. Harrison discussed the new child advocacy center. The CAC provides a non-law enforcement environment for children to be interviewed.

We also discussed raising bar dues to pay for lunch/CLE. Kaufman bar dues are $50 per year. Pretty low for a county bar association. We may vote on this next time.

Kaufman Tea Party

No new Kaufman county courthouse. County commissioners rejected, by a 3-2 vote, negotiating a planning fee with an architectural firm. Needless to say the response from those who work at the courthouse was not enthusiastic.

From Kaufman Herald.com-

With a 3-to-2 vote Monday, commissioners opposed a motion authorizing County Judge Wayne Gent to negotiate with the firm of Wiginton Hooker Jeffry Architects to determine a fee for planning of the proposed project. Gent and Commissioner Ray Clark voted in favor of the motion while commissioners Jerry Rowden, J.C. Jackson and Jim Deller opposed it.