Judge Indicted
Harris County (Houston) Judge Alexandra Smoots-Thomas surrendered to federal agents Friday to face charges she used campaign contributions to pay her mortgage, travel and buy luxury merchandise, federal prosecutors said.
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Houston Mayoral Election Headed for a Runoff
Attorney Tony Buzbee spent $10 million of his own money to run for Houston mayor — but a pile of horse manure he used as a prop defined his over-the-top campaign.
Read moreHouston Bail Reform Deal Inches Closer to Final Approval
A proposed settlement to end cash bail for most misdemeanor arrestees in Houston emerged seemingly unscathed from a fairness hearing Monday, despite concerns from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that it will give a free pass to undocumented immigrants.
Read moreRepublicans Skip Vote to Block Tax Hike in Houston
Two Texas Republicans prevented their Democratic colleagues from voting to raise property taxes in the Houston area on Tuesday by not showing up for a meeting of the county’s executive board.
Read moreHouston Bondsmen Fight to Restore Bail for Misdemeanors
A group of bail bond companies claim Harris County criminal court judges and the Harris County sheriff unconstitutionally changed bond requirements for individuals arrested on misdemeanor charges, threatening their business.
Read moreJudge Sets Juvenile Defendants Free After Election Loss
Made a lame duck by a Democratic takeover of Houston’s judiciary, a Republican juvenile court judge raised public safety concerns Wednesday when he released several youths from jail and reset their hearings for his replacement’s first week on the bench in January.
Read moreTexas Judges Ask Panel to Block Pretrial-Release Order
Misdemeanor court judges in Houston urged a Fifth Circuit panel Tuesday to scrap a federal judge’s injunction they say is to blame for a spike in people failing to show up for court.
Read moreOpioid-Tainted Handouts Alarm Sheriff in Houston
Texas sheriff warned the public Tuesday about the dangers of fentanyl after a deputy removed a flyer from her car’s windshield, began to feel lightheaded and was hospitalized, and the opioid was found on another flyer in the area.
Read moreInjunction Revisited in Houston Bail Case
Criminal justice reform in Texas’ biggest county took another tortured step forward Thursday, as combatants in litigation over the county’s bail policies laid out their differences before a federal judge who is narrowing her injunction in the case.
Read moreJudge Won’t Dismiss Wrongful Death Claim Against Sheriff’s Office
Parents of a black man who was shot to death by a Texas sheriff’s deputy have evidence that rebuts the story he attacked the lawman with a knife, a federal judge found this week, refusing to dismiss their wrongful death lawsuit.
Read moreTexas Treasurer Accused of Theft to Pay Off Dominatrix
Prosecutors said Friday that a top official in a Texas county’s treasury department stole $35,000 from a county credit union to pay a dominatrix who blackmailed him.
Read moreElection Watchdog Demands Access to Texas Voter Rolls
A conservative voter-fraud watchdog claims Texas’ most populous county is violating federal law by refusing to let it inspect the county’s voter rolls for people who aren’t U.S. citizens.
Read moreInjury to Elderly
Houston-area prosecutors announced Friday that Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Michael Bennett has been charged with a felony count of injury to the elderly based on claims that he hurt a paraplegic woman while trying to get on the field at last year’s Super Bowl to see his brother.
Read moreFifth Circuit Affirms Unconstitutionality of Harris County Bail System
The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday affirmed that Texas’ biggest county unconstitutionally imposes cash bail on poor misdemeanor defendants, but vacated an injunction requiring the county to release them from custody within 24 hours.
Read moreFederal Judge Asks Houston Courts for Some Answers
The federal judge who forced Texas’ biggest county to overhaul its bail system ordered Harris County criminal judges on Tuesday to prove they did not withhold evidence of policies against releasing poor misdemeanor defendants from jail.
Read moreFive Texas Jailers Charged With Violently Beating Inmate
A Texas grand jury indicted two current and three former jailers on charges they beat an inmate so badly in the state’s biggest jail that they broke his nose and eye socket, forcing him to undergo a four-hour facial reconstruction surgery.
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Fifth Circuit Wrestles With Bail Policies in Houston Jails
A panel of Fifth Circuit judges on Tuesday questioned whether a federal judge in Houston went too far in overhauling the bail policies of Texas’ biggest county by ordering it to release poor misdemeanor defendants from jail within 24 hours.
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Is It Crime, or Is It the Fuzzy Animal Exception?
There are few casinos in Texas but games of chance abound, because a loophole in state law — cut out for huggable stuffed animals — blurs the lines between illegal gambling and innocent amusement.
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