33rd / 424th District Courts

Here I sit, broken-hearted.
Came to sit,
But barely started.

Of course, some of you will recognize that in a slightly different context. ;-)

In Llano this morning, several rather large-looking cases on the morning docket and turns out that everything has settled. I've groused about this before, but feel a need to re-urge that settlements need to be pursued early and the INSTANT it settles, notify the coordinator. Fortunately, I have the computer and many things available to work on, but it still will help the overall planning to clear these things out sooner.

It might (or might not) be of interest to some (well, at least to me for my memory as it fades...) to see what the schedule is turning into with the departure of the VJ program. I've been keeping a detailed time log and the average day has been 12 hours, not counting evening reading. Many of the days shown below went past 6 or 7:00 p.m.


December 1, 2003

9:00am / .glj BURNET JURY JUV

Sometimes good reasons. Sometimes dilatory reasons. Very
frustrating. Had a bifurcated day planned today ... was to be a full day of "back office" work punctuated by a hearing in Llano which at the last minute cratered due to a party's alleged illness. Probably was sick but it was a TRO that had been extended already and this setting was to accomodate the parties.

It's 7:05p.m. The jury in the Fontenot case has just returned a guilty verdict and the punishment phase has begun. The defendant elected punishment by the Court so the jury has been released.

Why not go home and hear this tomorrow?

The Court has hearings tomorrow in San Saba County and Friday in Blanco County. This case has been pushed very rapidly due to the necessity of settings in the other counties -- Welcome to "No Visiting Judges 101."

Only three weeks into the state fiscal year which brought with it the drastic cut in visiting judge availability and the difference is showing. It is showing in a couple of ways. My time on the bench has increased (reducing office time) and some administrative things are not
being attended to. The other way is that the staff is having a hard time finding a setting opportunity for even a one hour hearing.

Memories come one day at a time. As it judge, one of the most vivid has to be when a prisoner seated on a bench in the front of the audience area (rural courtrooms often don't have holding cells) mouthed off and shoved a deputy's hand away while the deputy was trying to investigate contraband being passed to the prisoner. This was in Llano in, I'm gonna say, maybe 1999.

The first I knew of it was when every officer in the courtroom (about 6, including probation officers) piled on top of the increasingly apologetic prisoner. Then, looking toward the audience, I realized that the remaining dozen or so prisoners were totally unescorted and were not shackled to anything.