Commissioners Court declined to name replacements at this time for two County Criminal Court benches that are currently vacant.
Judge Reagan Helm resigned last week. Judge Donald Jackson also resigned in December after being sentenced to 30 days in jail for abusing his authority. Helm’s resignation came six months after a judicial intervention in which he agreed to retire because he was suffering from dementia, according to the administrative judge over the courts.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack had wanted to appoint a replacement for Helm, who is on the public payroll until Commissioners Court appoints a replacement.
“We have a judge being paid that’s not at work,” Radack said. “We’ll look at it again, I imagine, next month.”
County Judge Ed Emmett opposed naming replacements so soon before a primary election, saying that doing so would “interject ourselves into the political process.”
Substitute judges are handling the courts’ caseloads for the time being. I presume that the winners of the GOP primaries will get the nods when the Commissioners take this up again, but I suppose that the subs could stay in place through the election.