Judicial Conduct commission suspends JP Hilary Green

Bam!

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday issued an order to suspend Harris County Justice of the Peace Hilary Green from office immediately based on allegations that Green illegally abused prescription drugs, sent sexually explicit texts to a bailiff while on the bench and paid for sex.

It’s the first time any Texas judge has received a temporary suspension in at least a decade in a contested matter, the commission says.

The state supreme court had been asked to take the unusual emergency action by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which in May presented a 316-page document in support of an immediate suspension. That document summarized evidence it had collected in its own investigations of previously secret complaints made against Green from 2012 to 2015.

The commission alleged that in its own closed proceedings, Green already had admitted to many allegations against her, including illegally obtaining prescription drugs and using marijuana and Ecstasy while she was presiding over low-level drug possession cases involving juveniles in her south Houston courtroom.

One of the most serious allegations, the commission says, is that Green engaged her “assigned bailiff in an effort to illegally obtain prescription drugs.”

The commission argued that the evidence — and Green’s own admissions — more than justified Green’s immediate removal from her post as a jurist for Harris County Precinct 7, Place 1 while the state watchdog agency prepared for a longer civil trial required under Texas law to remove Green — or any judge — from elected office.

“Judge Green’s outright betrayal of the public’s trust warrants her immediate suspension pending formal proceedings,” the commission had argued.

Green’s attorney, Chip Babcock, argued in a response to the supreme court that voters themselves had a chance to review and “forgive” many of the commission’s allegations, some of which were published in Houston Chronicle stories, before they chose to re-elect Green in 2017.

See here for the background, with the warning that the more you read the more you will want to take a shower afterwards. While a lot of this information was known before the 2016 primary, I’d argue that most, though not all, of it was allegations of behavior that was merely tawdry rather than illegal. As such, I disagree with attorney Babcock that the voters had a chance to “review and forgive” the record. But even if one believes that the voters were sufficiently informed, I don’t see how that mitigates against this suspension or the potential subsequent removal from office. Elections have consequences, but so does criminal behavior. If the Commission votes to remove Judge Green, she can appeal as the process allows, but appealing to the voters as a defense will fall flat to me.

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10 Responses to Judicial Conduct commission suspends JP Hilary Green

  1. Ryan Bynum says:

    Because she’s a judge, we forgot that she’s human. I’m hoping that she’s forgiven and called back to duty as a judge. Give her a break. Trump is leader of the free world for crying out loud.

  2. Rob says:

    Give her a break? Based on what? Trump is a duly elected President that hasn’t committed a felony yet you somehow think it’s justification for “giving her a break”? Not only is this woman not fit to be a judge, she must be prosecuted under the same laws she’s supposed to be enforcing, just like the rest of us would be. Her actions are even more egregious because of her position as a judge.

  3. C.L. says:

    Rob, I think you missed Ryan’s underlying sarcasm…

  4. neither here nor there says:

    Rob, Trump worked with the Russians and is worse than Green, he is a traitor to this country. He may not have been caught but I am sure that somewhere there are felonies that have been committed by Trump. My 2 cents. Neither deserves a break, the only thing is she may go to jail, I hope he does wind up behind bars.

  5. C.L. says:

    Is Trump a knucklehead ?, sure, but I’m having a problem agreeing with the premise that he’s completely inept and oblivious to the machinations of Washington and the White House [promoted by the Democrats, among others], AND agreeing with the premise that his actions are cold and calculating and he’s engaged in espionage/treason, etc., behind everyone’s back and unbeknownst to them. He’s either a bumbling idiot and could never have pulled off a ruse of this scale, or he managed to pull off the mammoth ruse ’cause he’s no idiot. Can’t have it both ways.

  6. General Grant says:

    Well, a Justice of the Peace just doesn’t have the same effect as a President. But this person shouldn’t have any public trust and that is patently obvious.

  7. neither here nor there says:

    She may have paid for sex, she may have used drugs, but that does not been that she did not dispense justice fairly. Had a case there once, she was not better or worse than other JPs, well better than one other.

    Kinda like a police officer who writes tickets for speeding, it does not mean that tickets were not valid.

  8. neither here nor there says:

    does not mean

  9. This lady is a respectable person. The Judge Hilary Green I’ve known has never shown any appearance of negative role model character. I sincerely hope and pray that she will be vindicated and her character restored 100%⚘✂

  10. Mark says:

    Oh yeah she should because she knows how to get her head on things that matters

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