(Note: As I have done in past elections, I am running a series of Q&As for judicial candidates in contested Democratic primaries. This was intended to help introduce the candidates and their experiences to those who plan to vote in March, and I have extended it for the May runoffs. I am running these responses in the order that I receive them from the candidates. Much more information about Democratic primary candidates, including links to the interviews and judicial Q&As, can be found on Erik Manning’s spreadsheet.
Beverly Armstrong
1. Who are you and what are you running for?
I am Beverly Armstrong. I am running for Judge of the 208th Criminal District Court. I have been a resident of Harris County for more than 30 years. I moved here after graduating from Prairie View A&M University with a BS degree in Civil Engineering. I attended the part time program at South Texas College of Law in downtown Houston while working full time. When I’m not serving as a public servant, I serve on the communion steward and finance committees at my church, Jones United Methodist Church. My husband and I started our family here and have raised two children who attended schools in Harris County.
2. What kind of cases does this court hear?
The 208th Criminal District Court hears all levels of felony cases. This includes State Jail Felonies, 1st through 3rd degree felonies and capital felony cases.
3. Why are you running for this particular bench?
I’m running for this bench because too many habitual, violent offenders were being released on low (lowered) bonds by this court And because this court was not holding trials to bring justice to the accused and for the accuser.
4. What are your qualifications for this job?
I have been a licensed attorney for 25 years. I’ve been a prosecutor for 15 years. I started my prosecution career in Polk County. I spent 3 years in the Galveston County District Attorneys Office where I served as Court Chief in the 212th and 10th Criminal District Courts and Chief of the Child Abuse Division. I was asked to return to Polk County to serve as the First Assistant Criminal District Attorney, where I currently serve. Over the course of my criminal law career, I have handled more than 2000 cases from misdemeanor thefts to murder. I have been the led attorney handling cases from grand jury to trial for numerous felony cases including aggravated robbery, child sexual assault and murders. I supervise a staff of secretaries, investigators and prosecutors. I’ve prepared numerous appellate briefs and I have successfully argued before the 9th court of appeals. Additionally, I served as a faculty advisor at the Prosecutor Trials Skills Course held by the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.
5. Why is this race important?
This court handles the most serious criminal cases in the county. It’s imperative that the most qualified candidate is seated for this court. Additionally, the judge of this court needs a proven track record of implementing tools to help promote fairness and justice for all parties in the courtroom.
6. Why should people vote for you in May?
People should vote for me because experience matters. I am the most experienced candidate in this race. I am ready to handle any types of case that is on the docket on day one. I am the only candidate that has handled every type of case this court hears. I have a proven record of fighting against the release of repeat violent offenders while demonstrating compassion for non violent offenders who need a second chance. I have worked with agencies to find mental health programs, parenting skills programs and drug rehabilitation programs to give offenders the tools needed to become successful members of our community as opposed to repeat offenders. I will show up ready to work. I will respect the attorneys time and the time of the community before my court. I will bring fairness, integrity and experience to the courtroom. I am committed to the protection of the community in the courtroom and outside of the courtroom.
Kuff, did you copy-n-paste this candidate’s response ? Seems like there’s more than one grammatical error…
NONFELONEOUS TRANSGRESSIONS & NOT JUST ANY TYPE’O SUPPRESSION
I see three:
“the led [sic] attorney” (orthography; leaders lead, rather than being led, or worse, being misled);
“I will respect the attorneys [sic] time” (lack of apostrophe for the genitive case to indicate possession of a precious resource, and a dwindling one at each individual’s level);
“any types [sic] of case that is on the docket on day one. (singular-plural incongruence; should be: any type of case or all/many types of cases).
Comment: Every writer makes mistakes. Commentators on blogs are often serial offenders, and recidivism is rampant. The proper pre-prosecution intervention would be a second English-proficient human doing the proofreading/copy-editing prior to public exposure, if available, or at least deployment of semi-intelligent spell-and-grammar-error-spotting software, best cum correction suggestions.
As for the lack of Oxford commas, perhaps they could be declared to be un-American. From such a cis-Atlantic vantage position, there would be no viable grounds for a grammar-nerd attack. Not to mention (but doing so anyhow to establish proper local authority) that there is semantic and even substantive (albeit civil- law) precedent for not aping the erstwhile imperialists; to wit: –> the American Rule.
The wisdom of Wikipedia: “An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.”
To avoid misleading, not to mention being misled, here is a correctional program for unsupervised self-intervention and recidivism prevention:
https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/25/mislead-misled/
Special spelling bee bonus op:
Did you catch the typo in the header?
It should have been non-felonious.
If Bev wants to be a Judge, (as an Attorney) she should (already) know that words matter – the order they’re in, issues with past/present/future tense, ‘added’ words or ‘missing’ words or poorly chosen words, etc.
If you can’t say what you mean, you’ll never mean what you say.
I need my Judge to ‘Be Better’…
“I’m running for this bench because too many habitual, violent offenders were being released on low (lowered) bonds by this court And because this court was not holding trials to bring justice to the accused and for the accuser.”
‘And’ with a capital A ?
“I have been the led attorney handling cases from grand jury to trial for numerous felony cases including aggravated robbery, child sexual assault and murders.”
A ‘Led’ Attorney ?
“I’ve prepared numerous appellate briefs and I have successfully argued before the 9th court of appeals.”
Court of Appeals is a proper noun…
“I am the most experienced candidate in this race.”
Oh My God, not again…
CL: suuure this vote choice for you this is about capitalizing words. definitely. not anything else. nope.
Joel, first, not everything is about race. Bad grammar is bad grammar, and I expect better from a (prospective) Judge.
Second, WTF. You don’t know me.
CL: Hmm. Interesting response to something I didn’t say. But you’re right, I don’t know you, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you have good reason to be so defensive.
Joel you are to kind, over the years I have found that much of what CL considers is about race or ethnicity.