Judge Darrell Jordan
Just four days after being indicted and arrested, Harris County misdemeanor court Judge Darrell Jordan saw an official oppression charge against him dropped.
Fort Bend County prosecutors on Friday announced they were dropping the misdemeanor charge against the judge.
Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton said that while Jordan was indicted by a grand jury, he didn’t believe his office could prove a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt.
“It is important to present cases implicating public integrity to the grand jury, particularly when there is some evidence to support the allegation, because they are representatives of the public,” Middleton said in a statement released after 6 p.m. Friday. “Moreover, it provides due process to the accused and transparency to the public.”
[…]
Middleton said prosecutors need to meet a higher standard when moving a case forward.
“If we believe we cannot prove a charge beyond a reasonable doubt, we have an ethical obligation to dismiss the prosecution,” Middleton said.
His office filed a motion to dismiss the case in Harris County on Friday, he said.
Jordan’s attorney, Marc Carter called Middleton an “honorable man” and said he had believed the district attorney would dismiss the case all along. Jordan is currently deployed with the Texas National Guard, Carter said.
Carter said this week’s incident should remind people about how to behave in a courtroom.
“Contempt is an inherent power judges have to maintain order and decorum in the court,” Carter said “I would advise citizens and officers of the court to abide by the rules of court and maintain decorum to avoid being held in contempt.”
See here and here for the background. Dolcefino was not happy with the decision, which, too bad. I still don’t know any more about this than I did when the news first hit, but it is plausible that the case could have been not very solid, certainly not solid enough to feel confident about getting a guilty verdict. The defense was clear enough, for sure. I hope this is the last we hear of this. I have enough stories to follow.
This is what happens when you piss off Kim Ogg. She was not happy with judge Jordan when he pushed for bond reform. Now she was trying to show him who is the boss. Let’s not forget she already filed a complaint against him, and told other judges if they didn’t go along with her ideas she would get prosecutors to run against them and make sure they are funded.
I wonder how this would have gone had, instead of shipping the case to a friendly Ft. Bend County, it had, instead, been shipped off to Montgomery, Brazoria, Waller, Liberty, or Galveston County, instead? Having said that, I don’t know anything about Wayne’s political leanings, and this whole dust up sounds like two entitled people using lawfare against each other. Both sides got their noses bloodied and their feelings hurt.
As I understand it, Wayne’s argument is, the judge only has contempt power if the court is actually in session, whereas the judge’s argument is that the courtroom is the judge’s fiefdom any time the judge is in the room. Without a trial, that basic question goes unanswered.
What a waste of time on everybody’s part, especially Dolcefino’s. AssClown.