From the Chron:
Harris County criminal Court-at-Law Judge Reagan Helm resigned this week, more than six months after a judicial intervention in which he agreed to retire because was he suffering from dementia, according to the administrative judge over the county criminal courts.
“He acknowledged he was having some medical issues and talked about retirement,” County Court-at-Law Judge Jean Hughes said. She said Helm told her it was dementia.
Helm, 68, agreed to retire in September and would have received disability benefits, but changed his mind, she said.
News of Helm’s resignation came on the eve of a recusal hearing in which the Harris County District Attorney’s Office wanted to remove him from “any and all” cases involving accusations of domestic violence because of “deep-seated bias and prejudice.”
Helm, 68, has denied the district attorney’s allegations.
I refer you to Mark Bennett for a discussion of the domestic violence case allegations. Helm was not running for re-election, so this does not affect the primary, in which there are three candidates vying for the Republican nomination. I’m going to guess that the winner of that primary will be named by Commissioners Court to fill the bench for the remainder of Judge Helm’s term; they’ll likely do the same for the Don Jackson vacancy as well.
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