Accountability
What will you do to promote the just, prompt, and affordable resolution of cases that come before your court?
I am doing it now. My docket has dropped from over 900 cases when I took the bench in January 2025 to approximately 525 cases today. I have one of the lowest dockets in the courthouse. The average age of a case in the 183rd District Court is below the median. I also have one of the lowest trial dockets among the criminal district courts.
Bail
In setting bail amounts, how will you balance Texas’s constitutionally mandated bail requirements with other conditions of release including minimizing any public safety threat the defendant may present to the community? Please discuss both first time and repeat offenders.
State law mandates the factors that are to be considered in setting bail. I make sure I have information on all of the available factors before setting bail. In cases where the State files a motion to hold the defendant without bail under Texas law, I set the case for a prompt hearing within days. I treat allegations of cases of violence different than youthful offenders charged with a non-violent offenses. There is no one size fits all. I also use other tools such as GPS monitors with exclusion zones in child abuse and domestic violence cases.
