VOTE411 Voter Guide

I earned my Juris Doctor from Texas Tech and since then have worked as a prosecutor, defense attorney, justice advisor in Afghanistan and for the last 3 years as the 320th District Judge.

I LOVE my job as Judge. Thank you for allowing me to do this job the past 3 years and I am grateful to be unopposed for the next term. I am sad when I have to take a holiday off and don't get to go to work. I get along very well with the other Judges and cannot imagine a better group of people to work with. I look forward to work every day and really enjoy helping people resolve their differences.

In my last 3 years as Judge I have conducted many trials and hundreds of pleas, hearings and revocations. In 2024 the State began tracking case clearance rates by individual courts and mine has been above 100% for every reporting period, meaning we are moving more cases than we are receiving. That includes civil, criminal and family cases.

I was selected by my fellow Potter County District Judges to serve as Local Administrative District Judge for Potter County.

I have almost 200 hours of Judicial Education and many hours of law related continuing education hours. I have taught at the judicial seminar and State Bar education programs.

My goal is to ensure access to the judicial system for all persons and cases assigned to the 320th District Court. That means seeing if they can reach an agreement and if not, placing them on a trial docket. Thousands of felony cases are filed per year in Potter County and 32% of those are assigned to the 320th. We set criminal trials two weeks every month, but that's only 24 cases per year. That means that the majority of felony cases are disposed of by plea agreement. Some of those pleas are for probation. Some are on very serious cases, but if a person violates their probation, I often have the entire range of punishment available to me. In addition to all the felony cases, 40% of the family cases are also assigned to the 320th.

1. Case filings have consistently increased. I am addressing this by plea negotiation conferences, 2 trials/month and setting probation revocation days twice a month. This ensures that revocations have their cases heard promptly. If they need to be reinstated or if the state cannot prove their allegations, they are promptly released or sent to a program to help them with their issues and if they are sentenced to prison, they can be shipped to TDCJ and relieve some of the overcrowding pressure on our jail. 2. Motions for Summary Judgment. The legislature mandated time limits for courts to address MSJ's which are quite tight. I have implemented procedures to notify us when one is filed and deal with it quickly. 3. Im out of room. :-)

My job is to apply the law as it is written to the facts presented to me.

If Judges want to make law, they should run for the legislature.

I seek to allow every litigant their day in court and an opportunity to be heard.

I endeavor to rule consistently from case to case.