More illegal shenanigans from a Democratic judge in Harris County:
Harris County misdemeanor court Judge Darrell Jordan has been indicted on charges of Official Oppression related to a 2020 incident in which he jailed investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino for contempt of court.
Jordan was briefly taken into custody and released Monday on a $500 bond from the 339th District Criminal Court under Judge Teiva Bell. Although Official Oppression charges under Texas Penal Code are a Class A Misdemeanor, such cases are referred to felony courts for prosecution.
On June 30, 2020, Dolcefino entered Jordan’s courtroom to question the judge about his lack of action on a series of complaints of public corruption. Dolcefino was wearing a hidden camera to document the interaction.
According to the video evidence, Jordan at first greeted Dolcefino, but then told the reporter he would not answer his questions and threatened to hold him in contempt if he persisted. Moments later, Jordan had Dolcefino shackled and taken to jail.
The following day, television cameras recorded guards ushering Dolcefino back into the courtroom in handcuffs and a jail-issued orange jumpsuit. Jordan then sentenced him to three days in jail and 180 days of probation. After Dolcefino appealed, Jordan added an alcohol monitor and random drug tests to his probation conditions.
Seems like an abuse of power, possibly with First Amendment abridgement implications.
Although Jordan maintained he had been holding virtual hearings when Dolcefino entered, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later overturned Dolcefino’s conviction, writing, “after a review of evidence and arguments, the contempt of court allegation is not supported by the habeas corpus record.”
Dolcefino told The Texan he is calling for Jordan to resign.
“This guy does not deserve to be on the bench, period,” said Dolcefino. “The Fort Bend County prosecutors spent months investigating this.”
Darrell Jordan has been in office longer than some of his compatriots, having been elected to his current judgeship in 2016. But it does seem like Democratic Judges are up to an awful lot of shady activity in Harris County.
[Edited to add: Headline fixed. Damn autocorrect…]
Tags: Crime, Darrell Jordan, Democrats, Harris County, Holly Hansen, Official Oppression, Texas, Wayne Dolcefino
The United States is turning into a corrupt, tribal country in which we pretend dumb people are smart, corrupt people are honest, and that if you’re not on the take you’re not taking proper advantage of the country. Democrats have probably destroyed the US with their constant moral decay.
Living in a NASA suburb, I absolutely believe this. Democrats here are some of the dumbest and meanest in the country: Republicans here are among the dumbest in the nation, too.
Stupid, mean and crazy has nothing on Houston’s mayor (Harris county is Houston). He should be in prison, but isn’t due to corruption: the mayor basically only has a job because of the Herbert Marcuse-ian ‘Repressive Tolerance’ practices of local judges which see that Democrats are no longer held accountable by law.
It’s nice if you’re a Leftist: you can essentially kill and steal people in Houston if you have the correct politics. No one will punish you. Houston is one big RICO case.
I don’t know about the specifics here, but I bet dollars to donuts this judge was caught by a Republican judge. Also, hitting Wayne Dolcefino (a local Houston celebrity and a damn good guy, by all accounts) was probably stupid.
The word you’re looking for is indicted.
Unlimited money? No oversight? Government resembles what we allow.
We’ve been tying porkchops to our neck and expecting unicorns.
[…] County, which has given us no end of corrupt and sketchy practices over the last few years, continues the trend of Democratic Party downplaying and […]
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