No Justice
Bad news for people who are looking for ethics in Texas courtrooms. The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct has proven again that they are pretty darn useless.
The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct keeps telling us they’re going to really start getting tougher on judges.
But then there’s the reality—a reality that ignores the broken family court system we keep exposing.
The Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court came to the Capitol looking for a big pay raise for judges.
“That is what I am asking you to do. 30% across the board. If that sounds high, it’s only because the salary hasn’t gone up in 12 years,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock said.
Money in return for a promise of integrity and accountability.
“Do it so that you know you’ve done your part to help us attract and retain the kind of truly excellent people of high integrity, who ought to be putting on robes and making decisions of enormous consequence for your constituents,” Blacklock continued.
Accountability was also on the agenda in March at a sold-out event where members of the public could question top judges.
“There is this constitutional provision that, if you can get some lawyers who see that a judge is egregiously not doing their job, there is a remedy directly in our court for that,” said Justice Brett Busby.
The Chairman of the Texas Judicial Conduct Commission was talking tough too.
“There’s another constitutional provision that allows the legislature to impeach a judge directly, and I’m not afraid to use that power. I think we need to do it,” said Justice David Schenck.
But time after time, we’ve discovered words don’t result in action.
Only one judge has been impeached in the entire history of Texas, which makes you wonder whether the judicial canon of ethics really means what it clearly says.
“It is not sufficient that a judge avoid impropriety, but the judges must also avoid the appearance of impropriety.”
“And the reason is simple. You do not want people to lose trust in the courts,” Wayne Dolcefino told the camera.
In recent years, 418th District Court Judge Tracy Gilbert in Montgomery County tops our list of most complained about family court judges.
“Do you think clients hire you because of your relationship with Judge Gilbert?” Clayton Huff asked.
And it all seems to revolve around the guy trying to escape the Montgomery courthouse to avoid our cameras.
“No attorney wants to go up against Steve Jackson. It’s not good for their—you know—they are not going to get a win,” said Hanna Marquis.
He’s attorney Steve Jackson. Even other lawyers have complained to us about his relationship with Judge Gilbert.
They’ve warned their clients, too.
“She let me know that Steve Jackson and Judge Gilbert had somewhat of a personal relationship,” Melissa Britten said.
Like Melissa Britten, who has helped us expose the hard way Montgomery County treated her when she came for help getting a protective order.
“The answer was, there’s really nothing that can be done about it,” Britten said in an interview.
“Do you tell your clients that you were Judge Gilbert’s attorney? No? Nothing?” Huff asked.
Jackson was Judge Gilbert’s personal lawyer when the judge was sued for paternity and back child support.
Jackson helped the judge out of a big, headline-making mess.
“Do you think that gives you an unfair advantage?” Huff asked Jackson.
Since the filing of that child support case, Jackson has been involved in 198 cases in Gilbert’s courtroom, including 11 that actually occurred during the pendency of that child support case.
“That felt terrible. Nobody wants to be in this position,” said Melissa’s sister, Elizabeth.
“We made it very clear, we think Judge Gilbert should recuse himself in every single case involving Steve Jackson to avoid the appearance of impropriety. The judge won’t talk to us, and we invite him once again to sit down and explain to us, and the folks who voted for him, about this relationship and the fairness of his court,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“Of course he had a full unfair advantage,” Hannah Marquis said.
We called our first report on the Gilbert-Jackson connection, An Unfair Fight. It was 2022 and a lot more complaints have come in ever since.
“I was shocked, but then it also started connecting a lot of dots with regards to why all the delays were granted and nothing was ever pushed forward,” said Bret Glover.
“He gets, definitely, a favor,” Taylor Thibodeaux said in a phone call.
“This scam needs to be exposed. They are treating our children as a business and basically selling and buying our children through the courtroom, it feels like,” Marquis said.
Last July, we argued Judge Gilbert should be punished for not disclosing the relationship in the interest of judicial integrity.
In October, we shared some of our videos with commission’s investigators.
We only learned in the last couple of days, the commission dismissed our complaint last January, supposedly sent us a confidential letter that we never got.
We also know that no one from the commission ever called us once during this big, so-called investigation.
We had provided them details of all the people that had been handled in Gilbert’s courtroom.
Their findings: “The allegations, even if true, did not constitute a violation of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct or the constitutional provisions under which a judge can be disciplined by the commission.”
“That thing about appearance of impropriety? Well, apparently, it’s not worth the paper it’s written on,” Dolcefino told the camera.
We already know they don’t care about campaign contributions to judges from lawyers who are practicing in their courtrooms.
Welcome to Texas.
Now we know they don’t even care when the judge’s personal lawyer is trying cases before his own client.
But hey, they appreciate our concerns and our interest in maintaining the high ethical standards of the Texas judiciary.
“No they don’t,” Dolcefino tells the camera.
Melissa’s case has sparked an internal affairs investigation at the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies mishandled her complaints and, luckily, she’s out of Gilbert’s court now.
“But the complaints keep coming in. If the Texas Judicial Conduct Commission won’t act, we will. And the lesson for folks involved in family court fights—investigate the judge, investigate the lawyers. And if you need help, you let us know.
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