Dallas attorney James Lee Bright faced a dilemma: he had to appear in court but he recovering from knee surgery with a large leg brace and an ice machine attached to his leg to stop swelling. He could not fit his pants over the hardware so he wore a shirt, tie, jacket, and shorts. That did not go over well with Judge Etta Mullin (left) who refused to hear his motion to dismiss a weapons charge for a client because he was wearing shorts. It was a rather unsympathetic and inflexible decision but it was not the first for this particular judge. However, it is the mounting criticism of Mullin that raises the question of why the Democratic party has pushed for her reelection and why the state bar has not investigated allegations of injudicious conduct.
The decision to bar Bright was clearly abusive in light of his obvious medical excuse. What is curious is that women are allowed to appear without ties or jacket and wearing skirts. Yet, a male attorney who has to appear in a leg brace and shorts is tossed out of court.
Bright is now seeking to have Mullin removed. The rigidity and lack of sympathy shown by Mullin is something of a signature for the judge. Indeed, so is the motion seeking to avoid her as a judge in this court. Lawyers complain that Mullen is often rude and arbitrary with both clients and attorneys. Many now avoid her courtroom and the horror stories have previously appeared in local stories.
According to news reports, Mullin has been given the lowest ratings by lawyers — ratings that are often quite generous to judges. In a 2012 poll by the Dallas Criminal Bar Association, 89 percent of attorneys ranked Mullin’s overall performance in the “needs improvement” category, the lowest category.
In the case of Amber Buford, the defendant agreed to plead guilty to a prostitution charge. It is a routine case that ended up in from of Mullin. Since Buford was indigent, she was given appointed counsel. However, before accepting the plea, Mullin insisted that Buford, the indigent, pay the $267 bill for court costs in one lump sum. Her lawyer explained that she was obviously indigent and did not have the money. Mullin refused to accept the plea bargain and set the case for a full jury trial that neither the prosecutors nor the defense wanted. She forced both sides to go through the preparation for an expensive trial before finally accepting the plea on the day of jury selection.
Mullin routinely demands cash for defendants on the spot — a highly uncommon practice since few come to court with wads of cash on hand. This was the case of the client of DWI attorney Lee Bright when Mullin suddenly demanded $1,000 cash for a bond. He suggested the common use of a surety bond for the amount but she refused. She allegedly threatened to send the client back to jail unless he paid the cash or Bright paid the money out of his own pocket.
In another case, she is accused of refusing to allow a defendant to explain that she could not have messing around with a an interlock device on a car (she was out of town at the time of the alleged misconduct). He says that Mullin was ticked that he had disagreed with her on an earlier case and took it out on his next case.
Attorneys complain that she makes them wait hours in her courtroom and sometimes simply walks out without explanation or notice. She is also accused of attacking lawyers or demeaning them. It is rare for lawyers to publicly criticize a judge. After all, there is a fear of a backlash from the judge or her colleagues. However, lawyers have been lining up to publicly denounce Mullin. John Gioffredi, a DWI attorney told the press that Mullin is “the most inefficient and inconsiderate judge” that he has encountered in his career. It has gotten to the point that lawyers routinely seek transfers out of her court and some actually charge clients more if they have to deal with Mullin.
On lawyer, John Corn sent Mullin a letter reflecting this dissatisfaction after he said Mullin accused attorneys standing in line of laughing at her. Corn wrote:
“No one — certainly not a single lawyer who stood in line with me on that day — was laughing at you. To the contrary, we were amusing ourselves during what felt like an interminable wait. . . .You frequently demean and belittle lawyers — most egregiously, in front of clients and others. Tearing up pass slips and telling lawyers to go to the end of the line, for instance. You demand that lawyers approach the bench and concert with you on every single setting in a case, and this often takes an inordinate amount of time … and, in this depression, when clients have little money, you don’t allow enough time for lawyers to collect their fee before final disposition.”
What is astonishing is that despite the disclosure of these allegations and controversies, the Democratic leaders publicly supported her. However she only received 36.4% of the vote Trey Bunch and Lisa Green. Mullin will face Green in a primary runoff election on May 27, 2014. In 2010, she barely defeated Alexander Fitzenhagen in the general election with 51.34% of the vote.
Mullen previously worked in juvenile and family services as well as a probation worker. She earned her undergraduate degree from Texas Woman’s University in Denton and her law degree from Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston.
Wow! How can anyone praise the president who gave us the NDA Act? Health care and the concept of bigger or smaller government can be debated. Trashing our freedoms cannot. While I demonstrated against the Iraqi War and got illegally thrown in jail for an ‘Anybody But Bush!’ campaign in 2004, the president we have is worse than the one we had. Until proven otherwise one must assume the trend will continue and refuse to vote for inside the box for an R or D president. I had a call to increase my NRA membership yesterday & went ahead with a five year membership to help them fight for our heavily eroded freedoms, in spite of just getting back the Philippines & around the world with depleted funds and not quite back to work. Do your part for freedom. Obama is your Big Brother, not your brother.Support the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights. Support the National Rifle Association. As for Democrats, Republicans & the Tea Party, you can trust very few individuals but none of these groups.
Charlton – as someone who has taught research methods, Google is both your friend and your enemy. As a search engine I use Duck Duck Go which gives me a cleaner look at my search results.
As a consummate conspiracy theorist myself, like Matt Taibbi (whom I’m having a battle of words with today – due to his Bush “Hands Down” remark) and the late Michael Ruppert
I find the disdain for the “scientific” approach of considering all the evidence, including the consideration of conspiracies (which is the phrase of more than one party conspiring to achieve a goal {often unjust}) –
to be a fostering of evil.
One may state that another is dodging the facts;
but labeling one as CT is far from dispositive.
randyjet – I was hardpressed to figure out how you use TOTUS in a classroom, but Obama used it. However, regarding the pressers, he has had fewer than most presidents and he pre-selects who he is going to call on. Their questions have been vetted. You will notice he never calls on Fox News, in fact tried to stop issuing them press credentials. One of the local reporters here blew the whistle on that fact he even requires local news interviews to pre-submit the questions. And then they are put on a clock for their interview.
It is, as they say, “The Chicago Way.”
randyjet
I was wondering if Paul would resort to conspiracy theories, and he did.
…
====================
Cool.
Conspiracy theories are one of the foundations of modern jurisprudence (On The Origin of “Conspiracy Theory” – 3). But the type you have been conditioned to salivate to began circa 1967 (“Interestingly, in ~1967, the CIA began a propaganda campaign to instill a meme into the minds of the American public, through their assets in the media, to dichotomize the meaning of “conspiracy theory” (i.e. to create “doublespeak”).
Sal
We need street judges. You don’t go to them. They go to you….
Casual dress is not an issue. Enter Judge Dredd.
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What you mean “we” what man.
Paul,
Google can be your friend.
Els – I would refer you back to Elaine’s article.
Charleton – what is a ‘dry drunk’?
@Paul Shulte: I’m calling BS on your statement that people with dyslexia also have problems talking fluently and coherently. I don’t know how long you taught and what special education classes you took, but I did and I also taught for 25 years and that has never been stated by anyone as a fact. On the contrary I have had students with serious dyslexia who were way above level in their verbal abilities. Ex-president George Bush Jr. seems to have a processing delay: his words can’t keep up with his thoughts. I wonder if he had any thoughts at all. HA!
The House is a rigged game. Incumbents have an enormous advantage. The duopoly can handle being out of power. What they can’t handle is a wildcard 3rd party. That rocks the boat, big time.
I can never understand why folks can’t just disagree and move on. I respect your opinion, why can’t respect mine. I guess it’s because you must be right! I have long thought that in hell, everyone agrees. There, and some echo chamber blogs..hell on earth, as it were.
Here ya go, they can vote for this lady as noted by Swarthmoremom
http://lisagreenforjudge.com/
Let the lawyers down there donate cash to her.
Maybe its time we start voting out incumbents until we get decent people in office. Stop looking at party and remove people we KNOW are bad even if it means voting for someone you do not like politically. Imagine a US population that started doing that. We would root out alot of corruption within a few short years.
Randyjet, well said. Exactly right..
Nick Compassion and good wishes did nothing at all for my wife. I have to have respect for the people who actually DID something to help her by passing and supporting the health care law. I dislike many of its aspects, and disagree that it is not a single payer plan and gives insurance companies too much. The fact is that any sympathy or best wishes is irrelevant and is hypocritical if people seek to take AWAY her health care. I can have nothing but contempt for such views. It is like people watching a person drown, and doing nothing to help, but criticizing the person who actually DOES rescue the victim.
There is no possible question that Obama and the Democrats are FAR better people than the Republicans since they wish to take away her health care. It is not even close to see who is a better person and party.
Well written D and letter – Otteray…
Randy,
We are definitely on the same page with this issue. You may be interested in reading the story I wrote two weeks ago. One should not be forced to work for an employer with a group plan in order to have insurance. That is a form of indentured servitude just to have health care.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/02/1289017/-CelticLassie-has-insurance?showAll=yes
Thanks OS As you know I value you opinion even if we differ on a few things.
Paul Schulte earlier:
ap – just to be sure, you know this is satire? I know the Chinese and N. Koreans think the Onion is a legitimate paper.
Paul,
“You ain’t from around these parts, are you?”
One thing alone would make Obama an outstanding President, and that is that he said he would make getting Bin Laden a priority. Unlike Clinton, and McCain who BOTH said that if Bin Laden were in Pakistan, they would NOT go after him without telling the Pakis. Thus making getting him impossible. Of course, I am biased in that since I was an airline captain when 9/11 happened. I am only outraged that the pilots union, ALPA, did not denounce Bush when he said he did not care any more about getting Bin Laden. I CAN assure you that if Obama or any Democrat had said such a thing, the VFW, American Legion, ALPA, and ALL the right wing nuts on the radio would have been calling for his impeachment.
randy, I’m very happy for you and your wife. Being a chronic pain sufferer I know the toll it takes. We’ll just have to disagree about your guy.