{"id":36979,"date":"2025-07-04T03:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/36979\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T03:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:06:07","slug":"dallas-judge-sanctioned-over-allegations-she-made-staff-impersonate-her-at-online-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/36979\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas judge sanctioned over allegations she made staff impersonate her at online hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas County Judge Amber Givens was sanctioned by the state\u2019s judicial authority following allegations she ordered her court coordinator to impersonate her during an online hearing<\/a>, according to a copy of the disciplinary document obtained by The Dallas Morning News. <\/p>\n

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct<\/a> said Givens repeatedly disrespected attorneys, acted with bias or prejudice and lacked competence in the law after the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association lodged complaints and sought to have her recused from cases. <\/p>\n

Givens\u2019 conduct \u201cis clearly inconsistent with the proper performance of her judicial duties and cast public discredit upon [the] judiciary,\u201d the reprimand issued June 23 states.<\/p>\n

In an email to The News, the commission\u2019s executive director, Jacqueline Habersham, confirmed discipline was issued against Givens but said the findings will not be made public until July 10. <\/p>\n

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A reprimand is the most severe public sanction<\/a> issued by the commission. <\/p>\n

Related:Dallas County civil judge disciplined by state commission for untimely rulings<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement to The News, a lawyer for Givens said she disagrees with the commission\u2019s conclusions. <\/p>\n

Givens \u201chas previously indicated that this was a politically motivated attack and provided statements from law enforcement that contradicted the commissions conclusions,\u201d attorney Russell Wilson II said in an email. <\/p>\n

The current president of the Dallas County Defense Lawyers Association did not immediately respond to a phone call or email seeking comment. Deandra Grant, one of the lawyers who filed the grievance on behalf of the association, would not confirm the authenticity of The News\u2019 document. <\/p>\n

The discipline stems from a 2021 complaint by the defense lawyers group alleging that a court coordinator illegally acted as the judge during a virtual bail hearing that year. In written rebuttals to the commission, Givens said the complaint was politically motivated. <\/p>\n

The Texas Rangers and the Kaufman County district attorney\u2019s office investigated the accusation but did not seek criminal charges<\/a> against Givens or her coordinator. <\/p>\n

Givens\u2019 testimony to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct at a 2022 hearing contradicted findings by the Rangers, the public reprimand states. <\/p>\n

According to the Rangers\u2019 64-page investigative file, the coordinator and Givens had an eight-second phone call during the timeframe of the hearing. Givens told the commission she phoned in for about a minute, the reprimand says. <\/p>\n

Related:119 trials in a day: Attorneys scramble as Dallas judge clogs docket with criminal cases<\/a><\/p>\n

The defense lawyers group also alleged in their complaint that Givens had \u201cpoor judicial temperament\u201d and was aggressive, condescending and disrespectful toward attorneys.<\/p>\n

In 2022, 15 defense attorneys wanted Givens recused from more than 100 cases, arguing they couldn\u2019t get fair trials. Givens was also reprimanded for recording a phone call with the presiding judge overseeing the motions to remove her.<\/p>\n

Wilson, the attorney, said the commission \u201ctook greater issue with the lawful recording\u201d than its content.<\/p>\n

Texas is a \u201cone-party consent\u201d state, and generally people can record calls if they are party to the conversation. <\/p>\n

In 2023, she was kicked off a high-profile murder case<\/a> after she criticized prosecutors for not ensuring all the evidence was turned over to defense attorneys, prompting prosecutors to lament that Givens was biased against them. <\/p>\n

The News <\/a>reported last year that Givens \u2014 in what she called an attempt to shore up efficiency \u2014 pushed for faster plea deals or trials. That effort resulted in nearly 120 trials being scheduled for a single day. The bottlenecked docket caused angst, confusion and panic for those navigating Givens\u2019 courtroom, souring the relationship between the judge and many trial lawyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related:Kaufman County DA says Dallas County Judge Amber Givens, staffer won\u2019t be charged<\/a><\/p>\n

During her first term, 68% of lawyers who responded to a 2017 survey by the Dallas Bar Association<\/a> said her temperament and demeanor \u201cneeds improvement.\u201d In 2021<\/a>, that rose to 75%. In the latest poll from 2023<\/a>, it climbed to 91%. <\/p>\n

Givens \u2014 who hears felony cases in the 282nd District Court that carry punishments up to the death penalty<\/a> \u2014 has worked to reform the county\u2019s criminal justice system since taking the bench in 2015. She successfully lobbied to include an anti-discrimination clause in the Dallas County district courts\u2019 practices for appointing attorneys to people who can\u2019t afford to hire a lawyer and created or helped create several restorative justice programs. <\/p>\n

She is up for reelection next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas County Judge Amber Givens was sanctioned by the state\u2019s judicial authority following allegations she ordered her court…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,356,1596,7290,80,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-36979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-county","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114792758266858898","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}