Tarrant County Juvenile Board removes lawyer. Some say it was a political move
A local lawyer who is running for a district judge seat was removed from a list of court-appointed attorneys by the Tarrant County Juvenile Board. Some say it was driven by politics.
Brian Willett, a Democrat , was not approved for a list of attorneys a court can assign to represent juveniles whose families can’t afford one, during a Tarrant County Juvenile Board meeting on Wednesday.
Willett, who is running for the 323rd District Court seat, which hears child welfare and juvenile delinquency cases, is hoping to unseat Judge Alex Kim, a Republican and the chair of the Tarrant County Juvenile Board.
“I think it’s totally political, because I’ve been on the list from the very beginning in 2002 when it first opened and never had a problem,” Willett told the Star-Telegram. “The only thing that’s changed since then is I decided to run against one of their candidates, and now, all of a sudden, it’s an issue.”
Willett was not present during the meeting and heard about the news hours later.
Judge Christopher Taylor, a Republican who presides over the 48th District Court, said he wanted to personally remove Willett from the approved list of attorneys and vote on Willett separately. Judge Don Cosby, a Republican who presides over the 67th District Court, questioned if it was a political move.
“Are we doing this for political reasons?” Crosby asked. “I don’t want to be part of something, that is hurting somebody for political reasons.”
Taylor said he has “personal issues” with Willett and will abstain from the vote.
“I know someone that he represented, a friend of mine, that did not go well, so I’m just not going to vote for him,” Taylor said.
Willett said he has never met Taylor .
A vote was held for the agenda item to be tabled for the next meeting, but that was voted down. It was then voted to approve all the attorneys on the general list except for Willett and it was approved.
Cosby filed a motion to reapprove Willett for inclusion on the list. A judge then told the room about Willett’s qualifications as being double board certified in criminal and juvenile law.
There were six judges who approved, some judges including Taylor abstained, and the motion failed to secure enough votes to approve the motion.
According to Kim, Willett will not receive new appointments until the board approves him again. There is no restriction on when an attorney can apply or reapply. Kim said on average, four to five attorneys per year are not approved by the board to receive appointments.
Earlier in the meeting, another attorney, Melissa Hamrick, had her appointment rescheduled due to her instability of being on and off the list of court-appointed attorneys.
The denial of Willett’s approval comes after Tarrant County GOP Chair Tim Davis challenged the candidacy of seven Democrats running for judicial offices in the primaries. One of the candidates was Willett.
Days afterward, the Tarrant County Democratic Party contested the ballot filings of 41 Republican judicial candidates and two state Republican House candidates in a letter to Davis.
Both parties claim problems such as invalid signatures and missing or incorrect voter information on petitions that judicial candidates submit to secure a place on the ballot.
The goal for both parties is to have candidates in question declared ineligible for a place on the ballot in March primary.
Willett says that, given the number of qualified Democrats running for judicial offices, Republicans are trying to stop their candidacies. He says it will limit his caseload and affect his livelihood, but will ultimately punish the juveniles he could help.
“I’m not going to be intimidated by some Republicans, because they think that they can run the show everywhere,” Willett said. “So no, that doesn’t intimidate me at all, that’s what they’re afraid of. For once, they have candidates that actually are not scared of them ... and that’s why they’re scared.”
Eleanor Dearman and Rachel Royster contributed to this story.
This story was originally published January 21, 2026 at 8:12 PM.
