Removal of judge in ex-Fort Worth officer’s murder case expected to delay trial for months
A prickly state district judge who appeared determined to try on a rapid timeline the case of a defendant who, when he was a police officer, shot to death a woman through a Fort Worth house window was on Tuesday recused by a former state appellate court justice.
Judge David Hagerman will no longer direct proceedings or rule in the murder case of Aaron Dean, who was indicted in the 2019 killing of Atatiana Jefferson.
On the grounds that Hagerman’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned and that he holds a personal bias or prejudice against Dean attorney Bob Gill, the defense two weeks ago filed a motion that sought a recusal order. Retired Second Court of Appeals Justice Lee Gabriel granted the motion after holding a hearing last week.
The recusal and the case’s resulting assignment to another judge will likely mean that it will not be tried for months.
The case was transferred to 396th District Court and Judge George Gallagher, who, as an administrative judge, last week considered a related defense motion on trial scheduling. He ordered that two other cases that Dean’s attorneys are handling be tried first. Gallagher stopped a calendar conversation that stretched into the fall, and said the discussion would only become useful after a recusal motion ruling. David Evans, the presiding judge of the Eighth Administrative Judicial Region of Texas, assigned the case to Gallagher.
A formal scheduling conference will likely determine the case’s path. The state, defense and Gallagher will attempt to find a period of 10 to 14 days, the defense estimate of the trial’s length, during which none of the participants has vacation plans, expert witnesses are available and the attorneys are not committed to a hearing in another case.
It was not clear whether Gallagher may also consider the participation of Dean attorney Jim Lane, who is seriously ill and has not appeared at recent hearings.
Hagerman issued a gag order directing prosecutors and Dean’s attorneys not to furnish outside of court information on the case.
The recusal motion cited several steps that it alleged Hagerman took in an improper rush to trial. The judge departed from state criminal procedure code and local rules in scheduling the trial and in one instance did not enforce the gag order, the motion alleged.
However, it omitted, according to the state’s response, rulings that Hagerman has made in Dean’s favor, such as two continuances he ordered over the state’s objection.
Hagerman declined to voluntarily recuse himself.
At a hearing on the motion last week, Gill called six active criminal defense attorneys who practice in Tarrant County. Among them were witnesses who testified that they like and respect Hagerman, who hears cases in 297th District Court.
Leigh Davis recalled sponsoring a hole at a Hagerman reelection golf tournament fundraiser last year. He donated $1,000 to the judge’s campaign.
Hagerman, who has presided in the Dean case for two years and eight months, was aggressive, abrasive and bordered on condescending at a June 3 hearing, Davis testified.
Hagerman, many of the witnesses said, had become a focus of grumbling among board members of the Tarrant County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. Dean attorney Miles Brissette is a member of the group’s board.
Harmony Schuerman was among the observers of the June 3 hearing who offered an assessment of Hagerman in testimony at the recusal motion hearing.
“Judge Hagerman seemed angry with you. He didn’t seem like himself,” Schuerman responded to a question from Gill.
Hagerman’s anger and frustration were displayed on his face and in his body language, Schuerman testified.
“He’s what we would generally consider to be an equal opportunity kind of guy. He’s just kind of irritable at times,” Schuerman testified. “This was not that. There was just a lot of animosity. There just is no comparison.”
Beyond attorneys, the defense called two Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office commanders who direct security operations inside the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center and who have attended several hearings in the case.
“He’s always been an intense person,” Capt. Bobby Hardin testified of Hagerman, who the witness said had grown stressed as the case continued.
In the more than two years since the shooting, community pressure has mounted for the trial to proceed.
Craig Driskell, the executive chief deputy of operations at the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, testified that he was surprised to learn that Hagerman was considering scheduling trial testimony on Saturdays and Sundays. A shortage of deputies would require significant overtime to staff such a schedule, he said.
The source of Hagerman’s anger appeared to be something personal involving Gill, Driskell testified.
After the defense witness list for the recusal motion hearing was filed, Driskell testified, Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson called him and asked why he was on the list.
He testified that he told Wilson that he expected to be asked about his courtroom observations of Hagerman.
“Well, you don’t work for me,” Wilson observed in the telephone conversation. She offered advice: “Quit talking,” Driskell testified, recalling the district attorney’s counsel.
On June 3, Hagerman appeared frustrated during a hearing that focused on Gill’s motion to resolve scheduling conflicts. Gill had previously filed a vacation request for June 29 to July 1, and he argued with Hagerman that the Dean trial would not be completed by that time. Hagerman asked if Gill was filing a motion for continuance, and Gill said he was not. Gill, who is a former state district judge, and Hagerman went back and forth throughout the June 3 hearing.
Hagerman did not directly deny Gill’s vacation request, nor did he explicitly say Gill would not be able to go on vacation. When Gill asked about his formal vacation request during the June 3 hearing, Hagerman said the court would figure out the conflict at the time of Gill’s vacation and would work through weekends to complete the trial. Gill seemed skeptical of that plan.
Rose Anna Salinas, a former president and current board member of the Tarrant County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, was also among the witnesses at the recusal motion hearing. Salinas said she attended the June 3 hearing after she heard concerns that Hagerman might not follow the local rules. She said she was “shocked” by Hagerman’s tone and his “extremely hostile” attitude toward the defense attorneys.
“I could see the bias. I could feel the bias,” Salinas said.
Salinas said she believes Hagerman’s antagonism toward the defense could “lead a jury to believe that he wants a conviction, that he is the third prosecutor in this courtroom.”
A grand jury indicted Dean, who is white, on murder after he shot to death Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, through a window while responding to a call connected to doors open at her house. Jefferson was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew, Zion Carr, when she thought she heard a prowler in the back yard, took a handgun from her purse and pointed it toward the window, Zion told a forensic interviewer, according to an arrest warrant affidavit supporting Dean’s arrest.
Dean, 37, did not identify himself as a police officer and shot Jefferson within seconds of seeing her through the window, according to body-worn camera video. He resigned from the police department on the same day he was arrested, two days after the shooting.
This story was originally published June 28, 2022 at 10:09 AM.
