Tarrant County judge again facing recusal put fingers in ears while attorney spoke: motion
So many legal quarrels before trial are connected to the calendar.
Criminal defense attorneys often argue they have had too narrow a window to examine evidence, secure the appearance of witnesses or otherwise prepare.
Attorneys who represent a man indicted on capital murder in the death of a 2-year-old girl in Arlington filed last week a motion that alleges state District Judge David Hagerman ruled improperly on matters related to time. They argue the judge’s rulings suggest his impartiality may reasonably be questioned, a standard for recusal.
The motion seeks the end of Hagerman’s involvement in the case.
It is the second instance in five weeks in which a defendant’s counsel has sought the recusal of Hagerman, who presides in 297th District Court in Tarrant County.
The first was a successful effort in the murder case of defendant Aaron Dean, who in 2019 as a police officer in Fort Worth, shot to death a woman, Atatiana Jefferson, as she was babysitting her nephew at her mother’s house in Fort Worth. That motion, which focused on an allegation that Hagerman held a personal bias against an attorney who represents Dean and on his rulings on trial scheduling, led to the case’s transfer up two courthouse floors to a different judge.
On Monday, as the trial for Derick Roberson was to begin, his attorneys, Michael Campbell Jr., Andrew Wilkerson and Shehzad Shaikh, filed a motion that describes acts they argue merit Hagerman’s recusal.
As he did in the Dean case, Hagerman declined to voluntarily recuse himself, and an order on the matter will be left to Senior District Judge Everett Young, who will hold a hearing on the motion on Friday. David Evans, the presiding judge of the Eighth Administrative Judicial Region of Texas, assigned the decision to Young. Retired Second Court of Appeals Justice Lee Gabriel granted the recusal motion in the Dean case.
A significant difference in the recusal motions in the Dean and Roberson cases is the length of time between when they were filed and when the defendant’s trial was to begin. Roberson’s filing fewer than 10 days before the trial is permitted under state rules of civil procedure, his defense team argues, because the grounds that exist for Hagerman’s recusal did not emerge until a pretrial hearing held on the last weekday before the trial was to begin.
Campbell, Wilkerson and Shaikh allege in the recusal motion that:
- Hagerman improperly allowed the state to turn over 28 pieces of evidence favorable to Roberson one weekday before the trial was to begin.
- Hagerman waited until the day before trial to require the state to turn over contact information for a non-expert witness and allowed the defense attorneys no time to reach the witness before trial.
- Hagerman held a critical pretrial hearing on the case one weekday before the trial and gave the defense attorneys inadequate time to inspect physical evidence.
- After the June 23 killing in Garland of a defense investigator who was working as a bounty hunter, Hagerman appointed another investigator and allowed him 11 days to serve subpoenas to witnesses.
- Hagerman denied defense motions on matters he has granted at times for other defense attorneys and denied multiple motions for continuance filed by the defense in the Roberson case.
Hagerman‘s actions and conduct suggest “extreme bias and prejudice toward the defense,” Campbell, Wilkerson and Shaikh wrote in the motion.
On July 12, “Hagerman physically put his fingers in his ears while defense counsel Michael Campbell was still talking” to the judge, the motion states.
In the state response to the recusal motion, assistant Tarrant County criminal district attorneys Bill Vassar and Victoria Ford Oblon noted the majority of the recusal grounds Roberson described are connected to Hagerman’s rulings.
“Texas law is well settled that complaints about judicial rulings do not constitute a valid basis for recusal of a judge based on allegations of bias or partiality,” the prosecutors wrote.
The defense attorneys’ allegation that they have been a focus of hostility from Hagerman also is flawed, according to the response.
“Under Texas law, judicial remarks during the course of a trial that are critical or disapproving of, or even hostile to, counsel (including a judge’s expressions of impatience, dissatisfaction, annoyance, and even anger) will not establish bias or partiality to support recusal,” Vassar and Ford Oblon wrote.
With Shamonica Jackson, Roberson had custody of a toddler, Aniyah Darnell, from August 2018 until the girl’s death on Nov. 17, 2018, prosecutors said.
Roberson, 42, is accused of capital murder in Aniyah’s death, which police have said occurred after Jackson struck her repeatedly with a belt.
Jackson told police she had grown frustrated with the child for going to the bathroom in her clothes. Jackson hit the child with a belt and her hand to teach the girl a lesson, according to an affidavit written by a police officer that supported an arrest warrant.
Jackson told police Aniyah had a burn on her buttocks. Jackson tried home remedies to treat the injury and continued to discipline the girl by hitting her, according to the affidavit.
The girl was beaten at the Las Lomas Apartments in the 800 block of Timberlake Drive in southeast Arlington and died in a hospital emergency room.
Jackson, 37, was also indicted on capital murder, and it appears her trial will occur after Roberson’s.
A Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office forensic pathologist determined the cause of Aniyah’s death was battered child with dehydration and its manner was homicide.
During the period in which they had custody of Aniyah, Roberson was aware that Jackson repeatedly struck the girl, and gave her a bath that caused severe burns to her buttocks and foot, prosecutors allege.
Roberson failed to intervene in the physical abuse that Jackson inflicted on Aniyah, prosecutors allege.
After the belt beating, Roberson did not seek medical attention for the girl and did not perform CPR on her, prosecutors allege.
The state is not seeking the death penalty in the Roberson and Jackson cases.
This story was originally published July 22, 2022 at 4:44 PM.
