‘Fear and threats’ may affect judicial vote on CPS cases, Tarrant County judge says
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley is worried that politics could affect a key judicial vote this week.
District judges in Tarrant County are meeting Thursday to decide whether to move Child Protective Service cases out of the 323rd District Court, which is led by Judge Alex Kim, and spread them among other family district courts. The vote comes as questions have been raised about whether rules regarding case appointments have been followed, in addition to concerns about some of Kim’s recent judgments.
Whitley fears that political pressure stemming from an article by Texas Scorecard, a publication by the conservative Empower Texans political advocacy group, might affect judges’ votes on the issue. It called on voters to contact judges before the vote.
Whitley said he’s heard judges who vote to move CPS cases out of Kim’s courtroom could find themselves facing a well-funded primary challenger when they seek re-election.
“It’s intimidation,” Whitley told the Star-Telegram. “I don’t know whether it will influence any votes or not.
“But it might make them give pause to how they vote. I hope it doesn’t. This is exactly the style Empower Texans operates under: fear and threats.”
While Empower Texans did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, Michael Quinn Sullivan, the group’s CEO, took to Twitter to address Whitley’s concerns.
Whitley “claims they are afraid of losing elections over their actions. They should be,” Sullivan wrote, referring to the district judges as Whitley’s “black-robed cronies” in a later tweet.
Whitley’s comments came Tuesday, ahead of the Tarrant County Board of District Judges’ scheduled meeting at 12:15 p.m. Thursday in the Family Law Center Assembly Room.
On the agenda is deciding whether to assign new CPS cases to other courtrooms.
Currently those cases are automatically assigned to the 323rd, unless a CPS case is formed out of an existing court case.
The possible shift in assignments would be a significant change to the system, attorneys have said, as most CPS cases have gone through the 323rd District Court since at least the 1980s. When reached last week, judges would not speak to the specific reasons factored into the discussion.
Whitley said he’s received one call encouraging support for Kim and he believes a number of judges may have also received calls. He plans to attend Thursday’s meeting.
Kim’s supporters also plan to attend and encouraged people in a Facebook event to wear a red bow tie “to show our solidarity.”
Political connections
Kim’s connections to conservative political advocacy groups have come under scrutiny in the past.
In December, Kim was removed from the case of Tinslee Lewis, a 1-year-old born prematurely with a rare heart defect, who was on life support at Cook Children’s Hospital.
Cook Children’s had questioned Kim’s impartiality, pointing to his affiliation with several political groups that have advocated for the repeal of a law that allows hospitals to end treatment if doctors determine care is futile or medically inappropriate. Those groups include Texas Right to Life and the northeast Tarrant County Tea Party, known as the True Texas Project.
Cook Children’s argued Kim was “handpicked by the Texas Right to Life to hear this case,” claiming the anti-abortion group that has provided legal help to Tinslee’s family collaborated with state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, an Arlington Republican who spoke against the hospital’s decision, to find a judge who would block the hospital’s decision.
The hospital also noted that Kim had spoken about the case at a True Texas Project event at the urging of the group’s CEO Julie McCarty, and that he tuned in to a Nov. 11 Facebook Live broadcast hosted by Empower Texans that discussed Tinslee’s case.
In a previous statement, Texas Right to Life said Joe Nixon, the Lewis family’s lawyer, contacted Kim — the group did not. In 2018, Kim was endorsed by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, a political advocacy group affiliated with Empower Texans, in his race to preside over the 323rd District Court.
Empower Texans
Empower Texans is an influential political advocacy group aligned with the Tea Party.
The Austin-based group, which was instrumental in prompting the retirement of House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, is well funded and led by Michael Quinn Sullivan.
Through the years, the group has become well-known for supporting conservative candidates for the Texas House of Representatives — and threatening incumbents believed to be too moderate with primary challengers.
Whitley pointed to the Republican primary race for House District 92, where one candidate hoping to replace the retiring state Rep. Jonathan Stickland has received big-dollar donations from donors including Tim Dunn, of Midland, who has long helped fund Empower Texans.
“Empower Texans is trying to influence the Texas Legislature,” he said.
Now the group is hoping to influence local races.
These judicial races generally are low-dollar.
But if this group decides to fund challengers, and throw $100,000 or $150,000 into their campaign, that could endanger their re-election bid.
“I am concerned a little bit with these threats that it’s going to make (judges) stop and think,” Whitley said. “It’s just one more thing Empower Texans is doing.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 4:12 PM.
