Tarrant County to hire Keller trustees’ lawyer in case to remove district clerk
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court on Tuesday will consider hiring a lawyer at the center of the controversy in Keller ISD over the attempt to split the district earlier this year.
Tim Davis of the Fort Worth law firm Jackson Walker has represented the Keller school board trustees since June 2022. He has served as legal counsel to the board as a separate entity from the district during tumultuous debates over book bans, critical race theory, pronoun usage and other culture war issues.
He previously served as chief counsel of the Tarrant County GOP, and has served on the JPS Heath Network Board of Managers since County Judge Tim O’Hare appointed him in 2023.
The Commissioners Court will consider hiring Davis, who declined to comment, to represent Tarrant County District Clerk Thomas Wilder in a petition to have him removed from office. The petition alleges he unlawfully rejected documents submitted to a Tarrant County family court for a custody case dating back to 2018. It also seeks the removal of Deputy Clerk Catherine Saenz.
The petition was filed by Arlington resident Jose Portalatin, who claims that Wilder “engaged in a pattern of systematic obstruction by refusing to file or process critical legal pleadings” in his custody case for his two children.
Portalatin’s petition seeks to remove Wilder and Saenz using a statute in the Texas Local Government Code that allows for citizens to seek public officials’ removal due to incompetency, official misconduct or drunkenness both on and off duty.
In an interview, Wilder said the petition for his removal was part of several initiatives by “a group of disgruntled court litigants.” It is part of multiple lawsuits against him, he said, adding they are all “without merit, and we vigorously intend to defend them.”
Portalatin said Wilder has rejected several filings he tried to submit to the court citing “Judge’s Request” as the reason. Wilder has refused his requests for a written court order from the judge rejecting the documents he tried to submit, affecting his ability to appeal the judge’s decisions, Portalatin said.
“If they want to rule against me the day of the hearing, I’m OK with it, but let me have all the documents in there, just in case,” he said in an interview. “They want to manipulate the outcome of the hearing so you have no chance whatsoever. If you go to the Second Court of Appeal, they will deny you right away, because you’re missing evidence.”
The Local Government Code allows Portalatin to file the petition in the name of the State of Texas to prompt a jury trial for a public official’s removal. He and local advocate L. Brook McKenzie are listed as plaintiff-relators in the petition.
McKenzie, of Arlington, told the Star-Telegram his participation in the petition is part of his broader effort to root out corruption “almost exclusively within the Republican Party” in Tarrant County.
“I’m trying to clean up my own party,” he said.
Rejecting Portalatin’s court filings is a “way to deny due process administratively,” McKenzie said. “Tom Wilder is keeping people from putting stuff into the case file, so there is no way in the world they can ever appeal these decisions.”
Last week, Davis was mentioned in a similar petition to remove three Keller school board trustees over their alleged participation in secret talks about splitting the district months before the proposal was leaked to the public. Citing the same statute in the Local Government Code as Portalatin’s case, the petition for their removal states that trustees met at Davis’ office in Southlake to discuss the legal process for the split.
Davis will be paid $400 per hour for a total cost of no more than $30,000 if the commissioners approve his hiring.
This story was originally published August 4, 2025 at 4:57 PM.
