(Harris County Juvenile Court)
A Texas judge ousted in this year’s midterm elections spent the following morning releasing nearly all of the juvenile defendants who came before him, and he didn’t show up to court Thursday.
Harris County Juvenile Court Judge Glenn Devlin lost his re-election bid to Natalia Oakes as Democrats swept the county’s juvenile judicial offices.
“He was releasing everybody,” public defender Steven Halpert told the Houston Chronicle. “Apparently he was saying that’s what the voters wanted.”
According to NBC News, Judge Devlin let them go after allegedly asking them one question. “The juveniles were asked whether they were going to, if released, whether they would kill somebody,” Steve Halpert, juvenile division chief for Harris County’s Public Defender’s Office said to KPRC. “It was a little bit shocking because that’s not a question Judge Devlin would ever ask. Or any judge.”
His actions caught everyone off guard because he isn’t particularly known as the nice judge. According to a Houston Chronicle investigation in October, Devlin and Judge John Phillips accounted for more than one-fifth of all children sent to Texas juvenile prisons last year.
Well, that’s one way to go out with a bang.
HEAD BACK TO THE BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM HOMEPAGE
After Losing Seat, Texas Judge Frees Most Juvenile Defendants was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
