Litigation

TX Judge Handed $100,000 Ethics Fine

By Peter Hardin

The Texas Ethics Commission has fined Judge Sharon Keller, presiding judge for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, $100,000 for her failure to disclose more than $2.8 million in personal assets.

Judge Keller filed amended reports with the commission last year after news reports had suggested omissions, according to a Dallas Morning News article. She said her elderly father obtained the properties without her knowing it.

Judge Keller plans to appeal the fine, according to a Houston Chronicle report.

She is a judge in the limelight. She was charged with judicial misconduct arising from her handling of a last-minute death row appeal, but a special master who presided over her ethics trial recommended she not lose her job (see Gavel Grab). Special prosecutors, in turn, have asked that she be punished.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).