Embattled family court judge Denise Pratt is back in the news. No, she hasn’t been indicted yet, but she is still dragging the Harris County Republican Party down. From Kiah Collier in the Houston Chronicle:
The political situation would appear to put local Republican Party leaders, including Woodfill, in an awkward position.
Since last year, Pratt has appointed Woodfill to cases for which he has made nearly $10,000. He is not the only lawyer and Republican Party leader Pratt has appointed to cases in her court since taking the bench in 2011.
According to information obtained under the Texas Public Information Act, former party chairman Gary Polland, whose endorsements are considered key to judicial GOP primary wins, has made more than $79,000 in legal fees from appointments by Pratt. Lawyer George Clevenger, chairman of the party’s finance committee, has made more than $114,000.
Hey, don’t blame Collier, she’s just doing her job. The plain truth is that Denise Pratt should never have been on the bench in the first place. She is the poster child for everything that is wrong with the “pay to play” slate system in Harris County Republican Party politics. She is on the bench solely because she bought it.
The 2010 primary was a lot of fun for me. It was two years before cancer slowed me down and I went to, literally, hundreds of small campaign events that year, from tea party gatherings, to Republican Women club meetings, to establishment club meetings, to HCRP sponsored meetings, etc. I got to know every single candidate that campaigned and there were dozens and dozens of them. Here is what I wrote about Denise Pratt in February of 2010:
District Judge, 311th Family Court
Very weird things going on here. Denise Pratt gives Lowry 10 grand, pays her sister to show up and campaign, and basically is a shadow candidate. Lots of good alternatives here, all four of the others are very well qualified.
Lowry would be Terry Lowry, proprietor of the slate named the Link Letter. The Link Letter was statistically the most influential slate that year, as I demonstrated in this post. Pratt did not campaign – her sister campaigned for her. Pratt also paid Gary Polland, proprietor of the Texas Conservative Review, the third most influential slate that year. Here are screenshots of her payments to the two men:
In total, she paid the two slates $19,500. Her total expenditures for the campaign were $31,383.99. The slates were 62{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of her spending. And she won without a runoff in a five person field that included some very qualified candidates.
So, Harris County Republicans, don’t blame Denise Pratt for the problems she is causing the party right now. Blame yourself for allowing this system to take hold and put wholly unqualified candidates on judicial benches. Trust me when I say this: Denise Pratt isn’t the only Republican judge sitting behind a bench that is wholly unqualified to be there.
I hope that Denise reconsiders and withdraws her name from the 2014 primary. She is a fine person and has many admirable qualities. Being a judge simply isn’t one of them.
What can Harris County Republicans do to fix this? Stop relying on the pay to play slate mailers for your information. Go to meetings and meet the candidates. Look them up on the internet and find out for yourself who they are.
One group in Harris County that puts out a slate of endorsements that is not paid for is the United Republicans of Harris County. My friend and fellow blogger Karen Townsend (Pondering Penguin) is on the board of that group and has a blog post up today about their process of endorsing candidates. You should click over and read it if you haven’t heard of this group. Fellow BJP blogger Ed Hubbard is also on that board.
You can also demand more from the chair of the party, Jared Woodfill. Jared is well aware of this system and has enabled it during the twelve years he has been chair. Tell him that before he gets your vote again, he must publicly denounce the pay to play slate system. If he refuses to, find another candidate to lead the party. The chair by himself can’t fix the problem but a public denunciation of the pay to play slate system will go a long way towards fixing it.
And you can also do something yourself. Promise a candidate that if they pay one of these slates, you will not vote for them. Don’t worry, you won’t have to look it up, I’ll be here to let you know who is paying them. Because it is one thing I can do.
To be fair to Judge Pratt, she had served for many years as a precinct chair, had worked on other campaigns, and had been president or officer of the downtown Pachyderm club, so she had a base of support broader than just a few slate endorsements.
She hasnt been indicted yet…makes you wonder why…sounds like some one or party is just trying to impune before the evidence is in…
David,
Shame on you for not actually trying to talk with Judge Denise Pratt as I have been suggesting.
In now two election cycles, have you tried talking with her personally? Judge Pratt is the candidate that agreed with you on almost every point you made regarding the petition signing party back in September.
Judge Pratt did not bring anybody from her court – she already knew that would be inappropriate. She brought with her individuals that she has reached out to in the past that are or were friends and family Hispanic males and females, African Americans, young law students and her own parents. While others talk about outreach, she lives it.
When in business she hired staff from Third and Fifth Wards, and a military veteran that served two tours in Vietnam. Her growing campaign team includes African American and Hispanic individuals, several Jews and even an handful of Democrtas that work and volunteer to support her because they know she is what is right for our Harris County.
Have you at any events picked up her “pink sheets?” Not only do those sheetsexplain why the liberal media is against her, it tells you she’s keept the Republican value of living her life personally and professionally within the law.
She has never been overturned on appeal. Mandamous means she was asked to hurry up with a deicison. That is not being overturned on appeal.
Most candidates bring family to their events. Why is it a problem for Judge Pratt to do so? As the saying goes, “If you want to know who the true conservative is, look at who the media is crucifying.” I’m sorry if that now seems to include you.
Burt
Burt,
That was me who was critical of the judicial signing party and wrote about it.
Don Hooper
The only thing Judge Pratt is guilty of is actually caring about the cases in her court. She takes time and listens to the attorneys and the parties. She truly cares about the kids involved in the cases before her. She is a good judge, a conservative judge, and the GOP should be proud of her.
As a party to a case pending since 2011 there are many families who are being destroyed because of lack of oversight and mandatory status updates for cases pending in the 311th. It has created an optimal breading ground for unethical lawyers to pray on clients and the spouses of clients who have accumulated any significant assets. The strategy is to plan the divorce months in advance keeping the defendant in the dark then surprise them with a sudden and unexpected divorce, while they are dazed get them to sign unfavourable “temporary” orders based on the assumption that they are truly “temporary” and that both parties will act in a fair and reasonable way, then delay, delay, delay using any means necessary, including stonewalling mediations, making ridiculous “offers” that do not even meet standard possession order terms, refuse to negotiate on anything, make exaggerated and false claims, refuse to comply with discovery on, create distractions to detract from the plaintiff’s own bad behaviour (i.e. attempt to refinance the marital home (that is in both parties names) without informing, involving, or providing any information to the the other party then when you go in front of the judge on a separate but related issue falsely accuse the opposing party that they are not being co-operative in the refinance, when the party wrongly accused of being un-cooperative denies they were provided with any information the unethical lawyer lies to the judge and testifies “Yes you have, I have seen the emails.” When progress is made towards equality creative slight of hand tricks i.e. entering re-drafted orders that subtly change the language and do not accurately reflect what the parties involved agreed to or what the judge actually ruled. Once these re-drafted orders get signed off on the rulings that took months and 10’s of thousands of dollars to obtain are eroded in a moment. My case has had 8 scheduled trail dates, 3 failed mediations, cost me over $100,000 in legal expenses (not including spouses legal expenses), caused so must distraction that I lost my job of 11 years, and the worst part but the reason I keep on fighting is that I love my children dearly and I have not had more than a weekend with them in the past three years. I have not even been able to take them to visit the children’s family on my side including 4 grandparents, 7 aunts, 3 uncles, 10 cousins, not to mention extended family. When my income dropped and after 5 months I could no longer afford to pay my spouse $4600 a month in spousal support because I was netting $1300 a month while my spouse was netting $10500 the other side filed contempt for not making the payments specified in the temporary orders (among other trumped up charges based on technicalities in the temporary orders). The outcome? Judge Pratt sentenced me to 180 days in jail not to be released until I paid my spouse $12K and her lawyer $3k (I did mention that I recently lost my job didn’t I?). I spent a week in jail until I was released after my lawyer filed a motion to set aside judgement and request a new trial. Thanks to God and to Judge Pratt that she agreed to sign that order! Something must be done families are being decimated while lawyers and judges trade favours and get rich. Sure it’s not everyone, but once is more than enough if it’s your life and family being destroyed because you are caught up in a system that can allow this to happen. Thanks to all of you who fight for the light and have not forgotten the ideas, principles, and courage required to preserve and keep alive the American Dream for generations to come. Kind Regards. – A Father
My case has been open since 2011. I had a trial for a modification and an enforcement. A do not have a ruling for either. My ex spouse requested modification, she does not have a ruling either. An amicus was appointed, we were required to pay her fees, twice, but Judge Pratt has not met with her about our case once. We have been reset so many times I have lost count. I can no longer afford to file motions to try to get her to rule. I see my children when mom allows it. The amicus has filed motions with the court, they were reset until recently. Now they are on hold waiting on a decison. We will hold our breathe as we have with the enforcement and motion to modify.
Pratt does not care, I have been told she was a good lawyer but since 2011 I have yet to see where she is a good Judge. She does not follow or uphold the law. She makes up her own rules as she goes along.
Being reset so often I lost my job, not seeing my children I have lost something I can not replace…. my hope.
What is being allowed to go on is sad. All of us can not afford to keep fighting, it would be nice if someone stood up for us, stood up for our children. Politics should not always be the bottom line… in family court I wish I could believe FAMILY was the bottom line.