The 85th Legislature passed Senate Bill 1893, which was signed by Governor Abbott on June 15, 2017. This legislation creates the tenth and eleventh administrative judicial regions. The eleventh administrative judicial region is now composed of Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Matagorda, and Wharton counties. Prior to this legislation, these counties were 
represented by Olen Underwood, presiding judge of the second administrative judicial region.
The Governor appoints a presiding judge to each of the now eleven judicial regions. These judges serve a four-year term. The presiding judge:
- promulgates and implements regional rules of administration;
- advises local judges on judicial management;
- recommends changes to the Supreme Court for the improvement of judicial administration; and
- acts for local administrative judges in their absence.
Very importantly, presiding judges have the authority to assign visiting judges. In August 2017, 29 separate visiting judge assignments were permitted in Harris County. This list includes Belinda Hill and Brock Thomas. Hill served as the First Assistant District Attorney for Mike and Devon Anderson and supported the decision to jail a sexual assault victim. After nine years at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Thomas, son of former Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas, was appointed to serve as judge of the 338th District Court. Thomas lost reelection in 2008 and started a law firm with Devon Anderson. Thomas won election to the 338th in 2012 and again lost reelection in 2016.
Hill and Thomas Summer Assignments
| Hill | |
| 228th District Court (for Marc Carter) | August 21 |
| Criminal District Courts | August 7 |
| 232nd District Court (vacant) | July 31 |
| 180th District Court (for Catherine Evans) | July 24 |
| 185th District Court (for Susan Brown) | July 10 |
| Criminal District Courts | June 26 |
| 262nd District Court (for Denise Bradley) | June 12 |
| Criminal District Courts | June 5 |
| Thomas | |
| 185th District Court (for Susan Brown) | August 2 |
| 185th District Court (for Susan Brown) | July 5 |
| 185th District Court (for Susan Brown) | June 7 |
Also, alarmingly, Marc Brown, aka Mr. Susan Brown, served as a visiting judge in the 180th District Court on July 31, 2017 and September 6, 2016. Why is a current, sitting appellate justice serving as a visiting judge in a trial court?
As you can see, the powers of the presiding judge are significant. Guess who has applied to serve as presiding judge of the newly created eleventh administrative judicial region? None other than Susan Brown – the judge who allowed her grand jury to be used for an unlawful purpose. If Governor Abbott choses to appoint Susan Brown to this position, he would send a terrible message to Texans.
Brown does not have the temperament for this position. Remember when she held a woman in contempt after the woman said, “Thank you, Jesus!” after her husband was acquitted?
Abbott must remember the 185th Grand Jury and the fact that this grand jury was misused for a political purpose. Some folks may have forgotten that Marc Brown actually appeared before this grand jury. A group of folks worked together to get rid of District Attorney Pat Lykos. They couldn’t do it legitimately, so they created a fake controversy and used Susan Brown’s grand jury to generate deceitful headlines.
Brown, et al. has led the justice system in Harris County down the wrong path. After the 185th runaway grand jury episode, the criminal district court judges got together and elected Susan Brown to serve as the administrative judge of the criminal division. Think about that a minute. Brown’s grand jury is used for an unlawful purpose and then her fellow judges nominate her to serve as their representative. Under Brown’s leadership, the judges decided to hide the identities of their grand jurors. More importantly, in her leadership role Brown supported not releasing the Planned Parenthood grand jurors.
They plan to use United States District Judge Lee Rosenthal’s bond ruling to put the democrats on trial during the gubernatorial election season. The truth is that Brown and friends are on the wrong side of this decision. Instead of taking action to repair the broken bail system, Brown, et al. allowed this decision to be made. If they had made appropriate decisions, the issue would not have been ripe.
For many years, the Browns and friends have gotten by with these misdeeds, but the line must be drawn right now. Contact Governor Abbott right now to let him know that Susan Brown and any character from the old guard.
Governor Abbott’s Appointments Office
512.463.1828
Gaby Fuentes, Governor Abbott’s Appointments Director
512.463.1828
Don, this is an interesting article; but it has only whetted my appetite for additional information.
What happened to the woman held in contempt for saying, “Thank you, Jesus!” after her husband was acquitted? I can understand why a judge may not be happy with someone bursting out loud in court, but that seems pretty severe. Is there more to the story? Surely she wouldn’t hold someone in contempt for a spontaneous expression of joy? Right?!
Also, do you know her stance on abortion? Has she participated in granting abortions through HB 3994?
And, lastly, can you elaborate on how a grand jury was “used for an unlawful purpose” by Judge Brown?
Thank you.
Judge Susan Brown is pro-choice and has granted judicial by-passes in her court proudly.
The woman who shouted out thank you Jesus was jailed. http://blog.bennettandbennett.com/tag/judge-susan-brown/
Judge Susan Brown impaneled a grand jury and appointed Patricia Pollard to be grang jury foreman, the long time friend and neighbor of Mike and Devon Anderson to take out Judge Pat Lykos. http://lifeattheharriscountycriminaljusticecenter.com/tag/judge-susan-brown-corruption
Don, I don’t want to discuss personalities with you. However, I can answer one question you pose: Why is a current, sitting appellate justice serving as a visiting judge in a trial court?
The answer is: some of us (former trial judges) are qualified to do so and it costs the taxpayers nothing when we volunteer to sit (other visiting judges are paid). This summer, at least two justices from the 14th Court of Appeals volunteered to preside over trials. Our summer interns were invited to observe (one group of interns did a mock jury deliberation)–they said it was a great learning experience.
MHJ
Martha,
I appreciate your comment. Corruption is not a personality it is a plague upon the judicial system. This is much more than a personality conflict. No matter what you think of Marc Brown’s personality every judge who serves on the court with him must know he will use his position for an unlawful purpose. Both he and his wife are very problematic for any part of the judicial process.
I still maintain it was Devon Anderson and her planned parenthood cohorts that skunked the election for Harris County. I also blame the Harris County GOP for not seeing that train wreck coming. meh, Harris County is probably just as liberal democrat as Houston is.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize both the city of Houston and Harris County are Democratic and figure to remain so into the distant future.
As for the judges, there should not be any partisan elections for judges, district attorneys and sheriffs. These elective positions require a non-partisan approach to their jobs. Instead of running in party primaries these people should run only in the general election. While campaigning they are free to identify themselves as Democrats or Republicans and they are also free to take their own positions on political issues. Bipartisan elections should be reserved for legislative position which includes city councils and county commissioners. That’s the way it’s done in other states.
Mr. Katz, do you really think that if you remove partisanship from elections that the candidates will automatically set aside their personal political beliefs and not address them in the campaign or that those beliefs will not affect the decisions they make while in office? Candidates that affiliate with a particular political party are telling the voters that they can rely on them to uphold the party platform as they serve the public. As a citizen, I want all the tools available to evaluate the quality of the candidates and party affiliation is one of the best tools for voters to do just that. As a precinct chair, and Tea Party leader, I routinely advise people to review the party platforms of the candidates running and use that as a guideline for your voting decision if you don’t know anything at all about the candidates which, unfortunately, is the position that many people find themselves in.
To Liberal Howie and his liberal friends,
Having grown up in one of those “done in other states”, I can tell you that unless you have Party Primaries selecting judicial (and non-judicial) nominees for general election candidates, the liberal metropolitan newspapers will win every election for their choices because their editorial recommendations become the totally dominant SLATES. Yes, the Houston Chronicle SLATE would be the dominant slate, and no other entity could exceed the number of Chronicle SLATES that were carried into the polling places. I know this to be true because my mother ran election polls for decades in the suburbs of that city, and many people brought it into the polls most often. That state and its major city have not elected a conservative judge (or hardly any non-judicial elected officials in even the suburbs in decades, because of the newspaper SLATE. The newspaper always strongly recommends liberals, and that state and city have been badly damaged by liberal criminal judges letting criminals go, and liberal civil judges commonly ruling for the trial/class action lawyers, regardless of the merits. What is that city and state of my birth? I’ll give you clues – they used to be an industrial giant in America. They used to be a pillar of law and order and business expansion. They used to be where any immigrant could get a factory job and make a decent living until a pension-supported retirement. They used to be a safe place to live until the destructive riot of 1967 destroyed communities, some of which have still not been rebuilt to this day. If you want Houston to become the future Detroit, then don’t elect judges by party primary nomination anymore. I escaped at age 22 some 40 years ago, simply because I did not want to live in a liberal state anymore where everything had gone bad. If you want Houston and Texas to go bad, then do what you propose. Only a liberal would propose such a thing, and want to change the rules of the election when they consistently lose to conservatives. Go visit Detroit – I dare you, and you can see what the product of 50+ years of totally dominant liberal judges and elected officials can destroy in over half a century. That’s Houston someday under your proposal.
The behaviors discussed in the story are troubling and unacceptable, However, I fully trust Don Hooper to have provided accurate information.
Mr. Katz’s comments seem way off the subject of the story. His assertion that at this time Harris County is Democrat is up in the air. Hopefully not, Democrat dominance would further escalate the population migration to the surrounding counties. Also, his recommendation based on the practice of other states to eliminate party primaries in favor of the bipartisan election of County officials is problematic. Which of these states have a better operating and financially stable county than Harris? Not to say that there isn’t plenty of room for improvement.
I noted that David Jennings, the creator, financier and brains behind BIG JOLLY POLITICS blog, did post a comment in which he stated he likes and has consistently voted for Justice Marc Brown and Judge Susan Brown…. which by the way, I have also.
But within a few hours of his posting, it was removed. Why?
I am a big fan of transparency. I am also a big fan of free speech ( …. it’s often referred to as one’s First Amendment rights) where consenting adults can have opposing views and they remain on the table. And we respect them. Might disagree but we respect another’s right to express a view. There was no need to take Jennings’ comments…. which were 180 degrees opposite the author’s …..down,
Oh, hold everything……… I know., The author does not like anyone to disagree with him. And Lord forbid the owner of the blog would do so.
Again I ask, why was Jennings’ valid comments removed? Thanks! MJS
Mary Jane, it was a poor attempt at humor. When I went back and read it, I realized that some people would take it wrong. The plain truth is that I did in fact vote for both Judges. Clearly the information that I had at the time wasn’t the whole story. The grand jury witch hunt against DA Lykos really opened my eyes to the incest and blatant disregard for truth in the Harris County criminal justice system.
DJ