Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare likely violated legal protections that ensure the right to free speech and open government in the case of two of three men he had removed from the commissioners court on Tuesday, experts in those topics told the Fort Worth Report.
Throughout the seven-hour Feb. 10 meeting, deputies with the county sheriff’s office removed Fort Worth residents Doyle Fine, 72, a retired U.S. Navy veteran; EJ Carrion, 36, who hosts the 817 Podcast focused on local politics; and Alexander Montalvo, 43, a progressive community activist.
All were removed from the courtroom after criticizing O’Hare. Fine was removed after yelling from the audience as the meeting was ongoing. However, Carrion and Montalvo spoke during meeting breaks after O’Hare called recesses.
Fine and Carrion are barred from returning to the courtroom for a year, which experts described as a severe — and troublingly inconsistent — punishment.
After returning from the recess during which Carrion was removed, O’Hare told the court’s audience he was going to say a “couple of things that everybody needs to hear.”
“Number one, I’m the presiding officer of this courtroom, whether we’re in session or not,” O’Hare said. “Number two: We are going to maintain order and decorum in here.”
However, O’Hare does not have legal authority to remove anyone during recesses, said Bill Aleshire, an Austin-based attorney who helped draft the original Texas Open Meetings Act, a law that requires government entities to keep official business accessible to the public.
“That’s a violation of free speech rights and rights to attend a public meeting. That was not during a meeting,” said Aleshire, who was not at the meeting Tuesday.
State law requires elected bodies, such as the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, to make government decisions publicly. Members of the public have the right to attend government meetings, excluding private legal deliberations, and to sign up to speak on agenda items under consideration.
Government bodies can enact “reasonable rules” to maintain decorum and efficiency, according to the Texas Open Meetings Act.
The commissioners courtroom’s rules of decorum prohibit certain types of speech and expression, such as personal attacks or “disruptive remarks or actions of approval or disapproval from the audience.”
However, key to enforcing meeting rules is whether a meeting is in session, said Aleshire, a former county judge himself.
“Speaking in a public place when there’s no meeting going on to interrupt — absolutely, that’s just free speech,” he said. Aleshire served as Travis County judge for more than a decade and said he never banned anyone from attending commissioners meetings despite facing his fair share of criticism.
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare at the Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting Feb. 10, 2026, in Fort Worth. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
O’Hare did not return calls seeking comment.
During the meeting, he told attendees and commissioners they “have every right” to disagree with the rules of decorum, but they must follow them. He warned that if anyone had “another outburst,” he’d have deputies “clear the entire room except for court members, their staffs and county employees. And we’ll bring in speakers one at a time.”
Sheriff’s deputies may remove attendees who pose a “threat to public safety,” but otherwise do not initiate meeting removals on their own, said Laurie Passman, director of public information for the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
She deferred questions about Tuesday’s removals to O’Hare’s office as decisions about decorum and removal are “made by the court,” she wrote in an email to the Report.
The judge’s chief of staff said O’Hare would not return messages left by media on his personal cell and referred questions to his spokesperson, who did not return messages.
Commissioners meeting marked by chaos
The commissioners’ courtroom was full most of Tuesday as residents trickled in and out to speak in opposition to a grant proposal that would support the county sheriff’s partnership with federal immigration officials. About 20 people spoke in opposition to amending the court’s rules to give residents less time to speak and restrict public briefings on legal issues such as deaths in the county jail.
Fine was the first attendee removed.
He interrupted the meeting by yelling, “Tell that to Renee Good,” after O’Hare spoke in favor of the ICE partnership on the basis that it makes Tarrant County safer. Good is one of several American citizens killed by ICE agents in recent months amid protests across the country against federal immigration enforcement.
Doyle Fine, Fort Worth resident and Navy veteran, is removed from the Tarrant County Commissioners Court on Feb. 10, 2026, in Fort Worth. Fine stood and told County Judge Tim O’Hare to, “Tell that to Renee Good,” when discussing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tarrant County. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Fine continued yelling from the audience until deputies removed him at O’Hare’s instructions.
Outbursts such as Fine’s aren’t legally protected since he caused a disruption speaking outside the portion of the meeting set aside to hear from the public, said Aaron Terr, public advocacy director for the Philadelphia-based nonpartisan nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Fine acknowledged in a phone interview that he violated the rules of decorum, and it was appropriate that he was removed from the meeting.
He explained that he had missed the deadline to register to speak at the meeting but felt compelled to say something against the ICE partnership because “civil disobedience is the most sincere form of patriotism.”
“I’m not a paid agitator. I’m just a pissed-off old Navy vet, and I don’t like to see the Constitution I swore an oath to being trampled upon, and people’s rights being abused,” Fine said.
Both Fine and Carrion were issued criminal trespass warnings and told the Fort Worth Report they were advised that they will receive notices in the mail of a one-year ban from the commissioners courtroom.
After Fine was removed, O’Hare called a meeting recess to end an argument with Commissioner Alisa Simmons, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the March primary election to challenge O’Hare for the county judge seat in November.
Carrion, who was seated in the audience, called the county judge “small,” then twice called out, “O’Hare we go again.”
O’Hare briefly reprimanded Carrion from the dais and warned him he would be removed, while Carrion replied that his right to free speech allowed him to speak during the meeting recess. Moments later, several deputies escorted Carrion out of the courtroom as other attendees yelled “shame” at them.
Later in the meeting, Simmons questioned why Carrion was removed during a recess. She noted that official business is “paused” during meeting recesses.
“While decorum is always important, enforcement actions taken outside of active proceedings — those raise concerns about consistency and due process,” she said.
Commissioner Alisa Simmons listens during a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting Feb. 10, 2026, in Fort Worth. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
The state’s 2026 handbook on the Open Meetings Act states that a government body’s rules of decorum “may not unfairly discriminate among speakers for or against a particular point of view.” It also outlines that “a governmental body may not prohibit public criticism of the governmental body, including criticism of any act, omission, policy, procedure, program or service,” except criticism otherwise prohibited by law.
Simmons asked county attorney Mark Kratovil whether the removal was consistent with the court’s adopted rules.
O’Hare instructed Kratovil not to give “legal advice” during the meeting and overruled Simmons’ request, which Kratovil explained in the meeting that O’Hare has authority to do. Simmons appealed the decision, which required a majority vote of the court, and the GOP members rejected it. Kratovil did not return a request for comment.
Carrion’s criticism of O’Hare during the recess is protected speech as the Texas Open Meetings Act “forbids the Commissioners Court from prohibiting criticism of themselves,” said Nina Oishi, an attorney with Texas Civil Rights Project.
She stressed that the criminal trespass warnings issued to Carrion and Fine are “very unusual” and “extremely severe” compared to other county governments.
“Everybody should be extremely shocked by that,” Oishi said. “People need to know that this is what their elected officials are doing, and this is what their elected officials think of their right to speak.”
Throughout the meeting, O’Hare repeatedly warned attendees speaking out in the audience that they might be removed.
He spoke in favor of a vote to adopt stricter meeting rules, telling attendees that both citizens and county staff have asked him to “do something about decorum in the courtroom.”
Over the past year, several attendees have been removed from commissioners meetings, with some criminally charged, for clapping, swearing or criticizing the court. In 2024, O’Hare announced he was doubling down on meeting rules, warning that people would be removed for speaking over their time limits.
Residents still have opportunities to speak at meetings, O’Hare said, and he was hopeful the rules would address disruptions.
“Political theater simply does not help people,” O’Hare said.
Fort Worth resident Alexander Montalvo is removed from the Tarrant County Commissioners Court on Feb. 10, 2026, in Fort Worth. Montalvo said the word “fascist” after County Judge Tim O’Hare called a recess. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Montalvo was escorted out of the courtroom for repeatedly saying “fascist” after O’Hare called another meeting recess to end an argument with Simmons. Montalvo told the Report deputies let him leave without a criminal trespass warning.
In December, both Montalvo and Carrion were removed from a Fort Worth City Council meeting they attended to criticize changes in the council’s meeting schedule that gave residents fewer chances to speak. City marshals instructed Carrion to leave after he shouted from the audience, then made Montalvo leave as well when he asked why Carrion was being removed.
Their removals for speaking during the commissioners’ recesses indicate O’Hare wants control in the courtroom as community activists seek accountability and access at public meetings, Montalvo and Carrion said.
“Judge Tim O’Hare’s gloves are off,” Carrion said. “He is swinging as hard as he can against the people.”
To Fine, the trespass warning is a badge of honor. He even framed it the next day, which was his birthday.
“Raising my flag of civil disobedience was my birthday present,” Fine said. “When I’m dead and gone, my grandkids can say, ‘Hey, my granddaddy, he raised some hell on his way out.’”
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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