Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot heads into the Democratic primary for a third term with a commanding financial edge, a high public profile and an opponent facing disciplinary findings from state regulators.
Creuzot, a former felony court judge, said he is running on a record of expanding diversion programs, directing people with mental illness and substance abuse issues to treatment instead of jail and continuing to investigate wrongful convictions.
“We’ve delivered on all our promises,” he said. “And we’ve done it with dignity and we’ve done it with respect.”
Creuzot’s lone challenger, Amber Givens, stepped down as a felony court judge in December to run for district attorney. She heads into the March 3 primary with limited fundraising, low approval ratings and two state sanctions she is appealing. Givens didn’t respond to a message from The Dallas Morning News seeking comment.
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Online records show Creuzot has far surpassed her in fundraising, collecting around $420,000, compared to Givens’ $10,000. Her campaign has only submitted one finance report to date and missed the latest filing deadline.
Givens routinely received low approval ratings from the Dallas Bar Association during her 11 years presiding over the 282nd District Court, with 89% of the respondents in her most recent polling saying she “needed improvement.”
Twice sanctioned by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Givens’ record includes these findings:
In July, the commission issued a public reprimand, the harshest sanction available, finding Givens had allowed a court coordinator to preside over a virtual bond hearing in her place.The commission in the same month publicly admonished her after ruling she had wrongly jailed one man and revoked bond from another after she’d been recused from their cases.County commissioners last fall voted to withhold a $25,000 judicial pay supplement from her due to job performance concerns, but reversed their decision after she sued.
Givens has said in social media posts that she believes her state sanctions were driven by the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association after she created an antidiscrimination policy in response to racist social media comments posted by an attorney.
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Creuzot’s office and Givens often battled during her time as a judge.
She repeatedly accused prosecutors of not turning over evidence in a timely manner, having missing evidence and taking cases to trial that weren’t strong enough to support a conviction. They, in turn, have complained that she set unreasonable deadlines and expectations, and sometimes lacked impartiality.
On her website and in interviews posted online, Givens has indicated she would create policies to ensure evidence is quickly obtained and turned over, and would seek to have more citizen involvement through community justice councils. She also said she wants to do more to support victims, exonerate the wrongly convicted and redirect those suffering from mental illness and substance abuse to treatment rather than jail.
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Creuzot said much of what Givens has proposed has already been established under his leadership, including deflection centers that divert people with mental illness to treatment programs instead of incarceration. A drug court he created in 1998 as a judge connects defendants with treatment and became a model in the state. In 2013, the county honored Creuzot by renaming a drug treatment facility that serves as an alternative to incarceration after him.
His office also has worked to decrease the number of juveniles in the detention center, and to get judgments sent faster to the jail to expedite releases, he said. A conviction integrity unit created by one of his predecessors continues to work to exonerate the wrongly convicted. Last month, he was invited to join a national coalition of prosecutors that will assist in prosecuting federal law enforcement officers who violate state law.
Early voting began Tuesday in Texas and extends to Feb. 27. Election Day is March 3. Because no Republicans entered the district attorney’s race, the winner of the Democratic primary is likely to be declared the winner after the Nov. 3 general election.