The George Allen Courts Building pictured in Dallas, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023.
Elias Valverde II/Dallas Morning News
A Dallas County judge who threatened to halt jury trials and hold other proceedings online after the Texas Supreme Court ordered her to stop requiring face masks will instead make her rulings in a courtroom protected by clear plastic shields, according to a local administrative judge.
The compromise ends a weeks-long standoff that began after a lawyer complained about Judge D’Metria Benson’s policy that he said forced everyone in her courtroom, except Benson, to wear a mask.
The complaint from Dallas attorney Brian Hail to regional administrative Judge Ray Wheless questioned what legal authority Benson had for her rule.
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Supreme Court Justice James Blacklock entered the fray last month, demanding an explanation from Benson. Benson wrote that she enforced the rule because she has health issues that make her highly susceptible to infection.
Blacklock and the court’s other eight justices wrote to Benson May 29 that they sympathized but believed requiring masks was unduly burdensome to others and interfered with the court’s proper functioning. The justices ordered her to end the mandate immediately.
A spokesperson for Benson sent a statement Monday to The Dallas Morning News saying she was “exploring alternative solutions” in response to the court’s order. Until then, the judge would hold all proceedings virtually and suspend jury trials, the statement said.
“The mask request in the courtroom is to protect my health as I was diagnosed with an extremely rare autoimmune disease in May 2022 and was advised by my physicians to take stringent precautions because any infection, illness or disease could be life threatening,” Benson said in the statement. “I do not exaggerate the level of my susceptibility.”
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She said in a letter to the Supreme Court she suffered a severe infection last year following a surgical procedure and spent 10 days in a medically induced coma. She spent three weeks in the hospital, mostly in an intensive care unit, she wrote.
In one of her responses to the court, Benson wrote that she had installed hospital-grade air filters in her courtroom and chambers at her own expense, and worked behind a Plexiglas shield on her bench to protect herself.
Benson also accused Hail of exaggerating her mask rules. She said she allowed witnesses to testify without face coverings behind a Plexiglas screen, and attorneys to go unmasked when offering opening and closing statements, questioning witnesses, making objections, and addressing the court. And the judge said Hail’s claim that a bailiff in her court had threatened to lock up an attorney if he didn’t stop arguing about the mask rule “stretches credulity.”
Related: A Dallas judge still requires masks in court. The state’s highest court wants to know why
Benson’s spokesperson didn’t respond to follow-up questions from The News asking about an account from Hail that she has attended multiple social functions where no one was masked, as well as why she reversed her plans for virtual hearings and a temporary suspension of jury trials.
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Wheless, who presides over the judicial region that includes Dallas County, and Judge Andrea Plumlee, the county’s administrative judge, informed Benson earlier this week that if she went through with her plans to go virtual and suspend trials, they would assign her cases to other judges, Wheless said.
“If you’re an elected official, you’ve got to do your job,” Wheless said Friday by phone with The News. “And if you’re holding cases virtually and not having jury trials, you’re not doing your job.”
Wheless said it was Benson who proposed installing additional shields. The county will take care of the installation and cost, Wheless said, just as it did for other judges during the pandemic.
Blacklock issued a statement Friday in which he said he was pleased that a solution had been found.
“Presiding over in-person courtroom proceedings, including jury trials, is a required part of every trial judge’s job,” Blacklock said in the statement. “Judge Benson has indicated that she intends to resume in-person proceedings very soon without requiring masks or other unreasonable restrictions.
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“The Court appreciates her efforts to promptly comply with its order and will continue to monitor the situation.”
Benson has presided over Dallas County Court at Law No. 1 since 2006. She was defeated in the March 3 Democratic primary by Erin Nowell, a former appellate court judge. Benson’s term ends Dec. 31.