{"id":191563,"date":"2026-03-05T10:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/191563\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T10:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:30:25","slug":"sanctioned-judge-upsets-incumbent-in-dallas-district-attorney-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/191563\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctioned Judge Upsets Incumbent in Dallas District Attorney Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, former Dallas County District Judge Amber Givens was fighting her sanctions<\/a> for judicial misconduct before the Texas Supreme Court. Today, she\u2019s the presumptive Democratic nominee\u2014and with no Republican running\u2014the likely next district attorney for one of Texas\u2019 biggest counties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This marks a major upset against the incumbent Dallas DA, Democrat John Creuzot, a retired judge who first won the post in 2018 as part of a wave of reform-minded prosecutors in Texas and nationwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Givens, who presided over the 282nd District Court from 2015 to December of last year, when she resigned to run for DA, was extremely controversial among defense attorneys, prosecutors, and people whose cases she oversaw during her time on the bench. Even so, she bested Creuzot on Tuesday with a 54-46 margin. Creuzot was running for his third term as Dallas\u2019 top prosecutor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Election day was chaotic in Dallas on Tuesday, as many voters weren\u2019t aware of a switch to precinct-based voting. Democratic voting hours were extended by a court order that was later stayed by the Texas Supreme Court, making it unclear whether ballots cast after the original closing time counted.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Creuzot conceded<\/a> to Givens and issued a statement: \u201cWhile the outcome was not what we had hoped for, I am proud of the work my team accomplished and the important conversations we advanced about justice, accountability, and public safety in Dallas County,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Givens\u2019 victory was an \u201cabsolute upset,\u201d said Amanda Branan, a defense attorney involved in filing complaints against Givens to the state. \u201cShe was more interested in herself than serving justice,\u201d Branan told the Texas Observer. \u201cShe knows how to talk the talk to the public, but the way she behaved when she was on the bench was just not appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creuzot secured major endorsements ahead of the primary, including several members of the Dallas County Commissioners Court and the Dallas City Council, as well as The Dallas Morning News and multiple local Democratic groups. He also raised over $400,000 while Givens only had about $20,000. Givens\u2019 campaign site does not list any endorsements. Givens has previously worked as a defense attorney, assistant district attorney, and county judge. She was part of a historic wave of women of color who ran for and won\u00a0judicial seats in Dallas in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Givens has said she wanted to run to make the DA\u2019s office more transparent and less political. \u201cWhen politics tried to break me, purpose built me,\u201d she wrote on Facebook announcing her candidacy in December.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Creuzot has been a stalwart DA,\u201d said Douglas Huff, president of the Dallas Criminal Defense Board. \u201cI\u2019m flummoxed. \u2026 I\u2019ve spoken to plenty of other people in the defense bar and across the board. I personally think we\u2019re looking at some very dangerous days ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June of last year, Givens was publicly reprimanded<\/a> by the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct\u2014the state board responsible for holding elected judges accountable\u2014for allegedly having a staffer impersonate her<\/a> during a bond hearing in 2021 and for mistreating lawyers in her courtroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Givens\u2019 failures \u2026 constituted willful and\/or persistent conduct that is clearly inconsistent with the proper performance of her judicial duties and cast public discredit upon judiciary or the administration of justice,\u201d commission Chair Gary Steel wrote in the reprimand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was also publicly admonished<\/a> for acting in cases where she had recused herself\u2014leading to one man\u2019s arrest and another\u2019s jailing. Givens is appealing the sanctions, which led to last week\u2019s hearing on the matter.<\/p>\n

During her time on the bench, Givens got an unprecedented number of recusal requests from prosecutors and defense attorneys who didn\u2019t want her handling their cases\u2014the requests accused Givens of \u201clacking impartiality, making unfair rulings, treating lawyers with disrespect, and having a \u2018retaliatory nature\u2019,\u201d according to judicial commission documents. Givens has called these sanctions and allegations \u201cpolitically-motivated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been anxiety within the DA\u2019s office since Givens announced her plans to run in December. Many suspect she\u2019ll clean house when she takes over\u2014which is not unheard of when new DAs come into power.<\/p>\n

Givens was consistently deemed a \u201clow-performing\u201d judge, with Dallas County Commissioners singling her out to not receive bonus pay last year\u2014until she sued<\/a> the county, and commissioners changed their minds.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, former Dallas County District Judge Amber Givens was fighting her sanctions for judicial misconduct before the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2137,2314,102,104,103,20909,75971],"class_list":["post-191563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-2026-elections","tag-criminal-justice","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-john-creuzot","tag-judge-amber-givens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}