{"id":202012,"date":"2026-03-12T22:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202012\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:06:10","slug":"could-pending-judicial-misconduct-case-impact-amber-givens-ability-to-be-da","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202012\/","title":{"rendered":"Could pending judicial misconduct case impact Amber Givens\u2019 ability to be DA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Democratic nominee for Dallas County district attorney is awaiting a ruling in a judicial misconduct case that could result in sanctions but would not prevent her from serving as the county\u2019s top prosecutor, according to a local administrative judge. <\/p>\n

Amber Givens handily defeated<\/a> two-term incumbent John Creuzot in one of the biggest upsets of last week\u2019s Democratic primary. Because no Republican, independent or other party candidates entered the race, the former felony court judge will head into the November general election unopposed.<\/p>\n

But before that happens, a Special Court of Review is expected to decide<\/a> whether Givens is guilty of multiple judicial misconduct allegations that have been looming over her for nearly five years. <\/p>\n

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Leaders of the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association filed two complaints in 2021. The complaints alleged Givens had allowed a staff member to stand in for her during a virtual bond hearing and had harshly treated attorneys and defendants appearing before her on multiple occasions. <\/p>\n

Another investigation was initiated the following year by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The allegations suggested she had presided over two criminal cases after she\u2019d been recused, jailing a man in one case and revoking bond from another.<\/p>\n

Last summer, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued two sanctions<\/a> against Givens. The first included a public reprimand, the harshest sanction available, for the bond hearing incident and her treatment of attorneys and defendants in her court. The second was an admonition \u2013 a public warning to address violations of the judicial conduct code \u2013 for her actions in the recusal cases.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Judge<\/p>\n

Givens appealed the findings and a trial was held last month<\/a> at the Texas Supreme Court in Austin. The three-judge panel is expected to issue a decision after prosecutors from the attorney general\u2019s office and Givens\u2019 attorneys file briefs in the case, with the final filing deadline on April 24.<\/p>\n

The only impact a guilty finding could have on Givens is if the panel issues a public reprimand, which would mean Givens wouldn\u2019t be allowed to serve as a visiting judge, said Regional Administrative Judge Ray Wheless, who presides over a seven-county region that includes Dallas County. <\/p>\n

Givens\u2019 attorney Chip Babcock said if they decided against her \u201cit would trail her political career, but that\u2019s about it.\u201d He said considering Givens won her race by more than 20,000 votes<\/a> despite years of media coverage about the misconduct accusations, she likely wouldn\u2019t suffer politically.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"(From<\/p>\n

Two lawyers from the attorney general\u2019s office who prosecuted the case didn\u2019t respond to messages sent by The Dallas Morning News, nor did Givens.<\/p>\n

With Givens poised to run unopposed in November\u2019s general election, Dallas County GOP Chair Allen West said \u201cno one answered the call to serve\u201d in the local party\u2019s effort to field a candidate for the race. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s too late for anyone else, including independent candidates, to run because the deadline to file a notice of intent was in December. A write-in campaign is the only path another candidate could take to oppose Givens, according to Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the secretary of state\u2019s office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Democratic nominee for Dallas County district attorney is awaiting a ruling in a judicial misconduct case that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[815,102,581,104,103,288,223],"class_list":["post-202012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-courts","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-county","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-elections","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202012","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=202012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}