Somewhere Napoleon is Smiling
Over two years ago, shortly before the most recent election for the fifteen Harris County Criminal Court at Law (misdemeanor) benches, there was a brouhaha at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center about a politically incorrect email sent by CCCL6 Judge Larry Standley to other judges:
The issue: an e-mail [captioned, “What in the world is this? My God?”] forwarded to at least one of the judges from one of their colleagues. Why it’s an issue: It apparently included a poster for the underground short movie entitled Gayniggers From Outer Space. (The movie itself is made by gays from Denmark and is a spoof of sorts; the title allegedly refers to what some gay African blacks in Europe call themselves. You can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAW5NRj2YhE.)
(Houston Press, October 26, 2006 and Houston Chronicle, November 25, 2008.) The story was in the TV news as well as the weekly free tabloid Press at the time.
Judge Standley is an excellent judge who cares about people. There is more justice done in his court in a morning than in most courts in a week.
He is also one of those people whose social filters don’t always work the way they are expected to; we can agree that sending this email was a lousy decision. Judge Mike Fields took offense and complained to the Commission on Judicial Conduct (of which he is the Vice Chairman). The commission took evidence, including affidavits by several other CCCL judges in favor of Judge Standley, and rejected the complaint.
Flash forward to 2008, right after an election for Harris County Criminal District Court (felony) benches in which the Republican Party got its rich white ass handed to it. Judge Fields is hoping to be appointed to a vacant seat on the Court of Appeals (the intermediate appellate court for both civil and criminal cases); Harris County Republican Party Chairman lawyer Jared Woodfill (who bears a striking resemblance to a certain Mike Judge character) had recommended Judge Fields for the position.
A side note: Because they are elected to represent a larger area including Houston’s white-flight suburbs, Court of Appeals judges were well insulated in 2008 from the Democratic tide that swept the District Court benches. One way for a Republican misdemeanor judge to escape the possible 2010 continuation of the 2008 surge is to be appointed to the appellate bench.
Anyway, Judge Fields doesn’t get the gig, and he and Woodfill blame Standley. So:
With copies of the e-mails now in hand, Woodfill recently had Fields
and Standley explain their actions to the party’s advisory committee,
the same group that helped push out Rosenthal.Woodfill said merely the content of Standley’s e-mails justifies
calling for his resignation, regardless of whether the fallout affected
Fields.“When you see racism like that you have to kill it one act at a
time,” Woodfill said. “Regardless of what party you are affiliated
with, you have to stand up and say it was wrong.”
(Houston Chronicle article by Alan Bernstein — read the complete article.)
That might have been a convincing and noble argument in the past — say in November 2006 — but now it falls flat. Woodfill, unless he’s even more clueless about Harris County politics than I am, knew about these emails, including their specific content, in October 2006. If that content justifies calling for his resignation now, it has called for it every day for the last two years.
Woodfill pitches this as the party acting, but it turns out that party leadership met recently in executive session and did not decide to act against Standley.What Woodfill is doing is trying to give the idea of ousting Standley some legs before the party has to make a decision on it.
It’s a hatchet job. Not only is it a hatchet job, but it’s a hatchet job undertaken for personal revenge. Not only is it a hatchet job undertaken for personal revenge, but it’s a hatchet job undertaken for personal revenge against one of the fairest, most just misdemeanor judges in the courthouse.
And that’s what makes Jared Woodfill today’s Asshat Lawyer of the Day.
“Hey, Beavis, he said ‘asshat!’ Heh-heh. Heh.”
About The Author
Is Woodfill a lawyer?
I don’t know if he’s a lawyer, but he’s an attorney.
I think Woodfill is actually working for the democrats. Do I smell a conspiracy?
Why does my icon have buckteeth and glasses? Are you TRYING to give away my super secret identity?!?!?
[edit] are you serious? Judge Fields is a black man who had the NUTS TO STAND UP FOR HIMSELF AND SOMEHOW HE IS WRONG.…[edit]
[Sorry, tmerriweather08. If you’re going to call people names here, you won’t be doing it anonymously. ed.]
No, Fields did what he needed to; I don’t begrudge him that.
Then nothing — silence — for two years.
Woodfill, however, is wrong. He acted like he didn’t know anything about this (despite the press coverage) until now, when it serves his purposes (i.e. revenge) to act like the Republican party gives a damn.
You have to ask yourself, “why now?” The answer is not that the Republican Party cares about the black man.
I agree with you, Mark. The timing on this is definitely fishy. The question is what does this particular timing serve?
Do you recall if the offending e-mail was sent before or after the 2006 election? If so, did it matter? I don’t really remember any of the CCL judges being opposed (but that was a lifetime ago, it seems).
Do you have any ideas on why the release happened now?
It was before the 2006 election. My theory is that the release is now because it’s motivated by personal revenge. Some might argue that it’s now so that Woodfill can try to reframe the Republican Party.
Woodfill ought to have the good grace to fall on his sword; with luck Benkiser of RPT will topple with him. Any opportunity Woodfill has had to tune-up the local party is gone.
When I was working for a civil defense firm in Galveston, one of my bosses was driving in his car one day listening to Nazi Talk Radio when who should appear as a guest talking about ‘tort reform’ but one Jared Woodfill.
This particular boss of mine (in addition to be a State Democratic Exec Committee member) also happened to be handling what can only be classified as utter bullshit lawsuits against a railroad client for injuries caused to a town in central Texas by a cross-tie plant. [I’m for tort plaintiff’s getting their justice in courts–but these claims were BS].
He tried to call in to talk to Mr. Woodfill about his comments about ‘runaway lawsuit abuse’, but Woodfill refused to let the call screener put my boss through. Seems he talks out of both sides of his mouth on ‘tort reform’.
Woodfill is a hypocritical shyster of the first order.