Correction: The original headline and article conflated two separate misuses of power by Judge Hawthorne and stated that Hawthorne reprimanded a jury for a rape verdict involving her nephew. However, Hawthorne was reprimanded for possibly interfering in a case involving her nephew, and in a separate case involving a rape verdict she was reprimanded for her responses to the jury.
The Dallas News is reporting that the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct reprimanded District Judge Teresa Hawthorne for abusing her power as a judge by both shaming a jury over a rape judgement as well as trying to “interfere” in a separate case involving her nephew. Judge Hawthorne admits to only one of the many incredibly disturbing allegations. Jurors, the foreman, and others spoke to the Commission.
"Quite frankly, I am disturbed," one juror recalled Hawthorne saying, according to the reprimand. "I am disturbed by the way you came back with such a harsh verdict and sentence for this man's life in such a short period of time. Did you even discuss the details of this case at all?"
Law & Crime reports that Hawthorne allegedly gave the jury an opinion on the case as well.
Nora Creed, the foreperson in the case involving the convicted rapist, said Hawthorne told the jury that their “punishment was too harsh,” and that she “did not believe the victim was raped at all.”
And while Judge Hawthorne will continue to be on the bench for at least a year, these are an incredible set of findings by the Commission.
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Hawthorne sent an email Sept. 12, 2014, to state District Judge Bob Darnell in Lubbock County asking for Darnell to withdraw the warrant in her nephew's case. The district attorney's office in Lubbock had no record of being copied on the message.
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Darnell said that Hawthorne also called him Sept. 24, 2014, and inquired about the case. She told Darnell she "was allowed to represent members of her family under an unspecified rule."
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On June 30, 2015, Hawthorne sent Darnell a second email asking that he and the Lubbock County prosecutor "agree to remove the warrant." The email was forwarded to the prosecutor the next day.
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Hawthorne testified Aug. 24, 2016, on her nephew's behalf without being subpoenaed. "During her testimony, Judge Hawthorne referenced her judicial position on three separate occasions, and offered an opinion to her nephew's character."
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Judge Hawthorne told the commission that she and Darnell never "communicated with each other without the assistant district attorney being involved." She also denied any oral conversations with Darnell about her nephew's case.
Hawthorne has only been on the bench since 2011 and comes up for election this coming year. According to the Dallas News a Democratic prosecutor Raquel “Rocky” Jones says she will challenge her.