Fort Bend County’s Democratic commissioners remain in a stalemate with their Republican counterparts over Daniel Wong’s authority to serve as county judge – a key question as the suburban Houston-area county approaches tax rate discussions and the elected position is set to be on the November ballot.
The county resident who filed a lawsuit last fall against former county judge KP George – which led to Wong’s interim appointment in April – is asking a district court judge to help provide an answer.
Wong, a Republican who is facing Commissioner Dexter McCoy in November’s county judge election, was appointed to serve in the role by Judge Jeth Jones. The visiting Republican judge from Galveston County did so while suspending George – in response to a civil lawsuit filed by a resident who claimed George violated her free-speech rights and was incompetent to hold office. Jones’ decision followed George’s criminal conviction in March on felony money laundering charges.
Now an attorney representing the resident who filed the civil suit, Sarah Roberts, is asking Jones to vacate his temporary appointment of Wong as of June 17, the date the lawsuit was initially dismissed at Roberts’ request.
Jones presided over a court hearing last Thursday that included Roberts’ attorney as well as legal counsel for Wong, who is challenging Roberts’ request. Jones called the case “complex” and indicated he would make a ruling “soon,” also discussing the possibility of another hearing in the case.
In addition to arguing that Wong’s appointment became invalidated when the lawsuit against George was dismissed, Roberts’ attorney, Dylan B. Russell, also argued that his client lacked standing to sue in the first place because a county attorney or county district attorney was not involved in litigating the matter.
“We’re asking the court simply to clarify what we believe is the law already, just to put it in writing,” Russell said during Thursday’s court hearing.
In the meantime, Wong is locked in a separate lawsuit filed by Fort Bend County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson, a Democrat who also is seeking to have Wong’s appointment invalidated because of the dismissal of the civil lawsuit. Wong’s legal team argues his appointment was subsequently confirmed by the commissioners court and that Texas’ holdover provision allows him to stay in office pending the results of the upcoming election.
See here for the most recent update. It did not occur to me that the person who filed the original lawsuit that led to Daniel Wong being appointed as Fort Bend County Judge would later argue that they didn’t have standing to sue. I feel like that is a situation that is not often covered in law school. Be that as it may, if Judge Jones is good to his word that he will rule on this “soon”, then perhaps we will be able to move forward one way or the other.
Meanwhile, in the other lawsuits:
The district judge responsible for deciding whether Daniel Wong’s interim appointment remains valid — despite a lawsuit claiming it’s not — is a known supporter of Wong, critics allege, calling into question a possible conflict of interest.
[…]
Wong sued the county attorney’s office on July 6, challenging Smith-Lawson’s legal opinion that his interim appointment expired. Smith-Lawson countersued, and Wong dropped his legal challenge, saying at the time that he saw no need to litigate the same issues in two separate court cases. Wong’s case had landed in the 248th District Court, where a Democratic judge presides.
The matter now lies in the hands of Republican District Judge Edward Krenek because that’s where Smith-Lawson’s “quo warranto” filing was assigned. Krenek and Wong are both prominent figures in the Fort Bend County Republican Party, and some critics have said that the two are close friends, suggesting that Krenek and his wife Tricia, a justice of the peace, were photographed “campaigning” for Wong as recently as July 3.
Photos of Krenek and Wong allegedly appeared on the Daniel Wong for Fort Bend County Judge social media page and were later removed, said two members of the Fort Bend Democratic Party who asked to remain anonymous. Krenek did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday on either the status of the case or whether he has campaigned for Wong.
Wong’s critics say they expect Krenek to “slow roll” the case filed by Smith-Lawson and let the clock run out so Wong remains the interim judge until the November 3 election and gets the advantage of being the incumbent, even though he’s never been elected to that post.
[Wong spokesman Buddy] Eberle said Fort Bend County Republicans frequently see each other at events and occasionally photos are taken. “That doesn’t reflect any sort of special relationship,” he said. “I think that is just low-hanging fruit for the Democrats to complain about. Judge Wong handles his office very seriously and I know Judge Krenek does too. They’re both professionals and they’ll continue to do their jobs.”
Eberle said he didn’t have any insight into when a ruling would be made, only that Krenek’s court accepted the quo warranto motion filed by Smith-Lawson. “Our legal team is fully prepared to respond but we don’t know the exact timeline right now,” Eberle said.
Gotta say, dropping the lawsuit that was assigned to a court with a Democratic judge is a good piece of legal strategy. County Attorney Smith-Lawson could file a motion for Judge Krenek to recuse himself, but that’s always a risky move. And to be fair, he should be expected to do his job and follow the law. I personally would need a little more than this to buy into the conflict of interest allegations. I don’t think they’re meritless, but they’re not sufficient. Perhaps Smith-Lawson sees it the same way. And perhaps Judge Jones will render this all moot.