Criminal Charges Should be Filed Against Texas Judge Sharon Keller

Please sign the email petition below. After you sign, an email from you will be sent to Travis County Attorney David Escamilla asking him to file criminal charges against Judge Sharon Keller.

Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, has been fined $100,000 by the Texas Ethics Commission for 13 violations equivalent to misdemeanors for failing to disclose a litany of financial holdings, including shares of stock, nine sources of income, certificates of deposit, interest in a business entity and property valued at $2.8 million. She also omitted multiple board or executive positions and honoraria that she accepted. She may have committed more violations but the 2-year statute of limitations has run on some of her past behavior, so the TEC was not able to punish her for violations for which the statute of limitations had run.

Read the order from the Texas Ethics Commission.

Keller could now face criminal charges by Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, according to a post on Grits for Breakfast. 

Please fill out the form below to send an email to David Escamilla urging him to pursue criminal charges against Sharon Keller. The TEC found that there is "credible evidence of violations of section 572.023 of the Government Code", so it is appropriate that criminal charges are filed in addition to the civil penalty assessed by the TEC.

The criminal offense for a violation of section 572.023 of the Government Code is a Class B misdemeanor.

Sharon Keller should be suspended from office pending the outcome of any charges that may be filed against her by Travis County Attorney Escamilla.

In a separate matter that also speaks to the ethical standards and judgement of Sharon Keller she is facing formal charges by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for her actions in 2007 that prevented attorneys for Michael Richard to file a late appeal with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the day he was executed. Keller reportedly said, "we close at 5".

Keller faces a public hearing on June 18 on the charges from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.  

The Houston Chronicle editorial board has written that "it is too late for rule of law to apply to Michael Wayne Richard. But it must be applied to Keller, whose deformed ethical compass makes her unfit to judge". 

After being charged by the SCJC, Keller claimed that she lacked assets to pay private counsel to fight the allegations that she improperly closed the court to a last-minute death-penalty appeal. She suggested that defending herself would be "financially ruinous" – an argument that strained credulity coming from a well-paid judge but now appears outrageous, given the amount of income and property she was not disclosing.

If Keller is charged with a misdemeanor on the allegations that she failed to report millions of dollars in income and property, then she could be suspended from office according to the Commission rules. If she is suspended, the hearing and formal proceedings would continue on schedule but she would be suspended from performing her duties as judge.

Rule 15(a) of the Procedural Rules for Removal or Retirement of Judges on the website of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct allows the Commission to suspend a judge "charged with a misdemeanor involving official misconduct".

Please sign the online email petition below. After you sign, an email from you will be sent to Travis County Attorney David Escamilla asking him to file criminal charges against Sharon Keller. 

You may change the text of the email if you like, or just sign your name and send it.

For more information about Sharon Keller's transgressions, visit www.sharonkiller.com.

If you live in Travis County, you can mention that in the beginning of your email: I am one of your constituents in Travis County.

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