Judiciary
Judge suspended after courthouse confrontation with delivery driver
A Texas judge has been suspended after he was indicted on a misdemeanor charge of official oppression stemming from a dispute with a delivery driver. (Image from Shutterstock)
A Texas judge has been suspended after he was indicted on a misdemeanor charge of official oppression stemming from a dispute with a delivery driver.
The Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct suspended Judge William Ross Mitchell of Uvalde County, Texas, without pay in a Nov. 11 order, report Law.com, the San Antonio Express-News (via Yahoo News) and KSAT.
Mitchell is accused in the indictment of subjecting the driver to unlawful “arrest, detention or seizure” while acting under color of his office as a county judge.
The incident happened March 27 at the Uvalde County Courthouse, according to an April 3 lawsuit filed by United Parcel Service delivery driver Tyler M. Cox.
The second amended complaint, filed July 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, said Cox had permission to leave packages in a first-floor hallway because of elevator maintenance. Despite his “lawful presence,” Mitchell “publicly humiliated him, shouting derogatory remarks and violently seizing his delivery dolly, scattering packages and committing assault,” according to the amended suit, filed without an attorney.
When Cox offered to relocate the packages, Mitchell ordered a deputy to arrest and handcuff him, and the deputy obliged, the suit said. Cox was handcuffed “excessively tightly,” causing injury, the suit said. He was detained for more than five minutes, during which Mitchell demanded that Cox tell him his name and seized his cellphone, according to the allegations.
Mitchell also defamed Cox when he told the Uvalde Leader-News that Cox called the judge “an ‘a – -hole,’” the suit said. Uvalde County refused to release surveillance video, controlled by Mitchell, following the incident, according to the suit.
In an Aug. 7 motion to dismiss the second amended complaint, a lawyer for Mitchell and the county said the packages that Cox tried to leave on the first floor were addressed to third-floor offices. After the matter was brought to Mitchell’s attention, he informed Cox that the packages had to be delivered to the third floor.
Cox “became upset with the fact that packages needed to be delivered to their appropriate address on the third floor and committed disorderly conduct by grabbing two of the packages and calling Judge Mitchell [an] ‘a – -hole’ as he went up the stairwell,” the dismissal motion said.
Mitchell did order Cox’s arrest, the motion said. The deputy caught up with Cox on the second floor, handcuffed one of his hands and partly handcuffed the other, the suit said. Cox was handcuffed “for approximately five seconds” before Mitchell climbed the stairs and ordered the deputy to remove the handcuff, according to the motion.
Cox then voluntarily gave his phone to Mitchell to call his supervisor. After Mitchell called the supervisor and reported the incident, he returned the cellphone, the dismissal motion said.
The motion contends that Mitchell has absolute judicial immunity, and Cox failed to state any viable cause of action.
Mitchell did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment left at his courthouse office. His lawyer, Charles S. Frigerio, did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email seeking comment.
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