The Texas Department of Public Safety is investigating a Dallas judge and her court administrator after the judge was accused last year of letting the administrator pretend to be her during a court proceeding.
The agency did not provide additional details but confirmed Tuesday that the Texas Rangers’ public integrity unit is investigating state District Judge Amber Givens and her staff member, Arceola Warfield.
A person who has knowledge of the case but spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to talk about it publicly confirmed that the investigation centers around last year’s accusation against Givens and Warfield.
In November, the Dallas County Defense Lawyers Association filed a grievance with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct alleging Givens ordered Warfield to act as her during the virtual proceeding for a man who had his bail reduced in a burglary case last August.
The judge’s account profile was visible to lawyers and probation officers who were on the call, but her video was turned off, according to the grievance.
Givens has insisted hers was the voice on her end of the call. But she said she had technical difficulties joining the meeting so she gave her log-in credentials to Warfield and called her by telephone, Givens told The Dallas Morning News last year.
Nicole Knox, a lawyer for Givens, did not respond to a request for comment. Knox previously said an investigation would show Givens and Warfield “did nothing improper and in fact handled this matter as other courts have done in adapting to the demands of conducting judicial proceedings online.”
In January, Givens asked a civil court judge to allow her to take depositions from members of the association and accused them of defamation. A judge dismissed the case last week.
It’s unclear what charges Givens or Warfield could face. Impersonating a public servant is a third-degree felony in Texas.
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot would not answer questions about whether he would recuse himself from the case if the Rangers send their findings to his office for prosecution.
If Creuzot recuses his office, an administrative judge could assign another county’s district attorney to prosecute the case, or the state attorney general’s office could take it up.
Scott Bradley, a retired Dallas County prosecutor, said he used to tell young lawyers that it’s not about whether or not they harbor any bias, but whether there’s any appearance of impropriety.
“All public officials really ought to pay attention to the perception of whether they’re being fair or not,” Bradley said.
That goes both ways, he said. Creuzot could be perceived as being biased in favor of Givens — or against her.
“If he’s wise, he’s probably going to want to recuse himself,” Bradley said.
Creuzot has recently recused his office from three high profile cases. He quickly vowed to recuse his office a day after Elissa Wev, one of Creuzot’s former prosecutors, turned herself into authorities in December on a domestic violence charge. Wev was running for a judicial bench at the time.
Creuzot also asked a judge to disqualify his office from a Dallas police case into one of their own homicide detectives, Esteban Montenegro, who is accused of tampering with records and committing perjury in two capital murder cases. Creuzot filed the paperwork to be recused after police submitted their investigation to his office for a grand jury review.
In January, Creuzot also sought a recusal from a Dallas police case against pastor Rickie Rush. A dozen former church members have alleged Rush sexually or physically abused church members.
Givens overwhelmingly won her bid for re-election this year, getting 53 percent of the vote against two challengers in the Democratic primary and avoiding a run-off. There is no Republican challenger on the November ballot.
A former prosecutor, Givens will begin her third four-year term as judge in January.
But she remains embattled in the courthouse, where defense lawyers have sought to have her kicked off their cases. A hearing before an administrative judge scheduled for Friday is being delayed because one of the lawyers had a scheduling conflict.
