Abbott Appoints Notorious Judge Susan Brown

Days after the 2018 Texas primary election, Governor Greg Abbott appointed notorious felony judge Susan Brown to serve as presiding judge of the Eleventh Administrative Judicial Region for the next four years. This is not good news for justice in our community.

The state is divided into eleven administrative judicial regions and each region has a presiding judge that is appointed by the Governor to serve a four-year term.

The duties of the presiding judge include:

• promulgating and implementing regional rules of administration;
• advising local judges on judicial management;
• recommending changes to the Supreme Court for the improvement of judicial administration
• acting for local administrative judges in their absence; and
• hear (or appoint another judge to hear) very important recusal motions involving conflicts of interest between judges and related parties.

The presiding judges also have the authority to assign visiting judges to hold court when necessary to dispose of accumulated business in the region. The Eleventh Administrative Judicial Region includes the following six counties: Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Matagorda, and Wharton.

For many years, Olen Underwood has served as the presiding judge of the Second Administrative Judicial Region, which included Harris County until SB 1893, passed during the last legislative session, created the Eleventh AJR. Underwood has been involved in the recent recusal issues involving attorney Bobby Newman and Judge James Lombardino.

Brown’s involvement in recusal issues will likely be very problematic. Brown’s record of partisanship and poor judgment will not improve with this new position.

Judge Brown’s known misconduct runs the gamut from jailing a person for praising the Lord in her courtroom to allowing her grand jury to be used for an unlawful purpose.

Notable criminal defense attorney Mark Bennett wrote the definitive piece about the PTL story, here. As mentioned, Brown’s poor judgment extends much further than jailing a woman for praising Jesus.

Susan Brown, as the administrative judge of the felony courts and member of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, has supported the costly defense of bad bail bond policies. She is responsible for the current mess that has prosecutors negotiating cases and judges taking pleas in the back hallways of the civil courts. No, she is not responsible for the hurricane, but she has done everything in her power to make Kim Ogg unsuccessful and the trains of the felony district courts run late, which makes everyone in Harris County less safe.

Brown and friends created a scheme to bring in judges who lost elections to serve as visiting judges in special courts (e.g., Brock Thomas, Belinda Hill, Leslie Yates).

A few years ago, Brown allowed her pick-a-pal grand jury to be used for an unlawful purpose – to undermine Pat Lykos. After paying money to Devon Anderson and Brock Thomas, Brown allowed her specially selected grand jury to meet in secret with her husband, (the felony judge) Marc Brown. The Browns were upset after Lykos demoted Marc. The grand jury then used a fake controversy to throw shade on Lykos for political purposes – so the Andersons (and friends) could step into power.

Unfortunately, both Browns have been placed into powerful positions, which is bad for Harris County citizens. How did they gain this power? For certain, the Browns befriended Ryan Patrick, which brought the support of his father, Dan. This friendship also gave cover to the Browns and they definitely needed it. When Marc ran for Judge in 2010, he gave the Texas Tea Party Republican Women a fright when he told the story of his finest hour as a prosecutor – putting a man on death row. “I wasn’t sad about it AT ALL,” he exclaimed.

After Lykos demoted Marc Brown, he was elected to a felony district court bench. So, Marc, Susan, and Ryan served together as three of the 22 felony judges. Then, in 2013, Marc was appointed to the Fourteenth Court of Appeals. I’m sure that being friends with Ryan/Dan didn’t hurt.

As a felony judge, Brown early terminated the probation of Cheryl Turner aka Sly Turner’s ex wife. I bet you did not know that Sly’s ex was sentenced to ten years in prison (and then given shock probation) for misapplication of fiduciary property. This was not a subject brought up in the mainstream media. Mayor Turner’s ex-wife had another distinction in that she was the only former Harris County ADA to go to prison, another subject not for the MSM.

The Browns are people who are completely corrupted. Be very wary of their network.

It is a shame that Governor Greg Abbott saw fit to appoint Susan Brown to an important position. I say this because everything written in this article was known to the Governor’s appointment director. I know because I sent it to him.