| January
2
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal removes his name from the March 4 Republican primary ballot after romantic e-mails are found on his office computer. Rosenthal's troubles began last December when e-mails he sent and received in the latter half of 2007 were disclosed as part of discovery in a federal civil rights suit, Erik Adam Ibarra, et al. v. Harris County , Texas, et al.
17
Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife Francisca are indicted in connection with a 2007 fire that damaged their home and a neighboring home in Spring. In Texas v. David Michael Medina , David Medina is charged with tampering/fabricating physical evidence, a felony, for allegedly presenting a letter concerning an arson fire "with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course and outcome of the investigation." In Texas v. Francisca Jane Medina , Francisca Medina is charged with arson, a felony, for allegedly unlawfully starting a fire by igniting a combustible fluid.
18
Judge Brian Rains of the 176th District Court dismisses the charges against Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife Francisca at the request of the Harris County DA's office on the ground that there is insufficient evidence.
22
Judge Jim Wallace of the 263rd District Court rules that the grand jury that indicted Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife Francisca was not properly impaneled. The ruling precludes the possibility that members of the grand jury could meet again to reconsider the indictments against the couple.
February
1On rehearing, the Texas Supreme Court does an about face in Excess Underwriter's at Lloyd's, London, et al. v. Frank's Casing Crew & Rental Tools Inc. In the redo, the high court holds that excess insurance carriers do not have a right to reimbursement for settling a claim they later prove was not covered by the insured's policy if the insured did not agree to reimburse them.
13
Six members of the grand jury that indicted Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife Francisca want a court order that says they can lawfully disclose evidence they heard about the Medina case while they served on the grand jury and that their disclosure of such evidence to another grand jury is not subject to the secrecy requirements of Article 20.02 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure or its penalties. The declaratory judgment suit, 63rd District Court Grand Jury (2007 Term) v. Chuck Rosenthal, et al ., names Harris County DA Rosenthal and the state of Texas as defendants.
15
After being snared in a net of swirling controversies including an e-mail scandal and the high-profile indictment of a sitting Supreme Court justice followed by an immediate move to dismiss that case, Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal resigns from office. Rosenthal says prescription drugs impaired his judgment.
21
Judge Sid Harle of San Antonio's 226th District Court sentences solo Mary Roberts to 10 years' probation and 400 hours of community service. In 2007, Harle sentenced Mary Roberts' husband Ted Roberts, also a lawyer, to five years in prison. Mary Roberts had sexual liaisons with four men whom her husband subsequently threatened with litigation unless they compensated him for his emotional distress.
29
A jury orders Clara Harris, the Houston dentist serving a 20-year sentence in state prison for killing her orthodontist husband by running over him in a Mercedes-Benz, to pay her criminal-defense lawyer George Parnham $70,250 on a promissory note she signed and another $398,443 to cover the fees he paid his defense team.
March
3Eric Albritton of the Albritton Law Firm in Longview files a defamation suit against Cisco Systems Inc. and in-house lawyer Richard Frenkel, who outed himself in February as the Patent Troll Tracker blogger. John Ward Jr., a partner in Ward & Smith in Longview, filed a similar amended defamation petition against the same defendants on Feb. 27.
10
In Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives v. Harriet Miers, et al. , federal lawmakers ask U.S. District Judge John D. Bates to rule that Miers is not immune from an obligation to appear before the judiciary committee. Former White House counsel Miers now is a partner in Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell.
25
In its 6-3 decision in Medellin v. Texas , the U.S. Supreme Court affirms the 2006 ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that an International Court of Justice's decision and President George W. Bush's directive that state courts comply with it are not binding federal law that could displace Texas' limitations on the filing of successive applications for writs of habeas corpus. The ruling comes in the case of Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin, who was sentenced to death in Texas for the 1993 gang rape and murder of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16.
April
3The Texas Department of Public Safety begins a search of the many buildings on the Yearning for Zion ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist compound in Eldorado, after an allegation surfaced regarding abuse.
9
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announces he will appoint James C. "Jim" Ho, of counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Dallas, to replace Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who will leave office later this spring.
10
Catharina Haynes, a litigation partner in Baker Botts in Dallas and a former state district judge, wins Senate confirmation of her nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by unanimous consent.
16
Senior Judge Paul Davis sentences Austin criminal-defense lawyer Adam Reposa to 90 days in the Travis County Jail for contempt of court, because Reposa made an obscene gesture during an appearance before a judge last month. Within hours of the sentencing, the Court of Criminal Appeals grants Reposa's motion for bond, freeing him on his own recognizance pending further orders by the CCA.
30
A second grand jury indicts Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina's wife, Francisca, on three felony arson charges but declines to indict the justice. Also, a trial court judge dismisses a declaratory judgment action filed by a previous grand jury that had indicted both of the Medinas.
May
12
Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz joins Morgan Lewis & Bockius as a partner in the firm's litigation practice in Houston.
14
Holding that pre-existing heart problems can't be ruled out as a cause of death, San Antonio's 4th Court of Appeals reverses a $7.75 million judgment in a case in which the plaintiffs alleged that taking the pain medication Vioxx caused a 71-year-old man's death in 2001. Merck & Co. Inc. v. Garza, et al. is the first reversal at the appellate level of a judgment favoring a plaintiff in a Vioxx case.
28
In a memorandum opinion and order, U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay imposes a permanent injunction on an ordinance that barred landlords in Farmers Branch from renting to most immigrants who cannot prove their legal residency status.
29
A three-justice panel of Houston's 14th Court of Appeals reverses a judgment in Carol Ernst v. Merck & Co. Inc., the nation's first Vioxx trial. In 2005, an Angleton jury returned a verdict awarding Ernst $234.4 million in damages, but the judgment entered totaled only $26.1 million due to a statutory cap on punitive damages. Plaintiffs' lawyer W. Mark Lanier vows to appeal the 14th Court decision.
In a split decision, the Texas Supreme Court upholds a mandamus decision by Austin's 3rd Court of Appeals that orders the children removed from the Yearning for Zion ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist compound in Eldorado, to be returned to their parents.
June
17
Vinson & Elkins' legal troubles with the city of San Diego end when the San Diego City Council approves the $4.35 million settlement of a professional negligence suit. Terms of the settlement call for V&E to pay $3.25 million in cash and waive $1.1 million in fees billed to San Diego.
22
Former Texas Supreme Court Justice James A. Baker, a partner in K&L Gates in Dallas, dies at age 77.
23
In an 8-1 decision in Rothgery v. Gillespie County, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches at his first appearance before a magistrate, whether or not the prosecutor is also on hand.
July
1Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Deborah Hankinson, who left the court five years ago, and Jeff Levinger, former head of the appellate practice at Dallas-based Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, open Hankinson Levinger with six lawyers.
21
STAR Court, which deals only with prostitutes on felony probation, begins in Dallas.
24
In Cook v. Andrews Kurth, a Houston jury decides the firm wasn't negligent when it did not pay the estate of a deceased partner who had represented tycoon Howard Hughes a share of a $15 million contingent fee related to the firm's work for maternal heirs of Hughes' estate.
25
A former employee of attorney Richard N. Laminack at two Houston plaintiffs firms sues Laminack; his current firm, Laminack, Pirtle & Martines; and the O'Quinn Law Firm, formerly known as O'Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle, alleging she was wrongfully terminated. In Angela Robinson v. Richard N. Laminack, et al., the plaintiff alleges among other things that Laminack participated in an effort to defraud fen-phen clients by overcharging them for expenses. Laminack denies the allegations.
28
The 5th Circuit affirms the convictions of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents for assault, discharge of a weapon in the commission of a crime of violence, and deprivation of civil rights in United States v. Ignacio Ramos; Jose Alonso Compean. The panel vacates the convictions for tampering with an official proceeding and remands the case for resentencing. In 2005, the agents shot at a fleeing drug smuggler while on duty along the U.S.-Mexico border near El Paso.
August
20
Death row inmate Charles Dean Hood re-files a petition in Collin County seeking to take the depositions of the judge and prosecutor for his 1990 trial. Hood also asks the district court to order former Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell and former 296th District Judge Sue Holland to provide to him, among other things, any letters, cards and gifts that Holland and O'Connell have exchanged, photographs and videotapes showing them together, and e-mails or text messages from Holland or O'Connell to anyone else that pertain to Hood's allegations that they had an affair.
22
Austin's 3rd Court of Appeals holds in Ex Parte John Colyandro and Ex Parte James W. Ellis that the state's money-laundering statute in effect in 2002 does not cover checks, raising the possibility for dismissal of indictments against former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and two political associates.
28
Houston personal-injury lawyer Steven Alexander Bearman is sentenced to 35 years in prison on a felony charge of misappropriation of fiduciary property.
In Wooley v. Faulkner, the 5th Circuit says Dallas-based Winstead must disgorge up to $500,000 in attorneys' fees the firm received for its work on the restructuring of a restaurant chain that filed for bankruptcy. The court concludes that the doctrine of equitable mootness does not apply to attorneys representing clients in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
September
2Arenazas, et al. v. BP Products North America, et al., civil litigation over the March 2005 BP refinery explosion pending in 202nd District Judge Susan Criss' Galveston court, ends when the last of the 4,164 suits is resolved with a summary judgment in BP's favor. One suit that was dismissed earlier is on appeal.
3
A Web site launched Sept. 3 urges candidates who have received campaign contributions from Dallas lawyer and Democratic fundraiser Fred Baron to return the money. The Web site — www.givethemoneyback.com — calls for candidates to return Baron's contributions, because Baron, a partner in Baron & Blue, gave money to Rielle Hunter, the woman with whom former Democratic presidential contender John Edwards had an affair.
At an arraignment in the same courthouse where he works, U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent pleads not guilty to two counts of abusive sexual contact and one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse stemming from a complaint filed by Cathy McBroom, a former case manager in Kent's Galveston court. A federal grand jury indicted Kent on Aug. 28.
9
Stuart Bryson Collins, a former Texas lawyer who spent years fighting extradition from Canada, is sentenced to two years of deferred adjudication, 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine. The judge also ordered him to pay $70,000 in restitution to two former clients and about $7,000 to credit card companies. Collins pleaded guilty to two charges of misapplication of fiduciary property of former clients of his law practice.
13
Hurricane Ike hits Galveston and the Gulf Coast with devastating force.
15
Investment banking firm Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
21
U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders of Dallas dies at his home at the age of 83.
22
DA Craig Watkins changes his open-file policy to include all post-conviction matters, meaning criminal-defense lawyers can now examine any of the thousands of case files the Dallas County District Attorney's Office has handled in the past.
29
More than a year after the state executed killer Michael Richard, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin dismisses a suit Richard's widow and daughter filed against Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, citing a lack of jurisdiction for his court to consider the case.
A report released by U.S. Justice Department watchdogs finds "significant evidence" that several of the U.S. attorneys fired in 2006 were let go for partisan or political reasons. The report recommends the appointment of a prosecutor with subpoena powers to continue the investigation. The report describes DOJ's top two officials at the time, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, as "remarkably unengaged" in the firing process and cites both for making "inconsistent, misleading and inaccurate" public statements about the firings.
October
1Fish & Richardson opens a Houston office staffed by intellectual property litigators who left Weil, Gotshal & Manges' Houston office.
2
Collin County District Judge Mark Rusch of McKinney dismisses most of the claims in a civil suit McAfee Inc. filed against Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr, but the judge allows a fraud claim in the suit to proceed. In the suit McAfee alleges the Boston-based firm overbilled the computer-security company by charging $12 million to represent McAfee's former chief financial officer in a criminal case.
6
Michelle Hunter, the State Bar of Texas' deputy executive director since 2005, replaces her former boss, John P. Edwards. Hired by a unanimous vote of the Bar board, Hunter was the only person considered for the $180,000-a-year job.
After five years of fighting a charge that he intentionally made a false statement in a governmental record — a petition for expunction — and after multiple appellate court decisions, Dallas solo James Vasilas' case comes down to two words: "Not guilty." Judge Charles Sandoval of the 380th District Court in McKinney writes in a memorandum in State v. Vasilas, "I find that Mr. Vasilas' pleading could easily have been a mistake of law or a mistake of fact or the result of carelessness."
8
The 4th Court of Appeals disagrees with suspended San Antonio lawyer Ted Roberts' contention that he did not commit a crime when he threatened to file petitions under Rule 202 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure to extract money from four men who had sexual liaisons with his wife in 2001 and 2002. The 4th Court affirms Roberts' conviction on three counts of theft-related offenses.
All Article III federal judges receive the news that not only will they not get the pay raise from Congress that U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. had pushed for, but they won't get an annual cost-of-living adjustment either.
10
The 5th Circuit rules 10-7 in In Re: Volkswagen of America Inc., et al. that U.S. District Judge T. John Ward of Marshall clearly abused his discretion when he denied Volkswagen's motion to transfer from Marshall to Dallas a products liability suit stemming from a fatal motor vehicle accident that occurred in Dallas. The 5th Circuit determines it could grant Volkswagen's petition for a writ of mandamus because of Ward's clear abuse of his discretion.
30
Baron & Budd founder Fred Baron, known for his representation of plaintiffs in asbestos litigation, dies after battling multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. He is 61.
31
Fort Worth-based Cantey Hanger closes its Austin office.
November
4Democrats win big in Harris County capturing 23 of 27 trial benches up for grabs.
6
In a letter, the State Bar of Texas notifies Austin criminal-defense attorney Adam Reposa — who is challenging his conviction for contempt of court for making an obscene gesture during an appearance before a judge — that it has filed a grievance against him. The State Bar's Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel received the Bar-initiated grievance against Reposa on Oct. 10.
7
Former 272nd District Judge Richard W.B. "Rick" Davis — now a Bryan solo — receives his second public reprimand in six years in connection with his long-running feud with officials in the Brazos County District Attorney's Office.
8
Don DeGabrielle leaves his job as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas to become a partner in Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston.
14
In a unanimous decision in SSP Partners and Metro Novelties Inc. v. Gladstrong Investments (USA) Corp., the Texas Supreme Court slams the door on using the single-business enterprise theory to impose one corporation's liability on an affiliated corporation. The court holds that the seller of a defective product is not entitled either by statute or common law to indemnity from a supplier higher up the marketing chain without proving that the upstream supplier was at fault.
20
Jim Mattox, 65, who served in the Texas House and U.S. House before becoming the state's attorney general for two terms beginning in 1983, dies in his sleep in his Dripping Springs home.
24
After a 42-day trial and eight-and-a-half days deliberating, a federal jury in Dallas convicts the five individual defendants in United States v. Holy Land Foundation, et al. on charges that they engaged in a conspiracy to help funnel at least $12.4 million to Hamas through a now-defunct Richardson-based Muslim charity.
December
3County Court-at-Law No. 4 Judge Roberta Lloyd of Houston orders plaintiff's lawyer Jeffrey Weinstein to take a video deposition in Elizabeth Harper v. Mac Haik Ford Ltd. off YouTube on the ground it isn't a public record.
Harris County District Attorney Kenneth Magidson announces that he has closed his eight-month investigation of his predecessor, former DA Chuck Rosenthal "with the finding that there is insufficient evidence to seek prosecution." Magidson was investigating whether Rosenthal could face criminal charges for his alleged use of government resources, including office e-mails related to political activities. Rosenthal resigned as DA in February.
4
The Texas Ethics Commission fines state Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht $29,000 after finding he violated state election laws by accepting and not reporting as a political contribution about $100,000 in free legal services from Jackson Walker.
8
Houston solo Andrew L. Jefferson Jr., Harris County's first African-American state judge, dies at age 74.
10
In an about-face, the 4th Court of Appeals vacates its May 14 decision that tossed out a $7.75 million judgment in Merck & Co. Inc. v. Garza and remands it for a new trial. Felicia Garza alleges that the prescription drug Vioxx caused her 71-year-old husband to suffer a fatal heart attack in 2001.
11
A visiting federal judge presiding over U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent's criminal case rules against Kent's request to have a polygraph examiner testify during trial. Kent, a judge in the Southern District of Texas who faces trial in January, pleaded not guilty in September to two counts of abusive sexual contact and one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse.
