Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

As most of you know, the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, like many courthouses around the country, is using Zoom video conferences to conduct court appearances and hearings.  With several weeks of this under our belts, certain personalities for Zoomers have emerged and Cabin Fever-induced irritability has manifested.  In the spirit of Stupid Elevator People   (and its lesser-known  Addendum to the Elevator People ), I now present to you the Top 10 Aggravating Zoom People. 10.  Zany Background Guy  -- I'm not exactly sure why Zoom provides whimsical backdrops for users, but I have to assume that it was designed for kindergarten teachers who need to talk to their students.  It's not really necessary for licensed attorneys and judges.  From those of you who look like you are broadcasting live from the Golden Gate Bridge to those of you with motivational messages as a background, it really isn't necessary.  Most conspicuous offender:  Joe Vinas with his "Shall We

I know everyone has a lot on their plates with everything going on at the moment, but if you are an attorney reading this, I hope you will take time to vote in the State Bar elections today. The deadline is at the end of the month and the ballot is very short.  It literally takes less than a minute to vote and you can do it by clicking on this link:   https://www.esc-vote.com/SBOT/default.asp?L3=email You should have received an e-mail about voting in the race that included your Voter Authorization Number (VAN), but if you can't find that e-mail, the above link will locate it for you.  Just please take the time to vote. I don't normally pay too much attention to the State Bar elections, but in this race, I wanted to ask you to vote for my friend, Lucy Forbes , who is running for District Four, Place Four on the Texas State Bar Board of Directors. Although Lucy primarily practices in the Civil Appellate field of law, she has spent the past months reaching out to thos

It started innocuously enough, a little over a month ago.  That seems like a lifetime ago, now, doesn't it?  The Coronavirus was just beginning to take a foothold on the western side of the country and maybe a case or two had been identified in Harris County. As noted in an earlier post , the Office was already working around-the-clock to deal with the virus by relaxing the dress code.  They weren't sending their non-essential employees home back then, for some reason.  But Division Chief Tanisha Manning decided to get out ahead of the crisis by creating a worksheet to keep track of the Office's internal mortality rate. Since the powers that be had no intention of issuing a blanket "stay-at-home" order at that time, the Office clearly needed to keep track of those less dedicated employees who weren't coming into work.  On its face, the chart is laughable.  So much so that I initially was curious as to whether or not it had been created facetiously.  

I went to court today. I didn't want to.  I mean, I really  didn't want to.  Unlike in past disasters, when I found a level of excitement and fun riding out a hurricane or being one of the first people to go back to Downtown Houston after a flood, my courage ran out when it came to the thought of an invisible virus that could kill me and any other family members that I spread it to.  For the past several weeks, my family and I have been staying at our lake house out in the middle of nowhere.  No one can accuse me of not taking the current crisis seriously. Turns out, as a leukemia survivor who went through chemotherapy, I fall under that unpleasant category of "immunocompromised."  My 6-year-old son, who had his own bout of Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) a couple of years ago falls into the same category.   There are plenty of other Harris County CJC regulars that fall into the category as well.  Probably more than you or I even are aware of. So trust m