Prosecutors: No neutral-judge hearing due Lubbock lawyer held in contempt, jailed

Lubbock attorney Ben Webb (pictured) isn’t entitled to a hearing on a judge’s decision to hold him in contempt and send him to jail, Lubbock County prosecutors assert in a July 27 response to Webb’s application for a hearing pursuant to Texas Government Code §21.002(d). The prosecutors assert in their response that Webb was “merely a fact witness” when 140th District Judge Jim Bob Darnell held Webb in contempt for refusing to answer questions about a former client. “When Mr. Webb refused to answer, he was not acting in his capacity as an attorney and cannot claim the protection of Texas Government Code Section 21.002(d). As a result, he is not entitled to a hearing in front of another judge on the issue of his contempt,” prosecutors allege in their response, signed by Lubbock County assistant criminal district attorney Josh Reno. On June 11, Darnell held Webb in contempt and had sheriff’s deputies take him to jail after Webb refused to testify at former client Donald Johnson’s trial. On July 7, Webb filed a “Request for Immediate Hearing on Trial Court’s Erroneous and Egregious Jailing of a Lawyer for Contempt” in State v. Johnson and requested a neutral judge to review the contempt ruling. Kelly Moore, presiding judge of the 9th Administrative Judicial Region, assigned Senior District Judge Paul Davis of Austin to review the matter and determine if a hearing is needed. Prosecutors assert in their response that Webb disclosed the information Reno had questioned Webb about during the June trial – the fact that Johnson failed to show up for a 2008 trial – in a bill that Webb had presented to Darnell, requesting payment for representing Johnson. Webb declines comment.
-- Mary Alice Robbins