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Judge Sues Judge Over Totally Adolescent Social Media Spat

Maybe this isn't the best case for the credibility of the family court system...

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Ah, the collegiality of the bench. Amidst the sturm and drang of contemporary society, the staid halls of the courthouse provide a refreshing look back at a bygone era when professionals comported themselves with dignity and respect.

Nah, just kidding, they’re the same back-biting, petty hitchhikers on this bobsled to the crash of civilization that the rest of us are. Case in point, two Fort Worth judges are involved in a wacky lawsuit over Facebook posts and political infighting. I guess that makes this a “benchslap fight” or something.

Diane Scott Haddock, a 20-year veteran of the family law bench, has sued District Court Judge Patricia Baca-Bennett and Tarrant County over alleged “public and private badgering, threats, back-biting, undermining and maligning” arising from a dispute between Judge Haddock’s husband and Judge Baca-Bennett over internal Republican Party politics. According to the suit, Judge Baca-Bennett supported current judge Jim Munford, while Judge Haddock’s husband supported Munford’s opponent. As the ABA Journal summarizes it:

Baca Bennett had called Haddock into her office in October 2017 after reading a news post by an organization created by Haddock’s husband that called Munford a “RINO,” meaning “a Republican in name only.” Baca Bennett told Haddock to talk to her husband because the organization needed to stop badgering Munford, the suit says.

That message was repeated in February, when a visiting judge told Haddock that Baca Bennett had asked her to advise Haddock that she needed to “get her husband under control” or “handle her husband,” or words to that effect, the suit says.

In fairness, a “RINO” is no “cuck,” so let’s keep this criticism in perspective! It seems Mr. Haddock’s friends objected to Judge Munford’s “Second Amendment violations” which amounted to court orders taking guns away from violent domestic abusers because Second Amendment fundamentalists are delightfully kooky.

Judge Haddock says Judge Baca-Bennett then falsely claimed that Haddock had resigned, which created a hostile work environment. I guess. If you didn’t think this sounded like some overbaked high school nonsense, check out this passage from the complaint:

Diane learns of Harris’s Facebook post via a forwarded screenshot from Cindy Mendoza (received by Diane a little after midnight). She is shocked and panicked, and she wakes up Gerald from a deep sleep. Diane immediately calls Harris and sends him a text about his post. (Exhibit 10). Diane also calls Vick and sends him a text (Exhibit 11), asking Vick to call her and tell her what he said to Bill Harris to make Harris think she had resigned.

***

At 9:42 a.m., Tom Vick calls Diane and Gerald and is dumbfounded – he simply cannot believe Harris attributed such remarks to him. He denies telling Harris that Gerald had announced Diane’s resignation. Vick explains that Harris had called him and asked about an E-mail from Gerald, that he (Vick) found the E-mail and read it to Harris verbatim (Exhibit 13). Vick assures Diane he never speculated to Harris about the meaning of Gerald’s E-mail, and he agrees with the Haddocks that nothing in Gerald’s private E-mail to Vick even remotely suggests that Gerald was offering Diane’s resignation. Vick promises to post the clarification on Harris’s Facebook page as soon as he can get to his computer. Diane asks, since she is not active on Facebook, if Vick will send his statement to her via E-mail; however, to her disappointment she does not receive anything further from Vick on that day.

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“OMG, did you tell her that I ‘liked’ him or that I ‘like liked’ him.” These people are all handling family court cases like pre-teens. Can we order them to family therapy? That’s a thing you all do, right? Let’s just find some way of getting this out of the courts where it’s really sending a bad signal to all of us who want to cling to that last shred of judicial legitimacy.

(Check out the full complaint on the next page.)

Fort Worth Judge Sues Fellow Jurist Over Facebook Posts [Texas Lawyer]
Judge’s suit claims she was retaliated against at work for her husband’s political activity [ABA Journal]

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