Monday, June 22, 2009
When I inherited the bench of the 179th District Criminal Court on Jan. 1, 2009, this Court had nearly 1100 criminal cases on the docket. This was the highest docket of all the 22 felony District Courts of Harris County, Texas.
The previous occupant of this court would get here at 11:00 am and work an hour or two and leave. Defendants waited years for their day in court and we have cut that wait to just 3 months.
We reduced the backlog of cases and the docket was in the 300ds. That means we had heard, ruled and disposed of more than 800 criminal cases that were back-logged and handling thousands more cases. How did we do this?
First of all by having the finest team of District Attorneys who gave up their lunch hour and worked 2 hours longer most days (than most other courts). Since Jan. 1st, 2009. Stephen St. Martin, Spence Graham, Neelu Lambert, Lisa Baily, Maite Sample, Jennifer Meriwether, Erin Jackson, Eva Flores, Stacy Sederis, Aaron Burdette, Lewis Thomas, Lindsey Littrell, Jana Oswald, Paula Hartman and Joseph Allard are the District Attorneys who have worked in the 179th. The Defense bar also has worked extra hard and long hours to help achieve these results. Additionally, 2 great Sheriff's Deputies, Shemi Ben Levi & Valerie Jenkins and 2 exceptional Clerks, Petra Torres & Dorian Day and the finest CLO, Alicia Ibarra, and a Coordinator without equal, John King and last but not least, the best court reporter Myrna Hargis have helped to make our transition from last place to third place possible.
No Court in recent decades in this county has worked so long or so hard and heard so many cases in such a short time, none!
I am not a "workalholic" but in my 4 years on the bench I had only taken 8 days of vacation (though most judges take 2 weeks and more per year) . I got on the bench before 9:00 am and worked usually until 1:00 pm without a break until all the cases for that day had been heard. This is not the end of the day, it is when the 3 District Attorneys assigned to my court return to their office to prepare the next day's cases. For me, there are warrants to be signed, voir dires to prepare, hundreds of documents to read and sign every day. I am dedicated to every defendant having his day in Court without delay.
JUDGE RANDY ROLL
The following pics are me "hamming it up" with county & state officials.
The previous occupant of this court would get here at 11:00 am and work an hour or two and leave. Defendants waited years for their day in court and we have cut that wait to just 3 months.
We reduced the backlog of cases and the docket was in the 300ds. That means we had heard, ruled and disposed of more than 800 criminal cases that were back-logged and handling thousands more cases. How did we do this?
First of all by having the finest team of District Attorneys who gave up their lunch hour and worked 2 hours longer most days (than most other courts). Since Jan. 1st, 2009. Stephen St. Martin, Spence Graham, Neelu Lambert, Lisa Baily, Maite Sample, Jennifer Meriwether, Erin Jackson, Eva Flores, Stacy Sederis, Aaron Burdette, Lewis Thomas, Lindsey Littrell, Jana Oswald, Paula Hartman and Joseph Allard are the District Attorneys who have worked in the 179th. The Defense bar also has worked extra hard and long hours to help achieve these results. Additionally, 2 great Sheriff's Deputies, Shemi Ben Levi & Valerie Jenkins and 2 exceptional Clerks, Petra Torres & Dorian Day and the finest CLO, Alicia Ibarra, and a Coordinator without equal, John King and last but not least, the best court reporter Myrna Hargis have helped to make our transition from last place to third place possible.
No Court in recent decades in this county has worked so long or so hard and heard so many cases in such a short time, none!
I am not a "workalholic" but in my 4 years on the bench I had only taken 8 days of vacation (though most judges take 2 weeks and more per year) . I got on the bench before 9:00 am and worked usually until 1:00 pm without a break until all the cases for that day had been heard. This is not the end of the day, it is when the 3 District Attorneys assigned to my court return to their office to prepare the next day's cases. For me, there are warrants to be signed, voir dires to prepare, hundreds of documents to read and sign every day. I am dedicated to every defendant having his day in Court without delay.
JUDGE RANDY ROLL
The following pics are me "hamming it up" with county & state officials.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
A Short Note To Say Thanks
I just wanted to say thanks to the volunteers that signed up to help us. Your participation was vital to the success of the campaign.
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