A day in the life of a virtual courtroom
Huey’s motion hearing was Zoom affair
TEXARKANA, Texas — While the COVID-19 pandemic turns lives upside down, shutters schools and sickens thousands, local courts are turning to technology to keep the justice system moving forward, particularly for the incarcerated.
Fifth District Judge Bill Miller conducted a number of criminal hearings Wednesday for in-custody defendants facing charges in Bowie County. The prosecutor, public defenders, defense lawyers, court staff, probation officers and defendants appeared virtually on Miller’s official court YouTube channel while utilizing Zoom video conferencing software.
As defendant Daquan Huey, 18, appeared for a hearing on a motion to revoke a felony probation he is serving for theft of a firearm. The deputy who escorted him to a room at the Bowie County jail annex in Texarkana, Texas, could be seen in the background wearing a mask fabricated at furniture company Mayo Manufacturing and donated to the Bowie County Sheriff’s
Office.
Others in attendance at the hearing appeared from offices and Miller appeared from a courtroom in New Boston, Texas, at the county’s courthouse. Huey’s lawyer, Justin Moore of Dallas, said he needed time to talk privately with Huey before the hearing continued.
Miller put Moore and Huey in a Zoom break-out room and carried on with another case while the accused and his lawyer conferred. When Moore returned to the “courtroom,” he told Miller that he needs to line up witnesses to testify at Huey’s revocation hearing. Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter said she too will need to arrange for witnesses, all from the state of Arkansas, to testify for the state.
Miller scheduled Huey’s revocation hearing for April 30 and moved on with his docket.
Huey was placed on a five-year probation in March 2020 in connection with a stolen firearm found in his possession during a traffic stop in the early morning hours of Oct. 10, 2018, by Texarkana, Texas, police after officers found two pistols in Huey’s pants. One of the weapons had been reported stolen by a retired Texarkana, Texas, police detective.
Huey is currently suing the Texarkana Texas Police Department for an injury to his eye that occurred Jan. 27, 2019. Police were called to the Brookwood Drive area regarding large crowds of people fighting outdoors around 12:30 p.m. that day. Huey claims he was trying to quell the disturbance and is described in federal court documents by his lawyers as a “peacemaker.”
TTPD’s court filings allege Huey was an instigator who put himself in extremely close proximity to a pepper spray gun as it was deployed by Texarkana, Texas, police officer and that he was advancing toward a woman with a baseball bat shortly before his eye was injured. Huey was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest in connection with that incident and the charge is currently pending before Bowie County Court at Law Judge Craig Henry.
A jury trial was scheduled on the misdemeanor before Henry in October but Huey was arrested by Texarkana, Arkansas, police for a long list of felonies and was in jail in Miller County, Arkansas, when the trial was supposed to be held. The charges pending against Huey in Arkansas are among the reasons listed in a motion to revoke Huey’s probation in Bowie County. Failure to complete community service and a delinquency on court-ordered fees are alleged as well.
Huey’s charges in Miller County stem from an alleged home invasion that involved gunplay. Huey is charged with aggravated residential burglary, eight counts of terroristic acts, three counts of breaking or entering involving vehicles and theft of a firearm. According to a probable cause affidavit, Huey was among three men who allegedly kicked in a door and began shooting at around 5 a.m. Sept. 30, 2019, at a duplex in the 3700 block of Ash Street in Texarkana, Arkansas.
Huey posted a $75,000 bond in Miller County on those charges and was released to the custody of Bowie County. If Huey’s probation is revoked, he faces up to two years in a Texas state jail.
Huey’s federal lawsuit against Texarkana, Texas, police is on hold in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas until his criminal charges in Bowie and Miller counties are resolved.