Santa Fe case judge accused of bias
Lawyers for shooting suspect seek to have jurist removed, claim he’s ignoring the law
Attorneys representing the man accused of killing 10 people at Santa Fe High School in 2018 are accusing the judge overseeing the case of bias and seeking to have him removed from the case.
Less than a week after Judge Jeth Jones ordered a new mental health evaluation for 22-yearold Dimitrios Pagourtzis, defense attorney Nicholas Poehl filed a motion for Jones’ recusal. The motion accuses the judge of being determined to hire someone to find Pagourtzis competent to stand trial and moving to do so behind the scenes, even as he publicly agreed to keep Pagourtzis committed for at least another year at the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon.
“This isn’t how anybody wants to start off with a new judge,” Poehl said ahead of filing the motion. “Particularly with someone who was a friendly colleague just five minutes ago. Whatever happened to him on the campaign, it appears he’s now making decisions that are ignoring portions of the law that frustrate his agenda.”
Jones on Tuesday afternoon said that rules around recusal motions do not allow him to comment about them. The motion will be referred to regional Presiding Judge Susan Brown for further handling, Jones said.
The motion alleges that, since taking over as the 122nd District Court judge on Jan. 1, Jones has been dogged in his determination to have Pagourtzis found competent. In a Jan. 26 meeting with Pagourtzis’ attorneys and the state, for instance, Jones allegedly said he wanted to regularly appoint experts to evaluate the defendant and believed he could appoint them on a
weekly basis if he wanted to, according to the motion.
The judge’s alleged comments come even as he signed off on an order in February keeping Pagourtzis committed at the hospital for a year, according to the motion. And when he ruled last week to appoint a new therapist to examine Pagourtzis, Jones already had reached out to hospital staff and requested an independent examination without informing Poehl and the other attorneys, the motion alleges.
That independent examination was negotiated separately from the one Jones ordered last week, Poehl said. The previously ordered report has not been finalized, but the conclusion is that Pagourtzis still isn’t competent to stand trial, the motion alleges.
Poehl, who has represented Pagourtzis since his arrest, argued that procedures required Jones to provide an explanation and evidence for why he believes the defendant’s status has changed to order a competency hearing so quickly. Criminal codes require at least 90 days to elapse after the ruling by Jones in February, Poehl argued. But Jones rejected Poehl’s objections, saying he made the decision to understand why North Texas State Hospital in Vernon had failed to restore Pagourtzis to competency.
In a meeting ahead of last week’s status conference, attorneys asked Jones if he’d been in contact with the staff at the hospital and he declined to directly answer the question, the motion asserts.
The motion for recusal also criticizes Jones’ decisions to pull back on predecessor Judge John Ellisor’s rulings moving the trial to Fort Bend County and limiting the media’s involvement in courtroom proceedings.
“At minimum, he wants a public show to signal to victims’ families he’s doing something for no other purpose than political advantage,” Poehl said. “At worst, his comments in a Jan. 26 meeting indicate he is seeking a specific result in the defendant’s competency. Neither of which is acceptable.”
Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady on Tuesday afternoon said his office had received a copy of the motion, and that prosecutors would oppose the motion to recuse.
“We believe Judge Jones should remain the presiding judge on the case,” Roady said. He declined to comment on the content of the motion.
Soon after the motion was filed, Jones said that he had referred case to the regional administrative judge. Poehl said that the administrative judge will appoint a neutral judge to hear the motion and make a ruling. There isn’t yet a timetable for when that hearing might happen.
Pagourtzis was committed to the hospital based on mental health evaluations by three doctors.
He is facing charges of capital murder of multiple persons and aggravated assault against a public servant in connection with the mass shooting, according to court records.
He has been committed to the state hospital since November 2019.
He is accused of entering Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018, with a sawed-off shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol and killing eight students and two teachers and injuring 13. A junior at the school at the time, Pagourtzis admitted to being the mass shooter after his arrest, according to court documents.
Pagourtzis was originally evaluated independently by three psychiatric experts in October 2019, with one each selected by the defense, prosecution and retired Judge John Ellisor, who was presiding over the case at the time. All three agreed that Pagourtzis was not fit to stand trial.