Three Harris County hearing officers have sued the State Commission on Judicial Conduct in an attempt to overturn their discipline for denying personal recognizance bonds to misdemeanor defendants, contending that the agency overstepped its authority by interpreting law in meting out punishment.

Eric Hagstette, Joseph Licata III and Jill Wallace are Harris County criminal law hearing officers who assist elected state district judges with initial criminal court hearings that advise criminal defendants of their rights, set money bail and determine whether the accused are eligible for release on a personal bond.

All three of the hearing officers were issued public admonitions by the Judicial Conduct Commission in January after it found that they failed to comply with the law in strictly following directives from state district judges to refrain from issuing personal bonds to defendants.

The rare disciplinary action against the hearing officers followed a landmark April 2017 ruling from U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal, who held Harris County's bail system unconstitutional because it violated the rights of indigent misdemeanor defendant by keeping them jailed only because they couldn't afford bail.

The commission noted that it gave weight to the hearing officers' arguments that they feared for their jobs if they didn't obey orders from state district judges to deny personal bonds to defendants. Nevertheless, the commission determined the hearing officers had violated their constitutional and statutory obligations to consider all legally available bonds when they denied personal recognizance bonds to defendants.

In a recent petition filed in a Harris County state district court, the hearing officers argue that the commission exceeded its mandate in issuing the disciplinary actions based on its own interpretation of the law, rather than on well-settled law.

“All courts to have considered this question have agreed: The commission is not permitted to interpret the law and then find a violation. Yet that is precisely what the commission has done here,” the hearing officers' petition alleges. “It has been nearly thirty years since the commission's authority has been examined in Texas; this case presents an important and rare opportunity to reaffirm that the commission may not interpret Texas law and to ensure that the Commission is not allowed to exceed its mandate.”

Mike Stafford, a partner in the Houston office Husch Blackwell and a former elected Harris County attorney, represents the hearing officers in the case. He did not return a call for comment.

Eric Vinson, executive director of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, declined to comment about the case because the agency had not yet been served with a petition.