Inadmissible

On Dec. 28, after almost two years of legal wrangling, 200th District Judge Gisela Triana-Doyal vacated her finding that Austin solo Tara Turner provided “ineffective legal assistance” to a client in a parental-rights termination case. In August 2008, Turner filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin. Broadus Spivey , a partner in Austin’s Spivey & Grigg , represented Turner pro bono in the mandamus proceeding. Turner alleged in her petition in In Re: Tara Turner that Triana-Doyal ruled “arbitrarily and unreasonably and through misapplication of law” on Feb. 1, 2008, when the judge made a finding that Turner provided ineffective assistance to a client in In the Interest of M.J.D., J.D.D., J.L.D., Children and declared a mistrial. [See "Solo Seeks Mandamus to Reverse Judge's Ineffective Assistance Finding," Texas Lawyer, Sept. 1, 2008, page 1.] According to the 3rd Court’s Dec. 23, 2009, opinion in Turner’s favor, the three-justice panel that considered Turner’s petition found no evidence of deficient performance on Turner’s part. Justice Alan Waldrop wrote the opinion in which Chief Justice Woodie Jones and Justice Diane Henson joined. “I am grateful to have my name cleared,” Turner says. “It just feels like a brand-new start.” Triana-Doyal refers questions to Stephen McConnico , who represented the judge at the 3rd Court. McConnico, a partner in Scott Douglass & McConnico in Austin, says Triana-Doyal believes she made the correct finding regarding Turner but respects the court of appeals’ opinion. The 3rd Court asked Triana-Doyal to vacate her finding, and she did so, McConnico says. “That’s the end of it.”

Lighter Than Air

In 2006, Bill Moody campaigned against Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett by walking across Texas. So what is the Democrat going to do this time in his effort to unseat Justice Paul Green ? “Actually, the idea is to use a blimp or a dirigible. No one has ever attempted that in a statewide race,” says Moody, judge of the 34th District Court in El Paso County who’s making his third run at the high court. “It’s a little bit of a play off of Lyndon Johnson’s 1948 campaign for Senate, where he used a helicopter.” Moody says he plans to rent the big balloon from a company in California. “When I get to Dallas the news agencies will get to go up in the blimp and do [interviews] up there,” Moody says.

Stepping Down