Texas lawmakers already passed an omnibus bill this year making routine changes to the state's judicial system — but two special sessions later, it's finally one step closer to actually becoming law.
The Texas Senate passed a version of the Legislature’s bipartisan judicial omnibus bill Tuesday. It’s a compilation of several bills passed every year that create new courts, edit judicial districts and make other changes to state court administration as needed.
Abbott vetoed the original legislation at the end of this year’s regular session — Senate Bill 2878 by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola — and put it on the agenda for the special session. Abbott said the bill didn’t receive adequate consideration during the regular session, and according to his veto proclamation, he specifically cited a provision in the bill that would make it mandatory for a court to expunge certain criminal charges if a person completes a pretrial intervention program.
The law at issue allows — but does not require — a trial court to expunge a criminal charge from a person’s record in certain cases if they complete a veterans treatment court program or a mental health court program. The person must apply for expunction with the county's prosecuting attorney, and a judge can still deny the application.
An amendment by Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, would have explicitly required the dismissal of a case if the defendant completed those programs and included other state-approved pretrial intervention programs.
The measure came from another bill Anchía authored, House Bill 2617. Anchía, an attorney, said people who graduate from pretrial intervention programs may qualify for an expunction, but they are left to navigate finalizing the expunction on their own in an “incredibly bureaucratic” process.
“This requires an application, at least $290 in fees, a mandated return to court and, most often times, the costs related to hiring an attorney,” Anchía told House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee members in April. “So, this leads many of the graduates to never receive the expunction that they actually earned.”
Anchía lauded the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, which oversees pretrial intervention programs within the county, for its work with veteran and mental health courts. Representatives from the DA's office supported the bill, as did civil rights groups.
The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas registered against it, but no one testified. The measure earned bipartisan support as an amendment to the omnibus bill with mostly Republicans voting against it.
KERA News reached out to Abbott’s office for comment on what specific issue he had with the bill’s mandatory expunction provision and will update this story with any comment. KERA also reached out to Anchía and the Dallas County District Attorney's Office for comment.
The Senate passed Hughes’ new version of the omnibus bill in the first special session, which removed the expunction provision and other parts of the bill that had already passed in standalone bills. But that bill and others went nowhere while House Democrats stayed out of state to break quorum and stall Republicans’ congressional redistricting plans.
Hughes once again led the filing of the Senate legislation in the second special session, and Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, filed a version of the bill in the House. House Bill 16 waives certain fees in expunction proceedings if a person completes veterans treatment or mental health court programs but doesn’t extend that allowance to other types of pretrial diversion programs.
Other measures in HB 16 include:
- Creating new judicial districts in Rockwall, Fort Bend, Ellis, Harris, Williamson and other counties.
- Adding two more seats to the statewide Fifteenth Court of Appeals over the course of four years.
- Raising the criminal penalty for harassing court employees or judges.
- Expanding and clarifying requirements for judicial training on issues like family violence and sexual assault.
- Requiring juvenile boards to prioritize diversion and make detention a last resort for children younger than 12 or who live in a general residential operation
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