Former state representative Lon Burnam is seeking Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare’s removal from public office, alleging official misconduct by the judge for expelling speakers from government meetings.
Burnam’s petition for O’Hare’s removal was filed the day before the former legislator appeared in court for a hearing in connection to the criminal charges he faces for allegedly disrupting a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting in August. Burnam was arrested last month and carried out of a commissioners court meeting by his wrists and ankles by sheriff deputies after O’Hare cut short Burnam’s public comment time.
Tiffany Burks, Burnam’s attorney and a candidate for Tarrant County district attorney on the November ballot, filed a motion to quash the criminal evidence filed by District Attorney Phil Sorrells’ office. Burks said the information was “sloppy” and included errors such as incorrect dates.
Burnam’s criminal case now awaits a hearing on the motion to quash, which would declare the filed evidence legally void or invalid. If the judge decides in his favor, Burnam’s two misdemeanor charges could also be dismissed, Burks explained to a gathering of roughly 30 supporters after Burnam’s hearing Thursday morning.
“I don’t expect the criminal case to at all affect what the civil case is doing, and vice versa,” Burks told reporters. “I do think the two of them working in tandem will present a pretty clear picture of why this is happening.”
Burnam’s effort to remove O’Hare comes two months before the November election in which the county judge is seeking his second term. Burnam, who represented Tarrant County in the Texas House for 18 years as a Democrat, is a supporter of O’Hare’s opponent on the November ballot, Democratic Commissioner Alisa Simmons, and a frequent speaker at commissioners court meetings.
The Texas Constitution authorizes a district judge to remove a county officer for “incompetency, official misconduct, habitual drunkenness, or other causes defined by law upon the cause being set forth in writing and its truth being found by a jury.” Under local government code, official misconduct includes “intentional, unlawful behavior relating to official duties.”
In his petition filed Sept. 9, Burnam alleges that O’Hare “intentionally used or caused the use of official authority” to have Burnam removed from the Aug. 4 commissioners court meeting and issued a criminal trespass warning, banning him from attending the meetings for 180 days. Burnam argues that O’Hare acted in response to Burnam’s criticism of the county judge.
At the Aug. 4 commissioners court meeting, Burnam criticized O’Hare for not allowing a previous speaker to hold the microphone as a reasonable accommodation for a disability during their public comment time. During Burnam’s time to speak, he also picked up the microphone. O’Hare instructed Burnam to put the microphone down, then ordered sheriff deputies to remove him from the meeting. Burnam lay down on the floor, and deputies carried him out of the room.
Sorrells, the district attorney, charged Burnam with hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to 365 days in jail, a fine of up to $4,000, or both. Burnam is also charged with disrupting a meeting or procession, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000, up to 180 days in jail, or both.
“This case is no different from any other case handled by my office. We will address the legal arguments in court, not through the media,” Sorrells told the Fort Worth Report via email through his spokesperson Thursday. “Our duty is to enforce the law, and we will do so fully and without hesitation.”
In an email to the Report, Ruth Ray, O’Hare’s chief of staff, asserted that Burnam attended the commissioners court proceedings in August “with plans to disrupt the meeting.” She added that Burnam has repeatedly violated the commissioners court rules of decorum.
“Now, two months before Election Day, he wants a judge to overturn an election and couldn’t even clean the AI links out of his pleading,” Ray said via email Thursday. “This is a sad political stunt. It won’t work.”
Burnam argues that O’Hare willfully characterizes critical speech during public meetings as “disruptions” to justify removing speakers. His petition cites O’Hare’s directive for sheriff deputies to remove podcast host EJ Carrion from the Aug. 4 meeting after Carrion used a profane word during his public comment time — Carrion was subsequently arrested a week later. Also during that meeting, O’Hare ordered all attendees to leave the room when some of them laughed after he instructed them not to, which the county judge maintains is a violation of the court’s rules of decorum.
O’Hare was aware that his pattern of removing speakers from public meetings had already been “subjected to a constitutional challenge,” Burnam’s petition states. During the executive session of the Aug. 4 meeting, commissioners were scheduled to discuss the lawsuit O’Hare faces from Fort Worth pastor Mark Kirkland, who sued the county judge for removing him from a commissioners court meeting in December.
“Unless (O’Hare) is temporarily suspended, he will retain the same official authority through which the alleged misconduct was committed and may again characterize critical speech as disruption, exclude speakers, restrict public attendance, or otherwise impair public oversight while this proceeding remains pending,” Burnam’s petition states.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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