via
Reddit)
The
most
surprising
takeaway
from
the
viral
video
of
a
Texas
judge
losing
his
temper
at
an
IT
staffer
for
trying
to
fix
the
judge’s
phone,
is
that
it’s
crazy
that
it’s
taken
this
long
for
Judge
Nathan
Milliron
to
face
a
firestorm
like
this.
Before
we
even
posted
our
coverage
of
the
video,
we’d
already
found
the
judge
seemingly
gloating
online
about
an
earlier
incident
where
he
berated
an
attorney
and
threatened
to
issue
a
bench
warrant
for
a
missing
litigant.
In
a
civil
case.
It
appears
that
the
altercation
with
IT
was
just
the
peppercorn
the
rest
of
the
Texas
legal
community
needed
to
start
talking
about
the
judge’s
behavior.
This
is
a
Republican
judge
threatening
to
issue
a
warrant
for
a
Texas
Republican
party
official
because
he
criticized
the
judge
for
throwing
a
public
fit
about
the
local
Republican
party
not
attending
his
celebration.
Academics
like
to
say
their
fights
are
so
vicious
because
the
stakes
are
so
small,
but
apparently
they’ve
got
nothing
on
Harris
County
Texas
Republican
politics.
Folks
are
also
going
public
with
his
past
interactions
with
staff.
An
all
caps
“THAT
IS
AN
ORDER!”
in
an
email
to
the
clerk
staffing
office.
This
message
was,
it
seems,
the
end
result
of
an
ongoing
dispute
with
the
office
that
can
best
be
summed
up
as
“the
judge
was
a
dick
to
all
his
clerks
and
then
got
mad
that
no
one
wanted
to
work
in
his
courtroom.”
From
a
few
months
before:
And
then:
It
feels
like
we
were
long
overdue
for
this
bullying
treatment
of
staff
to
spill
out
into
public
view.
Disturbingly,
the
judge
has
taken
the
intense
public
rebuke
of
his
attitude
and
decided
to
double
down,
retaliating
against
lawyers
who
reached
out
asking
him
to
apologize
for
making
the
profession
look
bad.
Follow
up
reporting
by
Houston
Public
Media
confirmed
that
the
lawyer
in
question
is
James
Stafford.
The
Houston
County
Criminal
Lawyers
Association
put
out
a
social
media
video
of
president
Brent
Mayr
condemning
the
whole
affair.
As
a
reminder,
this
guy
ended
up
on
the
bench
by
a
margin
of
around
300
votes.
Judicial
elections
matter.
Earlier:
Judge
Throws
IT
Worker
Out
Of
Courtroom
For
Doing
His
Job
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
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