| According to our friends at Texas Watch, Justice Hecht has filed an appeal of his recent sanction by the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC), which resulted in a $29,000 fine. The appeal was filed on Tuesday, January 27th in Judge John Dietz's 250th Judicial District Court in Travis County.
In December 2008, the TEC ruled that Justice Hecht violated the law when he accepted and failed to report an in-kind contribution in the form of discounted legal fees from the Jackson Walker law firm. The TEC publicly sanctioned Justice Hecht and imposed a fine of $29,000.
The TEC's sanction stems from a complaint filed by Texas Watch in July 2007.
Jackson Walker represented Justice Hecht during his appeal of a 2006 admonishment by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The TEC found that Hecht had racked up $476,970 in legal fees, but that he only paid $313,745. The Commission determined that the discount amounted to an in-kind contribution which is subject to the limits outlined in the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act. Under the law, law firms and its attorneys are only permitted to make contributions totaling $30,000.
A copy of Justice Hecht's appeal can be found here.
A copy of the TEC's ruling can be found here.
A copy of Texas Watch's original complaint to the TEC can be found here.
For more information about the controversial Justice, read the laundry list of articles here. |
