[Newspaper Clipping: Wade claims displays of bias by judge in bar lewdness cases] Part: 1 of 2
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Wade claims displays of bias
by judge in bar
1
ewdness cases
By PATTI KILDAY
Staff Writer
Dist. Atty. Henry Wade said Mon-
day that his staff would ask Criminal
Court Judge Chuck Miller not to pre-
side over several public lewdness
cases now pending in his court, be-
cause he said Miller has shown bias
against prosecutors in similar cases in
the past.
Miller countered, however, saying
that the district attorney's office was
guilty of unethical "forum-shopping"
- dismissing cases in one court and
filing them in another - because he
recently acquitted several defendants
on public lewdness charges in similar
cases.Wade said his staff would file a mo-
tion asking Miller to acknowledge
that he has made up his mind about
the cases in advance of hearing testi-
mony and therefore should allow an-
other judge to hear the cases.
The constroversy stems from a
group of 10 public lewdness cases
filed by Dallas vice squad officers
against male patrons of the Village
Station, a local bar, for allegedly fon-
dling the genitals of other male pa-
trons in the bar last Oct. 25.
Prosecutors say two of the 10 de-
fendants pleaded guilty, but two oth-
ers were found not guilty in trials be-
fore Miller in February. Six of the
cases presently are pending in Miller's
court.After he found two of the defen-
dants "not guilty," Miller says the
district attorney's office tried to "fo-
rum-shop" by dismissing the remain-
ing cases pending in his court and re-
filing them in another judge's court.
Miller explained that when the
cases were dismissed, he was on vaca-
tion and his clerk did not know the
district attorney's office planned to
refile the cases.
At the time the cases were refiled,
the county clerk made assignments in
groups, and all of the cases were re-
assigned to Judge Ben Ellis, he said.
Since then, he said the cases have-
See WADE on Page 1414-A - R Tuesday, April 29, 198), DALLAS TIMES HERALD
Judge says Wade
'forum shopping'WADE -- From Page One
been transferred back to his court by
Ellis.
"It was forum-shopping in the pur-
est sense of the word - kind of
sneaky forum-shopping at that," he
said.
But Wade said his staff felt Miller
was biased against the prosecution in
the cases, pointing out that in one of
the cases, five police officers testified
they had seen the defendant fondle
another patron of the bar publically.
He said prosecutors said Miller had
"criticized police for working on these
cases.
"The state just can't get a fair trial
in these cases in his court," he said.
"Judge Miller immediately found
them not guilty, even though we had
all these eyewitnesses. So we dis-
missed the cases and refiled them in
Judge Ellis' court. But Judge Miller
went and asked for them back,"
Wade said.
"The police are unhappy about it. It
would be different if we could de-
mand a jury trial, but we can't in mis-
demeanor court," he added.
But Miller said the police officers
who testified in the trial were
"matched one for one" by witnesses
for the defendant.
"After it was all over, I had a rea-
sonable doubt as to who was accu-
rate," he said.
Miller would not say whether hepersonally felt the police department
should be filing the public lewdness
cases, saying it was a "police decision
of the police department" to make the
arrests.
"Even if I felt that way (that police
should not be staking out bars), that
is not something that would enter into
a decision. I should base my decision
on whether the crime occurred," he
said.
But he said even if he felt such be-
havior should not be a crime, he
would not let it affect his courtroom
decisions.
"That isn't my function," he said.
"That's a legislative function."
He also said his conviction rate in
public lewdness was "far higher"
than his acquittal rate.
"In fact, my acquittals are fairly in-
frequent," he said.
In a pretrial hearing on the cases
last week, Asst. Dist. Atty. Winfield
Scott was called to testify by defense
attorneys about why the cases had
been dismissed and refiled.
Miller said Scott testified that the
district attorney's office had reached
the conclusion that Miller was "pre-
disposed against the cases and the dis-
trict attorneys couldn't get a fair tri-
al."
At that point, Miller said he "in-
structed Mr. Scott that the proper
thing to do would have been to file a
motion to recuse. I told him that fo-
rum-shopping was not his remedy."DALLAS TIMES HFRALD
April 29, 1980C
(h
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Kilday, Patti. [Newspaper Clipping: Wade claims displays of bias by judge in bar lewdness cases], clipping, April 29, 1980; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc965219/m1/1/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.