Walker must have forgotten that on December 9, 2012, she signed a Temporary Restraining Order for Mrs. McGill in this case and she has been present several times in court when the case was on the docket (Walker is usually in the courtroom when Hellums calls her docket). Any rich litigant in the 247th this past year would have known Walker was running to replace Hellums. It has been my experience that Associate Judges are usually aware of big, complex cases in their courts that involve hundreds of millions of dollars, big shot attorneys and many settings on unusual motions.  It is an insult to Walker's intelligence to suggest that she did not immediately know who these nine donors were associated with or that she did not at least ask who these nine non-lawyers were who had given her the largest donations of her campaign.

On her January 15 campaign finance report, Walker reported $100,007.96 in contributions and these nine donations were 45% of that total.  I have worked on many judicial campaigns and candidates are excited to get even $500 (much less $5,000) from a non-lawyer they do not know and the first question was always,"Who is this?"  Is Walker saying she got $45,000 in one day from nine non-lawyers and she did not ask who it was from? 

Walker only received ten donations of the maximum $5,000 per person during the period covered by her last report and nine came in on the same day and several of those donors had the last name "McGill" and most listed as their employer "Don McGill Toyota."  Who in Houston would not recognize the name "Don McGill?"  Who was the Walker "supporter" who bundled these nine donations and slipped them to the judge without an explanation?   Did Walker not call these donors and thank them for their amazing generosity? 

Is M.L.'s judgment so bad that she thought it was appropriate to accept those donations under these circumstances or is it any better if she didn't figure it out or didn't want to figure our why those donations were made?  The entire situation stinks and of course Walker has not returned the donations (she has presumably spent them).  Walker's campaign says she did not realize for five weeks who the donations came from and by February, when she realized it was from folks connected to Mr. McGill, she thought it would look bad if she returned the donations.  So, she thought it looked better to keep the money?

Walker is simply too smart and savvy to possibly play dumb in this situation.

Like a true politician, Walker blames one of her opponents for spreading the word about these contributions, as if Walker taking the money, either knowingly or without asking any questions, is not the real problem.

Apparently Judge Bonnie Hellums was able to see there was a problem (maybe because her husband, Mr. Stith, is Walker's campaign treasurer).  On February 7, 2014 (the same day Mr. Price's blog post first appeared), Judge Hellums sua sponte recused herself from the McGill divorce case. 

The Republican District Attorney should investigate these donations because: (1) they illegal exceed the maximum campaign contribution limits, and (2)  it would be a crime for someone to give money to his or her family or employees and have them donate to candidates in order to exceed the $5,000 per person limit and improperly influence a judge. Libel Alert: I of course do not know that any such thing happened and I am not accusing anyone of a crime since maybe these nine folks spontaneously decided to give $5,000 of their own money to a judge they did not know, who coincidentally was working in and running for the court where Big Daddy McGill's divorce was pending.  Someone in authority needs to ask these donors why they suddenly decided to give the maximum to Judge Walker, where the money came from and who asked them to do it -- and who the hell collected the checks and delivered them to Walker?

In conclusion -- shame on this otherwise excellent judge for being willing to compromise her integrity to win, including pretending her name is not Meca, for accepting illegal contributions, keeping these McGill donations under the very suspicious circumstances, and then not being completely forthcoming about those donations.  I am writing this as a concerned attorney who cares about the integrity of our family courts AND as a disappointed fan of Judge Walker.  I want this story to serve as a warning to judges and judicial candidates in the future not to let this crap happen again.

Let me say again, M. L. Walker is a damn good judge.  She should have just run as a Democrat in a primary where voting for Obama, treating gay people fairly and being named "Meca Latreice" would be correctly viewed as good things.  However, a judge who breaks the law should not succeed in either party.  Walker will now have to be judged by Republican primary voters who need to know that this judge has accepted illegal campaign contributions made under almost certainly unethical circumstances.


Regional Administrative Judge Olen Underwood, after receiving input from the Harris County Family and Juvenile judges, has hired Katrina Griffith to be an Associate Judge for CPS cases.  Judge Griffith will preside over specific CPS cases as referred from all of the family and juvenile court judges beginning in several weeks.  Click here to read a Houston Chronicle story about this new court and the funding battle behind it.