Houston Family Law Corruption

Rule 12 Judicial Records Request - October 22, 2009

On February 22, 2010, after the hearing on February 11, 2010, the father submitted a Rule 12 Judicial Records Request to the records custodian, Judge Bonnie Hellums, of the 247th District Court in which the father requested, "all emails received by Judge Bonnie Hellums from Wendy Burgower on October 22, 2009."  Please click here to view the 2-22-10 Rule 12 Judicial Records Request.

On February 23, 2010, Judge Bonnie Hellums sent the father a letter stating that his Rule 12 Judicial Records Request was an improper "ex parte" communication and quoted Judicial Ethics Opinion #154.  Please click this link to view Judge Hellums 2-23-10 letter.  Judge Hellums sent this letter to the father even though the father provided a copy of the Rule 12 request to all of the attorneys involved in the case. 

On February 24, 2010, the father sent a letter to Judge Bonnie Hellums in response to her 2-23-10 letter.  Please click this link to view the father's 2-24-10 response to Judge Hellums letter.   In his 2-24-10 response, the father informed Judge Hellums that she was incorrect in her designatiuon of the father's Rule 12 Judicial Records Request as being an improper "ex parte" communication. 

On February 26, 2010, the father received a letter from Deborah Selden, Sr. Staff Attorney with the Harris County Administrative Office in which she was responding to the father's Rule 12 Judicial Records Request.  Please click on this link to view the 2-26-10 letter from Deborah Selden.  In her letter, Mrs. Selden states that they could not locate any emails that were sent to Judge Hellums from Wendy Burgower on October 22, 2009.  Mrs. Selden goes on to state that, "however, Mrs. Burgower sent emails to Judge Hellums on October 8, 2009 & October 15, 2009" and provided the father with copies of the emails.  Please click on these links to view the October 8, 2009 email and October 15, 2009 email from Wendy Burgower.

On March 1, 2010, the father sent another letter to Deborah Selden in which the father requested that the Office of the Adminiistrative Court search the inbox of Judge Hellums once again because Wendy Burgower confirmed on multiple occasions that she did, in fact, send Judge Hellums an email on October 22, 2009.  Please click on this link to view the 3-1-10 lettter from the father.

On March 4, 2010, Deborah Selden sent another letter to the father explaining to him that another search of the Judge's email inbox was conducted along with the back up files.  Mrs. Selden confirmed that the October 22, 2009 email from Wendy Burgower was not found in her email inbox nor was it found in any of the back up files that were searched.  Please click on the link to view the 3-4-10 letter from Deborah Selden. 

Questions:

(1) If Wendy Burgower confirmed that she sent Judge Hellums an email on October 22, 2009, why isn't the email in the Judge's inbox along with the 2 other emails from Wendy Burgower?

(2) If Judge Hellums did, in fact, delete the October 22, 2009 email, isn't it true then that Judge Hellums destroyed evidence in a pending matter in her court?

(3) If Judge Hellums deleted the October 22, 2009 email from Wendy Burgower and by doing so, destroyed evidence in a pending matter before her court, how is it that Judge Hellums did not commit an offense under 37.09 of the Texas Penal Code? 

DISCLAIMER:  It is important for all who read the information on this website to understand that these are the OPINIONS of the father based on the evidence provided.

If you have any comments that you would like to make or issues that you would like to discuss, please go to the father's blog at the following link.  Father's Blog.