Judge Hilary Green won’t be banging a gavel in the immediate future after she was suspended on Friday without pay. A Texas state commission recommended that she be removed from her bench after she admitted to illegally obtaining prescription drugs and marijuana. Green also admitted to exchanging sexually-explicit text messages with a bailiff while on the stand. Their texts also referenced her drug use and there are allegations that she bought prostitutes.
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The accusations against Green are not new — a 316-page document in May revealed the depth of the state’s evidence against the Houston-based judge. Her suspension marks the first time that a Texas judge has been suspended in at least a decade, the Houston Chronicle reports. The commission investigating her told the Chronicle that in closed proceedings, Green admitted to “using marijuana and Ecstasy while she was presiding over low-level drug possession cases involving juveniles.”
#AlertaLocal– Jueza Hilary Green suspendida sin derecho a pago por presunto mal comportamiento, incluyendo abuso de drogas. pic.twitter.com/sWNYmustCw
— Noticias45Houston (@noticiashouston) July 8, 2017
Green’s lawyer has argued against her suspension, pointing out that many of the allegations have been public for some time, yet her constituents re-elected her. She was elected in 2008, 2012 and most recently in 2016. Many of the accusations were initially brought up by her ex-husband — a former city councilman — during their divorce proceedings. One of her former boyfriends also leveled complaints and detailed her drug use. According to the Chronicle, the former lover also said that Green “paid call girls for three-way sex.”
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She had a child with her former husband but their bitter divorce proceedings were characterized by accusations from each side. The 2015 Houston Chronicle article that broke the story of the divorce states that Hilary Green filed for divorce against her husband Ronald, who was at that time a city controller. In court statements, he admitted to having affairs and she accused him of concealing assets. The couple built a law firm together but at the time of their divorce, there was only $1,500 in the firm’s checking account.
The state commission will now prepare for a civil trial aimed at permanently removing Green from office. Another judge will be appointed to hear that case. Both Ron and Hilary Green are attorneys and their divorce proceedings were loaded down with subpeonas that aired all their dirty laundry.