"Stupid Judge Tricks" - Dallas District Court Judge Charged with Strangling Girlfriend

What is it with Democrat officials and candidates and domestic violence against women? Perhaps this is the real "War on Women". Remember last election when the Democrat candidate for Harris County District Attorney, Lloyd Oliver, equated domestic violence with sexual foreplay saying that for some people "part of their making love is to beat one another up"? This week's "Stupid Judge Tricks" award has to go to Dallas County's 44th Civil District Court Judge Raul Cortez who, according to a report in the New York Daily News, attempted to strangle his girlfriend.  Of course he claims the high road by saying he was just trying to save her life.  

This is interesting. Perhaps the judge has found an alternative to the Heimlich maneuver where instead of compressing the chest to force a blockage out, you would simply "massage" the blockage to clear the airway... but I digress.

The judge was arrested on assault charges, a third degree felony punishable by up to ten years in prison.

Dallas County judge Carlos Raul Cortez is accused by his girlfriend of strangling her and then dragging her by the hair to the balcony and then strangling her some more. This link includes access to police reports wherein the girlfriend described a horrifying scene.

Law enforcement officers responded this past Saturday at 2 a.m. to find the couple fighting in the lobby of the judge’s high-rise apartment building. The officers had to separate the couple. The girlfriend showed officers red marks on her neck, which were clearly visible and appeared to encompass the majority of her neck area. She told officers that she and Judge Cortez had been drinking and arguing over the location of medication belonging to a juvenile male witness. The assault occurred in front of the juvenile.  

The judge has been in the spotlight for other trouble as well. Judge Cortez is involved in nasty lawsuit with a Dallas attorney. The judge filed a lawsuit in 2010 claiming that the attorney defamed him. The judge has spent at least $100,000.00 in campaign funds in an attempt to keep potentially damaging details of his personal life from the public eye. The Democrat judge was first elected in 2006 and is up for re-election next year.

Judge Cortez with Vice President Joseph Biden

It looks like there may be more than one "Stupid Judge Trick" at work here and if Dallas County Democrats follow the lead of Harris County Democrats, Cortez is sure to be their nominee... if he can stay out of jail long enough.

"Stupid Judge Tricks" can be entertaining, but they can also be very dangerous to our system of judicial fairness and can often weaken the Constitution of the United States and Texas. Did you ever notice how judges like to hide behind the anonymity of "The Court"? "The Court ruled", "The Court decided," or "The Court declared" sounds so strong. But "The Court" is an inanimate object. It is judges who make decisions, rulings and statements and judges have names.