T E X A R K A N A M A G A Z I N E
FROM THE COUNTRY TO THE COURTROOM
BY L IBBY WHITE PHOTOS BY BR IAN JONES
W hen COVID-19 shut down America in 2020, the Honorable John Tidwell, Texas 202nd District Court Judge, adapted and continued to administer justice in his court. First elected in 2016, he knew the need to press forward. “The way we are set up in Bowie County for the District level, I have half of all the criminal, civil and family law cases,” explained Judge Tidwell. In 2020, he received 800 cases. Despite the pandemic, he continued to work. The Bowie County District Judges tried more cases March through November 2020 than any county in the State of Texas. “Houston, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth… no one tried more cases than we did in Bowie County,” said Judge Tidwell. “We just kept finding ways to do it.” In March 2020, every District Judge in Texas had a Zoom video conferencing license purchased for them. “I didn’t even know what Zoom was,” confessed Judge Tidwell, “and all of a sudden, they gave us a week to learn. I’m elected to work, so that’s what we did.” “But Zoom is not as respectful sometimes,” he acknowledged. “I don’t have funny events in most of my courts, but I have with Zoom. I had a lady
sitting in her car smoking a cigarette in court on Zoom, and I said, for the first time ever in my history of being a judge, ‘Please no smoking in court.’ All of a sudden, she looks at me and puts her cigarette down out of view, but smoke keeps coming up around her face. You’re just like, ‘She doesn’t get it!’” Judge Tidwell also successfully held socially distanced trials at alternate locations. “Last fall, I tried a sexual assault case in the New Boston High School Auditorium on the stage. One of my friends texted me when he saw a picture of it in the paper and said it looked like a high school production of To Kill a Mockingbird . Hopefully, we will get to where we can be back in the jury box.” One of Judge Tidwell’s goals for this year is to resume trials at the Bowie County Courthouse with a full jury because “The greatest thing about America is the jury system,” Judge Tidwell stated. “This is where your peers determine what happens to you. We have people of all age groups, economic statuses, ethnic backgrounds; it doesn’t matter. They get to decide. If I’m going to make somebody do something, I have to make sure that they are safe and comfortable.” When Judge Tidwell was elected, he set the precedent of standing,
along with the rest of the courtroom, for the jurors as they entered, showing his admiration and respect for citizens who report for jury duty. The Judge needs a jury of what he called “twelve fact-finders,” and strong prosecutors because of the intense nature of his caseload. “Predominantly, I’m criminal law heavy,” said Judge Tidwell. “That’s why you’ll read about me in the paper or my prosecutors, Kelley Crisp and Lauren Richards. They are assigned to my courtroom. We constantly deal with very difficult cases. The majority are sexual assault of children, murder cases and aggravated assault. They are the ugliest of the ugly.” When asked what helps him get through the “ugliest of the ugly” cases, he reflected on the closure families receive and the power of victim impact statements at the end of the trial. “There is a thing called victim impact statements in criminal cases,” Judge Tidwell said. “At the end of the case, the victims can speak to the defendant and explain the impact it had on them.” In one particular case in his court, a young man in his 20s got behind the wheel while taking Xanax and caused the death of a woman. “So first, the daughter of the deceased got
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C O MM U N I T Y & C U L T U R E
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