Allegations of retaliation come after 2 Irving judges fired – CBS News

The ouster of two longtime Irving municipal judges has at least one of them claiming it’s retaliation.

Those judges challenged the city’s decision to begin sending people arrested for DWI and possession of marijuana to the Dallas County Jail instead of holding them in the Irving City Jail.

For 14 years, Laura Anderson served as Irving Municipal Court Judge alongside Rodney Adams, who held the position even longer.

“For 14 years, I feel like I’ve been everybody’s mother and Judge Adams has been everybody’s father,” Anderson said.

But the two judges were just recently unceremoniously fired from their jobs by the Irving City Council.

Back in May, Irving city leaders decided to begin transporting marijuana and DWI arrestees to the Dallas County Jail instead of just holding them in the Irving City Jail.

This did not sit well with the judges, who said it violated the right to be granted bail without undue delay.

“You don’t want to go to the county jail because it holds 7,000 people and it takes four to six hours to get booked,” Anderson said. “Every second someone sits in jail is a second they could lose their house, they could lose their car.”

Anderson said one woman spent more than 36 hours in custody for possession of marijuana, which likely won’t even be prosecuted by the Dallas County District Attorney.

“We know that the DA has told us that they are not prosecuting him on marijuana possession charges, so someone is sitting in our jail being transferred to Dallas County on a charge that we know will not be prosecuted, that is inhumane.” , Anderson said.

Anderson said that since the policy went into effect, she has seen more than 400 people sent to the county jail for possession of marijuana and DWI who could have been released in just a few hours if they stayed in the city jail.

In a statement to CBS News, the Texas city of Irving denied the judges were removed in retaliation for opposing the new policy, saying “Such allegations are completely false and without merit.”

The city also defended the new policy, which it said other suburbs in Dallas County have adopted: “The police department recently changed arrest procedures to reduce overcrowding, streamline processes and increase efficiency.”

Anderson wants his job back and believes transporting prisoners costs taxpayers more money.

“We pay to transport them there,” she said. “Because the taxpayers of Irving were transferring them down there and as the taxpayers of Dallas County, we’re rebooking them.”

The law requires arraignment within 48 hours of arrest.

The former judge believes the city of Irving is getting unnecessarily close to violating it with the new policy.