Texas Supreme Court suspends Houston judge

accused of pill-popping, sexting

The Texas Supreme Court has suspended a Houston judge amid allegations she sexted while on the bench and used illegal drugs.

Harris County Justice of the Peace Hilary Green was suspended Friday without pay at the request of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Records show Green, in response to the commission, acknowledged illegally obtaining prescription drugs, plus used marijuana. Green’s response also indicated she engaged in sexually explicit and drug-related texts with a bailiff.

The Houston Chronicle reported that it’s the first time any Texas judge has received a temporary suspension in at least a decade in a contested matter, the commission says.

The commission in May presented its more than 300-page investigation of alleged misconduct by Green as part of complaints against her since 2012. She’s served on the bench since 2007 and presided over low-level drug possession and similar cases.

An attorney for Green said he’s disappointed by the suspension and they’ll consider how to proceed.

The Chronicle reported that in her own filings to the Texas Supreme Court, Green maintained she had stopped abusing prescription cough syrup about three years ago, and had provided evidence of having passed several recent drug-screening tests.

Read the judicial commission report.

Many of the allegations made against Green to the commission came from her former lover Claude Barnes and her ex-husband Ronald Green.

Barnes alleged that that he consumed marijuana and Ecstasy with Green, according to the commission report. He also alleged that Green’s court officers took marijuana from a detainee in her courtroom and gave it to her. Barnes also alleged that he and Green paid for sex with prostitutes on two occasions.

Green in her responses to the commission inquiry indicated that she engaged in sexually explicit communication with her bailiff between Oct. 16, 2013, and March 25, 2014.