Melissa Morris Admonished

Melissa Morris, judge of Harris County, Texas's 263rd District Court, received a public warning from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct — calling her actions "willful and persistent" and finding they cast "public discredit on the judiciary." The Commission's three-page order found Morris improperly ended probation early for four sex offenders who had pleaded guilty to crimes involving children and were required to register as sex offenders. It also found she failed to be "patient, dignified, and courteous" toward a prosecutor who sought hearings to reconsider her rulings, and separately breached grand jury secrecy by forwarding confidential grand jury information to a defense attorney. In response, Morris told the Commission her mistakes were unintentional and not made in bad faith, and acknowledged the grand jury breach was a single error she made as a "novice jurist." The sanction does not remove her from the bench; she continues to preside over the 263rd District Court.