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Retaliation allegations surface after 2 Irving judges removed

By
J.D. Miles
J.D. Miles
J.D. Miles is an award-winning reporter who has been covering North Texas for CBS 11 since 1996.
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J.D. Miles

/ CBS Texas

The removal of two longtime municipal judges in Irving has at least one of them claiming it was retaliation. 

Those judges opposed a city decision to start sending people arrested for DWI and marijuana possession to the Dallas County Jail instead of keeping them in the Irving city jail. 

For 14 years, Laura Anderson served as a municipal court judge in Irving alongside Rodney Adams, who had been in 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 have just recently been unceremoniously relieved of their jobs by the Irving City Council.

Back in May, Irving city leaders decided to start transporting those arrested for marijuana possession and DWI to the Dallas County Jail instead of just holding them in the Irving city jail.  

It didn't sit well with the judges who say it violated the right to bail without unnecessary 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 be booked in," Anderson said. "Every second somebody sits in jail is a second that they may lose their house, they may lose their car."

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

"We know particularly on possession of marijuana charges the DA has told us he's not prosecuting, so somebody is sitting in our jail and being transferred to Dallas County on a charge we know is not going to be prosecuted it's inhumane," Anderson said.

Anderson said that since the policy took effect, she's noted more than 400 people sent to the county jail for marijuana possession and DWIs that could have been released in only a few hours if they remained in the city jail. 

In a statement to CBS News Texas, the City of Irving denied the judges were removed for retaliation for opposing the new policy saying that "Such claims are entirely false and without merit."

The city also defended the new policy which it says other suburbs in Dallas County have adopted: "The Police Department recently changed the holding facility's procedures to reduce overcrowding, streamline processes, and increase efficiency."

Anderson wants her job back and believes transporting inmates is costing taxpayers more money. 

"We're paying to transport them down there," she said. "As Irving taxpayers were transferring them down there and as Dallas County taxpayers we are rebooking them." 

The law requires an 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. 

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