It’s been a busy year for City of Levelland Municipal Court Judge Shawn Wilson as the department is getting ready to hold hearings.
“I am always encouraging citizens to push their cases to trial if they feel the need to argue the ticket,” said Wilson. “I think it is better for us and the officers as it makes them better officers if the people are checking them. I think that does make them better because we are all human and they make mistakes from time to time. Their right is to have a trial.”
Since March, Wilson has been implementing pre-trial hearings to get security and schedules up to par. The main goal is establishing compliance. Tasked with protecting Wilson is Levelland Police Department Captain Mateo Lopez. Additionally, the department has been busy shoring up court security to ensure the safety of everyone involved when hearings are held.
Wilson has been thinking about holding mock trials as a way for officers to gain experience in the courtroom.
“I have been tossing around the idea of Captain Lopez because a lot of officers don’t testify in court until they end up in a district court,” explained Wilson. “Weather it be a district or federal court situation, that can be a lot of pressure on those guys if they have never testified before. It would be a little less stressful if their first time could be over here but it comes down to timing and man power.”
For the longest tenured individual within the department which is Esmeralda Rowand of 22 years, there has not been a jury trial held within the city municipality.
One of the biggest hurdles for Wilson is been revamping the computer program that the department has used prior to him joining the department. The first trial was expected to commence before the busy holiday season, but the process for entering information forced Wilson to delay the trial the beginning of this year.
For Wilson, he has been spending time going through a back log of records deciding if cases should go to court or if too much time has elapsed. Coming into the position, Wilson immediately noticed his docket was severely behind and COVID19 did not help the issue.
“There were a lot of cases that had no enforcement action and we have been going through a pile of old cases spanning from 2019, 2020 and 2021, trying to determine which ones I can enforce and which ones need to be dismissed due to time,” explained Wilson. “If no enforcement action has happened we have to do something with them. It is another one of those slow burdens because if I overwhelm a prosecutor with a giant stack of dismissals they are going to be placed on their back burner.”
To counteract that, Wilson has been giving the prosecutor a stack of dismissals once a month to turn through those cases.
Another big item is getting warrants issued as there have been quite a bit. Wilson explained there have been individuals have started the process and then thought they did not need to do anything anymore. Due to COVID19, individuals stopped paying their tickets as the Hockley County Jail stopped taking in inmates with Class C Misdemeanors.
“After talking with the sheriff and jail administrator we are back on track doing that again,” said Wilson. “If they bring me someone where we cannot come to an agreement to either do community service or pay the ticket then that is the only option I have left for them to lay down in jail, especially if they are disrespectful.”
As a result, Wilson has had to only choose that option twice.
In prior positions, Wilson has always prioritized professionalism and bringing back the court is something that needs to be done.
“I feel like this something we needed to bring back to the court and re-establish the fact that this is a court,” said Wilson. “We will have trials, if we have to issue warrants we will and we are going to take care of business over here and make sure the people do the right thing.”
Wilson explained that there are individuals that come in that cannot pay their tickets, but he does not focus on the money aspect.
“I care about after this experience are you going to do that again, can I make you a better citizen here in town and what can I do to help that out,” explained Wilson.
Different avenues Wilson has found to help this goal include online classes people can take.
“It might not necessarily be a traffic class,” said Wilson. “I offer people financial management classes, parenting classes or anything that can help individuals become a better person and make their life a little bit easier.”
In terms of helping himself grow, Wilson is eager to get more training completed this year.
“The overall goal is to become more efficient in what we are doing,” explained Wilson. “That includes becoming more streamlined and doing things faster and more reliable.”