Testimony in the felony theft trial of a former mortuary owner came to a sudden stop on Thursday morning.
The stop in trial proceedings was due to a motion for recusal of trial judge filed by defense attorney Alex Kim.
Kim filed the motion at 10:12 a.m., as testimony was continuing with a prosecution witness.
The motion quoted Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, specifically mentioning a section saying a judge shall recuse him or herself if their "impartiality may reasonably be questioned" or the judge has "a personal bias or prejudice concerning the subject matter or a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding."
The motion asked that Judge Elizabeth Beach recuse herself because of the "court's rule making, remarks or actions reveal 'such a high degree of favoritism or antagonism as to make fair judgment impossible.'"
Once such a motion is filed all proceedings must come to a stop until the motion is resolved.
At 2 p.m. on Thursday 396th District Court Judge George Gallagher was appointed to hear the motion about whether Beach should be recused from the case. After hearing arguments from both attorneys in the case Gallagher swiftly moved to deny the motion.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Defense attorney Alex Kim explained several reasons why he filed the motion. He stated the judge did not
give defense counsel a continuance on numerous occasions to go over all the material in the case and denied a motion regarding evidence being turned over to the defense.
But the big reason that set this chain of events into motion is that Beach admonished co-counsel Devin
AuClair after Wednesday's testimony for being disruptive. Then on Thursday morning went a step forward banning her from the counsel table.
"She is not going to sit at the counsel table when she cannot behave as an officer of the court," Beach told Kim in open court.
Kim argued that his client could not receive fair legal representation with one of his co-counselors being banned from counsel table.
While Kim is the court-appointed attorney for Dondre Johnson, who Beach said is indigent and could not afford an attorney, AuClair is working on the case with three other attorneys for free.
Kim argued before the judge that he could not provide his client with appropriate counsel without
AuClair at the counsel table. However, the judge said she was disruptive all day on Wednesday.
"Devin AuClair was told by me that she was not going to sit at the counsel table because of unprofessional and undignified conduct for the entire day yesterday," Beach said in open court. "She was talking loudly throughout the proceedings. She was laughing. She was waiving her arms around. She was turning around talking to people in the gallery. She was passing papers back and forth with the gallery and she was causing a disruption for the entire day. I chastised her several times and then she moved into the gallery and continued to engage in that conduct."
Attorneys in the case are under a gag order and are unable to discuss the proceedings or these accusations with the media.
With Gallagher ruling the break in testimony will come to an end and the court will return to testimony as scheduled on Friday at noon.
Early Testimony
Before the recusal motion was filed there was two hours of testimony that took place in Judge Beach's courtroom.
Testimony from Steve White, a Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office employee, continued from Wednesday afternoon.
White described going through the Johnson Family Mortuary on July 15, 2014, trying to identify the remains of eight individuals, seven of whom were found decomposing.
White said Dondre Johnson, on trial for two counts of theft by taking money for cremation services that were never provided, was only able to identify one set of remains at first. She was identified as "Baby Booker," a set of fetal remains.
"I'd never seen fetal remains in a condition like that," White testified.
Baby Booker is also known as Malasia Briscoe. White testified that her date of death was January 1, 2013, meaning her remains had been at the mortuary for approximately 18 months when they were found last summer.
"When we actually opened up the cardboard casket the fetal remains had actually melted into the casket itself," White said.
White also said they found remains of another child, Titus Harrison or Baby Williams, in a plastic container.
"When I asked if there were any remains inside that bin, he said, 'No.' He wasn't really sure where that bin had come from," White said, referring to a conversation with Dondre Johnson.
The second witness that took the stand on Thursday was Fort Worth Police Det. Mathew Barron. He only testified a few minutes before testimony ended for the day.
