Texas state judge shot at her Austin home

A Texas judge is in a local hospital after being shot overnight outside her Austin home, a police lieutenant said.

Austin police said no arrests have been made and that there were no further details about a motive. Alfonzo Charles said the threats are real but at the end of the day, there is only so much that can be done. He said the crime was committed in the darkness. Nonetheless, the appraisal district opposed the lawsuit and agreed with the challenges that the judge ruled on Friday, said Debbie Cartwright, a lawyer for the appraisal district.

Assistant City Attorney Andralee Lloyd handled most of the city’s arguments, but she was fighting an uphill battle because the judge was persuaded that the city could not be a plaintiff in such a lawsuit.

A colleague, District Judge David Wahlberg, told the Austin American-Statesman newspaper the shooting was “shocking”. Judge Kocurek was reported to say, “no one is above the law”.

A manhunt is underway after a Travis County judge was shot outside her home. He doesn’t believe her role in high-profile cases had anything to do with the attack.

In the criminal complaint, the Statesman reported, former district attorney candidate Rick Reed alleged that Lehmberg was guilty of obstruction or retaliation, a third-degree felony.

“Considered rationale, reasonable. You know you read about judges belittling people, yelling at people, calling people words – that’s not her at all”.

Mark Norwood is set to go on trial for the 1988 murder of Debra Baker this month.

Kocurek has presided over the 390th District Court since January 1999, when then-Governor George W. Bush appointed her, according to the Statesman. A year later she defeated a Democrat challenger by a four percent margin. “We wish her a speedy recovery”, the Texas Democratic Party tweeted Saturday. Travis County has been predominately Democratic county.

Livingston said safety was at the top of her mind when she heard Kocurek was injured.

CNN notes that as recently as 2013, a state prosecutor was shot and killed outside of the Kaufman County courthouse in Texas, spurring on Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland to promise to hunt down the “scum” that killed his “stellar prosecutor”, who reportedly “had an absolute passion for putting away bad guys”. Prosecutor Mark Hasse was shot five times.

Police would later convict Eric Williams, a former Kaufman County justice of the peace, for the murder of Cynthia, McLelland’s wife.