 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
|
James Patrick "Jim" Sharp Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Justice of the First Texas Court of Appeals | |
| In office January 2009 –December 2014 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1952 Dallas, Texas |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Sharp |
| Residence | Houston, Texas |
| Alma mater | University of Texas at Austin (B.A.) South Texas College of Law (J.D.) |
James Patrick Sharp Jr. (born c. 1952), known as Jim Sharp, is a former justice of the First Texas Court of Appeals, based in Houston, Texas. He served from January 2009 to December 2014. A Dallas native, Sharp was the court's only Democrat during his time of office. He ran for re-election to a second six-year term in 2014. Sharp was unopposed in the Democratic primary election but lost to his Republican opponent in the general election. The Houston Chronicle had recommended that Justice Sharp not be reelected because of his disciplinary record while on the appellate bench. [1] Sharp was defeated by Justice Russel Lloyd, [2] who took the oath of office on January 1, 2015. In 2010, Sharp lost a bid for election to the Texas Supreme Court to the Republican Debra Lehrmann of Fort Worth.
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and, typically, in an open court. The judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility and arguments of the parties, and then issues a ruling on the matter at hand based on his or her interpretation of the law and his or her own personal judgment. In some jurisdictions, the judge's powers may be shared with a jury. In inquisitorial systems of criminal investigation, a judge might also be an examining magistrate.
The Texas Courts of Appeals are part of the Texas judicial system. In Texas, all cases appealed from district and county courts, criminal and civil, go to one of the fourteen Texas Courts of Appeals, with one exception: death penalty cases. The latter are taken directly to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest Texas court for criminal matters. The court of last resort for civil cases is the Texas Supreme Court. The number of justices on each intermediate court of appeals is set by statute.
Dallas is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Dallas County, with portions extending into Collin, Denton, Kaufman and Rockwall counties. With an estimated 2018 population of 1,345,047, it is the ninth most-populous city in the U.S. and third in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. Located in North Texas, the city of Dallas is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States and the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. that lacks any navigable link to the sea. It is the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country at 7.5 million people as of 2018. The city's combined statistical area is the seventh-largest in the U.S. as of 2017, with 7,846,293 residents.
Sharp was elected to the First Court of Appeals in November 2008 as part of a Democratic sweep that also replaced many Republican incumbents with Democrats in the Harris County courthouse. He previously practiced as a general solo practitioner for nineteen years, representing clients in a wide range of matters, encompassing probate, civil, criminal, juvenile, and family law. He litigated cases in trial courts across the state and prosecuted and defended appeals before the courts of appeals in Houston, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Supreme Court of Texas.
Justice Sharp graduated from South Texas College of Law in Houston. While attending night classes at South Texas, he worked full-time as a law clerk for Reynolds, Allen & Cook; Butler & Binion; Fulbright & Jaworski; Hardy, Milutin, & Johns; and The Chaffin Law Firm.
An English and Government student at The University of Texas at Austin, he worked full-time for the Texas Legislature, serving on the House Calendar Clerk’s staff, on the Senate Education Committee staff, and as administrative and legislative director to two state representatives.
Prior to attending law school, he worked for the Washington, D.C., political consulting firm of Matt Reese & Associates, where he planned and implemented U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns for candidates from Alaska to New Hampshire. Thereafter, he served as public relations director for American Income Life Insurance Co. in New Mexico and Massachusetts and was a sales representative for Federal Envelope, a division of Champion International Company.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington or D.C., is the capital of the United States. Founded after the American Revolution as the seat of government of the newly independent country, Washington was named after George Washington, the first president of the United States and a Founding Father. As the seat of the United States federal government and several international organizations, Washington is an important world political capital. The city, located on the Potomac River bordering Maryland and Virginia, is one of the most visited cities in the world, with more than 20 million tourists annually.
Commissioned in 1986 by Governor Mark Wells White, Sharp has served as an Admiral of the Texas Navy for more than twenty-three years. He is also a member of the Naval Order of the United States and the Texas Navy Association; a member of the Board of Directors of HoustonWorks USA; a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas; a Preservation Council Steward of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; a donor to the Commit for Life program of the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center; a member of the Irish Society of Houston; an Honorary Citizen of Father Flanagan's Boys Town, Nebraska; a patron of the Museum of Fine Arts in and Kenneally’s.
The governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature. The governor may grant pardons in cases other than impeachment or in the case of treason, with permission by the legislature. The current governor is Greg Abbott.
Boys Town is a village in Douglas County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 745 at the 2010 census. Boys Town is a suburb of Omaha.
Nebraska is a state that lies in both the Great Plains and the Midwestern United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwest; and Wyoming to the west. It is the only triply landlocked U.S. state.
Married to Susan Sharp, his wife of twenty years, Jim Sharp is a lector at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Houston.
In 2012, Justice Sharp was barred from hearing a neighboring county's cases in a dispute over a shoplifting charge against a friend's daughter. [3] Sharp faces allegations of trying to use his influence to help a friend's 15-year-old daughter. The girl was arrested January 17, 2012 for allegedly shoplifting nearly $190 worth of merchandise. In a voice mail to a state district court judge in Brazoria County Sharp ranted, "If I had been there in person and had a baseball bat, that (expletive) would have been cracked upside the head." [4] Sharp went on to call Brazoria County authorities as "a bunch of backwoods hillbillies" and promising that "things are going to change" in that county south of Houston because nobody jumped or saluted when he first butted in on the shoplifting matter. [5] Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne alleges Sharp attempted to improperly demand the juvenile's release and sent inappropriate texts and voice messages to county employees. Yenne filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and asked that Sharp be recused from Brazoria County cases. The appeals court agreed.
Shoplifting is the unnoticed theft of goods from an open retail establishment. Shoplifting typically involves a person concealing a store item on their person, in pockets or under clothes and leaving the store without paying for it. With clothing, shoplifters may put on items from the store and leave the store wearing the clothes. The terms "shoplifting" and "shoplifter" are not usually defined in law. The crime of shoplifting generally falls under the legal classification of larceny. Shoplifting is distinct from burglary, robbery or armed robbery. In the retail industry, the word "shrinkage" or "shrink", can be used to refer to merchandise lost by shoplifting, but the word also includes loss by other means, such as waste, uninsured damage to products, and theft by store employees.
Brazoria County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population of the county was 313,166. The county seat is Angleton.
On March 1, 2016, Sharp lost his bid for the Place 2 seat on the 14th Circuit Court of Appeals, which encompasses part of Harris and nine other counties, including Washington. Victory went to his fellow Democrat Candance White, who received 153,910 votes (70 percent). Sharp garnered 66,058 cotes (30 percent). [6] White now faces Kevin Jewell, who received 190,085 votes (56.3 percent) in the Republican primary
Washington County is a county in Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 33,718. Its county seat is Brenham, which is located on the Brazos River. The county was created in 1835 as a municipality of Mexico and organized as a county in 1837. is named for George Washington, the first president of the United States.
