Jury Declines to Indict Judge Charged with Evading

HOUSTON

A Harris County grand jury declined Thursday to indict a Houston municipal court judge who had been charged with evading arrest in a motor vehicle, a felony, after deputies said she interfered with the questioning of her two sons during an arrest, then sped away after an officer asked her to stop.

After hearing from several witnesses, the grand jury chose not to indict April Jill Walker, a part-time associate judge who also teaches law at Texas Southern University.

Walker's arrest in July was her second this year. She has filed a lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's Office in connection with an earlier arrest in January.

Walker and her attorney, Lloyd Kelley, claimed the deputies targeted her in retaliation for a formal complaint she made against the two who arrested her in January. In that incident, Walker was arrested after calling 911 because of suspicious activity in her neighborhood.

She was charged with impersonating a public official after identifying herself as a judge. The charges were dropped at her initial court appearance when officials determined she was, in fact, a judge.

The Harris County District Attorney's office does not plan to pursue the charges any further, spokeswoman Donna Hawkins said in a story in the Houston Chronicle.

"It takes pretty extraordinary circumstances to assemble another grand jury," Hawkins said. "It's not anticipated."

The July incident began when deputies were called to a house in northwest Harris County and detained Walker's two teenage sons, who were eventually charged with trespassing and possession of marijuana. Deputies said Walker heard about the incident, came to the scene and attempted to speak to the teenagers in the back of the patrol car.

Deputies said they told Walker she was at the scene of an active investigation and could talk with her sons later. They said she eventually left but did not follow a deputy's request to stop her car. A deputy followed her and after a confrontation in her driveway, Walker resisted before being arrested.

She said she did not speed when leaving the scene and that she did nothing to deserve arrest.