A Harris County grand jury on Thursday indicted a state district judge on a criminal mischief charge after his neighbor gave prosecutors a videotape that he says proves the judge keyed his car.
Woody Ray Densen, 69, could face 180 days to two years in a state jail and a fine of up to $10,000 if convicted. He could also be disciplined by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Adam Kliebert, a 40-year-old home builder, set up a surveillance camera in his Rice Village-area driveway that recorded a man he identified as Densen walking behind his 2006 Range Rover and appearing to pause and tamper with it on May 23. Kliebert has said he was frustrated that someone kept damaging his SUV, leaving him with repair bills for $3,000.
Passed lie-detector test
Densen, who has long served as a visiting judge in Harris County and other counties surrounding Houston, did not return a call seeking comment Thursday. But his attorney, Robert Pelton, insisted the judge is innocent and said they were disappointed by the indictment.
Pelton does not deny Densen is the man seen on the video, but said he did nothing wrong. The judge also passed a polygraph exam during which he denied damaging Kliebert’s car, Pelton said.
“There is no actual proof that he did anything to this man’s car because he didn’t do anything to the man’s car,” Pelton said. “This is a case of a neighborhood dispute. We had an investigator showing the damages could not have been the amount” claimed by Kliebert.
Kliebert had a different reaction to the decision. “I’m happy that the grand jury indicted him,” he said.
Kliebert set up the motion-activated cameras inside his Rice Village area townhouse to film all activities on his driveway because he kept finding scratches and damages to his Range Rover and his ex-girlfriend’s Mercedes-Benz.
Kliebert turned the video over to Houston police.
Although the actions by the man on the video are partially obscured on the surveillance footage, his arm can be seen making contact with the car, sometimes gliding or moving in a jerking motion along the rear door.
Sidewalk blocked by SUV
In a secretly videotaped conversation, Densen told Kliebert he didn’t know who damaged the vehicle, but suggested the vandalism might have occurred because the SUV was partially blocking the sidewalk.
Densen presided over criminal cases as judge of the 248th State District Court in Harris County from 1983 until he was defeated in a bid for re-election in 1994.
After that, he served as a visiting judge for many years, but stopped accepting courtroom assignments in 2007 when the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association filed a complaint against him with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. The state commission dismissed that complaint without taking any action.
Now that he has been indicted, Densen will likely be suspended from serving as a visiting judge in any courtroom.
Densen was making arrangements to surrender on a non-arrest bond late Thursday or today, Pelton said.
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Information: http://esqblog.me/2009/06/18/judge-arrested-after-keying-neighbor%E2%80%99s-car-on-security-video/
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