State regulators come down hard on Grace Uzomba, the sidelined Bexar County Court at Law judge

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct slammed a lame-duck county court at law judge in San Antonio with a rare public reprimand, stating she failed to comply with the law and to maintain professional competence as she repeatedly changed the terms of a defendant’s supervision during probation. The state agency, which is responsible for investigating allegations of judicial misconduct and judicial disability, said County Court at Law No. 2 Judge Grace Uzomba violated three basic legal canons and one article of the Texas Constitution. Uzomba, elected in 2018, lost a bid for re-election in the Democratic primary this year and her term is up Dec. 31. She had been under fire for a feud with County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark that resulted in the temporary removal of deputy clerks from her office over how she treated them, and for behavior that prompted two of her court coordinators to quit.

Earlier this year, Uzomba was stripped of most of her cases by Judge John Longoria, administrative judge for the county courts, who alleged a “serious and egregious lack of attention” by Uzomba regarding pretrial violation reports, probation matters, family violence cases and other misdemeanors. None of that turbulent history figured into the reprimand, dated Oct. 24 and released Tuesday after an investigation concerning Dario Davis, who pleaded no contest Feb. 9, 2018, to driving while intoxicated. Uzomba placed Davis on probation for two years, and during a compliance hearing in 2019, she amended his conditions of community supervision and ordered him to attend a Ministry of the Third Cross retreat in San Antonio, which was to take place that September. On Oct. 9, 2019, Uzomba admonished Davis for completing a different retreat that she had not ordered. She told Davis he had to attend the MOTC retreat in San Antonio on Dec. 5-8, 2019. But the order making it official was not completed because Gerald Wright, a Bexar County community liaison officer, had left the courtroom before the hearing ended. Wright informed Davis’ defense attorney, Andrew Froelich, that Uzomba had granted permission for Davis to attend the MOTC retreat in Corpus Christi on Oct. 24-29, 2019, and Davis had begun the retreat when Uzomba ordered him brought back. In court Oct. 25, Wright again stated that Uzomba had given Davis permission to attend the Corpus Christi retreat.