'Softy' Judge Admonished for Refusing to Accept Eviction Filings Before Christmas
For more than 20 years, Texas Justice of the Peace Gary Geick got in the holiday spirit by refusing to accept eviction filings from landlords during the Christmas holidays.
He’ll now be changing his ways after a public admonition (see page 16 of PDF file) from the Commission on Judicial Conduct, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Geick told the commission he didn’t want to evict tenants during the holidays and he usually takes vacation at that time. The commission said Geick’s heart may have been in the right place, but he didn’t satisfy legal standards.
“Although Judge Geick may have had good intentions for creating this policy, the commission found no statutory or other legal authority that would allow a judge to simply refuse to accept cases for filing over which his court has jurisdiction and venue,” the commission wrote.
Geick told the Houston Chronicle in a later story he started the practice his first year as a judge when he ordered a family evicted a day or so before Christmas. He recalls the children sobbing and one asking his parents, “What about the Christmas presents? Are they going to take our tree?”
“That just tears me up, stuff like that,” he told the Chronicle. “I guess I’m just an old softy when it comes to Christmas.”
Geick said he’ll now accept eviction filings in December, but there’s no law requiring him to give up his annual hunting trip at that time. “I’ve changed the policy,” he said. “But they’re not going to make me stop going deer hunting.”
