Hays County court-at-law judge at odds with administrative staff sues bench colleagues
Soon after Hays County Court-at-Law Judge Millie Thompson took office this year, she barred the two other judges she works with from her office via a criminal trespass warning. Now she is suing them.
The lawsuit, filed last week, seeks to allow Thompson to dedicate a court coordinator position specifically to her office after another judge denied her request.
Thompson, a Democrat, won the seat last fall and now handles probate, guardianship, personal injury and misdemeanor cases. She has previously accused the two Republican judges she is suing of retaliating against her for winning the bench.
"You have created a hostile work environment by entering my chambers without my consent," Thompson wrote to Judge Robert Updegrove and Judge Chris Johnson in January. "You have created a hostile work environment by lying to the coordinators you assigned me by telling them I have no authority to fire my own coordinators. ... I had to order a man I just fired out of my office more than four times, and he still refused to leave."
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/04/12/judge-millie-thompson-lawsuit-hays-county-judges/7189604002/