Former Judge Pleads Guilty To Keying A Neighbor's Car

Former district judge Woody Densen,a little-missed Harris County courthouse fixture, has pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and fined $1,500 for the idiotic, petty keying of a neighbor's car caught on security video, the Houston Chronicle is reporting.

Densen was apparently annoyed that the neighbor's SUV took up too much of the sidewalk as he tried to walk his dog in the Rice Village area.

Densen has already paid restitution for the damage to the car.

We noted at the time of the incident Densen's lack of fans among local lawyers; it seems like a good time to re-quote the redoubtable Brian Wice on the subject:

"In almost 30 years of doing criminal-defense law, if ever there was such a thing as a four-man judicial bobsled team from hell, he'd be riding point," Wice says.

"He hadn't read a case since Plessy vs. Ferguson and he didn't care," he says. "His feeling was always 'You can reverse my ass [on appeal] but you can't make me read the opinion.'"

Densen served on the bench from 1983 to 1995, when he was defeated for re-election; he then took cases as a visiting judge until a complaint by the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association was filed against him.

The details of the complaint were not made public, but Densen stopped taking assignments and the case was dropped by the Judicial Conduct Commission.