George Boyett: State Reprimands Aggie Judge for Over-the-Top Aggieness
Around this time last year we told you about a student who'd been slapped with a $50,000 bond on a charge of throwing an Aggie's ring into some grass.
It's a sacred thing.
The "crime" was a state jail felony that should have gotten a bond one-tenth that size, but the judge was an ardent ring-wearing Aggie apparently appalled at what he thought happened.
The charge was eventually dropped when someone else confessed to doing the heinous deed, and the State Commission on Judicial Conduct has issued a public reprimand to Judge George Boyett and ordered him to take ten hours of instruction on "proper judicial demeanor." (The opinion is here; scroll to the bottom.)
"Judge Boyett acted in an impatient undignified and discourteous manner toward a defendant and abandoned his role as a neutral, detached and impartial magistrate," the panel ruled.
At the hearing in question, Boyett asked the defendant, Thomas Slauter, where he went to school. When Slauter told him Blinn Junior College, Boyett told him, "You might want to think about going somewhere else considering the nature of your criminal activity."
He also asked him if he knew what an Aggie ring was, and when Slauter said he didn't, Boyett said, "See this on my hand?" and showed his.
For his part, Boyett told the panel he made the comment about going to another school because he was concerned for Slauter's safety if he remained in the area.
He also told the panel "he was able to conclude [due to] a statement in the probable cause affidavit that 'some sort of assault had occurred although not charged,' which warranted enhancing the bond" to $50,000.
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