By John Council, from Texas Lawyer

The judge responsible for hearing nearly all of Texas civil commitment proceedings of violent sexual predators was reprimanded after he repeatedly threatened to throw defense lawyers out of his courtroom and displayed a photo of “Hannibal Lecter” while describing his job during a political speech.

The background to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct’s case against Michael Thomas Seiler, judge of the 435th District Court in Montgomery County, is as follows, according to the public reprimand.

Seiler’s court was created in 2007 by the Texas Legislature to hear nearly all of the cases filed under a state law that allows repeat sexual offenders to be the subject of an involuntary civil commitment upon their release from prison.

During a 2012 trial, Seiler repeatedly made comments to a defense attorney in the presence of a jury, stating that she was wasting everyone’s time, that she had a law degree and she “needed to use it,” that she was doing things wrong and she was trying to “sneak stuff past [him].”

After the lawyer made an objection, Seiler, out of frustration, told her, “Sit down, or I’ll throw you out of the courtroom.”

He told another defense attorney during a 2012 trial not to ask a question, saying: “You don’t have to like me, you don’t have to respect me, but you’ve got to follow my orders. And if you’re not going to do that, I’m going to have you thrown out of my courtroom.”

During a 2008 trial, Seiler told a defense attorney representing an offender who allegedly engaged in homosexual activities not ask a jury panel about their views on homosexuality. Seiler told the attorney to refrain from asking the question by stating: “Nobody here is going to admit to liking homosexuals.”

At one point during the jury selection during that 2008 trial, a potential juror told the lawyer he was “getting slammed” by Seiler; that Seiler had an evident bias in the case; and that he did not believe the offender could get a fair trial in Seiler’s court.

In 2013, Seiler spoke at a Texas Patriots PAC meeting discussing the nature of civil commitment cases and the role of his court in such cases. He explained that he is the only judge in Texas who regularly deals with people who are “psychopaths.” During the speech, he displayed a photo of the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter.

He also discussed specific cases involving three predators who had appeared in his court and displayed their names and photographs, referring to one as a “complete psychopath” and another as “pedophile rapist.” One of the predators filed a motion to recuse Seiler, which was granted by a visiting judge.

Seiler has been the subject of at least sixteen recusal motions filed since August 2014—eight of which have been granted. In each of the recusal motions, attorneys alleged that Seiler cannot be fair to their clients’ civil commitment cases because of, among other factors, his comments to the Texas Patriot PAC audience and his intemperate treatment of defense attorneys.

In the reprimand that was released on May 1, the commission concluded that Seiler’s comments to defense lawyers “were sufficiently impatient, discourteous and undignified” to cause a reasonable person to believe that he was biased against them and their clients to a degree “that a fair trial was not possible.”

His presentation before the Texas Patriots PAC would also cause a reasonable person to believe he could not be fair and impartial.

“Because Judge Seiler was recused from several civil commitment cases as a direct result of his presentation before the Texas Patriots PAC, the commission concludes that his extrajudicial conduct interfered with the proper performance of his duties,” according to the reprimand.

The reprimand requires Seiler to obtain four hours of instruction with a mentor judge involving the appropriate treatment of attorneys; avoidance of the appearance of bias; and avoidance of extrajudicial conduct that casts doubt on a judge’s ability to act impartially, among other things.

Seiler did not immediately return a call for comment.

Tom Watkins, a partner in the Austin office of Husch Blackwell who represents Seiler, said the judge plans to appeal the reprimand because it is “unfair.”

Watkins also said that many of the Seiler statements were selected from trials that had hundreds of pages of transcripts.

“You can’t judge all of those statements unless you go through all of the trials. And there is no one on the commission that has the time to do that work,” Watkins said.

“Judge Seiler has the toughest docket in the state of Texas. His docket consists of trying to determine whether two-time sexual predators are likely to repeat. He gets all of those cases from all over the state of Texas,” Watkins said.

“He tries from 30 to 40 jury trials a year on just that one issue, with the same lawyers on both sides every week,” Watkins said. “The result is that some lawyers do not learn to behave in his court, and he sees them week after week.

“And if the voters in Montgomery County find out that Judge Seiler is being reprimanded for trying to control lawyers, he’ll get re-elected,” Watkins said.

For more on this story go to: http://www.texaslawyer.com/id=1202725443521/Judge-Reprimanded-Over-Comments-to-Lawyers-Hannibal-Lecter-Speech-at-Political-Function#ixzz3ZHxU4xpS