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Wright: “I don’t necessarily agree with the commission, but I see their point.” Photo courtesy The Azle News.

Telling a political opponent to go, uh, have sex with oneself isn’t unheard of, but it is somewhat surprising coming from a judge.

That’s just one of the things the State Commission on Judicial Conduct noted in its recent public warning prescribed to Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Jacquelyn Wright.

Wright, who’s held her current position since 1991, will accept the warning without challenge. The commission also ordered Wright to receive three hours of additional judicial training.

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“They gave me the option of challenging the complaint or acknowledging the warning of the commission,” Wright said. “I don’t necessarily agree with the commission, but I see their point. It would cost me a great deal of money and more of my time to challenge the complaint. I’d have to hire an attorney and go to Austin, and I have chosen the more logical of the options.”

The Weekly asked Wright why she didn’t contest the commission’s ruling since she disagreed with it. The judge said she had nothing more to say for this article.

Wright earns more than $100,000 a year in salary, but in 2013 she filed for bankruptcy. A local couple sued Wright in 2012 (“Side Gavel,” Oct. 31, 2012), saying she had leased them a house with an option to buy, although she didn’t have clear title to the property. After the bank foreclosed on the property, Ginger and Richard Moore were forced to move out. They demanded $85,000 in reimbursement. State District Judge Wade Birdwell ruled in February 2011 that Wright had violated the property code by failing to provide written disclosures to the Moores regarding a Bank of Texas lien on the property and by failing to obtain the bank’s consent before entering into a sales contract.

Ginger said she’s received less than 10 percent of the debt, doled out to her in small checks over the past few years through the bankruptcy court.

“It’s pocket change compared to what she owed us,” Ginger said.

During an interview with Fort Worth Weekly a couple of years ago, Wright asked the paper to refrain from writing about her situation with the Moores. She worried the story might hurt her chance at re-election in 2014. She needed another year on the bench to qualify for a full pension, she said.

The Weekly wrote the story anyway. The judicial commission included the Weekly story as part of its evidence against Wright.

During her Republican primary re-election campaign, Wright drew a challenger. Vickie L. Phillips complained to Tarrant County GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Hall that Wright shouldn’t be eligible to run because the judge hadn’t listed herself as a Republican on her candidate petition and also fell short of valid signatures. Hall revoked Wright’s petition. Wright sued Hall.

After correcting her petition, Wright was allowed on the ballot.

However, Wright sent a letter to Hall on Dec. 13, 2013, suggesting a “win-win solution” for Wright, Phillips, and the Republican party.

“At the end of this term, I will have completed 24 years,” Wright wrote. “I must have 25 in order to get to full retirment [sic]. So I will fight like the dickens to get there. I must get sworn in January 2015 in order to qualify for the 25 years and full retirement. That doesn’t mean I must fulfill the next term of office.”

Wright would serve a year of her four-year-term, and then she would step down and endorse Phillips as her replacement. This would qualify Wright for full pension, build name recognition for Phillips, and spare the GOP party the controversy of mudslinging candidates.

“The party suffers not,” Wright wrote to Hall. “I will endorse her for appointment in the unfullfilled [sic] term. I will support her in any future elections.”

Wright also refers to criminal problems with Phillips.

“I will make sure her brushes with the law are not an issue, ever,” Wright wrote.

Phillips has no criminal record. She and her husband once appeared in court after a dispute with a neighbor, but they weren’t charged. Phillips said she had no idea what Wright is talking about.

“I haven’t gotten as much as a speeding ticket in the last 25 years,” Phillips said.

Rather than pass along Wright’s proposal to Phillips, Hall instead forwarded it to the Office of the Secretary of State. A resident got a copy of the complaint and published it on her Facebook page along with the message: “I have never seen or heard of such a blatant attempt at bribery and coercion aimed at circumventing the will of the voters who expect their officeholders to actually hold and keep the office they get elected to. If you’re trying to get elected just so you can get your … pension and walk away, you don’t deserve to win in the first place.”

The voting results were leaning in Wright’s favor during the March 4 election when the judge posted a statement on Phillips’ Facebook page: “Thank you god for keeping me right where you think I should be … and to my opponent … here’s an Italian wish … ‘bafongoo’ and that’s accompanied by a flick of the wrist under the chin. My spelling is phoenic [sic], I’ll let you figure out what that means.”

Wright would later tell the commission that “bafongoo” and the chin gesture mean “go jump in the mud.” The phrase, Wright said, was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the mudslinging during the campaign.

A little online research, however, shows that bafongoo is commonly regarded as Italian slang for “fuck off” or “go fuck yourself.”

“As a citizen, I’m deeply troubled that the sitting judge behaved this way,” Phillips said. “I have questions about Judge Wright’s temperament and ability to do her job. As a candidate, it was unfortunate to run against someone who displayed such unethical behavior and to see her rewarded with a victory at the polls for her behavior.”

Wright’s term ends in 2018, when Phillips plans to try and oust the judge again.

At least one other person hopes to keep Wright from being re-elected –– Ginger Moore. She and her late husband, Richard, fought Wright for reimbursement on a housing deal gone bad but were never paid. Richard died of heart problems not long after the dispute. Ginger has no intention of backing off.

“I promised [Richard] that if there was anything I could do to keep her off the bench, I would do it,” Ginger said.

Ginger considers the commission’s public warning too little too late.

“She is getting her hand spanked,” Ginger said. “It’s not strict enough. I still feel like she needs to be removed.”

23 COMMENTS

  1. Great story, Jeff, as usual. Wish we had more investigative reporters to expose certain elected officials. Keep up the good work.

  2. Repugs, Peckerwoods, Baggers and other half-wit political office holders have never been confined to males only. I have a pal who owns a low-rent motel on Riverside Drive and rents rooms to hookers for 20% of their take daily. A few other pals join us twice monthly to play poker during the slow daytime hours in his office there. Two of the guys are Fort Worth cops and have been for many years. I have been in Wrights court twice and my experiences startled me. She admonished me, calling me a lying piece of dog shit on one visit where I was trying to get a Country Club friend of the judge to pay up on a $210.00 bad check she had paid me with after I towed her Cadilac car from the Horse Race track in Louisanna to Ft. Worth and replaced it’s drive-shaft. She directed me to leave the check with her and she would get the problem fixed. Never happened and she told me that someone in her office had misplaced the check but she would get everything squared up and mail me a money order. Never happened, I got zero. The judge is a stone liar and her breath stinks. What we have with this inglorious, Tea-Bagging witch, seated in this position of Judge, is a bald faced, lying, pustule of incompetence, and a repugnent Repug voter since before she was born. Nothing new to see there and the Bagger bastards continue to vote for her year after year after year….. and so it goes.

    tea-BaggingBaggers

    • Mr. Benny,

      Thank you for your racial slurs and your sexual innuendo towards white republicans. They show your hypocrisy well. 🙂 As a conservative, that will choose NOT to use racial slurs or sexual references when referring to someone in an opposing party, let me just inform you that Judge Wright is NOT a tea party candidate and was never supported by the tea party at all. She is an establishment politician, nothing more, nothing less, that wishes only to get what she can from the taxpayer to benefit only herself. This is not the quality, nor is it the reflection of any tea party affiliated elected official. We would not allow that in our group and would remove any support of any candidate that displayed both her shady dealings and public disrespect as well as your racial issues. But thank you for showing your rear to everyone. Maybe, instead of sitting around playing poker with turned cops and other misfits, you could get more involved to make sure people like Judge Wright don’t win another term. Maybe, just maybe, you could use your experiences and your wisdom to get the people in your precinct to help us put a stop to people like Judge Wright and actually get people involved in protecting our constitutional rights.

      • Ms. Jenny, you’re very welcome, but how can a rat,Tea-Bagging Repug be slurred? They have never been considered as the sharpest pencils in the box. Speaking of quality, how about our Cuban-Canadian hero running for President of this fine country? Isn’t he a peach? My sweet bird-dog smells better and is way smarter than that dip-stick. Why do you flakes hate Texas? Come clean, really, you’re playing. No one can be that stupid, what’s in it for you? I’m praying for you.

      • I’m involved in praying for Ted Cruse to cease humiliating this state & I love to pay attention to such bunk as you blather. You Tea-Bagging flakes mortify even ever-day, greedhead Repugs. Wisdom, protecting rights, involved, reflections, constitution, blaa, blaa, blaa. Every Tea-Bagging loon in Texas doesn’t amount to a hair on my bird-dogs hiney-bow. You must be playing, no one can truly be as assininely hammer-headed. I suggest you visit with a Priest or shrink, the phone book is full of phone numbers for them. Take something for your crazy crap, get a life, get a decent job, grow up and amount to something better than Tea-Bagging B.S. I’m praying for you.

      • If folks care to put a stop to greed-headed, fourth grade, assinine, HOORAY FOR MY FAT ASS…..SCREW YOU behavior, it’s quite simple and has never been a secret of any sort, Compassionate, trustworthy, fair-minded, generous Americans are really scarce in Republican ranks since way back to the Great Depresion. If you’re seeking a self-satisfied, hammer-headed, bean-counting, self-entitled, Tea Bagging, Bible-Banging dip-stick….well, walk into any Repug voting place. The Repug losers are more plentiful than johnson grass and fire-ants in Texas and have been since Johnson and Democrats in Congress initiated attempting granting Black folks equal human rights. Bigot, rat-bastards bailed out on the Democrats and have stayed out mostly, Praise Jesus. The shiftless losers now demand telling females what to do with their body, for god’s sake. Southern Baptist Convention was formed specifically to exclude all Negros, who they maintained had no soul (were inhuman like a chicken). Look today and see how many Peckerwood Baptist & Baggers are still choosing our Texas Schoolbooks and consequently everyone elses. Texas has been a rotten Repug bucket of snot, mostly, from then until now, and so it goes. Vote for Berny & spit in their eyes. God Bless Texas. Please.

      • Give it up. You and each flakey fool in America who support these outrageous, fifth grade, rat Baggers vote Repug. There it is. Whineing and lying….shucking and jiving won’t hide it. See? Sweet Roxy, my bird-dog, laughs and woofs and bangs her feet on the TV when you fools appear almost daily. Normal greed-head Repugs like Boner have to take heavy drugs to continue walking around the Capital. What do you flakes eat? Really, where does this juvenile madness originate? Stand up straight, get it right, clue us in, cut the crap. I’m patting my foot in high anxiety. My brother addamently maintaines the entire farcial, fourth-grade act is somehow a hoax and one day soon we’ll hear “There you have it and here we are… Surprise…Surprise, april fool, yeehahh!!! Normal folks know this reign of malicious ignorance and malice is serious as cancer for America. Nothing, absolutely nothing, occurs in God’s world by mistake. The Bagger Repugs are a more serious danger than a heart attack. There is no joke going on in this sweet USA. It’s getting past time to chill these half-wit bastards down.

      • REPUGNANTicans aren’t even human, just monkeys sucking their masters goo.
        There just isn’t any animal lower than a reBUBBAlican…. they are like sour excrement.

    • Benny, the guy who rents rooms to hookers for 20% of their take is a PIMP! The guy is your pal. Given that you pal around with a pimp, I’d say that if the judge called you a piece of dog shit, she wasn’t stating an opinion, she was stating a fact.

      • The guy rents a room. He is a more charatable, decent, intelligent, and trustworthy gentleman than Mike Concrieff, George Bush Jr., our rat Texas governor, and the majority of the Tarrant County Water Board combined. He also donates to the Police retirement weekly,(price of doing business). You’re a Tea-Bagging nit-wit, sameold, sameold…grow up, what do you eat?

      • How can one insult a Bagger? Our society recognizes them by their asinine ideology, fifth grade behavior, and whopping wealth of dummass. They’re eat up with it. My sweet bird-dog Roxy woke up in a howling fit yesterday, when the mailman first set foot in my yard. The mailman is a foot-washing Baptist Bagger and has body odor like a dead, decomposing, milk cow. Insult these nit-wits? Have you seen that Canadian, Cuban loon on TV running for President? Everyone on planet Earth is guff-hawing and slapping their leg at this country I love. Why do you hate America??? These are the heros that shut our country down where it could’t mail old folks their pension or pay the light bill for the Capital. Baggers are not nice people, most of the Bagger losers feet stink.

      • Jerky…give it up. Not even regular-issue Baggers are as dumbass and hammer-headed as you. Your Mama have any brats with a lick of sense…are all of your flake family greed-head half-wits? You any kin to Ted Cruz? Have you had all your shots?

  3. Judge Wright is a lousy judge worthy of much criticism. That said, the Weekly’s fine job of trashing Republicans when merited must be read in the context of the Weekly’s complete absence of equivalent treatment of Democrats.

    None of your readers will know — unless they have reliable news sources — that Wendy (Turn-Texas-Blue) Davis was fined $5,000 by the Texas Ethics Commission this May. http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/08/wendy-davis-fined-5000-ethics-violation/

    They won’t know about Hillary’s email escapades either.

    • How old are you? Everyone I know is aware of Ms.Davis’s run-in with the Repug nit-wit powers that be in Austin. This splendid lady has more integrity in her hiney-boe than every Tea-Bagging dick-head combined. Give it up, get a job, amount to something.

      • Benny, you moron. Judge Wright gets hammered for misconduct and you call it appropriate. Wendy Davis gets hammered and you say the Republicans had it in for her. Did it occur to you that if Republicans dominate the Texas Ethics Commission that they dominate the Commission on Judicial Conduct too? Get back on your meds and go play a round of poker with your pimp pal.

        • Think what you choose, you’re clearly a dick-head by confessing being a foot-washing Repug. Hammered for misconduct? The snakey Repukes in Austin, running my splendid state, cause us to be the laughing stock of America and Mexico. Speaking of poker, you a player? I offer your dumn ass a chance to tell my pall (who is a retired Dallas Pig) your deep insight on pimping and possibly get him all lined out. He was a hammer-head Repug for two generations prior to being born. No fooling hot-shot…let’s have a little fun. Please. PLEASE.

        • Another thing, what caused you to change your alias from Stoutamore to the more appropriate Jerk Off ??? Did you slink back in with the Startlegram worms? The Bidness Press, where your old boss at the Startle-Gram resides??? What’s up with your act?

        • Check and see right quick if JUSTICE OF PEACE COURTS GIVE A FLIP WHAT THE HALFWIT REPUG COMMISSION LIKES. JP’S CAN BE AS STUPID AND ASININE AS GEORGE BUSH JUNIOR,,OR YOU Knuckle-head.

  4. This judge is off the hook, and she is a public danger to civilized society, she has no business being a judge period! Why does this court have to be so screwed up????????????? Another thing she was never a lawyer so she knows not the law, and makes up crap as she goes… its pure insanity, and she isn’t a conservative she’s a liberal to boot!

    • She has not one ounce of liberal in her Jimmy, she can’t even spell the word. You’re acting crazy as she, do your feet stink like hers too? You a Bagger? You smell like one. Additionally, public danger to society, pure insanity, screwed up, making up crap, all bring to mind the Repuke at the top of the dung-pile in the race for President of this sweet country. Isn’t this nice? FOOL.

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