Meet Judge Barbara Walther

Fascinating how badly fellow so-called professionals can misjudge (or mislead on behalf of ) each other. Here’s an almost glowing profile of Barbara Walthers (pictured right) posted on the American Bar Association’s website, on April 21, 2008, after she had finished conducting that first, infamous FLDS show trial on April 17-18:

A Texas state court judge had perhaps the toughest case in the nation last week as she presided over a record-breaking 416-child custody hearing.

But Barbara Walther is a seasoned, authoritative jurist with a sense of humor [and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University] who handled the challenging hearing [which she made challenging by signing a warrant to confiscate 450+ kids] as well as anyone could have [after overreaching the way Walther did], according to the Dallas Morning News and the Associated Press.

“She will rule, and that is something in a judge’s personality that lawyers really appreciate,” says Guy Choate, a longtime attorney in San Angelo, Texas, where the hearing was held. Her attitude is, “I may be right or may be wrong, but I’m not uncertain.”

Walther also lightened up her control of her courtroom during last week’s two-day custody hearing with jokes and laughter, the Dallas newspaper reports. At one point, despite the chaos inherent in a hearing that involves hundreds of attorneys, she invited a lawyer who seemed to be gesturing to her for permission to speak up to the bench. Then, after a moment of mutual confusion that drew chuckles from the audience, she discovered that he had no wish to do so.

“I thought you wanted to speak,” she told him. “At auctions in West Texas, if you scratch your nose, you bought it.”

Very funny, Judge Walther. Comforting, isn’t it, that this “seasoned, authoritative jurist” kept her “sense of humor” and freely engaged in “jokes and laughter” while ordering State troopers to steal cell phones from FLDS mothers and kids so that Texas CPS and state trooper war criminals could more freely brutalize their FLDS captives? I find this very reassuring.

And you can bet your bottom dollar that if I ever have a reason to find an attorney in San Angelo, it won’t be Greg Choate given how badly he misread or misrepresented Walther. Or maybe we should just steer clear of San Angelo. If Barbara Walthers is what passes there for a “seasoned jurist,” San Angelo is legal hell.

Update: In light of San Angelo’s status as headquarters for the Empire of the [Ku Klux Klan] Knights in Texas, hell may be just the right word.