Brownwood News – In a news release Tuesday afternoon from Brown County Judge, Dr. Paul Lilly, he brings an update on a backlog of cases on the county docket, some of which are being dismissed. The statement from the County Judge’s Office is below.
When Brown County Judge Paul Lilly took office in January of 2019, he began reviewing a backlog of cases on the county docket. So far, he has identified 130 open cases between four and twenty years old, some of which have had no activity in over a decade.
Last week Judge Lilly started dismissing some of these cases that were pending in County Court. The cases were almost exclusively Theft By Check cases. A vast majority of the cases had not even made it past the arraignment stage in the judicial process. Judge Lilly determined that the County had not met its obligations for processing such complaints in a timely manner.
“It goes against every bone in my body to dismiss such cases. However, due to the age and lack of any progress whatsoever in years, there simply is no way that I can allow the cases to proceed beyond a 6th Amendment (Right to a Speedy Trial) review which would most likely be asserted by the attorney for the defendant.” – Judge Lilly
“I would have strongly preferred that we continue to process the cases and attempt to make some sort of monetary recovery for the victims of the Theft By Check cases; however, even beyond the 6th Amendment issue, the addresses of a vast majority of the defendants have changed so many times due to the time lapse, even locating them would likely prove extremely difficult.” – Judge Lilly
Since Judge Lilly took office, he has been working diligently to make certain that every case filed is being processed in a timely manner. As he promised in his campaign, the judge has been operating a third court to hear misdemeanor cases to help provide a speedy trial for all accused citizens.”