Polk County Judge accused of texting prosecution during trial

LIVINGSTON, TX (KTRE) - A Polk County District judge is being accused of texting the prosecution to help aid their case during the August 8, 2012 trial of David Reeves, who was being tried for a felony of injury to a child.

Detective David Wells from the Angelina County Sheriff's Department, who was the criminal investigator in the case, reported that he saw first hand judge Elizabeth Coker, of the 258th District Court, conspire form the bench with the prosecutor.

Wells filed the report five months ago and said that Coker's actions "are very unethical."

In his report, Wells said that he was sitting in the audience during the trial when Kaycee Jones, the assistant district attorney, who is now a judge for the 411th District Court, asked him if she could borrow his notepad. He says Jones had received a text message from Coker and that Jones wrote word-for-word on the notepad what Coker had said.

He says that Jones asked him to deliver the note to lead prosecutor Beverly Armstrong. He says once he looked at the note he saw that it said "judge says, baby pooped on (Reeves)-if he threw a dog off the bed because dog peed on bed what would he do if baby pooped on him?"

KTRE news asked Wells if he could confirm his report and he declined to comment. He said if we wanted any answers we needed to visit Polk County criminal defense attorney William Lee Hon, who was also at Reeves' trial.

Hon refused to comment, but says Jones did receive a text message during the trial from Coker and she did relay the message to Armstrong. Hon also said that Jones was not participating in the case as a prosecutor and was only a spectator. He said the text played no part in the outcome of the trial because the defendant was later acquitted.

KTRE news asked Jones and Coker for a comment and both declined to release a statement  because the case is currently being investigated by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct.

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