State warns Harris County judge over handling of child sex crime cases

A state judicial watchdog has publicly warned Harris County Criminal Court Judge Melissa Morris after finding that her handling of four child sex crime cases, plus her treatment of a prosecutor’s records request and a grand jury email chain, damaged confidence in the 263rd District Court.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct said it reviewed the allegations at its April 8-9, 2026 meeting and issued a written warning under docket numbers CJC Nos. 24-1101 and 25-0393. The commission said Assistant District Attorney Barbara Phillips emailed Morris on March 8, 2024, asking for pretrial-services monitoring records, but the records were not provided. It also said that on April 16, 2024, law enforcement sent the same request through a grand jury subpoena email chain, and Morris forwarded that chain on April 19, 2024, to a defense attorney with Phillips copied.

The commission said Morris’s court handled four cases in which defendants pleaded guilty to crimes involving children and were required to register as sex offenders. After sentencing, all four defendants were deported, and the Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department recommended warrants in case any of them re-entered the United States. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office later learned Morris had entered orders early-terminating deferred-adjudication community supervision in the four cases, then filed motions to reconsider. Three reconsideration hearings were held on Dec. 11 and 12, 2024, and reset in January 2025. The office also filed mandamus petitions to vacate the discharge orders, but those were dismissed as moot after Morris set the orders aside.

In its warning, the commission said Morris acted in ways it considered willful and persistent and that brought public discredit on the judiciary. It also found that she failed to be patient, dignified and courteous toward a prosecutor who sought hearings to revisit the rulings, and that she breached grand jury secrecy by forwarding confidential information to a defense attorney. Public warnings are among the commission’s public sanctions, and they are publicly disseminated when the panel finds sufficient evidence of judicial misconduct.

The warning adds new pressure on a judge who was already under scrutiny. In July 2025, prosecutors sought to remove Morris from an Aaron Wright domestic-violence retrial, saying she had questioned the victim’s credibility and shown bias through comments and facial expressions. Wright had been sentenced to 50 years in prison for shooting his ex-wife five times in 2021. Morris told the commission her mistakes were not intentional or made in bad faith.

Morris will remain on the bench and can appeal. Her current term ends Jan. 1, 2027, and Ballotpedia lists her on the Nov. 3, 2026 general-election ballot after she advanced from the March 3 Democratic primary.