Judge Randolph Roll of Houston; dimwit, serial scofflaw

The State of Texas provided Randolph Earl Roll with a law license in 1987 after he graduated from South Texas University School of Law.

The Texas Fair Defense Project and Texas Civil Rights filed an ethics complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct alleging that Randy engaged in the following misconduct involving the appointment of attorneys to represent indigent criminal defendants.

• Out of 1,802 cases through 2020, Randy only appointed 29 cases to County paid Public Defenders
• 98.39% of Randy’s appointments for indigent defendant were to private attorneys
• Randy has shown particular favoritism to one attorney who makes a handsome profit off of his appointments to represent indigent defendants
• Has willfully and persistently violated Texas law requiring judges to prioritize appointing their county’s public defender office to represent indigent defendants
• Randy’s refusal to comply with Texas law undermines constitutional and statutory protections for indigent people
• Randy’s conduct
• Rather than comply with Texas Law in appointing public defenders, Randy appoints private attorneys to defend felony cases in his courtroom, including attorneys who make a handsome profit by maintaining excessive court-appointed caseloads
• Randy’s conduct harms indigent people charged with crimes and creates the appearance of cronyism, further undermining public faith in the courts
• In fiscal year 2019-20, Randy approved over $1.2 million in payments to private lawyers, including more than $400,000 to attorney Ricardo Gonzalez
• A study found that, on average, an attorney could only competently represent 128 clients in felony cases per year
• In 2019, Randy assigned attorney Ricardo Gonzalez to represent 518 people in his court
• Randy’s conduct undermines constitutional and statutory protections for indigent people accused of serious crimes
• Randy’s conduct demonstrates a disregard for the law government attorney appointments
• Randy exhibits bias against County paid Public Defenders, and favoritism towards private attorneys
• Private attorneys appointed by Frankie are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funds
• Randy consistently thumbed his nose at Texas law requiring him to give priority to the public defender’s office when appointing lawyers in criminal proceedings
• Failed to comply with the law
• Failed to act in a manner promoting public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary
• Failed to maintain professional competence in the law (dimwit)
• Failed to perform his judicial duties without bias or prejudice
• Failed to exercise appointments impartially and on the basis of merit
• Failed to avoid nepotism and favoritism

All that remains now is to see what if any punishment is meted out to Randy by the apologists for Judicial Misfits sitting on the Texas Supreme Court.

As we speak (ca. April 2021), Randy practices his brand of law jurisprudence as a 179^th Criminal District Court judge in Houston, Texas.