The Travis County District Attorney’s Office hired additional attorneys to strengthen their civil rights department, which investigates reports of police wrongdoing, as the department handles an increased number of cases.
The new hires include Jim Wheat, former head of the specialty crimes division of the Bexar County’s DA office, and Millie Thompson, a civil rights attorney who recently resigned from her position as a judge in Hays County Court.
Thompson’s four months at the bank were fraught with disagreements with coworkers and colleagues that resulted in her filing injunctions and lawsuits against her.
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Officials have also transferred Travis County’s Assistant District Attorney Coulter Goodman and Assistant District Attorney JD Castro to the unit.
Wheat will report to the unit’s director, Dexter Gilford, while overseeing the three other lawyers.
Garza, who was elected last fall, ran on a police accountability platform and has charged several officials since taking office recently. Garza said the new hires will enable his office to handle the increased case numbers.
“Our community has seen an alarming increase in incidents and reports of law enforcement misconduct,” Garza said in a statement. “In the past seven months alone, a Travis County grand jury has dismissed charges against eleven law enforcement officers on charges of violence, including murder and aggravated assault. To restore community trust and keep all members of our community safe, we must hold law enforcement accountable for breaking the law, and these critical hires will ensure we do. “
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Thompson earned her reputation in civil rights circles by representing defendants who challenged the criminal justice system. Her past clients include Austin activist Antonio Buehler, known for filming Austin cops on Sixth Street, and men she said were wrongly charged after the deadly Waco biker shooting.
Thompson, a Democrat, campaigned successfully to become a judge in Hays County Court in 2020, pledging to seek reform and a fairer criminal justice system. This position deals with inheritance, guardianship, personal injury and misdemeanor cases.
A few weeks after Thompson took office in Hays County, she locked the two Republican judges she works with from her office with a criminal trespass warning and changed the locks on her office. She accused the judges of creating a hostile work environment by entering her chambers without her consent.
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Two court administrators wrote to Hays County’s Human Resources Department to report that they had been the victims of a hostile work environment under Thompson. Thompson eventually filed a lawsuit against the two judges and later sued the Hays County commissioners after they denied their request to hire their own court coordinator.
Thompson dropped those lawsuits after she resigned from the bank.
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