Sometimes I Got Totally Bored

Judge Maryellen Hicks - 321st

As a lawyer, I sometimes got really bored waiting in a Court Room for my turn at a 60-second divorce "prove-up." There is only so much small-talk an attorney, or the client for that matter, wants to engage in after a few minutes. And, of course, "no talking in the court room." At least while hearings are being conducted. The client is usually interested in the proceedings, something a family law attorney has seen hundreds of times and has better things to do other than twiddling thumbs. Or sketching. This is Judge Maryellen Hicks sitting in the 321st in Fort Worth. The bench, witness box and stenographer's box behind the column on the left, are made of heavy oak and beautifully carved. A very QUICK sketch done with a black pen on a manilla file folder, which I ran across this the other day sorting through old files to finally shred. Definitely not a work of art, but perhaps a bit of history in that Judge Hicks moved up to the Court of Appeals in 1993 after a nationally reported incident involving the deaths of 2 Court of Appeals Judges and a still furious ex-husband, that sadly and coincidentally I was acquainted with at church.. More ... The article fails to mention that the gunman was headed to this courtroom to kill this particular judge as well, but was confronted by 2 heroic unarmed attorney's in the hall who managed to talk him out of it, after which he fled.