TEXAS MUNICIPAL COURTS EDUCATION CENTER FACULTY ROSTER: Corpus Christi Court Administrator s Conference June 5 7, 2016

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1 TEXAS MUNICIPAL COURTS EDUCATION CENTER FACULTY ROSTER: Corpus Christi Court Administrator s Conference June 5 7, 2016 Michael Acuna Presiding Judge Dallas 2014 Main St Dallas, TX michael.acuna@dallascityhall.com Janet Blacklock Matthews Judge Wilson P.O. Box 22 Wilson, TX lubbock7@gmail.com Robby Chapman Director of Clerk Education and Program Attorney Austin, TX chapman@tmcec.com Scott Cubbler Protective Security Advisor US Department of Homeland Security Scott.cubbler@hq.dhs.gov Hilda Cuthbertson Consultant Bojorquez Law Firm 703 N. Coulter Bryan, TX hcuthbert@suddenlink.net Elizabeth De La Garza TxDOT Grant Administrator Austin, TX elizabeth@tmcec.com Matt Dixon Prosecutor Arlington 101 South Mesquite Street, Suite 300 Arlington, TX matt.dixon@arlingtontx.gov Matt Freeman Court Administrator Frisco 6865 Main St Frisco, TX mfreeman@friscotexas.gov Mark Goodner Deputy Counsel & Director of Judicial Education Austin, TX goodner@tmcec.com Jacqueline Habersham Senior Commission Counsel Commission on Judicial Conduct PO Box Austin, TX jackie.habersham@scjc.state.tx.us David Hamilton Prosecutor Reno in Lamar County 160 Blackburn St Reno, TX parisattorney@gmail.com Leah Huff Former Court Admin City of Southlake 4120 Broken Bend Blvd. Keller, TX southlake_princess@live.com Casey Kennedy Director, Information Services Office of Court Administration 205 W. 14th Street, Suite 600 Austin, Texas casey.kennedy@txcourts.gov Michael Macha Protective Security Advisor Office of Infrastructure Protection US Department of Homeland Security Michael.Macha@HQ.DHS.gov Victoria Medley Court Administrator Amarillo PO Box 1366 Amarillo, TX victoria.medley@amarillo.gov Ned Minevitz TxDOT Grant Administrator & Program Attorney Austin, TX ned@tmcec.com Laura Mueller Associate Attorney Bojorquez Law Firm Laura@texasmunicipallawyers.com Melissa Pace Client Liaison/Business Development Perdue Brandon Fielder Collins and Mott LLP mpace@pbfcm.com

2 William Ragsdale Presiding Judge Ingram 230 Highway 39 Ingram, TX Eric Ransleben Associate Judge Trophy Club 100 Municipal Drive Trophy Club, TX Ryan Kellus Turner General Counsel & Director of Education Austin, TX

3 , Austin, Texas fax MICHAEL ACUNA Michael Acuña received his J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center and was admitted to the Bar in He started his legal career at the City of Houston in 1993 as a municipal court prosecutor. In April 1997, Judge Acuña moved to the Land Use Division where he litigated nuisance abatement and sexually oriented business cases in state and federal courts. In November 1999, he was hired by the City of Dallas where it created the position of Assistant Chief Prosecutor for him. He served in that capacity until August 2004 when he was first appointed a full-time municipal judge. Since then, Judge Acuña has presided over various dockets including traffic, penal code, animal control, bond forfeitures, environmental pollution, substandard buildings, and gambling machine cases. Judge Acuña represents the City of Dallas on the Dallas County Bail Bond Board. Judge Acuña has been the Region III representative on /TMCA board of directors since Fall He also serves as co-chair for the board s Education and Budget and Finance Committees. He has been a regular speaker for and other entities on many subjects since 1994 including municipal court complaints, bail bond forfeitures, pretrial hearings, court interpreters, cross-examination, Chapter 54 and 125 cases, attorney general opinions, sexting, bullying, online impersonation, and jury charges. JANET BLACKLOCK MATTHEWS Jan Blacklock Matthews is municipal judge for the City of Wilson (appointed 2011). She an attorney and trained mediator in civil, criminal and USDA matters. She served as a Municipal Judge for the City of Lubbock (elected 1994 and 1998, appointed ). Judge Matthews has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Sul Ross State University and her Juris Doctorate from Texas Tech University School of Law. Prior to becoming judge, she held the position of Assistant District Attorney and Misdemeanor Chief for the Lubbock County District Attorney s Office. Matthews is the Region I director for the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center and the Texas Municipal Courts Association. ROBBY CHAPMAN Robby Chapman is Director of Clerk Education and Program Attorney for the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center. Mr. Chapman manages the Center s court clerk continuing education program and edits both the Fine-Only Misdemeanors Green Book and the Clerk Certification Study Guide. Prior to working for the Center, Mr. Chapman served as an Assistant District Attorney for Nueces County and as the Municipal Court Prosecutor for the City of Cedar Park. Mr. Chapman regularly speaks on legal issues throughout the state and is a past presenter for the Texas Municipal Courts Association, the Texas Court Clerks Association, and the National Center for State Courts Institute for Court Management. He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from St. Mary s University School of Law and Bachelor of Arts in History from The University of Texas at Austin. SCOTT CUBBLER Scott Cubbler is a Protective Secutiry Advisor with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. HILDA CUTHBERTSON Hilda Castillo Cuthbertson graduated from Sul Ross State University located in Alpine, Texas with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry in Ms. Cuthbertson taught

4 Science in Texas public schools for five years at three different school districts: Pecos, Yates High School in Houston, and Dublin, Texas. Ms. Cuthbertson went to work for the City of Bryan in March of 1983 in the City Secretary s office and was later promoted to Court Administrator July She served as Court Administrator in Bryan until March 31, 2014, and continues to work in the court as a licensed court interpreter. Ms. Cuthbertson has been very active in this profession as a leader in the field of court administration particularly involved with the Texas Court Clerks Association since l985. As a City of Bryan employee she has been awarded the Division Employee of the Year award in 1989 and 1994 and the Employee of the Year award in Ms. Cuthbertson is now a consultant with the Law Firm of Alan Borjorquez, Inc. offering cities assistance with audits, validations, and training. She was elected Vice President in 1989 through 1992 and was elected President of the Texas Court Clerks Association in 1992 through She was the TML affiliate representative from She has also been very involved with the Gulf Coast Chapter since 1985 and held the position of President twice, and again TCCA has awarded her the Distinguished Service Award in 1995 and the TCCA Extraordinary Achievement Award in 1996 and In 1997, she was awarded the Award of Excellence. She was named the Clerk of the Year by the Texas Municipal Courts Association for the year TCCA awarded her the Board of Directors Award at the 2013 annual conference. She has been a faculty member for the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center since 1991 teaching various subjects. She is a member of Texas Municipal Courts Association and is currently serving as Secretary of the board. She is currently a member of the TCCA Education Committee. She is currently a Level II certified court clerk and is also a certified study session facilitator for Level I and Level II. She is a State of Texas Licensed Court Interpreter in Spanish. She is currently working on her Level III certification. She also holds a Certified Court Manager certification through the Institute of Court Management. Ms. Cuthbertson is very active within her community, as well. She has been a presenter, English and Spanish, for the Bryan Police Department Citizens Police Academy. She is a volunteer at the Dispute Resolution Center as a bilingual certified mediator for family law and other types of mediation. She is a Past President of the local Habitat for Humanity Affiliate Board of Directors and has been a volunteer the last eight years. She is Bryan Rotary Club member. Ms. Cuthbertson is a 2013 Fellow, having graduated in May of 2013 from the Institute of Court Management at the National Center for State Courts. ELIZABETH DE LA GARZA Elizabeth De La Garza joined the team as a TxDOT Grant Administrator for Driving on the Right Side of the Road in June Ms. De La Garza has spent the last 32 years as a public school teacher in the Round Rock Independent School District, spending most of these years at Chisholm Trail Middle School teaching music and social studies. She has her BME from Baylor University in Waco, and completed her MME at The University of Texas at Austin. Ms. De La Garza is a native of San Antonio.

5 MATT DIXON Matt Dixon is an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Arlington. Prior to joining the City of Arlington in 2010, he served as an Assistant District Attorney for Nueces County and as a municipal prosecutor for the City of Corpus Christi. While prosecuting for the Nueces County District Attorney s Office, Mr. Dixon won a state s appeal concerning double jeopardy and animal cruelty prosecution. State v. Almendarez, 301 S.W.3d 886 (Tex. App. Corpus Christi 2009, no pet.). Mr. Dixon obtained his juris doctorate from Texas Wesleyan School of Law (currently Texas A&M School of Law). While at Texas Wesleyan School of Law, Mr. Dixon was a member of the Law Review. MATT FREEMAN Matt Freeman is the Court Administrator for the City of Frisco. MARK GOODNER Mark Goodner serves as the Presiding Judge for the City of Woodcreek and is the Deputy Counsel and Director of Judicial Education for the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center. Prior to joining the Center, he worked in civil litigation in Austin. Mr. Goodner graduated from the University of Texas School of Law with a juris doctorate and certification in the Graduate Portfolio Program in Dispute Resolution in May of While in law school, he worked in the mediation clinic, was a finalist in the Thad T. Hutcheson Moot Court Competition, and served on the executive board of Assault & Flattery. JACQUELINE HABERSHAM Jacqueline Habersham is Senior Commission Counsel for the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. She has been with the Commission since June In 1985, Jacqueline earned a Bachelor of Science degree in a dual major of Political Science and Public Administration and graduated magna cum laude from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. She earned her law degree in 1992 from Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. Prior to joining the Commission staff, she was an attorney in private practice in Houston, Texas concentrating in the areas of criminal defense, family law and personal injury. DAVID HAMILTON Mr. Hamilton has been licensed lawyer in Texas for over 30 years, spending most of that time in private practice. For the last ten years, Mr. Hamilton has served as City Attorney for City of Reno, Lamar County. Mr. Hamilton began his career as a law enforcement officer, while attending undergraduate and law school at Texas Tech University. He holds the Advanced Law Enforcement License, as well as the Instructor s Certification from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education. After law school, Mr. Hamilton served as a briefing attorney for the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin, then began his legal career, which has included five years as a felony prosecutor. A member of the National Order of Barristers, Mr. Hamilton has participated in every type of criminal case, from traffic tickets to capital murder. In addition to his faculty duties with, Mr. Hamilton is a member of the State Bar Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect. Born in Lubbock, Mr. Hamilton s published articles include Multiple Personality Disorder: Competency and the Insanity Defense and Expert Witness Testimony.

6 LEAH HUFF Ms. Huff began her 15 year career with the Fort Worth/Dallas based, municipal law firm of Taylor, Olson, Adkins, Sralla and Elam, L.L.P. as a paralegal, and promoted to Law Office Administrator. In 2006, she joined the City of Southlake as the Municipal Court Administrator for five years, with major accomplishments including the development of a high-level technological court process with her team through implementation of paper-light, audio/visual court recording, online / kiosk payments and warrant interface with remote dispatch center, while building a quality team through the World Famous Seattle FISH! Program. Tyler Technologies offered her the opportunity to assist other courts through implementation of the paper-light and legal court processes across nine states, and soon afterwards a precious granddaughter was born (The Princess). Ms. Huff achieved her Texas Court Clerk's Certification, Level I certification in 2007, Level II certification in 2008 and began her Level III certification (CMCC) assessment clinic in Currently, she is pursuing completion of her Certified Court Manager s certificate with the National Center for State Courts Institute for Court Management. Additionally, she graduated from Strategic Government Resources Fourth Dimension Leadership Model Academy in 2009 and from nationwide trainer Coach Rick Kolster's Leadership Academy in 2007, as well as numerous paralegal and law office administrative certification and CLE courses. During her career, Ms. Huff has been active in the Texas Court Clerk s Association, North Texas Court Clerk's Association, and the Texas Municipal Courts Association serving in a variety of positions ranging from Director at Large to Conference Committee Chair & Committee Member, as well as on the Education Committee. Ms. Huff is a certified instructor for the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center since 2007 and has continued to serve as faculty for the Court Clerk's School, New Judges and Clerks Boot Camp, and Court Administrators. Additionally, she has been active as an instructor for a variety of leadership and management courses across the United States, sharing her passion for court and the law, and has been an active trainer for software and imaging instruction with Tyler Technologies and Laserfiche. Ms. Huff is an approved instructor for the Clerk Certification Program for continuing education hours provided by the TCCA chapters and regularly facilitates training opportunities across the State of Texas to share court and technology knowledge, as well as build court "share communities" to encourage court clerks to support each other in the municipal court profession. Soon after the Princess was born, Ms. Huff joined the Business Development Team at Municipal Services Bureau d/b/a Gila, L.L.C., fulfilling her passion for court and the law by training on court procedures, technological processes and facilitating court collection and cash handling best practices with Municipal Court clients, cities, counties & state agencies across 38 states. CASEY KENNEDY Mr. Kennedy joined OCA as the Director of Information Services in His team provides direct IT support for the Texas Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals, the 14 intermediate appellate courts, and several judicial branch state agencies. Mr. Kennedy is also the lead OCA staff for the Judicial Committee on Information Technology or JCIT. The committee is appointed by the Supreme Court and makes recommendations and sets standards for court technology in Texas. Mr. Kennedy is currently on the executive board of the Court Information Technology Officer Consortium, a national organization of Court IT professionals and last year placed 1 st in the court technology geek-off competition.

7 He holds a BA in Computer Science from The University of Texas at Austin. MICHAEL MACHA Michael Macha is one of 92 Protective Security Advisors (PSAs) deployed throughout the United States and Protectorates to lead the coordinated national effort to reduce the risk to our critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) and strengthen national preparedness, timely response, and rapid recovery in the event of an attack, natural disaster, or other emergency. As a DHS PSA, he is the on-site critical infrastructure and vulnerability assessment subject matter expert assigned to local communities. He facilitates physical and cyber assessments and provides guidance on established security practices by reviewing and analyzing physical/technical/cyber security for local critical infrastructure facilities and systems. He has extensive experience in identifying gaps/vulnerabilities and providing options to mitigate the risks and developing strategies to improve regional capabilities and long-term strategies for implementation. Mr. Macha assists in the development of the national risk profile by identifying CI/KR and assessing and minimizing risk to critical assets at the local level and assists State and local public and private sector stakeholders with homeland security initiatives. He recognizes that information sharing and collaboration is vital to establishing relationships necessary to accomplish his job responsibilities. As such, he works closely with Federal, State, local, and private-sector partners to facilitate the flow of programmatic information between partners. As the PSA assigned to the Houston District, he has responsibility for a 35 county area in Southeast Texas. As a result of their local deployment, PSAs are often the first DHS personnel to respond to incidents and provide early situational awareness to leadership. As a Federal Emergency Response Official, Mike is a rapid-deployment asset to assist in response and recovery efforts for national incidents. Mr. Macha retired from the Houston Police Department with 27 years of law enforcement experience, most at the Command level. During the last seven years with the Police Department, he was assigned to the Mayor s Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security doing many of the same job responsibilities on a regional basis. He played an integral part in the preparedness/response/recovery efforts and emergency management for Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike. He is a Summa Cum Laude graduate from Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas. VICTORIA MEDLEY Victoria Jaramillo Medley is currently the Court Administrator for the City of Amarillo. Ms. Medley received a Bachelor of Science degree and a Masters in Public Administration from Northern Arizona University. Ms. Medley has been in her current position as the Court Administrator since Prior to becoming the Court Administrator for the City of Amarillo, Ms. Medley worked for Bernalillo County Juvenile Probation in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Randall County Juvenile Probation in Amarillo, Texas. She was an officer specializing in serious offenders. Ms. Medley was originally hired by the City of Amarillo in 1990 to serve as the first Teen Court Coordinator for the City of Amarillo and was responsible for designing and implementing one of the first Teen Court Programs in Texas. NED MINEVITZ Ned Minevitz, a Massachusetts native, has served as TxDOT Grant Administrator and Program Attorney at the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center since November, Mr. Minevitz also serves as General Counsel for Everthin, LLC, a startup company based in Massachusetts. He received his B.A. from Connecticut College in New London, CT where he majored in East Asian Studies. Spending

8 extensive time in China after college, Mr. Minevitz is proficient in Mandarin Chinese. In 2013, Mr. Minevitz earned his J.D. from the Sandra Day O Connor College of Law in Tempe, AZ. In his free time, he enjoys tennis, golf, and squash. LAURA MUELLER MELISSA PACE Melissa Pace was raised in the Texas Panhandle and graduated with Valedictorian honors from Floydada High School. She moved to the metroplex soon thereafter to attend college and learn how to drive in a lot of traffic. She graduated from the University of Texas in Arlington with a Bachelor in Business Administration. The Haltom City Municipal Court was her home for 17 years in which she was employed as the Court Administrator. In addition, she served as the chair for the North Texas Chapter Education committee for several years and on the TCCA board as a director at large and secretary. She is excited to be continuing to learn and teach as well as maintain her Level II certification. She currently works for the Law Firm of Perdue. WILLIAM RAGSDALE William (Bill) Ragsdale is the Presiding Judge for the City of Ingram and has been a Justice of the Peace for Kerr County 24 years. He has taught for the Justice of the Peace Training Center for three years and is enjoying his third year teaching for the Texas Municipal Court Education Center. Judge Ragsdale began court work as a Court Clerk and was the City Marshal for the City of Ingram. He earned a Peace Officer Master License with fifteen years of experience and has an Instructor License for TCOLE. ERIC RANSLEBEN Eric G. Ransleben is an Associate Municipal Judge for the Town of Trophy Club and the Town of Westlake. He is also the City Prosecutor for the City of North Richland Hills. Judge Ransleben has been in private practice since 1996, and specializes in criminal and juvenile defense, and education law. He has been representing school age children in the public school system for over 10 years, with particular interest in special education law. RYAN KELLUS TURNER Ryan Kellus Turner is General Counsel and Director of Education for the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center. Prior to joining the Center in 1999, he served as Briefing Attorney for Judge Sharon Keller at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Mr. Turner obtained his juris doctorate from Southern Methodist University School of Law. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with highest honors from St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas, where he now teaches as an adjunct faculty member in the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences. In 2004 and 2013, he was the recipient of the School s Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award and a finalist for the University Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award in Mr. Turner previously served as a Special Assistant County Attorney for Kendall County. He is currently Deputy City Attorney for the City of Dripping Springs and serves as a Substitute Associate Judge on the Austin Municipal Court. In 2011, he was an advisory member on the Texas Judicial Council s Juvenile Justice Committee. In 2012, Mr. Turner was named Co-Chair of the Texas Judicial Council Legislative Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice.

9 A native Texan, Mr. Turner was raised in the north Texas town of Vernon. He is the co-author of the books Lone Star Justice: A Comprehensive Overview of the Texas Criminal Justice System and The Municipal Judges Book.