Hays County Court-at-Law Judge Millie Thompson resigned from her post Wednesday, cutting short a contentious working relationship with her court colleagues that was fraught with lawsuits and cease-and-desist orders since she took office in January.
Thompson, a Democrat who ran on a platform of reform and promised a more equitable criminal justice system, turned in a resignation letter Wednesday. The Hays County Commissioners Court will appoint a new judge to the bench, according to an attorney representing the remaining judges.
Thompson did not return a message seeking comment.
A few weeks after Thompson took office, she barred the two other Republican judges she works with from her office via a criminal trespass warning and changed the locks to her office.
Internet sleuths identified Austin resident Joseph Barnes in a variety of ways after he entered the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6 and said, This is our country, while making his way inside, according to investigators.
First, a London-based news organization captured Barnes and others on video. Then someone alerted the FBI, claiming to recognize Barnes in the video. Another person also contacted the FBI, identifying Barnes and telling agents that they had gone to Anderson High School in Austin together.
Then, a third person informed FBI agents that Barnes worked for commercial real estate company JLL and provided the company s webpage, which listed Barnes as the vice president. He has since lost his job with that company.