Jim Sharp (justice)

James Patrick Sharp, Jr., known as Jim Sharp (born c. 1952), is a former justice of the First Texas Court of Appeals, based in Houston, Texas. He served from January 2009 to December 2014. A Dallas native, Sharp was the court's only Democrat during his time of office. He ran for re-election to a second six-year term in 2014. Sharp was unopposed in the Democratic primary election but lost to his Republican opponent in the general election. The Houston Chronicle had recommended that Justice Sharp not be reelected because of his disciplinary record while on the appellate bench.^[1] Sharp was defeated by Justice Russel Lloyd,^[2] who took the oath of office on January 1, 2015. In 2010, Sharp lost a bid for election to the Texas Supreme Court to the Republican Debra Lehrmann of Fort Worth.

Sharp was elected to the First Court of Appeals in November 2008 as part of a Democratic sweep that also replaced many Republican incumbents with Democrats in the Harris County courthouse. He previously practiced as a general solo practitioner for nineteen years, representing clients in a wide range of matters, encompassing probate, civil, criminal, juvenile, and family law. He litigated cases in trial courts across the state and prosecuted and defended appeals before the courts of appeals in Houston, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Supreme Court of Texas.

Justice Sharp graduated from South Texas College of Law in Houston. While attending night classes at South Texas, he worked full-time as a law clerk for Reynolds, Allen & Cook; Butler & Binion; Fulbright & Jaworski; Hardy, Milutin, & Johns; and The Chaffin Law Firm.

An English and Government student at The University of Texas at Austin, he worked full-time for the Texas Legislature, serving on the House Calendar Clerk’s staff, on the Senate Education Committee staff, and as administrative and legislative director to two state representatives.

Prior to attending law school, he worked for the Washington, D.C., political consulting firm of Matt Reese & Associates, where he planned and implemented U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns for candidates from Alaska to New Hampshire. Thereafter, he served as public relations director for American Income Life Insurance Co. in New Mexico and Massachusetts and was a sales representative for Federal Envelope, a division of Champion International Company.

Commissioned in 1986 by Governor Mark Wells White, Sharp has served as an Admiral of the Texas Navy for more than twenty-three years. He is also a member of the Naval Order of the United States and the Texas Navy Association; a member of the Board of Directors of HoustonWorks USA; a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas; a Preservation Council Steward of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; a donor to the Commit for Life program of the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center; a member of the Irish Society of Houston; an Honorary Citizen of Father Flanagan's Boys Town, Nebraska; a patron of the Museum of Fine Arts in and Kenneally’s.

Married to Susan Sharp, his wife of twenty years, Jim Sharp is a lector at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Houston.

In 2012, Justice Sharp was barred from hearing a neighboring county's cases in a dispute over a shoplifting charge against a friend's daughter.^[3] Sharp faces allegations of trying to use his influence to help a friend's 15-year-old daughter. The girl was arrested January 17, 2012 for allegedly shoplifting nearly $190 worth of merchandise. In a voice mail to a state district court judge in Brazoria County Sharp ranted, "If I had been there in person and had a baseball bat, that (expletive) would have been cracked upside the head."^[4] Sharp went on to call Brazoria County authorities as "a bunch of backwoods hillbillies" and promising that "things are going to change" in that county south of Houston because nobody jumped or saluted when he first butted in on the shoplifting matter.^[5] Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne alleges Sharp attempted to improperly demand the juvenile's release and sent inappropriate texts and voice messages to county employees. Yenne filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and asked that Sharp be recused from Brazoria County cases. The appeals court agreed.

On March 1, 2016, Sharp lost his bid for the Place 2 seat on the 14th Circuit Court of Appeals, which encompasses part of Harris and nine other counties, including Washington. Victory went to his fellow Democrat Candance White, who received 153,910 votes (70 percent). Sharp garnered 66,058 cotes (30 percent).^[6] White now faces Kevin Jewell, who received 190,085 votes (56.3 percent) in the Republican primary

References

1. ↑ http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/Judge-Jim-Sharp-s-bad-judgment-3354086.php
2. ↑ http://www.txcourts.gov/1stcoa/about-the-court/justices/justice-russell-lloyd.aspx
3. ↑ http://www.chron.com/default/article/Appeals-judge-barred-from-Brazoria-County-cases-3349119.php
4. ↑ http://www.chron.com/default/article/Editorial-Judge-Jim-Sharp-s-bad-judgment-3354086.php
5. ↑ http://www.chron.com/default/article/Editorial-Judge-Jim-Sharp-s-bad-judgment-3354086.php
6. ↑ "Democratic primary returns". Texas Secretary of State. Retrieved March 4, 2016. 

• Houston Case Law Monitor Entry for Justice Jim Sharp
• First Texas Court of Appeals