CONVICTED DRUNK-DRIVING KILLER'S OUTRAGEOUS REWARD FOR BEING THE DAUGHTER OF A JUDGE

I am pissed off, thoroughly pissed off! In 2006, Elizabeth Shelton, the 21-year-old daughter of state district judge in Houston who presides over juvenile cases, was convicted of intoxication manslaughter for a freeway accident that killed her boyfriend. According to two tests, Shelton had a blood alcohol concentration MORE THAN THREE TIMES the legal limit when she smashed the SUV she was driving into the back of a box truck around 2 a.m.

After her father, Judge Pat Shelton, used every legal trick in the book to keep his daughter from paying for her crime, Shelton was sentenced to eight years of probation, fined $10,000 and ordered to serve four months in jail and perform 240 hours of community service at the rate of eight hours a month for 30 months.

Judge Shelton then joined his daughter and her dead boyfriend's family in filing a lawsuit against the driver of the truck, seeking $20,000 for the destruction of the Lexus SUV she was driving and an amount to be determined for mental anguish, pain and suffering. To me it seemed UNBELIEVABLE that they would have the AUDACITY to sue the truck driver because the judge's daughter rear-ended his truck while driving rip-roaring drunk on a Houston freeway around 2 a.m. Judge Shelton should have been ashamed of himself - but then he's a lawyer and most of them have no shame.

Now comes the really outrageous part. During the four months Elizabeth Shelton spent in the Harris County jail, she worked as a trustee cleaning and passing out supplies to other inmates. For that she was credited with, yes you guessed it, 240 hours of community service. No lawyer and no Harris County official has heard of any jail inmate ever having been granted community service credit for trustee work done while serving time, and neither have I.

Richard Mays, a visiting judge, was the SCOUNDREL who apparently rewarded Shelton for being the daughter of a fellow judge. Mays claims that he was merely following the recommendation of the probation department, claiming that he got a phone call from someone identifying themselves as being from the Community Supervision and Corrections Department. Hmmmm, I wonder if it could have been Judge Shelton or someone from his staff who made that phony phone call if it was actually ever made?

After Community Supervision and Corrections administrators insisted that jail work is not approved for community service credit, Judge Mays said, "I still don't understand what the big deal is. If she's done community service, what difference does it matter whether she's in the jail or not in the jail?" WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MATTER? What law school did this clown attend? Did the State of Texas actually grant this jerk of a judge a license to practice law?

The scales of justice have been broken in this case. To begin with, the sentence Judge Shelton's daughter received was way too light. And now this. Anyone who believes in justice should be every bit as outraged as I am. Judge Mays insists that he did not treat Elizabeth Shelton preferentially because her father was a fellow judge. If you believe that, you must still believe in the tooth fairy. Remember that judges are also lawyers. And what is the difference between a lawyer and a liar? - THE SPELLING.