Motion to recuse questions judges' ability to be impartial in child molestation cases
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - A jury convicts a man in the 185th Criminal District Court of continuous sexual abuse of a child and gives him the minimum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Judge Jason Luong announced he thought the jury had returned the wrong verdict.
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The motion to recuse further states, "Judge Luong equated child sexual abuse cases with the Salem witch trials, because just a mere outcry statement from a child is enough to put a man away for the rest of his life."
According to the motion, the judge went on to say, "Just because a child or ADA says a person is a child molester that does not make it, so since you will never know what actually happened."
"Right now these statements, if true, are abhorrent and the affidavits speak for themselves," said Andrea Beall, who is running against Luong in next month's run-off election.
"That court has been to trial 13 to 14 times with this particular judge presiding in almost three and a half years," Beall said. "That isn't good enough for our county."
The motion states Judge Luong believed 25 years was too harsh a sentence in this case.
He also claimed, "The text messages between the defendant and the victim the state introduced during the trial were normal, and that he has similar conversations with his teenage stepdaughter every day."
In those text messages, the defendant would tell the 12-year-old girl how much he missed her, wanted to cuddle with her, and begged her to send her pictures of herself."
"That's the purpose of any motion to recuse saying we don't believe the judge can be impartial or follow the law in this type of case."
We reached out to Judge Luong seeking a comment, but he's yet to respond.