{"id":467259,"date":"2016-03-22T11:12:52","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T16:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/?p=467259"},"modified":"2016-03-23T11:12:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T16:12:08","slug":"judge-baker-remains-under-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=467259","title":{"rendered":"Judge Baker Remains Under Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"judgebaker_1457971658391_7533048_ver1.0\"<\/a>TYLER — More residents, including the ex-husband of the woman who accused Judge Joel Baker of inappropriate conduct, have called for him to step down from his position. KETK reports they spoke up during Tuesday’s commissioners court meeting. During the meeting, James (J.C.) Hardman, the ex-husband of Felisha Hardman (Felisha Smith), the woman accusing Baker of inappropriate conduct, spoke out against Baker. James Hardman began by saying, “You recognize my last name. You cannot cover up a lie with another lie.” He said he never saw any of the messages between his ex-wife and Baker, but claims to have seen the original friend request via Facebook. James Hardman referred to Felisha Hardman as “a victim.” However, Felisha Hardman has stated she also willingly sent lewd text messages to Baker. James Hardman abruptly left the courthouse before KETK reporters could speak with him following the meeting. <\/p>\n

During item 11 on the Commissioners Court Agenda, commissioners were allowed to speak on the recent allegations regarding Baker. Precinct 2 Commissioner Cary Nix said the confidence in the county and leadership are gone. He went on to say he has no confidence in Baker’s leadership as County Judge and called on Baker to resign.
\nPrecinct 3 Commissioner Terry Phillips said under Baker’s leadership the county has accomplished many positive things. He also said the court has no authority to force a County Judge to resign. Following those statements, Phillips added the discussion on county leadership was one constituents demanded be had. Phillips also called for Baker to resign. If and when Baker resigns is completely up to him.<\/p>\n

On March 15, 2016, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct launched an investigation into Baker’s actions. Baker was a member of the Commission until recently when he submitted his letter of resignation. Baker was appointed to the Commission in July 2009 by the Texas Supreme Court. According to the Commission’s website, Baker’s term was set to expire on November 19, 2017. Baker has cited personal and family considerations in his decision to resign from the commission. During last week’s meeting, a speaker brought up allegatons of lewd conduct against the judge. He responded by telling the woman she didn’t know what she was talking about and soon asked that she be removed from the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TYLER — More residents, including the ex-husband of the woman who accused Judge Joel Baker of inappropriate conduct, have called for him to step down from his position. KETK reports they spoke up during Tuesday’s commissioners court meeting. During the meeting, James (J.C.) Hardman, the ex-husband of Felisha Hardman (Felisha Smith), the woman accusing Baker … Continue reading Judge Baker Remains Under Fire<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":467260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-18 11:11:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=467259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467261,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467259\/revisions\/467261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/467260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=467259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=467259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=467259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}