Opinion
WR-81,593-01
09-21-2022
EX PARTE RICHARD BENAVIDES, Applicant
Do not publish
ON APPLICATION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS CAUSE NO. CR38296 "A" IN THE 142ND DISTRICT COURT FROM MIDLAND COUNTY
ORDER
Per curiam.
Applicant pleaded guilty to of aggravated sexual assault of a child in exchange for deferred adjudication community supervision. Applicant was later adjudicated guilty and sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment. He did not appeal his conviction. Applicant filed this application for a writ of habeas corpus in the county of conviction, and the district clerk forwarded it to this Court. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 11.07.
On July 9, 2014, this Court denied application number WR-81,593-01 on the findings of the trial court without a hearing. Recently, it has come to this Court's attention that former assistant district attorney Ralph Petty was paid by the district judges to work on Applicant's -01 application while at the same time he was employed as an appellate prosecutor by the Midland County District
Attorney's office. That dual employment was not disclosed to this Court or Applicant at the time his -01 application was under consideration.
While it does not appear that Petty's dual employment affected the pre-trial, trial, or appellate proceedings in Applicant's case, the undisclosed employment relationship between the District Judge who presided over the initial habeas proceedings in this case and the prosecutor who simultaneously represented the State in the same proceeding leads us to conclude that Applicant was deprived of his due process rights to fair consideration of his claims in the first habeas application. Therefore, this Court now reconsiders on its own motion the denial without written order on the findings of the trial court of application number WR-81,593-01.
However, after an independent review of the record in this case without consideration of the trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law, this Court believes that Applicant's claims are refuted by that record. Therefore, after reconsideration on the Court's own motion, relief is again denied in cause number WR-81,593-01.