Opinion
No. 05-18-00848-CR
05-28-2019
ISSAAC MATTHEW JIMENEZ, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the Criminal District Court No. 6 Dallas County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. F17-75313-X
ORDER
Appellant, who was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than fourteen years, filed his brief on February 4, 2019. Because he used the victim's name as well as the names of child witnesses, we struck the brief and ordered it to be refiled using initials or a generic title to refer to the victim and any child witness. Appellant filed an amended brief on February 19, 2019 that still contained the complete name of a witness who was younger than 17 years at the time of the offense. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.011(c)(1). We again struck the brief and ordered appellant to file an amended brief by April 6, 2019.
On May 24, 2019 appellant tendered an amended brief which, despite this Court's admonishments and previous orders, contains the complete name of the victim's sister, who was sixteen years old at the time she testified at trial and younger than twelve years old at the time of the offense. This Court has a policy of not identifying victims and child witnesses in sexual assault or indecency cases. And appellant's May 24th amended brief violates that policy and defies this Court's previous orders. We therefore STRIKE appellant's May 24th amended brief.
We ORDER appellant to file a brief that complies with this Court's order in that it does not identify a child victim or witness (specifically, the victim's younger sister) by name but, instead, uses generic identification (for example, "victim's younger sister") or initials, by June 4 , 2019. The failure to do so will result in the appeal being abated for a hearing in the trial court to determine why counsel has not complied with this Court's order and whether counsel should be removed from the appeal and new counsel appointed.
We DIRECT the Clerk to send copies of this order to the Honorable Jeanine Howard, Presiding Judge, Criminal District Court No. 6; Sharita Blacknall; and to the Dallas County District Attorney.
/s/ LANA MYERS
JUSTICE