Opinion
05-23-01257-CR
11-04-2024
SUNG HONG, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 282nd Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. F20-37277
ORDER
NANCY KENNEDY JUSTICE
We REINSTATE this appeal.
We abated this appeal for the trial court to hold a hearing and make findings concerning court reporter LaToya Young's failure to file the reporter's record. The trial court held hearings on October 30 and November 1, 2024, pursuant to our order. On November 1, 2024, the trial court signed and filed its findings.
The trial court findings include:
1. As of November 1, 2024, there has been a successful record submission in this case.
. . . .
5. . . . In light of the complete filing of the Reporter's Record by court reporter LaToya Young, this Court respectfully requests that the Court of Appeals rescind its order prohibiting Ms. Young from sitting as a court reporter.
The trial court's findings are based on Ms. Young's testimony at the hearing. However, we cannot accept these findings because the reporter's record filed was not satisfactory. The Clerk rejected the filing because the certification of the reporter's record was incomplete; volumes 3 and 4 contained computer code, many misspellings, and portions that were nonsensical; and Ms. Young did not file any of the electronic exhibits.
On September 6, 2024, we ordered that Ms. Young not sit as a court reporter until she filed the complete reporter's record. The trial court's findings on November 1, 2024, include that Ms. Young sat as a court reporter on September 23, 2024, in violation of our order. Ms. Young testified at the hearing that she did so "[b]ecause I filed the record, but I didn't know that it didn't get accepted. . . . I wasn't aware that [the record was not accepted] until I reached out to the clerks. . . . I read the order as I couldn't sit until it was filed, but I'm sorry if I was wrong." We ORDER that Ms. Young not sit as a court reporter until further order of this Court lifting that restriction, which will not occur until the complete reporter's record, including all exhibits, is filed in this Court.
We DIRECT the Clerk to send copies of this order to the Honorable Michael Snipes, Senior Judge Presiding, 282nd Judicial District Court; Honorable Hector Garza, Presiding Judge, 195th Judicial District Court; Dallas County Auditor's Office; Christina O'Neil, Chief Judicial Staff Counsel for the Criminal District Courts, Dallas County; and counsel for all parties.