Like most judges, Amber Givens moved much of her court’s business online as the pall of COVID-19 hung over Dallas in the summer of 2021. On August 3, what initially seemed like a routine Zoom meeting with lawyers turned into the impetus for a prolonged public and legal drama with the 43-year-old district judge at its heart.
Givens, who has presided over the 282nd District Court in Dallas since 2015, had trouble logging in to her Zoom account that morning, a familiar woe for all who transitioned to virtual work during the pandemic. It didn’t seem like too much of a problem—she had a relatively light docket that day. One meeting involved a man named Floyd Aaron, who’d been accused of violating the conditions of the deferred adjudication of his 2015 burglary charge.
Before the meeting, Givens asked her court coordinator, Arceola Warfield—known by many regulars at the courthouse as “Arce”—to log into the judge’s account and announce that the judge would participate via speakerphone, according to affidavits obtained by the Texas Observer.
Longtime defense attorney Tim Jefferey, representing Aaron, attended the Zoom meeting while Assistant District Attorney Eduardo Carranza represented the state. A handful of others, including probation officers, logged on.
Some participants understood that Warfield, the court coordinator, continued to use the judge’s Zoom account, although the video was off and a photo of Givens appeared onscreen. To courtroom regulars, Warfield’s voice sounded distinct from Givens’ confident, orotund tone. At one point, the coordinator asked the court reporter to go on the record—something the judge normally does.
At least one lawyer said it wasn’t clear Warfield was the one behind the Zoom picture—during the meeting, the defendant addressed Warfield as “your honor” on at least one occasion—and word of this ambiguity made its way to leaders of the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (DCDLA), which represents more than 600 lawyers. The group’s board of directors filed a formal complaint against Givens with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, alleging that Givens had instructed her court coordinator to impersonate her.
Givens has denied that she instructed her employee to impersonate her, calling the allegation “absurd,” according to the Dallas Morning News.
In an affidavit, Warfield later said her request to go on the record was tongue-in-cheek. “I jokingly said to Lisa Jackson, our court reporter, ‘Let’s go on the record.’ This was a joke because I said it after Judge Givens told the parties she was getting off the call,” Warfield wrote. “I recall that several people in attendance on the Zoom call laughed in response.”
Other participants in the Zoom call—including court reporter Lisa Jackson and Dallas County sheriff’s deputies Kenneth
