{"id":142437,"date":"2026-01-22T18:10:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/22\/judicial-candidate-learns-the-hard-way-that-extortion-is-not-a-campaign-strategy\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:10:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:10:47","slug":"judicial-candidate-learns-the-hard-way-that-extortion-is-not-a-campaign-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/22\/judicial-candidate-learns-the-hard-way-that-extortion-is-not-a-campaign-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Judicial Candidate Learns The Hard Way That Extortion Is Not A Campaign Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMessy,\u201d in the wild drama sense, is not a typical adjective when describing a judicial election but that\u2019s the exact right word for what\u2019s been going down in the Democratic primary for Houston\u2019s 234th Civil District Court judgeship. The race featured dueling injunction requests and a late-night hearing which ultimately culminated in a would-be challenger getting booted from the ballot.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Judge Lauren Reeder was successful in getting Kimberly McTorry off the ballot, with Judge Christi Kennedy writing<\/a>, \u201cThis conduct renders McTorry administratively ineligible to be certified as a candidate for judicial office.\u201d What conduct you ask? Well, buckle up.<\/p>\n

According to Reeder\u2019s court filings, McTorry allegedly tried to strong-arm her into dropping out of the race by threatening to expose personal information that would \u201cget back to [your] husband, children and other family members.\u201d That information? A two-month consensual affair in 2013 between Reeder and AZA Law partner Todd Mensing.<\/p>\n

Now, the relationship ended more than a decade ago, but that didn\u2019t allegedly stop McTorry from trying to use it against Reeder. It should also be noted Mensing later appeared in Reeder\u2019s courtroom. Reeder did not recuse herself, a fact McTorry seized upon.<\/p>\n

Reeder alleged that McTorry\u2019s demand she drop out of the race was paired with the use of a co-conspirator to publish what Reeder described as \u201cvile, offensive\u201d social media posts designed to amp up the pressure. McTorry denied the allegations, but Kennedy found her testimony \u201cnot credible,\u201d particularly given the timing of the posts, which the court said was \u201cunlikely to be a coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy also found that some of the signatures McTorry submitted to qualify for the ballot were forged and\/or obtained from suspended voters.<\/p>\n

But remember there were dueling efforts to get folks kicked off the ballot. And, well, McTorry\u2019s effort didn\u2019t go nearly as well. She alleged Reeder violated Texas election law by \u201ceffectuating\u201d a $50,000 donation from a law firm to McTorry, supposedly in exchange for McTorry dropping out of the race and seeking a different judgeship.<\/p>\n

Judge Kennedy rejected that claim outright, calling McTorry\u2019s filings riddled with \u201cmaterially false allegations\u201d about bribery or coercion. The court found no evidence supporting the theory that Reeder tried to buy her opponent out of the race.<\/p>\n

Reeder\u2019s attorney, Lloyd Kelly, summed it up bluntly<\/a>, \u201cThis is a historic case. It is drawing the line that you cannot campaign for a position on the ballot as a judge if you engage in what is basically extortion.\u201d And that history-making has given lawyers plenty to gossip about.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The post Judicial Candidate Learns The Hard Way That Extortion Is Not A Campaign Strategy<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMessy,\u201d in the wild drama sense, is not a typical adjective when describing a judicial election but that\u2019s the exact right word for what\u2019s been going down in the Democratic primary for Houston\u2019s 234th Civil District Court judgeship. The race featured dueling injunction requests and a late-night hearing which ultimately culminated in a would-be challenger getting booted from the ballot.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Judge Lauren Reeder was successful in getting Kimberly McTorry off the ballot, with Judge Christi Kennedy writing<\/a>, \u201cThis conduct renders McTorry administratively ineligible to be certified as a candidate for judicial office.\u201d What conduct you ask? Well, buckle up.<\/p>\n

According to Reeder\u2019s court filings, McTorry allegedly tried to strong-arm her into dropping out of the race by threatening to expose personal information that would \u201cget back to [your] husband, children and other family members.\u201d That information? A two-month consensual affair in 2013 between Reeder and AZA Law partner Todd Mensing.<\/p>\n

Now, the relationship ended more than a decade ago, but that didn\u2019t allegedly stop McTorry from trying to use it against Reeder. It should also be noted Mensing later appeared in Reeder\u2019s courtroom. Reeder did not recuse herself, a fact McTorry seized upon.<\/p>\n

Reeder alleged that McTorry\u2019s demand she drop out of the race was paired with the use of a co-conspirator to publish what Reeder described as \u201cvile, offensive\u201d social media posts designed to amp up the pressure. McTorry denied the allegations, but Kennedy found her testimony \u201cnot credible,\u201d particularly given the timing of the posts, which the court said was \u201cunlikely to be a coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy also found that some of the signatures McTorry submitted to qualify for the ballot were forged and\/or obtained from suspended voters.<\/p>\n

But remember there were dueling efforts to get folks kicked off the ballot. And, well, McTorry\u2019s effort didn\u2019t go nearly as well. She alleged Reeder violated Texas election law by \u201ceffectuating\u201d a $50,000 donation from a law firm to McTorry, supposedly in exchange for McTorry dropping out of the race and seeking a different judgeship.<\/p>\n

Judge Kennedy rejected that claim outright, calling McTorry\u2019s filings riddled with \u201cmaterially false allegations\u201d about bribery or coercion. The court found no evidence supporting the theory that Reeder tried to buy her opponent out of the race.<\/p>\n

Reeder\u2019s attorney, Lloyd Kelly, summed it up bluntly<\/a>, \u201cThis is a historic case. It is drawing the line that you cannot campaign for a position on the ballot as a judge if you engage in what is basically extortion.\u201d And that history-making has given lawyers plenty to gossip about.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The post Judicial Candidate Learns The Hard Way That Extortion Is Not A Campaign Strategy<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMessy,\u201d in the wild drama sense, is not a typical adjective when describing a judicial election but that\u2019s the exact right word for what\u2019s been going down in the Democratic primary for Houston\u2019s 234th Civil District Court judgeship. The race featured dueling injunction requests and a late-night hearing which ultimately culminated in a would-be challenger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":142438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-blYr8i.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}