Bell County Justice of the Peace Claudia Brown is unfit to hold office, jurors found Wednesday.

The eight-woman, four-man jury returned the verdict early Wednesday evening after about two hours of deliberation.

As a result of the verdict, Brown was immediately suspended from office without pay and will be removed from office as soon as the judge signs the order.

She was given five days in which to appeal.

Stephen Ables, senior judge of the 216th District Court in Kerr County, was appointed to hear the petition after all of Bell County’s district judges recused themselves.

He told Brown Wednesday the trial was difficult.

“Everybody thinks the world of you,” he told her.

“You’re a credit to this community. Everybody really thinks a lot of you, but the statement of the jury says we need to abide by their verdict.”

Both sides rested earlier Wednesday in the trial stemming from a petition to remove Brown, who, a clinical psychologist testified, has some mental issues that could affect her memory.

Earlier, during a third day of testimony Wednesday, Ables sent the jury out while lawyers mulled the admissibility of a video that the state wanted to place into evidence.

In the video Brown, during an interview with a local television reporter about the excessive bond, said “The (Texas bond) system is a broken system.”

She said she set the high bond in an attempt to bring attention to the problems.

“Ridiculous. It’s ridiculous what we are doing to the citizens of Killeen and Bell County,” she said in the interview.

“We should lower the bonds to a reasonable rate.”

After some discussion the judge ruled he would allow the video to be shown, but only after all other references in the clip were removed, leaving only comments from Brown and no one else.

Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza testified Wednesday morning.

He was asked by the defense counsel if he thought there were defendants who deserved extremely high bonds because of the nature of the charges, and Garza responded, “There are some (defendants) that I don’t want to make bond because they’re particularly dangerous to others in the community.”

In the case of murder defendant Antonio Willis, the man for whom the $4-billion bond was set, Garza said 27th District Judge John Gauntt later reduced the figure to $150,000, which Willis posted and was released.

Again defense attorneys asked Garza if he thought the new lower bond was appropriate and he answered: “Regardless of what I believe or not, Judge Gauntt set the bond and that’s what it is.

“The reasons she expressed for why she did this have nothing to do with the charges or the law,” Garza testified.

On another issue prosecutor Dallas Sims asked Killeen police Sgt. Matthew McEowen about Brown’s son, who had been arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

The officer testified he called Brown to tell her that her son had been arrested and asked if he should arrange for another justice of the peace to set his bond.

“She told me: ‘I’m as good as anybody else’ and she set his bond,” McEowen said.

The sergeant then called Pct. 4 Bell County Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke to ask his advice and Cooke told him there was another justice of the peace on call he could contact and suggested the officer do that.

“But,” the sergeant testified, “he said let her decide.”

He went on to say “I felt like arraigning your own son would be a conflict of interest.”

— KWTX 10