Appellate court upholds ruling in favor of TYC whistleblower alleging misconduct at parole revocation hearings

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Reported the Dallas News ("Appeals court upholds a Dallas attorneys award for blowing whistle on state judges," Sept 12), "An appellate court has upheld a judgment now totaling about $1 million awarded to Dallas attorney Chris Koustoubardis after he was fired for blowing the whistle on fellow judges at the Texas Youth Commission four years ago."

Go here for the best account available of the allegations upheld by the appellate court in affirming the jury verdict, which involved supervisors pressuring judges regarding their rulings in parole revocation hearings and an administrative judge coaching a police-officer witness in order to get inadmissible hearsay testimony admitted as an "excited utterance."

The former administrative law judge told the Dallas News "he doesn’t regret speaking up but didn’t realize it would cost so much," adding, “You know ... it doesn’t pay to do the right thing.” He's not the first at TYC/TJJD to think so, but in this case, if the appellate ruling stands, perhaps for once, this time it will.