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The Freestone County district courts' orders and plan for remote juvenile detention and related hearings: whom to contact if a participant cannot take part remotely; parents, guardians or custodians present; an unobstructed view of any testifying party or witness; Zoom platform and preparation (join ten minutes early); each party compiles attendee contact details and forwards the Zoom invitation; no other devices or programs running except an attorney's working programs; courtroom demeanor, with possible live-streaming; no recording or screenshots except by the court, punishable by contempt; subpoenaed witnesses attend by Zoom unless the court permits otherwise, and subpoenas may be served by e-mail; exhibits are moved, e-mailed to opposing counsel, the judge and the court reporter with a prescribed subject line, in PDF or listed audio and video formats; physical evidence may be submitted by photograph; exhibits need not be disclosed in advance.
Texas > Tenth Administrative Judicial Region > Freestone County > the 77th and 87th District Courts, sitting as the juvenile court. Remote (Zoom) detention and related hearings.
IN THE DISTRICT COURTS OF FREESTONE COUNTY, TEXAS SITTING AS A JUVENILE COURT REMOTE HEARING ORDERS/PLAN For Detention and Related Hearings Contact misty.pena@co.limestone.tx.us; misty.lewis@co.freestone.tx.us; or 903-389-4065 if you believe any counsel, his or her client(s), a pro se litigant, any witness, an interpreter, or any other participant cannot participate in a court hearing remotely. Please have all parents/guardians/custodians present at the hearing. During the remote hearing, an unobstructed view of any party or witness who provides testimony will be provided. Nothing in this Order negates the mandates of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure pertaining to the Filing and Serving of Pleadings and Motions and the Appearances at Court Proceedings (which this Court has previously referred to as “the new Zoom rules”. See or request prior emails from the Court in this regard.) From time to time, the parties may seek to dispose of a case during the detention hearing docket. In that regard, the Court provides the following orders and plans: Zoom Platform: For Remote Hearings, the attorneys, parties, witnesses, probation staff, and other attendees may “appear at” the video hearing through the use of the Zoom application by using a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, iPad, or smartphone which has video and audio capability. When the Juvenile Court is the host of a hearing, there is no cost to attendees to join in the Zoom hearing. Zoom download information is provided below in the “Subpoenas” section of these Guidelines. Preparation for Zoom Hearings: The Juvenile Court recommends that at least 24 hours prior to a scheduled hearing that potential attendees familiarize themselves with the Zoom software at zoom.us, which offers several online tutorials. Attendees shall attempt to join all hearings at least ten minutes prior to the start time. Attendee Information and Presentation of Witnesses by Zoom: Prior to all Remote Hearings, each party shall have compiled the full names, email addresses, and phone numbers of, as applicable, their clients, the clients’ parents/guardians/ custodians, all potential attendees, and all witnesses they intend to call and shall have forwarded the Zoom invite to those persons. Other than those being used by an attorney in the case, no electronic devices, cell phones, or any internet-capable devices other than the one being used for the Zoom hearing shall be on during the Zoom hearing. Attorneys may have appropriate computer programs open to enable the attorney to present exhibits via Zoom, conduct legal research, communicate with staff, and the like. No other attendee shall have any other program or application running other than Zoom during the Zoom hearing unless that attendee receives prior permission from the Court. Online Demeanor Juvenile Court shall be officially in session during Remote Hearings. Remote Hearings are still considered to be courtroom proceedings and may be live-streamed. Dress, speak, and act accordingly. Let us be the gold standard for Remote Hearings. Recording of Remote Hearings Unless done by the Court or under the direction of the Court, Remote Hearings, or any portion thereof, may not be recorded or reproduced in any way, including but not limited to a full or partial video recording, a full or partial sound recording, or a screenshot. Attorneys are Ordered to advise their witnesses and attendees of this Court Order. A violation of this Order may be punishable by contempt. Subpoenas for Remote Hearings All witnesses subpoenaed to appear for a Remote Hearing will be required to attend via Zoom, unless the Court gives prior permission for appearance by some other means. Service of a witness subpoena may be accomplished by email or any other means calculated to provide notice of service. Proof of service of the subpoena will be provided by the party serving the subpoena and filed with the court clerk. Evidence for Remote Hearings: If you intend to offer any exhibits during the hearing, note the following: 1. Move to admit the Exhibit. 2. Unless you did so previously, email the Exhibit to: Opposing Counsel, The Judge, and the Court Reporter 3. In the subject line of the email, include: The Respondent’s initials, The cause number, and The Exhibit number; for example “Petitioner’s Exhibit 1”. 4. Format of Exhibits: Documents: PDF Audio and Video files: A list of valid extensions that these files must be submitted in are: .avi, .wmv, .wav, .mpg, .mid, .asf, .mpeg, .mp1, .mp2, .mp3, .mp4, .mp4v, .mpg, .ogg, .oga, .ogv, .webm. If an exhibit has any of those extensions, the sponsoring party is not required to convert it to a .mp3 or .mp4 file. If it does not have any of those extensions, the sponsoring party shall convert it to an acceptable format. Nothing other than what is offered as an Exhibit may be included on the audio or video media. Physical evidence may be submitted via a photograph. This Court will NOT require parties to submit/divulge their proposed Exhibits in advance of trial. However, submission of evidence via Zoom will be more time consuming than it would be “live”. The parties are encouraged to work together prior to the hearing with regard to the submission of Exhibits. Signed Sept. 18, 2023 [handwritten] [signature] Amy Thomas Ward District Judge Freestone County, Texas Signed October 4, 2023 [handwritten] [signature] Patrick Simmons District Judge Freestone County, Texas [File stamp: FILED 9:00 O'CLOCK A.M., OCT 09 2023, TERESA BLACK, DISTRICT CLERK, FREESTONE COUNTY, TEXAS, BY [signature], DEPUTY]
IN THE DISTRICT COURTS OF FREESTONE COUNTY, TEXAS SITTING AS A JUVENILE COURT REMOTE HEARING ORDERS/PLAN For Detention and Related Hearings Contact misty.pena@co.limestone.tx.us; misty.lewis@co.freestone.tx.us; or 903-389-4065 if you believe any counsel, his or her client(s), a pro se litigant, any witness, an interpreter, or any other participant cannot participate in a court hearing remotely.
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-09-19 (AJR-10 Tenth Region build) from BenchPath custody sources/registered/1636.pdf (application/pdf, 969755 bytes, sha256 9bd0229a143cdfcd2f819512f5a64d1bfdc8217ad4413d36d818818624fcd8ed; 3 pages) - the TOPICs-registered document: transcribed by eye from the rendered pages of the scanned PDF (no text layer in the file was relied on), machine OCR draft corrected page by page; signature and file-stamp blocks bracketed. Three-page scan read by eye; typed from the pages and diffed against an independent OCR pass; the two contact e-mail addresses (official county addresses, one of them on the neighbouring county's domain as printed) and the telephone number were read on a zoom; the running footer 'Remote Hearings' is dropped. The two judges signed on different days (both dates handwritten); effective_date is the file-stamp date. Printed as on the instrument: the plan says Zoom download information 'is provided below in the "Subpoenas" section', and that section gives none; item 2 names no e-mail addresses for the judge or the court reporter; '.mpg' is listed twice.
3 verbatim requirements on remote appearances in CALEB S. JOHNSTON's division.
6 verbatim requirements on remote appearances in MICHAEL G. KAPLAN's division.