Grayson County Courts at Law — Piggyback Misdemeanor-Plea… — TX · BenchPath

Grayson County Courts at Law — Piggyback Misdemeanor-Plea Procedures (Judges Henderson & Dunn, Dec. 27, 2024)

High confidence· verified September 21, 2026Divisional InstructionsGrayson County Courts at Law, Memorandum re Hearings on Misdemeanor Plea Agreements Incident to Felony Plea Agreements (Judges Henderson & Dunn) (Dec. 27, 2024)

Summary

The County Court at Law judges' procedures for misdemeanor pleas incident to felony plea agreements (Judges Henderson and Dunn, Dec. 27, 2024): the 'piggyback hearing' in which a CCL hears a misdemeanor plea immediately after the District Court felony plea — requiring notice to the CCL coordinators by 5:00 p.m. the prior business day — plus the misdemeanor jail-chain scheduling for in-custody defendants not disposed on a piggyback hearing, and the agreed-personal-bond option where the felony plea releases the defendant with a time-served misdemeanor agreement.

Applies to

Texas > Grayson County > County Courts at Law Nos. 1 and 2 (Hon. James Henderson; Hon. James (Rick) Dunn, Jr.) — the misdemeanor-plea coordination procedures for pleas incident to District Court felony plea agreements

Requirement

MEMORANDUM TO: ALL ATTORNEYS HANDLING CRIMINAL CASES FROM: JUDGE HENDERSON, JUDGE DUNN SUBJECT: HEARINGS ON MISDEMEANOR PLEA AGREEMENTS INCIDENT TO FELONY PLEA AGREEMENTS DATE: 12/27/2024 In an effort to better utilize court resources, the following procedures are being implemented in criminal cases related to misdemeanor plea agreements incident to felony plea agreements: 1. “PIGGYBACK” HEARINGS. • A “piggyback hearing” is when a misdemeanor plea is heard in one of the County Courts at Law immediately following the felony plea in the District Court. • In order to have a “piggyback hearing,” it is necessary to advise either Logan Watson or Soledad De La Cruz, Court Coordinators for CCL1 and CCL2 respectively, no later than 5:00 p.m. of the business day preceding the hearing that such a hearing is or may be required. The appropriate court coordinator will make the arrangements to have a CCL judge available to conduct the “piggyback hearing.” If a CCL judge is not available, then the coordinator will inform the attorneys, and will make arrangements for a hearing in the appropriate court. • On the day of the anticipated piggyback hearing, the coordinator shall be notified as soon as practical whether a plea agreement has or has not been reached on the misdemeanor. 2. MISDEMEANOR JAIL CHAIN. If a misdemeanor plea agreement is reached regarding a defendant who is in custody, and if the case is not disposed on a piggyback hearing, then the defendant will be scheduled on the first available jail chain. The attorneys shall advise the coordinator that the defendant needs to be scheduled, and shall inform the coordinator when the defendant is scheduled to be transferred out of the Grayson County Jail. 3. PERSONAL BONDS. If the felony plea agreement results in the defendant being released from jail, and the sentencing agreement is time served on the misdemeanor, then the parties should consider an agreed Personal Bond on the misdemeanor if a piggyback hearing is not possible. The appropriate court coordinator should be advised to schedule the misdemeanor hearing in the appropriate court following the defendant’s release from custody. 4. PERSONS NOT IN CUSTODY. A defendant who is not in custody may appear for a misdemeanor plea hearing at a time convenient for the court and the prosecuting and defense attorneys. The attorneys should inform the appropriate court coordinator regarding the need to schedule the hearing. 5. COURT COORDINATORS: • County Court at Law 1: Logan Watson – Tel: (903) 813-4200, Ext. 4324; Email: watsonl@co.grayson.tx.us • County Court at Law 2: Soledad De La Cruz – Tel: (903) 813-4200, Ext. 4328; Email: soledad.delacruz@co.grayson.tx.us

Source of truth

Official source: Grayson County Courts — co.grayson.tx.us (document veins)
Source health: Healthy · checked September 28, 2026
Effective date: December 27, 2024
Last verified: September 21, 2026benchpath-tx-corpus0920-p11-2026-09-21

Reviewer note: Own-site instrument composed verbatim (text layer; WAF-403 on HTML but the PDF fetches directly — custody sha in the fetch ledger); issued by both CCL judges (James Henderson, James Dunn Jr. — matching the OCA roster); own-site-only; coordinator names preserved in the source. [RECOMPOSED 2026-09-21 (corpus-0920 P7, digital-layer lane): the full text of the registered file (sha256 d4d53fe6a394..., 1 pages) replaces the earlier 1,270-character abstract. Method: pypdfium2 text layer reflowed page-aware, cross-checked word-by-word against PyMuPDF (0 substantive difference(s), 0 page-furniture), owner-corpus candidate sentences 100% (3/3) matched, 0 running header/footer line(s) removed, no U+FFFD/U+FFFE/form-feed debris. NOT yet checked page by page against the render, so confidence is medium with an open re-verification task; flip to high when a reviewer has read every page against the PDF. benchpath-tx-corpus0920-p7-2026-09-21] [BY-EYE CHECK 2026-09-21 (corpus-0920 P11): every page of the registered file (sha256 d4d53fe6a394..., 1 page(s)) read against the rendered PDF; file-stamp, caption and signature-block defects of the text layer corrected from the render; confidence lifted to high. benchpath-tx-corpus0920-p11-2026-09-21]