Jimmie Duncan was a judge in Harris County Criminal Court-at-Law No. 3 from 1957 until 1992.
Houston Chronicle file



Oct. 11, 2007, 10:02PM
Obituary
Duncan, known as tough and fair judge



Jimmie Duncan, who disposed of more cases than any other judge in Texas history during his 35 years on the bench, died Wednesday. He was 88.

Duncan was a judge in Harris County Criminal Court-at-Law No. 3 from 1957 until 1992, earning a reputation as one of the toughest, most efficient and fairest judges in the county. In his years on the bench, Duncan disposed of about 150,000 cases.

Duncan, a boot-wearing, "butt-kicking" judge by his own description, was a graduate of Houston's Reagan High School and attended the University of Houston and Baylor University on a baseball scholarship. He enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and was on board the USS Minneapolis during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. He was engaged in 17 major battles, including Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal.

After the war, Duncan worked as a longshoreman to pay his way through the South Texas College of Law.

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal informed his staff of Duncan's death in a message that said, "It seemed to me that Judge Duncan had been there since the days of the Texas Republic. He was a good judge and a true character."

"Everybody who knew him had their favorite Jimmie Duncan story," Rosenthal concluded.

"There are a gazillion stories about him, probably best summed up by an old courthouse joke," Rosenthal said. "Do you know how you can predict the fastest car in town? It's the guy who's late to Duncan's court. If you were late, he'd hold you in contempt."

Nearly everybody, it turns out, does have a story about the longtime judge of the court where misdemeanor cases are tried.

First Assistant District Attorney Bert Graham started his prosecutorial career in Duncan's court.

Graham vividly recalls observing a trial in Duncan's court before he even started working for the office.

"He came into the courtroom and said to the bailiff, 'Sic 'em, Trigger.' And the bailiff started heading in my direction, and then I saw him pick up a guy who was wearing a hat. He threw him out of the courtroom, and his hat behind him," Graham recalled, laughing.

"I made the decision that day that this might be a fun place to work," Graham said.

State District Judge Mike Anderson recalled his days a chief prosecutor in Duncan's court as both the "hardest and the best of times that I spent at the district attorney's office." Numerous prominent defense attorneys and prosecutors "grew up and learned how to be lawyers" working around Duncan, Anderson said.

"There weren't many rules (in Duncan's court), but they were absolutely hard and fast," Anderson said. "You knew what was expected of you, and you knew you better be ready, don't make excuses and do your very best."

Visting Judge Henry Oncken, who began his legal career as a prosecutor in Duncan's court, said, "I enjoyed it, I did. He was very abrupt, but I learned a lot from it."

"You learned to be prepared. You learned not to beat around the bush, but to get to the point," Oncken said.

Ken Olive, who worked as Duncan's court reporter for 21 years, said he became "very close" to the judge and his family.

"He had a method behind every madness," Olive said.

Duncan is survived by his wife, Ouida (Rita) Duncan; three daughters, June Duncan Berry, Charlotte Duncan and Cathy Duncan-Watts; and by two grandchildren, Sierra Watts and Freddy Watts.

Visitation will be at Metropolitan Baptist Church, 1300 Jones Road, on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The funeral will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday, also at Metropolitan Baptist Church.

anne.kilday@chron.com

I had the honor and pleasure of serving in Judge Duncan's court three separate times, first as a number three, then again as a number two, and finally as a chief. I only know of one other female chief before me, Marie Munier. Secretly I'm hoping others did not follow after I left, so that I could say I was one of only two. But definitely one of few.

If you look across the State of Texas, many elected DA's and judges spent time in County Court 3. If you were one of them, stand up and be counted!

I spent time in Duncan's court on special assignment on some DWI cases while defense attorneys were attacking the intoxilizyer.

He had the only court I know of anywhere that had the prosecutor always read the entire information and conduct a real arraignment. Prosecutors learned to read REALLY fast, as the judge never asked the defendant if he wanted to waive the reading of the information.

I'm not sure if Judge Duncan could have held court nowadays, as he always had a cigar going.

I had many cases in Judge Duncan's court. And I learned early on, you showed up there first, no matter if the Supreme Court was expecting you at the same time - you had better show up at CC #3 and be on time. But we cops didn't mind that, because the bad guys were getting the same treatment and expectations of decorum and punctuality. I saw him throw many scantily-clad women out of his court and give them 30 minutes to go home, wherever that happened to be, redress and be back in his courtroom.

When my late father was a prosecutor in Harris County in the 60's, for a time he worked in Judge Duncan's Court.

It was early on in his career, and as a guy who had come from an impoverished rural East Texas farming background, served in the Air Force and then worked his way through college and South Texas on the GI bill and working for East Texas Motor Freight full time while attending school full time, my father never owned a sport coat until he was a prosecutor for some time.

Of course, my dad had suits, but he had never owned a sports coat. After he had been with the office a while and saved some money, he and my mom went shopping and bought him a very nice sport coat. He was very proud of his new coat. So one day he wore it to Judge Duncan's court.

Judge Duncan called him to the bench, gave him compliments on his new sport coat, told him how good it looked on him, then told him that lawyers in his court wore suits and not sports coats.

He asked my dad where he lived, and my dad told him Sharpstown. Judge Duncan told him you have thirty minutes to go home and be back in his courtroom dressed in a suit.

The late Larry Fraizer, then a detective with the HCSO (his dad was Chief Deputy Lloyd Fraizer of the SO at that time under Buster Kern), was apparently in or near the courtroom and volunteered to drive my dad home. They called my mom and told her to be out at the curb with a suit.

As did many detectives at that time, Larry had a hot rod Dodge/Chrysler police car with an interceptor police engine in it. My dad said he stopped looking at the speedometer when it passed 100, and was pretty sure they were doing between 120 and 140 on the newly constructed Southwest Freeway. At the time, we lived near Beechnut and 59 and they basically did a rolling stop past our house as my mom handed him his suit.

He changed in the back seat on the way back downtown, and although Larry remained his good friend, he swore he would never ride in a car with him again. I think that Larry had a siren but no lights of any kind on his plainclothes car.

He made it back to the courtroom in 29 minutes.

My dad wasn't scared of a whole lot of people or things in his life, but an overwhelming fear of being placed in jail for the heinous offense of wearing a sport coat (and he had seen Judge Duncan place defendants in jail for inappropriate attire, such as women wearing pants in his courtroom), led him to engage in such an uncharacteristic behavior as being a semi-willing party in a speeding car. I think he probably became less enthused with the idea as the speed passed 90 m.p.h.



[This message was edited by Greg Gilleland on 10-14-07 at .]

[This message was edited by Greg Gilleland on 10-14-07 at .]

So, I'm guessing Judge Duncan would not have been a fan of the recent change in DA dress code, allowing women to have bare legs with slacks. For details, click here.

I was chief in Duncan's court and remember a cold day when a lady on the docket was told that she was not dressed properly since she had pants on. She was told she had 30 minutes to go home, change and return. She came back with plenty of time to spare. I later learned that she removed her pants in the restroom and buttoned up her knee-length coat. Duncan took the plea and never knew the difference.

So which electeds or former elected DA's or judges served in Judge Duncan's court?

I know that Johnny Holmes did.

Corky Roberts, now a judge in Amarillo was in Duncan's court with me.