District Clerk Edith Harrison’s pretrial hearing – scheduled for last week in 27th District Court here – has been reset for Jan. 22, 2026.
No reason was given for the delay.
It remains to be seen if Harrison’s legal saga will have a positive or negative effect on her political career.
She recently joined fellow Republicans David Millican and Jo Ann San Miguel, who filed to run for Lampasas County judge in the March 3 GOP primary.
In September, a Lampasas County grand jury indicted Harrison on two third-degree felony charges for misapplication of fiduciary property over $30,000 but less than $150,000.
On Friday, before Harrison’s pretrial was to have gotten underway, her attorneys – lead counsel Bryon Barnhill and Cheyenne Minick – were preparing to argue in court that Harrison’s indictment should be quashed. The motion was filed Dec. 15, Lampasas County Attorney Jessica Guy told the Dispatch Record.
Discussing the motion, Minick told the Dispatch Record: “This is a good ol’fashioned constitutional law argument, and it’s about whether a person can be charged.”
The local grand jury indicted Harrison after a special investigation presentation by Texas Ranger William “Jack” Gillentine, who serves Lampasas County, and John Greenwood, an investigator for the Lampasas County Attorney’s Office. Greenwood formerly was the Lampasas County attorney.
In comments to the Dispatch Record, Minick said, “We believe the charges can’t proceed, as they exist.”
For her part, Guy told the Dispatch Record the state was going to ask a visiting judge in the case to deny the motion to quash.
Early on, 27th District Court Judge Debbie Garrett recused herself from the case. Dibrell W. Waldrip – presiding judge of the Third Administrative Judicial Region, which covers 26 counties in the state, including Lampasas – then assigned himself as a visiting judge to preside over the case.
Subsequently, court documents show, Waldrip recused himself from the case in the “interest of justice.”
James E. Morgan, a senior judge of the 220th District Court – which encompasses Bosque, Comanche and Hamilton counties – then was assigned Harrison’s case.
Harrison is unable to serve as the clerk in the case, since she is a party to it. As a result, Bell County District Clerk Joanna Staton and Bell County Deputy District Clerk Charlotte Waters have had bonds approved to handle filings for the case. The two court officials were among those present last Friday in court here.
Harrison also was in the courtroom Friday, as was her husband, Jerry. He scrambled the local political equation recently, too, when he filed to run for Lampasas County district clerk – the position held by his wife since 2019.
While it may be a bit unusual for a husbandand- wife duo to hold office at the same time, it is not without precedent. Terri Cox served for a number of years as district clerk in Lampasas, while her husband, the late Jack B. Cox, was a county commissioner.
In the March primary, Jerry Harrison will face off against Dee Ann Crawford, the current court coordinator for 27th District Court. Crawford was present in her official capacity for last Friday’s planned pretrial hearing.