All-Nickname Team

Ed Emmett turns to Cactus Jack to remove the Jerry Eversole corruption casestain

After months of drama and weeks of speculation, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett has named a replacement for Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Eversole. Jack Cagle (known as Cactus Jack) will represent be the county commissioner ad interim until the election in 2012.

Eversole announced his resignation in September as part of a plea deal in his criminal case, which included corruption, bribery and tax fraud charges. Eversole pleaded guilty to lying to an FBI agent on Friday — and he faces up to five years in prison. His resignation became effective Oct. 1, after two decades as county commissioner.

For the past few weeks, Judge Emmett has considered his options for Eversole's replacement — from 66 possible choices, Emmett culled the list to a dozen politicians, public officials and community activists. From those, Judge Jack Cagle was selected.

Cagle was elected as the presiding judge of Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 1 in 2001, and also serves adjunct professor for the University of Houston Law Center. Like Emmett, Cagle is a Rice University graduate and the two are friends. Cactus Jack has presided over more than 650 civil jury trials.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”