Court Opinion

ID: 9662035
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:57:44.445641+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:35.313691
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
DALLY, Judge.
On his motion for rehearing appellant raises an alternative claim of denial of equal protection of the law. Rather than contending that residents of Harris County are treated unequally in comparison with residents in other counties across the state, appellant now claims that, within Harris County, the class of persons whose misdemeanor cases are filed in municipal court are treated unequally in comparison with those persons whose complaints were filed in a justice of the peace court. He argues that if the complaint had been filed in a justice of the peace court in Harris County instead of a municipal court of the City of Houston he would have had the right to a trial de novo on appeal, but since the complaint was filed in the municipal court he was deprived of the right to a trial de novo and his appeal was limited to the record made in municipal court. Art. 1200cc, Sec. 8, V.A.C.S.
These differences do not deny petitioner the equal protection of the law. The State can create a system of inferior courts that treats similarly situated offenders differently but with substantial equality. Colten v. Kentucky, 407 U.S. 104, 112-19, 92 S.Ct. 1953, 32 L.Ed.2d 584 (1972).1 Judges in the municipal courts of the City of Houston must be licensed attorneys in good standing. Art. 1200cc, Sec. 3(e), V.A.C.S. In contrast, although many justices of the peace are licensed attorneys, there is* no requirement that a justice of the peace be a licensed attorney. Art. V, Sec. 19, Texas Constitution. Where the initial proceeding will be in a court of record before a law-trained judge, as it is in municipal court, appeal is understandably confined to the record. Where the initial proceeding will be unrecorded and potentially before a lay judge, the broader right of appeal to a trial de novo in county court does no more than guarantee an equal right to due process of law. See North v. Russell, 427 U.S. 328, 333-37, 96 S.Ct. 2709, 49 L.Ed.2d 534 (1976).
Both the municipal court procedure and the justice of the peace court procedure assure an ultimate right to a recorded trial before a law-trained judge. Since both systems afford equal protection, petitioner’s motion is denied.
ODOM and CLINTON, JJ., not participating.

. We should also point out that Texas, like Kentucky, has a two-tier system to adjudicate less serious criminal cases. The County Criminal Courts of Law of Harris County have concurrent jurisdiction of misdemeanor cases with the justice of the peace courts and the municipal courts. The County Criminal Courts at Law of Harris County have the same jurisdiction in criminal cases as do constitutional county courts. See V.A.C.S. Articles 1970-95, 1970-110b, 1970-110c, 1970-110c.1, 1970-110c.3. The charge in this case could also have been filed originally in one of these County Criminal Courts at Law. See Fouke v. State, 529 S.W.2d 772 (Tex.Cr.App.1975); King v. State, 146 Tex.Cr.R. 273, 174 S.W.2d 266 (1943); Ballew v. State, 26 Tex.App. 483, 9 S.W. 765 (1888); Galloway v. State, 23 Tex.App. 398, 5 S.W. 246 (1887), and the petitioner if tried in any one of these courts would not have been entitled to a trial de novo.