By Shannon Edmonds
TDCAA Executive Director in Austin
A new year means a new board of directors for TDCAA. Here is your association leadership for 2026, as approved at our Annual Business Meeting in December:
Executive officers
Board Chair: David Holmes, CA in Hill County
President: Brian Middleton, DA in Fort Bend County
President-Elect: Philip Mack Furlow, 106th Judicial DA (Dawson County)
Secretary–Treasurer: Jacob Putman, CDA in Smith County
Statewide Directors
County Attorney at Large: Landon Lambert, CA in Donley County
District Attorney at Large: Audrey Louis, 81st Judicial DA (Wilson County)
Criminal DA at Large: Jim Hicks, CDA in Taylor County
Assistant Prosecutor at Large: Charlie Madrid, Asst. CA in El Paso County
Regional Directors
Region 1: Rickie Redman, C&DA in Lamb County
Region 2: Sean Galloway, C&DA in Andrews County
Region 3: Michael Murray, 35th Judicial DA (Brown County)
Region 4: John Hubert, DA in Kleberg & Kenedy Counties
Region 5: Mike Holley, DA in Montgomery County
Region 6: Courtney Golden, CDA in Cass County
Region 7: Trey Brown, CA in Somervell County
Region 8: Josh Tetens, CDA in McLennan County
The officers and directors of our Board donate their time and talents to make sure our association is serving its members (read: you) efficiently and effectively. If any of them reaches out for information or assistance, please lend them a hand. Together, we can do great things!
(Honorary Life) Membership has its privileges
At last month’s Elected Prosecutor Conference, we recognized three past TDCAA Presidents for their service to both our association and our profession by bestowing upon them an honorary life membership in TDCAA. Former Travis County CA David Escamilla, former 34th Judicial (El Paso) DA Jaime Esparza, and former Galveston County CDA Jack Roady joined a select list of 11 other ex-prosecutors who can call themselves “honorary life members” of TDCAA. Not only will their names be added to our wall of honor at TDCAA World Headquarters, but they also get free dues and free admission to our Annual Conference for life. We are grateful for their service, but also for their willingness to continue to patronize our CLEs and share in the excellence that they helped to build. We hope to see all three of them at our Annual Conference for years to come!
Know any rising stars?
TDCAA maintains a cherished list of award winners who have been recognized for their service to the association, our profession, and their local communities. Many of those recipients have long and distinguished careers in prosecution or government representation, and their praise is well-deserved. However, there are also young lawyers in our profession who are doing remarkable things across this state, and our Board of Directors would like your help in identifying and recognizing them as the future of prosecution in Texas. Keep an eye on this space in future issues for details on how to nominate someone as one of our Rising Stars, an award specifically intended to recognize those TDCAA members with fewer than five years of service as prosecutors who are leaders in their offices or their communities. (And perhaps best of all, the winners will never be asked to place ads in the journal or buy themselves commemorative plaques or quarter-zips or other branded trinkets or tchotchkes!)
Prosecutor census
Everyone knows the federal government conducts a nationwide census every 10 years, but did you also know that the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) conducts an occasional prosecutor census? Well, that “occasional” bit will include 2026. Here’s what we know so far.
The purpose of BJS’s next national Census of Prosecutor Offices (CPO) is to gather statistics about local prosecutors’ personnel, policies, and office activities to help policymakers better understand those prosecutors’ resource needs. The results of the survey will supplement other prosecutor surveys conducted by BJS, the most recent of which was a limited survey taken in 2020. For more background on this project from BJS, visit https://bjs.ojp.gov/topics/courts/prosecution. The curious among you can also read the 2020 report, which was released in November 2024, at https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/psc20.pdf and the last full prosecutor census in 2007, published in December 2011, at https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/psc07st.pdf.
So, what does this mean for TDCAA members? If you do not have adult felony jurisdiction, then the short answer is: nothing. The Feds are seeking information only from felony prosecutor offices. (Congratulations to most of our county attorney friends!) But if you do fall into that felony category, you will be receiving a request from BJS to take part in the survey (which we have not seen yet). We will continue to update you as we receive notice of related events on this front, but if you have questions, feel free to contact me and I can try to connect you to people in the know who can answer them.
Counting blessings
As we look back on 2025, there is much to be thankful for. Our 2025 Annual Criminal & Civil Law Conference at Round Rock’s Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in September was the largest live CLE event we have ever hosted and was a rousing success. We also saw more than 2,700 people complete our Legislative Update course, we helped several thousand more of you complete your annual CLE and TCOLE obligations, we sold tens of thousands of publications to members and non-members alike, we saw a record number of new members join the Texas Prosecutor Society (see page 14 for more on that), and we provided you with top-notch material in this bimonthly journal throughout the year. That’s a lot to be thankful for! But as the saying goes, “Time and tide wait for no man,” and we have important things planned for 2026, so let’s get to it!