Ex Parte Stephanie Corean v. the State of Texas

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: August 22, 2024
• Docket: 07-24-00267-CV
• Status: Published

Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

No. 07-24-00267-CV

EX PARTE STEPHANIE COREAN

ORIGINAL PROCEEDING ON WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

August 22, 2024 MEMORANDUM OPINION Before QUINN, C.J., and DOSS and YARBROUGH, JJ.

Stephanie Corean petitions for a writ of habeas corpus. Through her petition, she

attacks the alleged oral order incarcerating her for contempt without an ensuing written

order or judgment. The trial court is the 47th Judicial District Court, Randall County,

Honorable Dee Johnson, presiding. While due process requires both a judgment of

contempt and an order of commitment to incarcerate one for civil constructive contempt

and while a trial judge only may orally command that a party to be detained for a “short

and reasonable” time to afford opportunity for said judgment order to be issued, see In re

Cook, No. 07-18-00348-CV, 2018 Tex. App. LEXIS 8873, at *2 (Tex. App.—Amarillo Oct.

30, 2018, orig. proceeding) (mem. op.) (per curiam), we deny Corean’s petition. In short,

she failed to comply with applicable provisions of Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 52.

1 For instance, Corean omitted from her petition the requisite certification under Rule

52.3(j). TEX. R. APP. P. 52.3(j) (stating that the person filing the petition must certify that

he or she reviewed the document and concluded that every factual statement therein is

supported by competent evidence included in the appendix). Nor did she comply with

Rule 52.7(a)(2). It requires the petitioner to either provide a properly authenticated

transcript of any relevant testimony from any underlying proceeding or state that no

testimony was taken relating to the matter. Id. 52.7(a)(2). Neither was done here, though

the items accompanying the petition indicate that a hearing indeed was convened and

evidence accepted on a motion to hold her in contempt.

To reiterate, we deny Corean’s petition for writ of habeas corpus without prejudice.

See, e.g., In re Posey, No. 07-10-00467-CR, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 9574, at * 3–4 (Tex.

App.—Amarillo Dec. 2, 2010, orig. proceeding) (mem. op.) (per curiam) (denying relief

because, among other reasons, the petitioner omitted the Rule 52.3(j) certification and

the Rule 52.7 transcript). We further direct the Clerk of the Seventh Court of Appeals to

immediately serve the trial court with a copy of this order in a manner actually notifying

the trial court of the order.

Per Curiam