Simple Life

On August 25, 2026, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a Public Admonition against 258th District Judge Travis Kitchens, who serves Polk, San Jacinto and Trinity counties. The Commission found that Kitchens failed to comply with the law and failed to maintain professional competence in the law in two separate areas of his court.
Background on the judge
Kitchens was elected to his first term to the 258th District Court, back in 2018, running against John Wells and Shelly Sitton. At a debate ahead of that race, all three candidates were asked whether judges should make law from the bench. Kitchens’ answer: a judge’s job is to take the facts of the law and apply them. He was elected that November and took office in January 2019.
He was reelected in 2022, campaigning on his decades of legal experience- as a state prosecutor, defense attorney, civil litigator and sitting judge- and telling voters he aimed to give litigants the appropriate application of the relevant law, free of political considerations or favoritism. He won the March 2026 Republican primary for a third term, which begins in January 2027. He is currently in his second term.

The two violations-

The first involved a requirement Kitchens imposed before accepting plea agreements in criminal cases. Defendants and their attorneys were required to review four documents on Texas prison and parole procedures and sign a “Certification of Explanation of Prison and Parole Issues.” The court’s criminal docket reportedly described this as a mandatory 41-page process required before Kitchens would accept any plea bargain, including agreements involving probation rather than imprisonment. Kitchens told the Commission he believed the material might give defendants an added incentive not to violate probation, and that enforcement declined after about six months before the requirement was eventually dropped. The Commission found that imposing it constituted a failure to comply with the law regardless.

The second stemmed from a May 10, 2021, temporary-orders hearing in a family-law case. After learning that the children and their mother were quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure, Kitchens ordered both parents to get vaccinated by June 10, 2021, or provide a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of every visitation. Kitchens told the Commission he believed the order served the children’s best interest. The problem: Governor Greg Abbott had issued Executive Order GA-35 the month before, suspending provisions of state law to prevent government entities from compelling individuals to receive a COVID-19 vaccine under emergency-use authorization. The Commission found that Kitchens’ order violated his obligation to comply with the law that was already in effect.

The findings-

The Commission cited violations of Canon 2A, which requires judges to comply with the law, and Canon 3B(2), which requires them to maintain professional competence in the law. It concluded that Kitchens’ conduct was willful or persistent, inconsistent with the proper performance of his duties, and cast public discredit on the judiciary.
The admonition is a matter of public record and is available through the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.