Judge Nancy Perryman press release
Judge Nancy Perryman announces that she is seeking re-election as Judge of the County Court at Law No. 2.
Perryman was appointed by the Henderson County Commissioners in 2005 to the then newly created court. Perryman was elected in 2006 after winning the Republican primary nomination and was again re-elected in November of 2010.
Perryman cites both her experience and efficiency as reasons to re-elect her. Since taking office she has disposed in excess of 4,000 civil cases and in excess of 10,000 criminal cases. The County Court at Law No.2 is a Statutory County Court at Law and by statute hears both County and District civil cases and Class A and B misdemeanor criminal cases. Judge Perryman also hears Family law cases, Child Protective Services cases, Attorney General’s cases, Adoptions and Terminations, Condemnation cases, Probate cases and Bond Forfeiture cases.
“County Courts at Law are work-horse courts, and courts that actually bring positive revenue to the County,” she said.
Since being sworn in January 2005, Perryman said, “I had the desire and ability to run the newly created court efficiently and the luxury of not inheriting a backlog of cases. A slow or backlogged docket does not serve the best interests of anyone from the litigants to the taxpayers of Henderson County.”
Perryman does not allow justice to be sacrificed for an efficient docket. “Prompt justice is good justice.”
Perryman has maintained a “rolling docket”, almost since taking the bench. A rolling docket is described as “a case set on one of our dockets in November, if not reached, will automatically be put on one of our January dockets and so on.”
Perryman can also take credit for being the instigator of the county wide use of iPads for signing Blood Search Warrants in DWI cases.
“In the past, officers would have to stop in the middle of a DWI investigation and come to the Judge’s home (usually in the middle of the night), sometimes risking officer safety, to have a blood search warrant signed. With the use of the iPads, the officer will call the Judge to let the Judge know that a search warrant is being emailed to them. When I receive the email containing the Affidavit for Search Warrant, the actual Search Warrant and the Order for Assistance in Execution of Search Warrant, I convert it to an adobe document, review it, and if probable cause exists, I sign it and return it to the officer who is typically with a detainee on the side of the road. Both law enforcement and the Judges were astonished at how efficiently it has worked, turning what had been at least an hour long process of getting a judge’s signature into minutes, while keeping our law enforcement officers safe.”
Since taking the bench in 2005, Perryman has seen “a marked increase in drug abuse linking many, if not most, of our crimes back to drugs.” Also disappointingly, she sees drug use as a factor in many of the juvenile cases. In some cases she will drug test the parents before releasing the juvenile back into their care.
Perryman said “it is disheartening to see how many parents of juveniles do not pass the drug tests.”
Perryman believes that she has the qualities that are important for a judge of objectivity and open-mindedness while being patient in sifting through the facts seeking justice.
“I would be honored to continue to serve as Judge of the Henderson County Court at Law No. 2,” Perryman said.
Perryman graduated from the University of Texas and St. Mary’s School of Law. She is married to Kris Perryman and they live in Athens.