TARRANT COUNTY (WBAP/KLIF)- Cook Children’s Medical Center is requesting a judge to recuse himself from the case of a 9-month-old baby whose the center of a legal battle. Tarrant County District Judge Alex Kim extended a temporary retraining order until December 10th to keep Cook Children’s from removing life support for baby Tinslee Lewis, who the hospital says is suffering.
Tinslee Lewis has a critical heart condition and hasn’t been outside of the hospital since she was born and been on life support since July. The hospital issued the 10-day-rule after saying staff has done all they can to keep Tinslee alive.
The family’s attorney, Joe Nixon contacted Alex Kim to sign off on the initial TRO on November 10th after reading over documents outside a restaurant in Houston. Nixon is a Houston-based attorney and says he was notified about Cook Children’s decision to remove life support on a Sunday, when courts were closed. Nixon said he was directed to Kim, who happened to be in Houston and available that evening. In the motion, Cook Children’s says Kim improperly had the case assigned to him. It also said he should be recused because of his bias toward the case based on his affiliation with groups who have campaigned against the 10 day law. The motion states a day after Kim first issued the TRO against the hospital, he spoke at a True Texas Project presentation, a group that publicly campaigned against the hospital in Tinslee’s case.
Attorney Nixon said he will fight hard to defend Kim. “There’s no evidence of actual bias or prejudice,” said Nixon. “I don’t think there’s any factual basis to support the motion to recuse,” he said.
A visiting judge will decide whether or not Kim will be recused at a hearing on December 4th.
Meantime, the family continues to find a hospital to care for Tinslee.
Hear Kat Boonzaier’s story here:
