Judge Travis Kitchens Jr. has been publicly admonished for requiring two parents to receive the COVID-19 vaccination or produce negative tests 72 hours before exercising child visitation rights. He was also admonished for a separate incident involving plea requirements.
Kitchens is the current 258th District Court Judge, serving Polk, San Jacinto, and Trinity Counties.
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC), which investigates such allegations, released the public admonition against Judge Kitchens last week.
COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement
In May 2021, Kitchens presided over a family law custody case. While deciding the father’s visitation start date, Kitchens learned that the mother and children were under quarantine from having been exposed to COVID-19 by the mother’s boyfriend.
Judge Kitchens therefore delayed the date of the father’s visitation and ordered that both parents receive the COVID-19 vaccine or obtain negative test results within 72 hours of any visitation.
Multiple news articles were written criticizing the order.
Kitchens justified his decision to the SCJC by stating that he believed the vaccination and testing requirements would be “in the best interest of the children to try and minimize their exposure to COVID-19 under the specific facts of this case.”
Mandatory Certification for Plea Agreements
The COVID-19 vaccine matter was not Judge Kitchens’ only action being considered by the SCJC.
According to the commission’s findings, Kitchens established a procedure requiring criminal defendants and defense attorneys to review four materials before the court would accept a plea agreement.
The materials were entitled, “Going to Prison in Texas,” “Basic Prison Discipline Procedures and Case Law,” “When are you eligible for Parole in Texas,” and “Parole Time Calculation Sheet.”
Kitchens also required defendants and their attorneys to sign a “Certification of Explanation of Prison and Parole Issues,” affirming that counsel had reviewed the documents with the defendant.
In his written responses to the commission, Judge Kitchens stated he thought the materials would have added an incentive for the defendant to not violate the terms of the probation. Despite having instituted the reading requirements upon his election to the bench, he asserted that compliance with the requirement “waned after six months and was no longer required.”
On August 25, the SCJC released its public admonition, finding that Judge Kitchens’ conduct constituted “a failure to comply with the law and maintain professional competence in the law.”
“Judge Kitchens’s failures in the foregoing respects constituted willful or persistent conduct that is clearly inconsistent with the proper performance of his duties and cast public discredit on the judiciary or on the administration of justice,” wrote the SCJC.
A public admonition serves as a blot on a judge’s public record. It does not remove them from office or overturn any underlying court rulings.
Judge Kitchens was first elected to the 258th District Court in 2018, and was re-elected in 2022. He is running unopposed for the 2026 General Election after winning the Republican primary in March.
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