BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: THE EGG WAS SMASHED BUT YOLLICK WAS ONLY SLAPPED
Yollick fined in egging of county judge’s SUV
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Criminal mischief charges against The Woodlands-based attorney Eric Yollick who egged Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough’s Lexus SUV in March have been dismissed.
The Woodlands-based attorney Eric Yollick has pleaded no contest and paid a fine for egging Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough’s Lexus SUV in March.
Yollick, who lost his bid for the bench of the new 457th state District Court in Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff, entered a plea of no contest Friday and paid a $231 fine for the misdemeanor charge.
But for Yollick, the incident was symbolic in protecting first amendment rights and added his actions have kept Keough from imposing “unconstitutional” mandates on residents.
“The whole point of the egg was to make Mark Keough realize how terribly he had violated the constitution and how much he was harming people,” Yollick said, while noting a jump in suicides, fear among residents and an increase in unemployment during the stay-at-home order Keough issued March 27, the morning of the egg incident.
“It was terrible and Mark knew he violated the constitution. I am very happy Mark has changed his tune and is now against these mandates and shutdowns, and I do not regret in the least what I did even though I know it is the reason I lost the election. I would do it again today because it had that positive of an effect.”
Keough’s Chief of Staff Jason Millsaps said the incident happened as Keough was leaving his county office in the late afternoon in downtown Conroe. When Keough approached his vehicle, Millsaps said Keough saw Yollick throw the egg at his Lexus SUV.
Millsaps said Keough contacted law enforcement officials at the time of the incident and was told there was a two-year statute of limitations on such a crime. Keough, he said, opted to wait since the situation with the new coronavirus was pressing and demanding a great deal of his time.
Yollick said Keough’s delay in reporting the incident was purely political to harm his campaign for the 457th bench.
Keough has denied Yollick’s accusation.
On Tuesday, former prosecutor Vince Santini secured the GOP bid for the new court and will face Democrat Marc Meyer in November.
While Yollick had a large margin over Santini in the March 3 primary pulling in 21,662 votes over Santini’s 14,468 votes, Santini landed a big victory over Yollick Tuesday pulling in 18,767 votes to Yollick’s 5,274.
“I doubt very seriously I had that kind of influence over the Republican candidate race,” Keough said.
Following the egg incident, Yollick, who supported Keough’s campaign for county judge, said he has attempted to speak with Keough but the first-term county judge has refused to take his call.
Keough said he has no plans to take Yollick’s call.
“I have no interest at the point in speaking with Eric Yollick,” Keough said. “He has proven he is untrustworthy and fundamentally dishonest. I wish him no bad but I don’t feel right giving him a pass so he can say whatever he wants to.”
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Texas attorney admits egging judge’s car over stay-at-home order
Originally Published; June 9, 2020
Eric Yollick, an attorney based in The Woodlands who is running for Montgomery County’s 457th District Court, has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief in the March 27 incident that occurred as Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough left his office in Conroe.
“I threw one egg at Judge Keough’s car,” Yollick told The Post in an interview. “I did this for all the right reasons. Mark needed to get this message because he wasn’t listening to people.”
Yollick said he threw the egg at Keough’s Lexus SUV over the judge’s “unconstitutional” stay-at-home order in late March, which ran through April 17, according to Keough’s office.
Yollick had originally intended to give Keough the egg in a symbolic gesture “for laying an egg” with the order, but spotted the judge and took a different approach, he said.
“I wasn’t angry or anything,” Yollick said. “It was a humorous gesture between friends: ‘You laid an egg on Montgomery County, so here’s an egg for you.’ ”
Yollick said he then asked a female friend with him to snap a photo before getting paper towels to clean up the mess. Yollick also offered the judge $20 for a car wash, but Keough declined the offer, the attorney said.
Hours later, Yollick said, he went to Keough’s home and the pair hugged, seemingly putting the incident behind them. The pair had been “good friends,” Yollick said, adding that Keough is the pastor at the church he attends.
But an April Fool’s Day fictitious news story then appeared in The Golden Hammer, an online publication previously owned by Yollick, further complicating the rift, he said.
The story, which is no longer available, playfully accused Keough of enacting martial law in Montgomery County, according to Yollick.
Critical Facebook posts Yollick made in response to Keough’s order also angered the judge, he said.
“It’s retribution by Mark Keough because he doesn’t like to be criticized for his lockdown orders,” Yollick said of the charge, punishable by a $150 fine.
Yollick is set to appear in court for trial on Oct. 7. He has no plans to drop out of the race for district judge, he said.
“No, I’m going to win the race, no way,” Yollick said Tuesday. “If anything, this shows that I am committed to the rule of law and the Constitution.”
Keough’s chief of staff, meanwhile, told the Houston Chronicle that the judge saw Yollick throw the egg at his SUV.
Keough reached out to police after the incident, but opted to wait after being told of a two-year statute of limitations on the misdemeanor charge as the coronavirus pandemic took up a lot of his time, chief of staff Jason Millsaps told the newspaper.
Reached for comment Tuesday, Millsaps declined to elaborate due to an ongoing investigation, but confirmed the account provided to the Chronicle.
“It’s unfortunate that he would go around egging people’s cars, not just the judge’s car, but anyone’s car for that matter,” Millsaps said.
The Golden Hammer Endorses Eric Yollick For 457th District Court Judge In July 14 Republican Runoff Election
The Golden Hammer, Montgomery County’s leading daily newspaper, endorses Eric Yollick for District Judge of the 457th District Court in the July 14, 2020, Republican Runoff Election.
Yollick is what this new Civil District Court needs: an expert in civil law who has the heart and mind of a conservative Republican political activist (very different from a judicial activist, by the way).
Yollick has made the centerpiece of his campaign that courts must follow the rule of law and follow the Original Intent of the United States Constitution and of the Texas Constitution.
Those principles are ones our nation, our state, and our community sorely miss, especially with the two recent Supreme Court decisions (one grafting a new category – LGTBQ – to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and one preventing the Trump Administration from implementing an immigration reform by executive order, even though the program it sought to eliminate came into being by executive order as well). We don’t need judicial activism in the form of legislating from judges, a practice Yollick has made clear he strongly opposes.
There has been no one in this community who has more consistently fought for and supported the law enforcement community. Yollick has complained, in detail, about the shortfalls in funding to support law enforcement, while he has also complained about excessive government spending in other categories.
Eric Yollick has a strong educational background. He graduated from an elite private school in Dallas, then summa cum laude from Princeton University, then SMU Law School where he served on the law review, and recently a Master’s in Military History from Sam Houston State University as well as a Certificate in Advanced International Affairs from Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government.
Yollick has a strong legal background: 31 years of law practice doing civil litigation (real estate and business mostly), is a former President of the Montgomery County Bar Association, former State Bar of Texas Committee Chairman, former member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, as well as a member of the Federalist Society for more than a quarter of a century.
He’s also Board Certified in Commercial and Consumer Law, two areas which will see a lot of cases in the 457th District Court, as our community recovers from the COVID-19-spurred government shutdown of the economy.
The 457th District Court will be Civil District Court, the area of law Yollick has practiced for 31 years. His opponent has practices civil law for one year.
Yollick is one of the most disciplined people this community has ever seen, especially in his professional habits.
He still works long hours in his law practice, has an extensive business background, and, for a long time, was the founding Publisher of this newspaper. The work product on his Eric Yollick for 457th Judge Facebook page alone is staggering.
The Board of District Judges is supposed to oversee the Montgomery County government’s finances and, particularly, our County Auditor.
That’s where Yollick strikes the most fear into the heart of the political “establishment.”
They know Yollick knows more about County government finances than almost anyone else in this community, and so he’s the last person in the world they want overseeing the presently-corrupt accounting and operations.
Meanwhile, some lawyers know that Yollick will follow the law and not play politics in the courtroom.
Those lawyers and some elected officials don’t want a judge who will act independently of political affiliations.
As a result, Yollick’s opponent and his opponent’s supporters are running one of the dirtiest campaigns against Yollick that we’ve witnessed in a long time in this community.
The election of Eric Yollick as Judge of the 457th District Court could bring a lot of positive change to the Montgomery County Courthouse, both in its judicial functions and in the County government’s finances.
Voters should let Yollick come into the office to let that change happen.
Early Voting begins today.
This newspaper endorses the following candidates in the Republican Runoff Election:
- Jay Wright for Chief Justice of the Ninth Court of Appeals;
- Eric Yollick for District Judge of the 457th District Court;
- Gene DeForest for Constable, Precinct 2;
- Al Letting for Republican Precinct Chairman, Voting Precinct 15;
- Joshua Treadway for Republican Precinct Chairman, Voting Precinct 21.
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