Simulating Legal Process Conviction Upheld

In Runningwolf v. State of Texas, (Ct. Crim. App., March 7, 2012), in an 8-1 decision, Texas' highest appeals court for criminal cases upheld the conviction of defendant for simulating legal process. Appellant had prepared a 10-page long document titled "Non-Statutory Abatement" directing Helen Jean Coleman to submit a child custody dispute to the authority of the ecclesiastic court sitting in Floydada, Texas. A state court had removed the child from her grandmother's home and awarded custody to Coleman, the child's great aunt.