IN THE
TENTH COURT OF APPEALS
No. 10-12-00307-CR
HEIDI MEIERS,
Appellant
v.
THE STATE OF TEXAS,
Appellee
From the 18th District Court
Johnson County, Texas
Trial Court No. F35146
ORDER
Heidi Meiers was convicted of criminal non-support. TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. §
25.05 (West 2011). Appointed trial counsel for Meiers filed a notice of appeal on
Meiers’s behalf with the trial court on August 20, 2012. The trial court signed an order
allowing trial counsel to withdraw as counsel for Meiers on the same date. On August
24, 2012, the trial court appointed other counsel to represent Meiers on appeal. When
an appellate brief for Meiers was not timely filed, the appeal was abated to the trial
court to conduct any necessary hearings. See TEX. R. APP. P. 38.8(b)(2), (3). As a result of
the abatement order, new counsel was appointed by the trial court on February 27,
2013. Counsel immediately filed a motion to extend the time to file a brief on Meiers’s
behalf to April 29, 2013. That motion was granted.
Meiers’s brief has not been filed. Counsel has now filed a second motion for
extension of time to file Meiers’s brief. However, since that motion was filed, we
received a letter from Meiers indicating that she had “fired” her appointed appellate
counsel effective April 26, 2013. Meiers cites that letters and questions from her have
gone unanswered and messages left at counsel’s office by Meiers’s “power of attorney”
have also been unanswered as reasons for the “firing.” Meiers states in her letter that
she has requested the trial court to appoint new counsel to represent Meiers on appeal
but she also indicates in her letter that she has heard nothing from the trial court.
Counsel’s pending “Second Motion to Extend Time to File Appellant’s Brief” is
denied. The motion is confusing because counsel requests a 60 day extension but the
proposed due date would require a 90 day extension. An extension for either time
would place the brief being filed 120 to 150 days beyond the time new counsel was
appointed and well beyond the time when it was represented the brief would be filed.
Accordingly, this case is abated to the trial court to hold a hearing within 28 days
from the date of this order to determine how to proceed with reference to
representation in this proceeding, specifically whether appointed counsel should be
discharged and new counsel for Meiers appointed, and a date certain by when
Meiers v. State Page 2
appointed counsel, whoever that is, will file a brief. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN.
art. 26.04 (West Supp. 2012). We recognize that Meiers does not have the authority to
“fire” appointed counsel and she is not entitled to appointed counsel of her choosing.
See Dunn v. State, 819 S.W.2d 510, 520 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991); Long v. State, 137 S.W.3d
726, 735 (Tex. App.—Waco 2004, pet. ref’d). Nothing herein should be construed
otherwise nor should it be inferred that current appointed counsel must be replaced.
Supplemental Clerk’s and Reporter’s Records containing the trial court’s written
or oral findings and rulings are ordered to be filed within 49 days from the date of this
order.
PER CURIAM
Before Chief Justice Gray,
Justice Davis, and
Justice Scoggins
Appeal abated
Order issued and filed May 23, 2013
Meiers v. State Page 3