Controversial Ex-Judge Will Officially Be Dallas’ Top Prosecutor

After her shocking defeat of two-term incumbent Dallas District Attorney John Creuzot in the March Democratic primary, embattled former felony district judge Amber Givens had a clear path to the law enforcement role in the second largest county in the state. With no Republican in the running, Attorney Eric Reed’s decision to file as a write-in candidate in August created some uncertainty about her glide path into the office, but in the eight months since her primary win there has already been a mass exodus of attorneys and administrative staff. 

Now, Givens has cleared the last obstacle to officially taking over as Dallas County DA.

On Tuesday evening, early vote totals showed Givens with 95 percent of the vote and write-in ballots including for Reed accounting for the remaining 5 percent.

The outcome—which wasn’t shocking, as write-in candidates face the inherent disadvantage of not being on the ballot—shifts the focus back to the state of the office Givens is set to take over in January. 

According to a spokesperson for the office, 77 employees have left since March, with four more resignations pending. This is on pace to surpass prior years’ turnover rates. In 2024, 60 people including 25 prosecutors left. In 2025, 81 staffers left the office over the course of the entire year. 

Today, there are 49 vacancies across the DA’s office, more than twice the number in October 2024. Sources in the department, who spoke on background to avoid reprisals, say the understaffing is hitting the remaining staff hard, with attorneys having to take over complex cases midway through litigation. They’re also concerned about Givens’ learning curve ahead of the new year. 

Givens led Dallas County’s 282nd District court for 11 years, during which time she was widely unpopular among defense attorneys and prosecutors—and even the Dallas County Commissioners Court, which voted (before later backtracking after she sued) to deny her bonus pay in 2025. According to Reed, the days after the primary election were frantic. “As soon as [Creuzot] lost, I mean, it was almost like a flood of people, both Republicans, Democrats, saying ‘my God, this is going to be a disaster,’” he told the Texas Observer.

Reed and many others have highlighted Givens’ lack of experience with the office as a major red flag. While she presided over trials as a judge, she’s never prosecuted a felony case in Dallas County—but she’s now in charge of all prosecutions in the county. “When you’re trying to form a baseball team, you hire Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Pudge Rodriguez, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Cal Ripken, Brooks Robinson, and  you don’t hire the umpire to play the game,” Reed, who is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and whose practice includes criminal and tribal law, said. He identifies as a moderate independent and worked in the Dallas DA’s office for a stint in the 1990s.

Givens’ record as a judge has also caused alarm in the courthouse.  

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Last June, the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct reprimanded and admonished her after an investigation into complaints—previously reported by the Observer—that she had allegedly had a staffer impersonate her during a 2021 hearing, that she mistreated lawyers, and that she took action in cases she had recused herself from. Givens appealed the sanctions and, in July, a review panel found there wasn’t enough evidence to support the allegations and undid the sanctions, while conceding that Givens is “certainly a polarizing individual.” 

Givens did not respond to the Observer’s interview request for this story. 

The post Controversial Ex-Judge Will Officially Be Dallas’ Top Prosecutor appeared first on The Texas Observer.