Chicago Tribune | Texas Judge Has Party, Sentences Fugitive <meta name=3D"Description" content=3D"A judge welcomed a former fugitive = back to her courtroom with balloons, streamers and a cake before sentenci= ng him to life in prison." /> <script language=3D"javascript" src=3D"/javascript/pulldown.js"></script>= <script language=3D"javascript" src=3D"/javascript/windoid.js"></script> <script language=3D"javascript" type=3D"text/javascript" src=3D"/javascri= pt/Tacoda_AMS_DDC_Header.js"></script> <link rel=3D"stylesheet" href=3D"/stylesheets/chinews.css" type=3D"text/c= ss"> <meta name=3D"robots" content=3D"noarchive"> </head> <body bgcolor=3D"#FFFFFF" text=3D"#000000" link=3D"#003366" vlink=3D"#336= 699" alink=3D"#990000"> <font id=3D"byline">By LISA FALKENBERG<br></font> <font id=3D"titleline">Associated Press Writer<br></font> <font id=3D"date">Published October 27, 2004, 7:12 AM CDT</font><br> <br> DALLAS -- A judge welcomed a former fugitive back to her courtroom with balloons, streamers and a cake before sentencing him to life in prison. <br><br> "You just made my day when I heard you had finally come home," Judge Faith Johnson told Billy Wayne Williams, who had been convicted in absentia of aggravated assault after he disappeared a year ago. "We're so excited to see you, we're throwing a party for you." <br><br>Williams, 53, who has a = criminal record dating to the 1970s, was accused of choking his girlfrien= d until she passed out. He failed to appear for his trial last November a= nd was finally captured Thursday at a gas station in suburban Arlington. = <br><br>Before he was brought into the courtroom on Monday, the judge dir= ected staff members as they placed balloons and streamers around the cour= troom. A colorful cake was decorated with his name and one candle to sign= ify the year he spent on the lam. <br><br>"It seems like everyone wants t= o have a party, and it's fun for you people, but not for me," Williams to= ld reporters as he was led away in handcuffs. <br><br>Seana Willing, exec= utive director of the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct, said she foun= d the incident troubling. "It's the kind of thing I look at and scratch m= y head and wonder, `What was she thinking?'" Willing said. <br><br>She qu= estioned whether the party violated standards of decorum and impartiality= =2E <br><br>"The whole purpose of it was to mock him, to make him feel ba= d. I guess she could have put him in the stockade, in the pillory, in fro= nt of the town square and let people mock him," Willing said. <br><br>Wil= ling said the commission will investigate if a complaint is filed, or can= decide on its own to look into the matter. Judges found guilty of miscon= duct face a range of discipline, from private admonition to removal from = the bench. <br><br>She said Johnson had never been disciplined by the reg= ulatory agency. <br><br>Calls to the judge's office were not immediately = returned Tuesday. <br><br>Trent Touchstone, a supervisory deputy U.S. mar= shal, said Johnson took a special interest in Williams' case after he jum= ped bail that she had set following the 2002 assault. <br><br>"Put yourse= lf in her position," Touchstone said. "She's going through a trial with a= jury, with defense attorneys, with prosecutors and rolling along and one= day the defendant decides not to show up, and everything comes to a scre= eching halt." <font id=3D"copyright">Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press</font= </body> </html>