Texas Scorecard Reported Brittany Black Convictions. Court Records Differ

By R.J. Morales | TX3DNews

McKINNEY, Texas — Democratic House District 61 nominee Brittany Black is acknowledging arrests and guilty pleas from a troubled period of her life more than a decade ago, while Illinois court records reviewed by TX3DNews challenge how some of those cases were portrayed in a Texas Scorecard report published this week.

Texas Scorecard reported that Black’s criminal history included a “felony cocaine conviction,” a “drunken driving conviction” and a 120-mph police chase. The chase and guilty pleas are supported by court records, but the records do not show the cocaine or DUI cases ending in convictions.

“I’m not going to hide from my past,” Black said in a statement Thursday. “I have never tried to pretend that I lived a perfect life or never made mistakes.”

Black, who won the Democratic primary in March with more than 56% of the vote, is challenging Republican state Rep. Keresa Richardson for the McKinney-area seat.

What the Records Show

Texas Scorecard’s Aug. 19 headline described Black’s history as including a “cocaine conviction, DUI, 120-MPH police chase.” The story called the drug case a “felony cocaine conviction” and the DUI a “drunken driving conviction.”

TX3DNews reviewed the Illinois court dockets for both cases. Records confirm the 2006 police chase reached 120 mph and that Black pleaded guilty to felony cocaine possession. The court withheld judgment under Illinois’ first-offender drug statute and placed her on 24 months of probation. She completed the program, and the case was marked satisfied in 2009 without a judgment of conviction being entered.

A felony aggravated-fleeing charge from the same incident was dismissed. A separate driving-on-a-suspended-license charge did result in a guilty disposition.

In the 2012 DUI case, Black pleaded guilty and was placed on 18 months of court supervision. The docket shows judgment was withheld, and the case was dismissed in November 2014 after she was discharged from supervision.

The records confirm the high-speed chase and guilty pleas to cocaine possession and DUI. They do not show the cocaine or DUI cases ending in the convictions described by Texas Scorecard.

Black: ‘I Take Responsibility’

Black addressed the reporting in a statement provided to TX3DNews, acknowledging the events and taking responsibility for her actions.

“At the time, I was in a seriously abusive domestic violence relationship,” Black said. “I was young, struggling, and made decisions I deeply regret.”

She said she was embarrassed by some of her choices and was not trying to blame others for them.

“I don’t want to minimize those mistakes, make excuses for them, or blame other people for decisions that were mine,” she said.

Black said those events did not define what came afterward.

She pursued higher education, built and operated businesses and eventually worked in positions involving the federal government that required a Secret-level security clearance, which she said she has maintained for more than a decade.

Those biographical claims have not been independently verified by TX3DNews.

Black said her experience changed how she views people facing difficult circumstances.

“My story isn’t that I’ve never fallen down,” she said. “It’s that I got back up, took responsibility, changed my life, and worked to help other people do the same.”

On the court cases themselves, Black said both the cocaine and DUI charges were dismissed after she completed their requirements.

“Neither charge resulted in a final conviction,” she said.

That description of the final dispositions is consistent with the court dockets reviewed by TX3DNews.

Black said she has demanded a correction and retraction from Texas Scorecard and called on Richardson to denounce what she called “gutter politics.”

Sutka Calls Report a ‘Distraction’

Collin County Democratic Party Chair Jeremy Sutka also responded, calling the Texas Scorecard article “a distraction.”

“It is an attempt to smear a Democratic candidate with events from her past,” Sutka said, arguing that Republicans were focusing on decades-old mistakes rather than current issues.

“We are not going to take the bait,” he said.

Sutka pointed to grocery and housing costs, health care and public education as issues he believes should drive the HD 61 race.

“We encourage voters to look at the issues that affect their daily lives,” Sutka said. “Look at the candidates’ platforms. Look at their visions for the future.”

In her statement, Black said she was willing to address her past rather than avoid it.

“I am willing to talk about uncomfortable parts of my life rather than pretending they never happened,” Black said.

She said voters should judge her by “the totality of my life: the mistakes I made, the responsibility I took for them, the life I built afterward, and the work I am prepared to do for the people of House District 61.”

Response Requested

TX3DNews emailed Richardson seeking comment on Black’s statement and her call for Richardson to denounce the Texas Scorecard report.

TX3DNews also submitted a request for comment through Texas Scorecard’s website seeking a response to Black’s statement and the differences between the article’s description of the cocaine and DUI cases and the court records reviewed by TX3DNews.

Neither Richardson nor Texas Scorecard had responded as of publication.