Texas’s oldest serving judge talks about plans after retiring at age 95

HUDSPETH COUNTY -- Hudspeth County is home to a man who could be the oldest serving judge in Texas.

Thomas D. Neely, 95, is the Hudspeth County judge. But unlike the El Paso county judge, this county judge oversees misdemeanors, like driving while intoxicated cases. 

Judge Neely was born in Sierra Blanca 95 years ago and was raised near the banks of the Rio Grande.

He was educated in a one-room school, then graduated from the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy.

For those unfamiliar with the school, it became Texas Western, then UTEP.

Just five years shy of 100, he is as sharp and quick-witted as someone half his age.

Few know Hudspeth and Culberson counties better than judge Neely.

Although he did not study law, Neely, who is bilingual, says he was always around courtrooms, either as an interpreter or bailiff.

Jurors were once sequestered in what is now his office.

Back in the 1950s, judge Neely remembers serving on a jury. And he remembers the amenities available to jurors back then. 

“And every evening, he would bring us a quart of whiskey. And we would drink whiskey and play cards,” says Neely as he sits in his chambers wearing the traditional judge’s robes. 

Neely did not run for county judge, he was appointed by county commissioners when he was 92.

“I never considered refusing it (ha, ha, ha).”

He says immigration has changed drastically in his lifetime.

He remembers when he crossed into the small town of Bandera in Mexico, just as easily as Mexican families would visit Sierra Blanca.

“When I was growing up, I used to go over there on weekends.; we’d play baseball, have horse races,” said Neely.

He says what hasn’t changed are the cartels, who ran off the people of Bandera.

The small Mexican town no longer exists. It doesn’t even appear on today’s maps.

Today, Hudspeth and Culberson Counties are known for many large migrant crossings. Many migrants never make it, and their bodies are recovered in the mountains.

“We didn’t use to find bodies. The cartels will just point them in a general direction and say go that way and, and some of ‘em get lost.”

Hudspeth county recently made national headlines when twin brothers Mike and Mark Shepard were accused of shooting into a group of migrants, killing one, and seriously injuring another. Mike is a former prison warden.

“No, in my entire life, I have never heard of a jail warden killing anybody. I was shocked, you might even say astounded, that they are accused, shall we say, of murder.”

Neely says Sierra Blanca was once a thriving community.

Now, it has a population of 832.

He said when I-10 opened up, it sucked the life out of Sierra Blanca and other communities.

The city’s main street is filled with empty buildings. 

At the post office, people spoke about Neely's eventual retirement.

“I think he did pretty well on keeping up, comparatively to his age,” said Marlene Salazar, a county employee who remembers Judge Neely putting on the Santa Clause costume to the delight of Husdpeth county children during the local Christmas parade.

“He’s still just as spry as he was,” said Teresa Hearn, a Hudspeth county homeowner.

ABC-7 asked the judge what he attributes his longevity too.

“If they wanna know my secret: I don’t drink, I don’t smoke,” said the judge.

And he doesn’t stay put.

With the elevator being out for the past 20 years, he climbs metal stairs seven times a day, from his office to the courtroom and back.

And he’ll continue to do so until the last day he strikes his gavel calling for the court to be adjourned. His last day is December 31.

The judge says he would like to be remembered for his help to others.

“A judge who helped to see this county through trying times, to the very best of my ability,” said Neely.

As for his retirement, he says he will take care of the honey do’s.

In fact, he’s in the process of converting the front porch of his home into an extra room.

You may think that at the age of 95, he may not get to finish the project.

But as he points out, his mother lived to the ripe old age of 108.