Texas grades crimes by class, and Swisher matches each grade to a courtroom:

• Class C (fine only, $500 tops): the justice of the peace on West Broadway, or a city court when city officers wrote the ticket.
• Class A and B (jail possible): the constitutional County Court, run by the County Judge. Swisher has no county court at law.
• Felonies: the 64th or the 242nd District Court. Those two courts also serve Castro and Hale.

Unlike bigger places, Swisher keeps misdemeanor and felony files under one roof. A single clerk's office on Maxwell holds both. Criminal appeals run up to the Court of Criminal Appeals, the last word for Texas (see the state court pamphlet).

• Courthouse and County Court: 119 S Maxwell Ave, Tulia, TX 79088, 806-995-3504.
• County and District Clerk, same building, 806-995-4396 or 806-995-3294. Hours run 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Friday. Staff stay at the counter over lunch. E-filings go to CDCLERK@SWISHERCOUNTY.GOV, as PDF or ZIP files only, and the clerk's site says faxes can't be taken right now.
• 64th District Court, 806-291-5234, and 242nd District Court, 806-291-5254. Each judge splits time among three counties, so ask the clerk where a felony hearing will be held.
• Justice of the Peace: 310 West Broadway, Tulia, TX 79088, 806-995-4407.

The clerk's site is swisherclerk.com. City courts are in the next answer.

Yes. A city court, called a municipal court, hears fine-only tickets that city officers write inside city limits, plus city ordinance cases. Each one shares jurisdiction over Class C cases with the justice court.

• Tulia municipal court: reach it through City Hall, 127 SW 2nd Street, Tulia, TX 79088, 806-995-3547.
• Kress municipal court: Kress lists a court on its city site. City Hall is at 308 Skipworth Ave., Kress, TX 79052, 806-684-2525.

Got a ticket written near Happy or out on a county road? Call the clerk on Maxwell at 806-995-3294 to learn which court has it. Fines owed to the justice court can be paid by card at 866-549-1010 or at CertifiedPayments.net with Bureau Code 5313675. Short on cash? A Swisher defendant may ask for time payments, community service hours or a waiver (Code Crim. Proc. art. 45A.253).

Within 48 hours, everyone booked on Broadway meets a magistrate, sometimes over a video screen (Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17). In this short hearing the magistrate:

• reads the accusation and any sworn statement behind it
• gives the warnings on silence, hiring counsel and stopping an interview
• hands over the request forms for appointed counsel, then helps complete them
• mentions that a felony suspect may demand an examining trial
• sets bail and any bond conditions

When the arrest involves family violence, a magistrate's emergency protection order can follow. Typical orders run two to three months, and those tied to serious injury or a weapon can last up to about four months (Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.292). Our release page covers bond types and payments.

On a Class A or B arrest, the County Attorney drafts the charge, called an information, then lodges it at the County Court. Next come these stages:

1. Arraignment. The defendant is identified in court, hears the charge read, and pleads (Code Crim. Proc. art. 26.01).
2. Docket calls on Maxwell for motions and plea bargaining.
3. Any plea bargain goes before the County Judge, who must announce aloud whether to accept it (Code Crim. Proc. art. 26.13). A turned-down bargain frees the defendant to withdraw the plea.
4. A trial before the County Judge or a jury.

Punishments come from Penal Code ch. 12. A Class B conviction allows a jail stay up to 180 days and a $2,000 fine. For Class A, the caps rise to $4,000 and a full year. Class C means a fine no bigger than $500, never jail. Misdemeanor deferred adjudication can't top two years, and finishing it ends in dismissal (Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.103). Regular probation for a misdemeanor stops at two years as well.

1. Magistrate and bail within 48 hours.
2. Examining trial, a probable cause hearing the defense can demand before any indictment (Code Crim. Proc. art. 16.01).
3. Indictment vote. Grand jurors meet behind closed doors, and at least nine must vote yes to indict (Code Crim. Proc. art. 20A.301).
4. Arraignment before the 64th or 242nd District judge.
5. Pretrial hearings and plea talks with the County Attorney.
6. Plea or trial, then sentencing.

Felony punishments are set out in Penal Code ch. 12. In plain terms:

• State jail felony: at least 180 days, at most two years, inside a state jail facility.
• Third degree: 2 to 10 years with TDCJ. Second degree raises the top to 20.
• First degree: never under 5 years, and as long as 99 years or life.
• On top of prison, each level permits a fine up to $10,000, and prior felonies can bump the range one notch higher.

Felony deferred adjudication has a 10-year cap (Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.103).

Yes, at several points.

• Bail. Proposition 3 (2025) covers murder, aggravated sexual assault and other listed violent charges. Under Tex. Const. art. I, sec. 11d, a Swisher judge may then refuse bail once the prosecutor proves a real chance of flight or of harm to the public.
• Release on a promise. On the violent crimes named in state law, a personal bond is ruled out (Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.03).
• Appeals of low bail. Since Senate Bill 9, prosecutors may challenge an overly small bail on a listed violent charge before a higher court (Code Crim. Proc. art. 44.01).
• Capital murder. Adults convicted get either death or life with no parole. Defendants who were 17 or younger at the crime get life (Penal Code 12.31).
• No deferred adjudication for most murder cases, nor for some trafficking or repeat sex cases (Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.102).

Victims in these cases have added rights, listed later on this page.

Prosecutor. One county office handles misdemeanors and felonies alike. It is the County Attorney with felony jurisdiction, 119 South Maxwell, Tulia, TX 79088, 806-995-3505.

Defense. A defendant short of money for counsel should tell the Swisher magistrate. In a county Swisher's size, the appointing judge has until the third working day's end, once the request arrives, to name counsel under art. 1.051 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The state indigent defense agency lists two public defender offices for Swisher:

• Caprock Regional Public Defender, based at the Texas Tech School of Law, 3311 18th St., Lubbock, TX 79409, 806-742-4312
• High Plains Regional Public Defender, out of Plainview in Hale, 806-598-6886

The local plan decides which cases each office takes. Plans are posted on the state's plan database. A judge may weigh income, debts and family size, but posting bail alone doesn't prove a person can pay a lawyer (Code Crim. Proc. art. 26.04).

• Phone the Maxwell clerk at 806-995-3294 and give the defendant's full name plus birth date. Hearing dates come from this office.
• re:SearchTX. Registration on this statewide records site costs nothing. It shows the case number, the court and charging papers, but not hearing dates. Copies cost $1 for up to 10 pages.
• Alerts. Texas IVSS-Counties will phone or message you whenever a court setting is added or moved. Its help line is 866-268-8959.
• Old convictions. The state police run a paid conviction name search.

The clerk has scanned all criminal files and is moving them into new software. Records may look off for a while, so double-check anything odd by phone.

Swisher deputies carry warrants anywhere in the county, while city officers handle them inside town. Warrant questions? Ring Swisher's Sheriff's Office at 806-995-3326 or the Tulia Police Department at 806-995-3555. Statewide, DPS keeps a short Texas 10 Most Wanted list of fugitives. Court warrants can be checked by phone or in person with the clerk at 119 S Maxwell Ave, Tulia, TX 79088, 806-995-3294. To resolve one, sit down with a defense lawyer, then walk in to surrender at 136 East Broadway, Tulia, TX 79088. Another route is phoning the court that signed the warrant to request a new date.

Swisher's federal crimes go to the Northern District of Texas, which hears them in Amarillo. That clerk sits at 205 SE 5th Avenue, Room 133, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-468-3800.

• At the opening federal hearing, a judge in Amarillo weighs detention against release (18 U.S.C. 3142).
• The Marshals hold federal defendants before trial. Their Amarillo office is at 205 SE 5th Street, Unit 214, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-324-2350.
• Federal public defenders in Amarillo work at 600 S. Tyler Street, Suite 2300, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-324-2370. The U.S. Attorney's Amarillo branch answers at 806-324-2356.
• PACER sells federal case papers by the page. Once a federal sentence begins, the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator shows the prison.

The Swisher charge stays alive, but getting out gets harder. Here is the order of events:

1. ICE lodges Form I-247A at the Broadway jail.
2. When state custody ends, Broadway may keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Texas requires jails to honor ICE detainers (Code Crim. Proc. art. 2A.060). Papers proving citizenship or legal status free the person from it.
4. ICE takes custody. The Dallas Field Office, covering North Texas, is at 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75247, 972-367-2200.
5. Track the person in the ICE Online Detainee Locator.

Judges must warn non-citizens, out loud and on paper, that pleading guilty may bring deportation (Code Crim. Proc. art. 26.13). Under Senate Bill 8 (2025), a Texas sheriff who keeps a jail must have applied to ICE for 287(g) status by December 1, 2026. For Swisher's own status, ask the Sheriff's Office.

A sentence over the state jail level goes to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Before transfer, people usually stay on Broadway. TDCJ screens each new prisoner at intake and then assigns a unit. Swisher state jail sentences are carried out in a state jail unit instead.

The TDCJ inmate search finds state prisoners, but only with the exact last name. For each Texas prison, see our state prison directory.

If the Swisher youth was between 10 and 16 when the offense happened, juvenile court handles it. A 17-year-old's charge is heard in adult court, the same as any grown-up's (Family Code 51.02). Castro and Swisher counties run one shared juvenile board.

• A parent should hear from the arresting officer quickly (Family Code 52.02).
• Held youths see a judge no later than the second business day (Family Code 54.01). Their lawyer is appointed beforehand.
• On grave felonies, a juvenile judge may transfer a teen of 14 or older to the adult system once a full hearing is held (Family Code 54.02).

Swisher families can phone the Sheriff's Office at 806-995-3326 to find which facility has the youth and who the juvenile probation contact is. The state's Juvenile Justice Department is at 1711 San Jacinto Blvd, Austin, TX 78701, 512-490-7130.

Texas law spells out victims' rights (see Code Crim. Proc. art. 56A.051), including:

• safety weighed when bail is set
• notice of hearings, if asked for
• a victim impact statement read before sentencing
• a separate waiting area at court

The County Attorney's office at 806-995-3505 can explain the case. Want a heads-up by phone when the accused walks out of Broadway or moves elsewhere? Sign up at Texas IVSS-Counties. It costs nothing, and the accused is never told. Medical bills, counseling or lost wages may qualify for up to $50,000 through Crime Victims' Compensation, an Attorney General fund. Its toll-free line is 800-983-9933.