A Dallas County grand jury has indicted a clerk for a justice of the peace on misdemeanor charges of forgery for allegedly faking a hearing notice used to evict a Mesquite woman, according to court documents filed Dec. 23.
Lutishia Williams, 53, is accused of fabricating a hearing notice in August 2022. The notice was used as a basis to evict Chantel Hardaway, a Mesquite mother who claimed in a lawsuit that she never received the hearing notice.
The hearing notice alleged to be fake is a Microsoft Word-generated document dated June 14 and signed by Williams.
Williams is the chief clerk for justice of the peace Margaret O’Brien, who previously denied any wrongdoing by anyone in her court. Williams and O’Brien did not respond to requests for comment.
Mark Melton, an attorney for Chantel Hardaway, said in court records that someone in O’Brien’s court falsified an official notice after he asked to see a copy of it in the records.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s public integrity unit, which began its investigation in September 2022, seized items from the courthouse in September 2023, according to an October 2023 email from Williams to The Dallas Morning News.
Melton and the DA’s office declined to comment on the indictment.
A date for Williams’ trial has not yet been set.
