Joe Manuel Diaz v. State

The trial judge who signed the warrant heard the motion to suppress the fruits of the warrant. In effect, the trial judge heard the appeal from his own action in determining the sufficiency and validity of the affidavit in support of the warrant. Although not called to testify, the trial judge was also a witness to the accuracy of the date and time the warrant was signed and to the identity and authority of the magistrate who signed the warrant.3

*314Rule 605 of the Texas Rules of Evidence provides that a presiding judge at a trial may not testify as a witness.4 In his concurrence to Harris v.…