Tarrant County juvenile crime hearings on YouTube racked up $9,000 in ad revenue

A Tarrant County juvenile judge’s detention hearings broadcast on YouTube since the start of the pandemic have generated $9,000 in ad revenue, which the county commissioners on Tuesday voted to keep.

Juvenile Judge Alex Kim livestreamed detention hearings for youth above a certain age under the rules of an open court. The hearings normally lasted about an hour, and once they were over, the videos stayed up for anyone to watch anytime — generating ad revenue each time someone viewed them.

It appears as if the county commissioners were unaware that juvenile hearings were earning money, which recently arrived into a county account from Google, which owns YouTube. It wasn’t immediately clear how the $9,000 will be spent.

Kim wasn’t the only judge in Texas who used YouTube to stream hearings when the pandemic shut down in-person gatherings, and still streams hearings today. The Supreme Court of Texas told judges they had to broadcast proceedings, including juvenile hearings, and recommended they use YouTube. The Texas Judicial Branch also sent instructions to judges about how to create a Zoom account and make the broadcast live using YouTube.

A list of state courts that livestream can be found on the Texas Judicial Branch’s website. As of Tuesday morning, more than a dozen courts across the state were livestreaming on YouTube.

The difference, according to the County Judge Glen Whitley, was that other judges immediately deleted the content after the hearings ended, but the Tarrant County juvenile hearings were left up. The videos have since been deleted, and the YouTube channel was empty on Tuesday morning. The document given to judges by the state judicial branch, which was obtained by the Star-Telegram, does not give instructions for deleting hearings after they’ve been held.

Revenue can be made through the ads that play before videos begin.

Whitley questioned how and why the money came to Tarrant County.

“We should never have taken this money in the first place and I don’t understand how we signed a contract that authorized Google to give us this money and it didn’t come from the court,” Whitley said.

County Auditor Renee Tidwell said Kim opened a Google account and signed the needed paperwork. She sent Kim the information needed for Google to send the money to the county’s account.

In a written statement after Tuesday’s meeting, Kim said “while many things may seem unusual or unorthodox, everyone’s perspective of ‘normal’ changed during COVID. The 323rd District Court did its best during the unprecedented time to comply with the requirements and recommendations of the Supreme Court of Texas for all matters, from mask mandates to remove hearings.”

Whitley said during the meeting that he understood why the hearings were on YouTube, but he feels like no profit should be made from juvenile hearings.

“I’m more concerned about the ability of anybody to sign a contract and get that money without it coming to the court’s approval,” he said. “If we need to send a reminder out to folks that you can’t contract out to the county, then maybe we need to do that.”