DALLAS – Billy Wayne Williams has spent much of his adult life either behind bars or running from the law.

He says he has been wrongfully accused and has fled because he was in grave danger.

But to a state district judge in Dallas, he was so dangerous to society that she celebrated his recapture by serving cake at his sentencing hearing.

Judge Faith Johnson’s courtroom party ended with her giving Williams, 53, life in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Legal observers in Dallas said the courtroom party was unprecedented.

Seana Willing, executive director of Texas’ Commission on Judicial Conduct, said Nov. 18 that she could neither confirm nor deny that the agency is investigating Johnson.

Earlier, however, she said the incident may have violated the judge’s requirement to remain neutral.

Judges found guilty of misconduct can face a range of discipline, from a private warning to removal from the bench.

“This is just part of being black at my age,” Williams said of the cake incident during a recent interview at Lew Sterrett Criminal Justice Center in Dallas before he was transferred to state prison.

Johnson, who is also black, did not return phone calls seeking comment, but in an earlier statement, the judge said she wanted to celebrate a victory in society’s struggle against domestic violence by putting away the man who had been convicted in absentia of abusing his girlfriend.

The prosecutor who handled the case was pleased that Williams was returned to prison for the rest of his life.

“He’s a con artist,” said Trey Crutcher, an assistant district attorney for Dallas County. “He’s a person who thinks the system is out to get him. He’s actually a very dangerous person.”

Williams, a native of Colorado City, Texas, spent 18 years in prison for murdering his wife in 1977.

He insists that he’s innocent. He escaped twice, he said, because he feared that officials or other prisoners intended to hurt or kill him.

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