What to know about the Texas judge overseeing the Uvalde school shooting case

Michael Morton was more than two decades into a life sentence when his case landed on the desk of Texas Judge Sid Harle.

Morton, a former grocery store employee, was convicted in 1987 of murdering his wife. But by 2010, the modern use of DNA forensic evidence entered the picture. Soon, the case against Morton began to fall apart.

What Harle did next, according to Morton and his attorney, demonstrates what makes this tall, plain-spoken judge one of the fairest -- if toughest -- judges in the Lone Star State.

“It just seemed that he was as outraged as I had been all those years when he saw what was going on,” Morton told ABC News.

Morton recounted the moment in 2011 that Harle cleared his name, describing how the judge stepped down from the bench to shake his hand and apologize for how the justice system had wronged him.

“It just really went right through me,” Morton said. “I already dealt with a few judges and a few prosecutors and all of that, but Sid Harle, he touched me deeply. He really did.”

Now, more than a decade after the Morton case made headlines, Harle is tasked with what could be the highest-profile case of his career: the prosecution of a police officer charged in connection with the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. According to Morton’s attorney Gerry Goldstein, Harle’s conduct during that case is the clearest demonstration of why he’s the right judge to handle the case.

“He’s not going to do any favors,” Goldstein said of Harle, whose size and presence make him dominate a courtroom from the bench. “He will call orders as he sees them.”

In interviews with ABC News, attorneys who have appeared before Harle described him as competent and experienced, and known to hold attorneys to a high standard.

“If you didn't know what you were doing and you went in front of him, you're going to get embarrassed,” said Robbie Ward, a San Antonio-based criminal defense attorney. “He will run that trial very smoothly, and everyone better be prepared.”

Harle declined to comment for this story.

The Uvalde case opened Monday in a courtroom in Corpus Christi, 200 miles from where the rampage occurred. Former Uvalde school police officer Adrian Gonzales, charged with 29 counts of child endangerment, could face a possible maximum of 58 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

On May 24, 2022, a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers on the last day of school. The shooter was killed by law enforcement, who mounted a counter-assault after more than an hour. Gonzales, along with the then-chief of the school district police force, was criminally charged for failing to act sooner to end the massacre.

Harle agreed to hold the trial outside of Uvalde to help ensure the proceeding would be fair to Gonzales.

Harle serves as the presiding judge of Texas’s Fourth Administrative Judicial Region, one of the state's most high-profile judicial posts. He was first appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2017. Before his appointment, Harle was a judge in Bexar County for nearly 30 years.

When local Uvalde judges disqualified themselves because of their familiarity and history with the law enforcement officers and agencies at the heart of the case, Judge Harle took over the case as the top judge across 22 Texas counties.

Steve Abels, the presiding judge of Texas’ Sixth Administrative Judicial Region, told ABC News that Harle’s decades of experience on the bench make him well prepared for the Gonzales trial.

“He tries to keep the light shining on the right person in the courtroom and not himself,” Abels said.

Legal experts told ABC News that Harle’s experience will be put to the test during the trial,  the first of its kind in Texas. The case marks only the second time in American history that prosecutors have charged a member of law enforcement for their response to a mass shooting.

If prosecutors can secure a conviction, it would mark the first time that a police officer has been held criminally responsible for a school shooting. Legal experts told ABC News that any potential appeal will place Judge Harle’s decisions throughout the trial under the toughest of microscopes.

“It’s like [Judge Harle] is taking a test,” said Houston-based defense attorney Nicole DeBorde Hochglaube. “Everything he rules may be challenged on appeal.”

Pat Hancock, an attorney who has known Harle for more than 30 years, said Harle is the right judge for the case.

“I don't think the moment is too big for Judge Harle, given his experience.”