A local attorney who was sanctioned earlier this year for not showing up to court is being ordered to appear before a circuit judge to explain another unexplained absence from court.

Texarkana lawyer Don Cooksey was supposed to appear at a pretrial hearing Monday afternoon for his client, Matthew Shemphert, in Circuit Judge Joe Griffin’s court. Shemphert, who is in jail, is accused of failing to register as a sex offender and of being a sex offender living too close to a school. He also faces a motion to revoke the probation he received last year after being convicted of engaging i...