In 2018, Cass County residents elected their first female District Attorney, Courtney Holland Shelton.
The first female (and Hispanic) DA in Texas was Edna Cisneros Carroll of Willacy County, who served from 1956 to 1986. The second was Bonnie Leggat Hagan, who was appointed by Governor Mark White as Harrison County DA, from 1980-1985. Between then and 2000, there were just a handful of female DAs sprinkled throughout Texas and its 254 counties.
It's only been in the last 20 years that the number of female DAs in Texas has grown to approximately 30.
In 2009, Courtney Shelton left the Bowie County Public Defenders Office to serve as assistant DA to Cass County DA Randal Lee, who had served the county as assistant DA to Neil Birmingham for years before his election. Courtney said when she told Lee she would be running against him in 2018, he fired her.
She became even more determined to win the election. She was also well-aware of the risk she was taking.
"I was preparing for the best and the worst at the same time. I knew we may have to live on my husband's salary alone for a while," she said. "It (winning) was a little surreal. I was the underdog. Randal was from here, he's a nice guy, and Cass County was used to having a man in power."
Courtney tallied 55 percent of the votes in the March 2018 election - or 365 more votes than Lee.
"Faith is a big part of my life, and it's grown stronger in the past year," she said. "It was a faith-based decision to run. I absolutely love this job."
Courtney graduated from Pleasant Grove High School in Texarkana. After graduating from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, she received her law degree from Baylor Law School. She is married to Lucas Shelton from McLeod, Texas. She has a 5-year-old son and a 12-year-old stepson. Lucas is a firefighter with the Texarkana Fire Department and has a construction business on the side.
Courtney said she has thought about the women of the 19th century who fought for equal rights.
"I always think about that," she said. "Those women paved the way, and if they could see where we are now, I think they would be so proud."
Being a woman in charge in a male-dominated judicial system has been challenging, but Courtney quickly gained the respect of the men she had to work with.
"From the beginning, I let it be known that I wasn't going to be a pushover," she said. "I had been working with these men for a long time. They know I'm fair and don't take sides, and I have a strong work ethic, which they respect."
Atlanta is the biggest city in Cass County, and Mayor Travis Ransom counts himself among Courtney's "fans."
"Courtney is an aggressive prosecutor and efficient case manager," he said. "She handles crime victims with compassion and prosecutes criminals with unyielding determination. Now we have a female County Judge and a female DA. Those two positions have historically been served by males.
"I think Cass County is smart enough to recognize talent regardless of gender. I have two daughters and think it's important to recognize strong female role models for them to follow and emulate."
Compassion, once thought to be primarily a female trait, has given Courtney a reputation as a good representative for the victims she is fighting for.
"I feel like I do have compassion, and that's not necessarily a bad thing," she said. "We are not always looking to punish but to also rehabilitate when possible. I have addiction in my family, so I can relate."
In 2008, Courtney went through Pathways Core Training in Dallas. The program "is an experience-based training that helps people overcome the barriers from their past, align their habits and relationships to their core values and design an attainable life plan that elevates the quality of their future," according to the website pathwayscoretraining.org.
"I also had a lot of guilt from being raped in college and not reporting it," she said. "The program was a huge stepping stone for me. It helped me to overcome that and map out my future and have the strength to go for what I wanted to accomplish. I have sponsored many people through the program - a lot of them are military with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) issues."
Courtney said her training and natural compassion have been helpful many times since she was elected. She counts one of the most recent cases as one of the hardest. It involved the continuous sexual assault of a child. The defendant, James Reynolds, had numerous victims, one being his own daughter.
"The victim in the case is now 17 and recounted cases of repeated touching. We had no proof - only her word," she said. "You get so close to the victim and develop a bond. But I can't control the jury. I relived the trauma with them; all of them are scarred. And I do it because they deserve it, they deserve justice. But it does take a toll on me as well as my family. That day, after the jury handed down a light sentence and parole, I bawled in my car."
For those cases that involve children, Courtney receives help from the Texarkana Child Advocacy Center.
"I can't say enough good things about CAC," she said. She credits her victim coordinator, Colette Roberts, as "a big help."
Another type of situation that she finds difficult is having to arrest her fellow public servants. In the past year, she has had to prosecute a deputy she worked closely with, along with an attorney she saw often in court.
As DA, Courtney is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in Cass County, which means she is over the police chiefs and officers in the county.
"The toughest part of being a female DA is telling the police chiefs what to do," she said. "We are all on the same team and have the same goal, but I have to tell them what I need to be able to prosecute a case. It's a delicate balance when you're dealing with a lot of law enforcement agencies."
As far as the criminals she has prosecuted, she does worry occasionally about retaliation.
"It's always in the back of my mind," she said. "I stay conscious of it, but don't let it consume me. I do have license to carry, I do carry and I do know how to use it. I'm aware that I could constantly be a target, but I will defend myself and my family.
"Someone told me when I started on my career path, 'you may not always do the popular thing, but always do the right thing,'" she said.
"I have always kept that in mind."