Judge Bob Wortham had a rare treat Monday as he administered the oath of office to his own son and a family friend as new prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Beaumont.
Baylor Wortham and Cory Crenshaw were hired as Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern District of Texas by U.S. Attorney John Malcolm Bales.
Bob Wortham, currently Jefferson County 58th District Court judge, was formerly the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District from 1981 to 1993. During his tenure, he hired Bales as a new assistant prosecutor. Now Bales has hired Wortham’s son.
“Dad hired Malcolm, now Malcolm has hired me,” Baylor Wortham said at the swearing in ceremony at the Jack Brooks Federal Building in Beaumont. “And I have my son, Baylor Jr., here today, running the halls of the courthouse just like I did when I was a child and came to see Dad. Having three generations here today is really special.”
Baylor Wortham was born and raised in Beaumont and graduated from Msgr. Kelly Catholic High School. He received a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University in 2003 and a jurisprudence degree from Baylor Law School in 2005 where he had been a member of Baylor Law Review.
After beginning his career as an assistant Jefferson County district attorney in 2006, Baylor Wortham was appointed as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District. In that role he primarily prosecuted violent crime in Port Arthur under Operation Time Machine under the Project Safe Neighborhood Initiative.
He is married to Lindsay Wortham and they have one sone, Baylor Wortham Jr.
Judge Bob Wortham was also delighted to swear in a young man he has watched grow up as a family friend, Cory Crenshaw. Crenshaw is also a Beaumont native and a graduate of Kelly High School in 1997 and also went to Baylor University. At Baylor, Crenshaw received a degree in history before earning his law degree from Texas Tech University in 2004.
Crenshaw began his legal career in 2005 in Bryan/College Station as a state felony prosecutor focused on child sexual predators and gang offenders. In 2010, Crenshaw went to work as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas in McAllen. There his caseload included border crimes like narcotics smuggling, illegal immigration and firearm offenses.
The Eastern District of Texas is comprised of 43 counties from the Gulf of Mexico to the Oklahoma border. The district has six division offices located in Beaumont, Lufkin, Tyler, Texarkana, Plano and Sherman and has a total of 51 prosecutors.