William Steger - Tenure On The Federal Bench

Tenure On The Federal Bench

In December 1970, President Nixon appointed Steger to the Tyler-based judgeship, which he held for the remaining thirty-five years of his life.

During his tenure on the bench Judge Steger presided over many noteworthy cases. In 1975, for instance, he held that a private hospital, although it received some state and federal financial support, could establish policies denying use of its facilities for elective abortions. In 1980, he presided over one of the first cases that applied the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (“RICO”) to obtain the conviction of numerous Gregg County officials for offenses ranging from solicitation of murder to facilitation of gambling.

In 1983, Judge Steger presided over United States v. Rex Cauble, another significant case involving the RICO statute. At the trial of that case, a jury convicted Cauble of masterminding an organization known as the “Cowboy Mafia” that imported tons of marijuana into the United States from South America.

In 1986, he tried United States v. DKG, Inc., a precedent-setting case, which involved the forfeiture of property purchased with funds derived from illegal narcotics transactions. As a result of that conviction, the government seized properties which were subsequently auctioned for more than $10 million and deposited in the U.S. Treasury.

In 1995, Judge Steger named Bryan Hughes, then a recent graduate of Baylor Law School, as his briefing attorney. In 2003, Hughes, a lawyer in Mineola, began service as a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 5.

Steger died on June 4, 2006, and was interred at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Tyler. The William M. Steger Federal Building and United States Courthouse was named in his honor later that year.