RICHMOND, Texas — Judges Richard Bell and Mark Hanna saw their official portraits unveiled Friday at the Fort Bend County Justice Center, a moment both said hit harder than they expected.
The portraits will hang in the courthouse alongside those of judges who served before them. Bell, of the 501st District Court, and Hanna, of the 502nd District Court, were both appointed to the benches Dec. 1, 2025.
“There are certain moments in life that I can remember them like they happened yesterday,” Bell told the crowd of lawyers, court staff and family members. He listed his wedding nearly 31 years ago, the births of his three children and a night under the stars in Yellowstone.
“I feel like this, as I’m sitting here and kind of having a second to pause and think about it, is going to be one of those moments that I will remember forever,” he said.
Hanna said he didn’t think much of the ceremony when he talked about it during the week.
“And then this morning, when I woke up, it’s like, wow, this has really happened,” he said.
Judge Christian Becerra of the 434th District Court, the administrative judge for Fort Bend County’s district courts, said he has known both men for nearly three decades, going back to the late 1990s, when Hanna joined the district attorney’s office and Becerra was an intern.
“So we’ve known each other almost 30 years, long time,” Becerra said. He called both “career public servants that really know what they’re doing.”
What the courthouse needs most, he said, is “judges that understand the law and know what they’re doing.”
Becerra joked that he had “frame envy” after seeing the new portraits. “My frame’s a little smaller,” he said.
He recalled walking past portraits of longtime judges in courthouses around the region and said the honor is a lasting one.
“This is going to stay in the courthouse forever,” Becerra said. “I think these guys have earned it.”
He said both judges “hit the ground running” when they took the bench.
Bell said he closed his family law practice a little over 11 years ago to become a judge. He said he has tried to copy the good habits he saw from judges during his years as a trial lawyer and avoid the ones he thought were disrespectful or unproductive.
“I want people to look at this portrait in the future and go, ‘That was a good judge. That was a judge that followed the law. That was a judge that was always respectful. Never embarrassed me in front of a client. That was a judge that treated everybody fairly,’” Bell said.
He said praise is rare from the bench.
“As lawyers, we always get compliments from our clients,” Bell said. “As judges, you rarely get them.”
“Some days, I’ve upset both sides because neither side gets exactly what they want,” he added. “But this kind of love, when you come out and you support us, it really does warm my heart.”
Bell thanked his mother, who raised him alone on little money.
“It was not easy for her, and I would not be here without her,” he said.
He also thanked his wife, Catherine. He said she has supported him through the past year, which brought “the first time I’ve had to go through political things, which has been a very difficult thing.”
Hanna, a former prosecutor who has worked in the county’s justice system for more than 30 years, said he measures his work by how people feel when they leave his courtroom.
When people walk out of his courtroom, “whether they got what they wanted or not, they felt like they were heard,” he said.
He said he tried his first felony case in the old domed courthouse and has walked past the portraits on the courthouse walls countless times.
“Sometimes you look at them every once in a while and go, ‘Yeah, that was a really good judge. That wasn’t such a good judge,’” Hanna said.
He said he hopes people see the judges as human and remember them as fair and respectful.
“I didn’t get here by accident,” Hanna said, crediting his family and court staff. He named Sheila Shiffler, Reagan McCardle and Buddy Torres.
“They help manage a court way more than you would realize,” he said. “There’s a lot more to it than just sitting on the bench and making decisions.”
Hanna thanked his wife, Jane, whom he has been married to for 35 years. He said being married to a trial lawyer “isn’t always easy.” His oldest daughter attended. Hanna said she made him a grandfather eight weeks ago.
Hanna said life on the bench has surprised him.
“It’s been way different than I expected it to be,” he said. “It’s been better than I expected it to be.”
Before becoming a judge, Bell practiced family law for nearly 20 years. He has served as president of the Fort Bend County Bar Association and is an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center.
Hanna joined the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office in 1998. He led its narcotics and special crimes divisions and helped develop and run the county’s first treatment court, Drug Recovery Court. He is board certified in criminal law.
