ERIN: "THERE IS A DISPUTE" ON 72-HOUR WAIVERS I SOLD

"...for a controversy to be justiciable, there must be a real controversy between the parties."
Texas Supreme Court quoted by a local blogger

By Juan Montoya
After reams of cyber text by a would-be legal expert arguing that no dispute exists surrounding the issuance and sale of waivers to the state-mandated 72-hour waiting period between getting a marriage license and the wedding ceremony, a statement issued by the justice of the peace involved contradicts her defender.
Alberto Maldonado and Claudia Esmeralda Gonzalez sued JP 2-2 Erin Garcia-Hernandez in federal court earlier this year charging that they had been given a waiver by her in contradiction of state law requiring them to wait for 72 hours before they could be married.
The couple is in the process of applying for residency for the groom and feared that immigration officials would suspect them of getting a "quickie" marriage when they saw that the 72-hour waiting period as not observed and that they were married about an hour after they acquired the license from the office of the county clerk.
The plaintiffs state that on May 29, 2013, they presented themselves for a marriage application at the offices of JP 2-2 Garcia-Hernandez who told them they could be married immediately because she had the authority to legally grant them a waiver to the required 72-hour waiting period.
"Based upon this information, and because they informed (her) that they had pending immigration appointment for Maldonado to obtain his legal residency as his wife to be had already obtained in conjunction with her employment as an engineer in Cameron County," their suit read.
The couple – after reaching a settlement with the county's legal counsel Oct. 23 – withdrew their lawsuit from federal court.
Their attorneys  – Corpus Christi attorney William J. Tinning, with Brownsville attorney Luis Sorola acting as local co-counsel – then moved to district court and petitioned a district judge to issue an order legitimizing the couple's marriage.
The case was originally filed with the 444th District Court, moved to District 107th Judge Ben Euresti's court, and finally assigned on Nov. 6. District 404th judge Elia Cornejo Lopez who signed the order.
"The court finds that Justice of the Peace Erin Garcia may not have the authority to waive the 72-hour waiting period," the order reads.
Since then, a tempest in a teapot has erupted fueled mainly by a local blogger who happens to have been disbarred as an attorney and who has issued an ultimatum to Cornejo-Lopez threatening her with filing a complaint with the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct unless she voids her order.
"She will have until Wednesday to void any order...or face a mandamus and a complaint to the Commission on Judicial Conduct," he expounded.
It might be enlightening to this blogger to know that none other than Garcia-Hernandez has conceded that indeed a dispute exists on whether she can issue the waivers to the 72-hour waiting period in a letter she provided county counsel as part of an agreement with the couple's attorneys.
In a statement dated Nov. 5 – one day before the district court issued the order – Garcia-Hernandez signed a letter on her office stationery that states:
"At the time I issued the 72 hour waiting period waiver, I believed in good faith that I had the legal authority to do so. However, I now understand that the authority of a justice of the peace to issue waivers is now in dispute and that an Attorney
General Opinion has been requested to clarify the issue..."
The issuance of the waivers by Garcia– Hernandez differs markedly from the established process followed in Cameron County and in others throughout the state. The process to get legitimate waivers is to go through a district court, as the couple's attorneys did in this case.
There is a specific waiver form that must be completed at the district clerk's office, signed by a district judge, and filed away in a case file. In the case of the form generated in Garcia-Hernandez's office, there is no existing file for them. In fact, there are no such forms left at the county clerk's office.
 However, the ones that did survive bear the logo of the Justice of the Peace office of Erin Garcia-Hernandez and her signature below the body of text approving the waiver of the 72-hour waiting period. Once the waiver was issued, the marriage ceremony could be performed and the justice of the peace collected whatever fee that particular office charged (between $150 and $250).
"We got what we wanted," said local counsel Sorola today. "Our clients have a statement from the county that they did not seek the waiver for any improper purpose and that the marriage is not affected by any mistake that occurred in obtaining the marriage license."
It is not known whether Cornejo-Lopez will give in to the ultimatum issued by the local blogger on behalf of Justice of the Peace Erin Garcia-Hernandez. The JP is the daughter of Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez.