JP SOROLA BURNS UP THE BENCH, LEAVES B'VLLE JPS BEHIND

By Juan Montoya
Newby Justice of the Peace 2-3 Mary Ester Sorola – who lags in seniority behind Linda Salazar and has no law degree like Jonathan Gracia – is racking up numbers like the Astro's Jose Altuve.

Statistics from the JP courts for April and May shows that Sorola's court is doing brisk business and moving cases along, at the same time collecting revenues for the county at a greater rate and volume than the other Brownsville JPs.

In April, the stats show that 1,088 cases had been filed in her court compared to 838 for Gracia and 633 for Salazar. Year-to-date, Sorola has had 5,338 compared to 3,524 for Gracia and 4,230 for Salazar.

The stats for disposed cases reveal much of the same. Sorola had disposed of 669 to Gracia's 629 and Salazar's 641.

Monthly collections for April were $115,284 for Sorola, $88,040 for Gracia and $83,568 for Salazar. The courts' statistician cautions that year to date cash collections do not necessarily constitute county revenue, but the pattern is pretty clear. If you move the cases along and clear the docket, the money comes in the till.

May was another good month for her court with 891 cases filed in Sorola's court, 817 in Salazar's and 522 in Gracia's. Monthly collections were $103,419 in Sorola's court, $79,622 in Salazar's and $76,839 in Gracia's.

Cases remaining open in the Brownsville JPs' courts reflect the trends. There were 33,162 in Salazar's court, 12,446 in Gracia's and 8,242 in Sorola's court. The number of disposed cases is skewered toward Gracia who has dismissed thousands of old cases left over from the tenure of former JP Erin Garcia and before her Tony Torres. For example, in May, Gracia "disposed" of 4,103 cases while Salazar disposed of 459 and Sorola 640.

But it is under the term "probate" which, according to the statistician includes mental calls and inquests of deaths that shows who is busy answering calls for law enforcement. This April Sorola answered 16, Salazar 16 and Gracia 0.

In May, Sorola answered 18, Salazar 11, and Gracia lagged at 5. During the recent runoff election, challenger Javier Reyna questioned Gracia on his absence from his office and failure to be available for police calls for inquests.

There seem to be a weird order of priorities here. Another function of the JP office is the performance of marriages, a lucrative endeavor for JPs since state law allows them to keep the fees, usually between $250 and up depending on the venue where the couple chooses to marry.

Salazar is the cupid of the three JPs.

The breakdown by JP has changed dramatically in the last three years. Before, Salazar was the undisputed Czar of the Rings, but Gracia is quickly making inroads into the nuptial racket. The last three years' numbers are below:

                                  Salazar                                  Gracia                          Sorola
Jan.-Dec. 2014:           571                                        (Took office Jan. 2015)
Jan.-Dec. 2015:          682                                        64                                 95
Jan.-Dec. 2016:          676                                       196                                82
Jan.-Nov. 2017:          504                                       232                                74                             

As can plainly be seen, couples just seem to gravitate toward Salazar for some (unknown?) reason.

Loose tongues used to say that she had a system in place at the Cameron County Clerk's Office of staff who would steer the couples toward her office. And she has been caught in the county's surveillance system soliciting couples in the county clerk's office. There has been at least one report that a clerk in her marriage license section would put a business card of Salazar's office in the manila folder containing the license (hint).

We'll keep an eye on the doings on the second floor of the new county Levee Street building to see if the ranking of priorities by the Brownsville JPs stays the same.