ASST. D.A. TO JP STAFFS: NO MORE CLASS C PLEA CASES

By Juan Montoya

The apparently unilateral decision by a Cameron County Asst. District Attorney to order Justice of the Peace staffs not to process misdemeanor cases knocked down in seriousness by prosecutors in the  five county courts-at-law that result in defendants only paying a fine for their case to be dismissed has stirred a hornets' nest.

The staffs of justices of the peace  across the county received an email Monday from Asst. DA Rene Garza ordering them to cease processing cases downgraded  by other Asst. DA's in the county's five county courts-at-law after plea bargaining with defense attorneys.

The email was sent to the staffs by Garza and not by Cameron County Attorney Luis V. Saenz, they said.

(None of the JPs we spoke with would confirm the email or comment on the issue. Nor would they say from what JP court the issue rose. We are still trying to get a copy of the email Garza sent the courts' staffs.)

However, we have received a copy which we include here:

From: Rene Garza
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2018 6:57 AM
To: Ana M. Sanchez; Angela E. Ramirez; Ashley Mendiondo; Ava Flores; Beatriz Munivez; Belinda Garza; Bellanira Leal; Brenda Jalomo; Christella Vela; Criselda Partida; Cynthia L. Rodriguez; Delia Rodriguez; Diamantina Alvarado; Gabriel L. Flores; Graciela C. Lopez; Griselda Aramburo; Jocelyn Atkinson; Kayla Tabares; Maribel Hernandez; Martha Mendoza; Melissa Escalante; Oralia Cisneros; Paula Castillo; Rachel Aleman; Sandra S. Diaz; Sandra Salcedo; Silvia Aldape; Sylvia Gonzales; Tania Matamoros; Wendy Martrinez; Elizabeth Chavez
Subject: Important New Information concerning Misdemeanor Charges from County Court at Laws transferred to Justice Courts for disposition - Do Not accept any bust downs starting today 8/6/18 - Until Further Notice
Importance: High

The email indicates that the freeze on processing such cases will last "until further notice."

"The way it works is that sometimes the Asst. DAs in the county courts agree with a defense attorney that, say, an assault case is weak, they don't have a record, or that they can't find a witness to testify," she said. "They reach a plea bargain to knock it down from Class A, the most serious, or Class B, to Class C, the least serious. The defense attorney then comes to the (JP) n office, pays the $500 fine and the $102 in court costs and the court-at-law dismisses it."

The benefits to the defendant are obvious. A Class C conviction is like paying a traffic ticket and won't negatively affect a person's record as would a Class A or Class B. A Class A misdemeanor charge carries a fine up to $4,000 and a year in jail.

A Class B misdemeanor conviction carries up to $180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

A Class C theft charge, for example, involves amounts of less than $100.

The JP staffer said it is unknown how many such plea cases are in the pipeline, but said she had turned away a few attorneys who had negotiated a downgrading of their clients' charges with the Asst. DAs in the county courts-at-law.

"They couldn't believe it," she said. "It's a normal part of their profession. Nobody ever told them that the plea bargain they negotiated for their clients would not be accepted here."

A local attorney who was contacted by El Rrun-Rrun said he was unaware the DA's office has placed a moratorium on negotiating pleas on misdemeanor cases in the courts-at-law until he approached an Asst. DA for one of his clients.

"He told me that it was on hold," he said. "But he wouldn't tell me why. In my client's case, the only witness in the case might have left the area and can't be found, so it would be next to impossible to try the case. Now I know. We'll have to go to trial. It doesn't make any fiscal sense."

The question now becomes, what will happen to those plea bargain cases already in the pipeline before Garza's edict froze the process? And does Garza realize that some of those cases might involve clients of county commissioners or even the county judge who practice in the local courts?

Since the email was directed from Garza to the JP staffs and not to the office holder, it has raised a lot of eyebrows among the elected officials. Can an Asst. District Attorney tell the staff of an elected official what cases to process? And why direct the email to the staff?

Several sources say that there is an undercurrent of personal vendetta fueling the Garza moratorium on downgraded misdemeanor cases going from county courts-at-law. They say that what triggered Garza's email was learning that JP 2-2 Johnathan Gracia had negotiated a plea for one of his clients to a Class C misdemeanor. Although Gracia – appropriately – did not use his JP court to pay the $500 fine, the sources said it irked Garza to no end.

"Right after that Garza issued the email to the JP courts," said a county court-at-law staffer. "It was pretty obvious why he was doing it."

Although the attorney who negotiated a misdemeanor to a Class C does not know when Garza will terminate the freeze on misdemeanor pleas, he said the personal nature of the motive has angered many of his fellow attorneys.

"It's pretty obvious why Rene did this and it's throwing a wrench in the works," he said. "There are people being affected by this through no fault of their own. The county courts-at-law are going to get backlogged in no time and the judges are going to want to know why. If Rene wasn't liked before, he's going to be liked even less now."