MARRYING COUPLE STEERED TO SALAZAR BY CLERK'S STAFF; COUNTYWIDE NETWORK DIRECTS MARRIAGES TO HER COURT

By Juan Montoya

This Tuesday, a district judge waited for more than an hour at her office after a couple "with issues" who had their case heard in that court said they wanted to be married there and were directed to get their marriage license at the Cameron County Clerk's Office on Levee Street.

Under Texas law, if the couple presents a petition to a district court to waive the 72-hour waiting period, they can just pay the $82 license fee at the county clerk's office and they can marry legally.

After attending the Thanksgiving get together with other district and county court-t-law judges and Justices of the Peace, the district judge waited for the couple to return.

While at the party, all the Brownsville Justices of the Peace were present and partook of the Thanksgiving meal and beverages at the 103rd District Court.

Upon returning to the court, the judge asked the court secretary to contact the groom to see what the delay was in them returning to the court for the marriage ceremony. Since the couple had "issues," including financial ones, the fee was going to be lowered to $150, instead of the $250 going rate at the JPs.

"The groom said that they had already been married by JP Linda Salazar on the second floor of the Levee Building," the clerk told the judge. "They said that a clerk at the county building told them they didn't have to go back to the building at Harrison and that they could do it with (JP 2-1) Linda Salazar."

However, since Salazar was at the Thanksgiving party, the couple had to wait until Salazar finished her dinner and returned. Meanwhile, they had to wait in the second-floor hallway until she had her fill and returned to her office.

"So there they are waiting for Linda and the district judge is also waiting, all because a county clerk staffer directed the couple to Salazar's office ," said the court clerk. "Even though the couple had requested the judge to marry them, they were redirected to Salazar. What's going on over there? Is there a system in place at the county clerk's office and the rest of the county to steer the couples to  her and she pockets the $250 to marry them? Something's going on."

Court observers have always suspected that Salazar has forsaken her duties as justice of the peace and focused instead on milking the lucrative marriage ceremony racket for all it's worth. They point to the annual average of more than 600 ceremonies Salazar racks up as evidence that she has developed a network across offices of county staff who "steer" couple to her office so she can charge them the fee.

This includes marriages involving inmates, where her relatives on the sheriff's administration have granted her an almost exclusive monopoly there. And sometimes, when couple show up t other JP courts, they find that a business card from Salazar's court has been placed inside the manila envelope containing the license. And surveillance cameras have caught her openly soliciting couples to perform the marriage in the county clerk's court.

Records show that she easily out paces all the other JPS in performing wedding ceremonies. At an average of $200 per ceremony (it's usually $250 or more if they are performed outside the court or at a couple's home or on South Padre Island or a reception hall), that leaves more than $120,000 for her pocket because Texas law permits the JPs to keep the fee, not the county.

As a result, they say that the burden of performing the other duties of a justice of the peace falls on the other Brownsville JPs. And Texas Department of Safety troopers have started avoiding her court because they find out that many are dismissed as political favors to her supporters or relatives, causing a loss of funds to the county.

The marriage racket she actively solicits is so lucrative that when combined with her salary she takes in more than any other county elected official, including the sheriff, auditor, tax assessor-collector, the district judges, and the county court-at-law judges.

Her annual take is more than twice the salary of the county judge, and almost three times what each county commissioner makes and she gets to use the county's staff and facilities free of charge.

The situation has gotten so bad that some are calling for a district court inquest or - at the very least - an investigation and audit to determine whether county taxpayers are funding a private money-making enterprise at that court at the expense of other court duties.

She is facing two challengers to her position in the person of Cyndi Hinojosa and Fred Arias in the March 2020 Democratic Party primary. They have both vowed to reform the system of performing marriage ceremonies in the county without short-changing the other duties of the court.

"This is not a first-time event," the clerk said of the steering of wedding ceremonies to her court. "This has been happening for a long time. Something's wrong there."