AND SHE WANTS TO REMAIN ON THE BENCH AFTER THIS?

By Juan Montoya
At the risk of having someone chide us for picking on poor JP 2-1 Linda Salazar, take a gander at this.

We learned that Linda had employed her half sister in her office against Cameron County's nepotism policy and were told that either one had to go because as situation where a relative is supervising another relative was a no-no.

We are still checking to see what finally happened in that case. We had heard that Salazar had been checking around county offices trying to find a job for sis Beatriz Muñivez. Salazar's maiden name was Muñivez, then Cortez, and finally Salazar. The county commissioners, at the end, transferred her sister to another JP office, not wanting to fire her.

Before she ran for JP, Salazar had been employed with Cameron County for years, but when Muñivez filed out her application in 1994-, she checked "no" in the question about whether she had any relatives working for Cameron County.

It just so happened that Salazar chose her for her staff against all the rules. Now we wonder how this situation is resolved. One of the other has to go. Salazar for hiring her own sister, or Muñivez for lying on her application.

The Cameron County Personnel Policy under section 3.05 manual states unequivocally that "no person may be hired who is related within the second degree by affinity (marriage or within the third degree by consanguinity (blood) to any member of the Commissioners’ Court, to a County official who appoints him or her to the position, or to any employee who would directly supervise his or her job performance.

"In the event that two current county employees become related in a manner prohibited by this section, the two parties will be given a reasonable time for one or the other to secure another position, either within the County in another department, or outside County government. For purposes of this policy, a reasonable time will not normally exceed two months. If the two parties cannot decide which of them will forfeit his or her job, the party with the least seniority will be terminated."

Then we  found out that Linda had been routinely dismissing cases involving her son Mark Anthony Cortez. Not once, not twice, but can you believe it, four times, she had failed to recuse herself in cases involving Mark Anthony, and in every case, dismissed them, one of them with a token $20 fine.

By the way, Linda introduced him to her Facebook followers announcing Mark Anthony was running for a seat on the board of the Brownsville Independent School District.

Her other son, Ruben Cortez, is running against Sen. Eddie Lucio in this primary. (At left, Linda administers the oath of office to Ruben when he was elected to the BISD board.)

These type of activities by a judicial officer goes against every precept of fairness and impartiality. In fact, judicial canons are quite specific on the practice. The specific prohibition against this is embedded in the Texas Constitution.

THE TEXAS CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE 5. JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT

Sec. 11. DISQUALIFICATION OF JUDGES; EXCHANGE OF DISTRICTS; HOLDING COURT FOR OTHER JUDGES. No judge shall sit in any case wherein the judge may be interested, or where either of the parties may be connected with the judge, either by affinity or consanguinity, within such a degree as may be prescribed by law, or when the judge shall have been counsel in the case.

Texas Code of Judicial Conduct

B. A judge shall not allow any relationship to influence judicial conduct or judgment. A judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others; nor shall a judge convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge.

In each case, the docket sheet notes that the cases were dismissed by the state (Cameron County District Attorney's Office), and once at Salazar's discretion after Cortez appeared to have complied with the law and replaced his expired license/registration on his car. She charged him a token $20 for court costs and that was it. That's her signature on the bottom.

In Case 2011-FTR-008037, Mark Anthony was charged with having an unrestrained child in his car and on a companion case 2011-FTR-00838, was charged himself for not wearing a safety belt. Both, as the docket sheet notes, were dismissed on a motion by the state. Salazar also signed off on them. We seriously doubt that the state attorneys realized the defendant was Salazar's son.

In yet another case, 2017-FTR-00468, he was charged with displaying the expired license sticker and got off with the $20 fine for court costs.

And there is was another case in Salazar's court involving Mark Anthony (2018-FDC-00525), this one involving an unpaid $2,335.61 since February 7, 2017 on a Walmart credit card. That account was sold to Midland Funding who then sued for collection. That lawsuit ended at Linda's court. When it was pointed out here, she transferred the case to the court of her buddy Sally Gonzalez, who often runs interference for her while she is campaigning.

The debtor didn't know that he was the judge's son. The Texas Judicial Commission frowns on this type of judicial behavior and we believe it was just a matter of time before they caught up with her.

Will the voters catch up with her, too, and remove her from the bench? It can't come too soon.