IS SALAZAR SHUNNING HER JUDICIAL DUTIES FOR WEDDINGS?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

For the last few days of this past week, paralegals and lawyers with civil cases have been turned away from the windows of JP 2-1 Linda Salazar and directed to other courts and told the court will stop taking them until the beginning of 2022.

The lawyers and paralegals say they had no choice but to walk to the other courts (JP 2-2 and JP 2-3). 

"They told us at her window that they weren't taking them," said one who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation on their clients when they appear in her court. "There was nothing else we could do. I wonder how many marriage ceremony she did have time for?"

One of the law firm paralegals said that although their bosses were upset with Salazar's court, they wanted to avoid any conflict with the judge. But they say that the Code of Judicial Conduct was adopted to prevent this kind of behavior by judges.

"All sections of this Code of Judicial Conduct are the precepts that judges, individually and collectively, must respect and honor the judicial office as a public trust and strive to enhance and maintain confidence in our legal system," said one, quoting from the code amended on May 2021.

The code says that they "should also be governed in their judicial and personal conduct by general ethical standards. The Code is intended, however, to state basic standards which should govern the conduct of all judges and to provide guidance to assist judges in establishing and maintaining high standards of judicial and personal conduct."

In the past, Salazar had been caught sitting on citations and bill collections filed against one of her sons and it wasn't until a general outcry erupted after the revelations that she asked her friend JP PCT #5-1 Sallie Gonzalez. Gonzalez frequently sits in for Salazar and comes to Brownsville from her Harlingen court.

This is in direct contradiction to the code's reference to the standards of the office which warn against any influence on 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."

Yet, no one in the court or District Attorney's Office filed any complaints, but were said to have privately told her she could not sit in on her son's cases.

The code states that "the judicial duties of a judge take precedence over all the judge's other activities. Judicial duties include all the duties of the judge's office prescribed by law. By that standard, adjudication would seem to take precedence over marriage ceremonies which can leave anywhere from $250 to $700 if the judge has to travel. Recently, a local JP charged a couple $700 for a marriage that was to be performed at the US-Mexico boundary at Gateway Bridge.

Yet, no one in the court or District Attorney's Office filed any complaints, but were said to have privately told her she could not sit in on her son's cases or not attend to the judicial duties of the court.

If you or your law firm have also been prevented from filing civil cases in that court, please send info (anonymity guaranteed) to this site's email address: rrunrrun@gmail.com or contact the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct at: A complaint form is included in its website at http://www.scjc.texas.gov/file-a-complaint/ 

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