ARE SALAZAR, GARZA VIOLATING CODES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT?

 (2) A judge or judicial candidate shall not authorize the public use of his or her name endorsing another candidate for any public office, except that either may indicate support for a political party. A judge or judicial candidate may attend political events and express his or her views on political matters in accord with this Canon...Texas Code On Judicial Conduct

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

You would think that by now every judicial office holder from justice of the peace, county court-at-law, district court, or any judicial elected office would know that as a judge one cannot endorse or lend their name to any political candidate seeking public office.

But this is Cameron County and some people tend to do things a bit differently. But we also understand that there is a possible complaint being considered against one local justice of the peace (Linda Salazar, JP 2-1) with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct (TCOJC) for making calls on behalf of certain political candidates. 

Affidavits from some recipients of Salazar's calls on behalf of political candidates, we hear, are already being gathered.

Who those candidates may be is anyone's guess, but there are at least two races locally where it might apply. One is the Texas House of Representatives District 37 election where her son Ruben Cortez is running against Luis Villarreal and Frank Puente.

(That's Salazar in the cart with son Cortez.)

The other is the Justice of the Peace 2-2 where her nephew Javier Reyna is facing legal office manager Cyndi Hinojosa and local attorney Elizabeth Garza. 

Salazar has never been shy about skirting the law where it benefits her or her family, including sitting on cases involving one of her sons, Mark Anthony Cortez or hiring her sister against the county's nepotism laws. In the first instance, she was forced to remove herself from the cases and farmed them out to her fellow JP Sally Gonzalez. 

In the other, her sister was removed from her office and placed in another court.

Then, of course, there was the time when she was caught on a surveillance tape at Cameron County Clerk's office – one floor above her JP office – soliciting weddings, a no-no. https://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2018/01/linda-salazar-in-action-soliciting.html

(Weddings are a lucrative industry, with Salazar performing some 600 a year, double or triple of any other JP in Cameron County. At $250 to $700 a shot, it amounts to real money, far more than their annual salary over $60,000 including benefits and car allowance.)

If social media had not reported on these cases of judicial misconduct, things would have gone on the same merry way. Now as we wait for the other shoe to drop, will she again be subject to a complaint with the TSCOJC?

There is another twist involving this race. Candidate Elizabeth Garza, a local attorney who goes by the professional nickname of "La Leona" to indicate that she fights like a lion (Leona) for her clients seems to be soliciting business in a post showing a car-semitrailer accident posted on local social media.

Soliciting – in all its forms – is, of course, strictly prohibited by the Texas State Bar. The Texas attorney discipline system is governed by the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct and the Texas Rules of Disciplinary Procedure. The ethics rules define proper conduct for purposes of professional discipline. 

Does including a hash-tag leading to her attorney's office on a post involving the 18-wheeler constitute soliciting? In other words, cyber ambulance chasing?

Only the State Bar can determine that. But again, although local attorneys know that this is borderline legal, they just can't seem to help themselves on what appears to be a juicy (and highly profitable) case.

Incidentally, Garza lists her law degree and ability as an attorney as qualifications that place her above the two other candidates in the race. But it might be instructive to know that the State of Texas Election Code does not require a justice of the peace to be a lawyer. In fact, the majority are not. 

Does she know?