Maverick County District Court Jurors remain unpaid
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
Maverick County District Clerk Leopoldo “Polo” Vielma together with his Chief Clerk, Luz Garcia, discovered that approximately 80-100 jurors who have served in several jury trials in the 293rd and 365th Maverick County District Courts have not received payment for their participation in the second phase of jury selection and/or in an actual jury trial case to their dismay. District Clerk Vielma stated that he is making it a priority to review all the jurors’ lists who have served in the 293rd and 365th Judicial District Courts to make sure that they receive prompt payment for their valuable civic jury duty from Maverick County.
District Clerk Vielma stated that currently his office has found that at least six jury cases’ jurors have fallen through the crack and have not received payment for their jury duty. Vielma noted that the jurors are owed some type of compensation and have not been paid for their services by the County. Vielma added that he is putting together the appropriate information needed to issue out payment to those jurors who have participated and are owed payment. Vielma regrets any inconvenience which may have been caused to any Maverick County citizen who has participated as a juror and has not yet been paid.
Vielma noted that four of the six cases who are owed juror payment occurred during the previous District Clerk Irene Rodriguez tenure while two cases have occurred during his administration.
Vielma stated that this situation raises an issue as to how many Maverick County citizens who have served as jurors in the 293rd and 365th Judicial District Courts have not received payment and for how long this problem has been occurring.
“In my limited tenure working as the Maverick County District Clerk, we have found that some of our jurors have not received payment for their services in providing their civic duties and coming to some court cases. I am currently working with my Chief Clerk in reviewing our historical documents to get a list of all the jurors that have come in and are owed some money for their service,” said Vielma.
“We have found some cases under the previous District Clerk that had also not been paid. So we are going back as far as last year to see which other court cases, jurors, did not get paid and proceed to add up the totals and to whom money is owed, what amount is owed to each juror, and add up the funds and then meet our county commitment to pay these jurors,” added Vielma.
Vielma added that up until today, the total estimated amount of funds owed by the County to jurors is between $1,500 or greater depending on the total amount of jurors that remain unpaid.
Vielma stated that any Maverick County citizen who has served as a juror and has not received payment to please contact him or his Chief Clerk Luz Garcia at (830) 773-2629.
Up to now the number of individuals that are owed is between 80-100 persons and they could be owed anything between $6 (second jury selection phase) and up to or more than $40 (actual jury selection process and participation).
The total amount owed to the individuals depends on the number of days that were spent on the case they were assigned to and if they actually made the cut for actual jury duty and served a complete jury term. Vielma vows to get to the bottom of this situation and advise the persons owed jury duty pay by the County.
Members of the Maverick County legal community were surprised by this discovery and expressed their consternation regarding the non-payment of jurors by Maverick County. Local barristers stated that jurors are the most important persons in our legal system and without them the legal system cannot operate in a democratic and fair way. Local attorneys expressed their hopes that Vielma will quickly remedy the situation and right this wrong to local citizens whom have served as jurors and not received payment.
