Gloria Hernandez’s County Attorney, Respectful Response Owed to The Public of Maverick County
An open letter response to Mr. Jaime Iracheta (“AJ”):
You have published and republished a letter and an article which implicates me in some dreamed up plot for dubious purposes, that somehow, were designed to personally affect you. I have never hidden the fact that, after my loss at the polls, I made a commitment to put politics behind and come together to work for the betterment of our community in whatever capacity I may be able to serve. And, I have kept my promise. The article, where you were the only attorney to provide information to the press (and there’s a reason why attorneys do not normally attack judges’ decisions on a personal level), focuses on a motion to dismiss I filed, and your facebook post asks “why?” (why I filed a motion to dismiss) as if I had ulterior motives and personal interest in an 18-year old possession of marihuana misdemeanor case (POM at the misdemeanor level are less than 4 oz.) that had been closed over a decade ago. Below, I will explain why.
Here’s what I saw coming into the County Attorney’s Office in March 2019. There were over One Thousand (1,000) cases that had not been resolved for incidents that had mostly occurred the year of 2017 – we usually have a whole year to get them done. In 2018, the County Attorney’s office had resolved less than forty percent of those 2017 cases. The deadline to be in compliance was July 31, 2019. Where you had had 16 months to comply, I was on a short 4-month deadline to go over more than 1,000 cases that had been unresolved. At this point, I am not even going to go into the case management or file management practices I found, but suffice it to say that it was an excruciating process to locate them.
The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure (“CCP”), Chapter 60.08 (Grant Funding) requires counties to report criminal history dispositions to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). … “Counties must have an average of 90% or above on both adult and juvenile disposition completeness … in order for any unit of government or non-profit agency within the County to be eligible for Criminal Division Funding.”
I do not want to speculate what the impact of non-compliance would have had on the grant funding and the programs that would have been affected. What I would not have under my watch was a non-compliance which would punish County-wide grants. To do that I had to have non-stop court hearings and pushing all our efforts and energy, alongside the Court and Clerk’s offices to try to reach our goal.
I had to resort to a time management plan. The matter at the Court of Appeals the documents that had your signature was arguing that a Writ of Habeas Corpus filed in County Court belonged in District Court. I received no answers from the County Attorney’s staff on reason why you had not timely objected to a temporary order that was entered by the Judge. A simple objection or motion to dismiss at the county level would have been all that was necessary, but here I was, holding an 8-inch deep file that was on appeal while there were over 1,000 cases waiting to be resolved in less than 4 months. I wanted to know why the District Attorney, Bobby Serna had not been the one to attack the judgment, if the position was it was in the wrong court. I later found out that it had actually been District Attorney Bobby Serna’s office that had prepared the appeal and you had just signed off on it. My decision to dismiss the case on behalf of the county made more sense. It was clear that it was the District Attorney’s interest using your signature. I chose not to follow that trend as it was arguing against the actions of the County Attorney even if under the veil that the Judge had not held a hearing. Here we were again – why did you not request a hearing? The Judge signed an ex-parte temporary order. It is incumbent on the parties to seek a hearing. It was in County Court – whose responsibility was it?
This is your second time you blame another party, namely the Judge, for your inactions. You are using your inactions in a way which are linking one to another one, to another one. The case of the expired term is a perfect example. You continue to say that you were “fired” from the position of County Attorney. Let me clarify – you were not hired and you were not fired; you were appointed to a position that was left vacant. When you failed to register to be placed on the ballot so you could continue to serve in that capacity it was left vacant by operation of law (default), and you blamed the Judge for not putting you on the ballot. Now, I don’t know about others but I can tell you that I equate this to the times when I committed to support my two sons to go to college. Even though I was there to support them, if either Jose Arturo or Carlos Eduardo (my two sons, last name Bruno) had failed to register and tried to blame it on me because I did not register them even at the age of 18, they would have heard a long litany letting them know my disappointment and demanding that they take responsibility for their actions (which, by the way, never happened). Why should the community expect less from you – a professional – who has the ability to either help or hurt the community?
Back to the appeal. On the day the position was posted for appointment for a second time and you were either going to be re-appointed or not, the District Attorney, Bobby Serna (I learned much later) filed a motion to replace you as the lead attorney; again, you signed off on it a few hours before you were officially out of the Office of County Attorney. Later on, when I found out, my position that this was an issue for the District Attorney to fight was confirmed. Serna did not want another attorney to have anything to do with it. That case was never in jeapordy as Serna could have done what he did under your signature or even filed a collateral attack. So, had he given it to you for your own personal political attacks on the Judge – and now on me? Is District Attorney Bobby Serna continuing to write the articles and social media attacking me? Seems very plausible and I am ready to begin my campaign questioning the two of you on the prosecutors’ history of protecting the most vulnerable in our community such as the victims of family violence, child abuse, and animal cruelty for starters.
Mr. Iracheta, you’re a young, new attorney with a bright future. Our public actions get cemented in the annals of our community history. Motions and cases get denied every day of the week. There is not one single attorney who has practiced in the real world – in litigation – who has not been denied motion or had a case reversed. Actually, some of us have been sanctioned with monetary penalties and/or even incarcerated. Lashing out at the Judge in his judicial capacity may be crossing the bounds, if you care for some unsolicited, friendly advice. I am sure you would not do the same thing if the judge involved were a district judge, but while the County Judge makes judicial pronouncements, he is clothed with the investiture of the bench in the same way as any district judge.
So, in conclusion, while you would have spent your energy and time fighting in the Court of Appeals, I chose to let it go and, as I knew all along, the District Attorney made his appearance. Under your direction, I suspect that the County would have been found in non-compliance and you would not have taken responsibility for it – it would have been somebody else’s fault. I don’t know; I’m guessing you would have blamed the County Judge again. Taking responsibility for that with which we are trusted, in my view, is a very serious matter.
I hope this clears up for Mr. Iracheta the reason for my filing.
Respectfully,
Gloria E. Hernandez,
County Attorney
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