This week, the commission issued one such statement, rebutting and thwarting a decree made by Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed.
On
Feb. 20, Reed sent a letter advising the judges of Bexar County's
criminal district courts that the county's part-time magistrate judges
were violating the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct by practicing criminal
law. (Magistrates perform duties such as setting bond amounts and
issuing search warrants.)
Reed sent a similar letter to Bexar County Magistrate Judge Michael Ugarte, requesting that “action be taken to prevent the part-time magistrates from practicing law.
“In
both letters, (Reed) suggested that her office would be forced to take
action if the concerns expressed in the letters were not immediately
addressed,” according to the statement.
Thanks to Her Royal Highness, chaos ensued [emphasis mine]:
Reed's threat forced the system into sudden disarray. The county's
eight part-time magistrates, who rotate on weekend shifts, were told to
stop coming in. This swamped the three full-time magistrates, including
Ugarte.
“It was a little crazy,” Ugarte said. “We were working
some crazy shifts. Fortunately for us, the three of us didn't get sick
or have a family emergency.”
Initially, Reed's move even
compromised her signature “no refusal” program, which forces drivers
suspected of being intoxicated who refuse breathalyzer tests to face
mandatory blood draws.
“We tried to work with (Reed) in covering
what we identified as the busiest times,” Ugarte said. “And to be
honest, over two months there were probably only a handful of cases
where there was a warrant not signed by a magistrate.”
In eight
cases, no judge could be located to issue a warrant, Ugarte said. It's
commendable that the full-time judges worked hard enough to limit these
cases, but it's also a shame that any fell through the cracks.
In
the letters that abruptly opened these cracks, Reed was threatening to
report the part-time magistrates to the state commission.
This all stemmed from an issue in Galveston County where the commission ruled, "that a 'part-time family law judge' should not 'represent
clients before any court of the county in which he or she is appointed.'"
One of Reed's fellow Republicans, District Judge Sid Harle offered this assessment:
Bexar County District Court Judge Sid Harle,
who serves on the state commission, told me Reed made “an incredible
leap” by conflating family law judges with magistrates. The former, he
said, are appointed by judges, while magistrates are approved by county
commissioners, who have “final say” over their firing.
Furthermore,
as magistrates, “they're independent and they're representing the
citizens,” Harle said. In the courtroom, “they represent their clients.
Either way, all you're doing is representing your clients.”
Spurred
by a request from the district judges and magistrates, the commission's
statement echoes this: “The part-time magistrates in Bexar County are
permitted under the Code to represent criminal defendants, other than
those they have magistrated, in the Bexar County courts.”
One can only image the fits Her Majesty had, hitting some poor peasant with her royal scepter...hurling her sovereign orb though a window.
From the Express-News:
Reed, however, still sees a conflict.
“They practice in the
courts, defending, and then they turn around and they're sitting as
magistrates,” she told me. “They're (opposing) the state. And at the
magistrate level, the state goes in and asks for various conditions of
bond, things like that.”
I asked Reed why she threw down the gauntlet so abruptly.
“Because
the ethics opinion came out,” Reed said. “And because an ethics opinion
comes out, I think that you have to take appropriate steps. If I had
not, well, they wouldn't have ever asked for the (commission's)
opinion.”
About that public statement, Reed agrees it puts the dispute to rest — for now.
“There's not much I can do about it,” she said. “I'm going to think it through.”
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